From the brief to selecting influencers and analyzing the results, brands must adhere to a well-established program to implement their social media campaigns.
What are the steps for a successful influencer campaign? To answer this question, JDN asked three specialty agencies how they work with their clients. A job not to be confused with the influencer agencies, who manage the jobs of these content creators. Influence agencies in particular will guide brands in the selection of influencers and in the strategy for adoption on different social networks according to the targeted objectives. We have already detailed it in a previous article How does the impact market work, what goals to pursue, and which KPIs to look at. This time we bring you the 7 essential steps to a successful campaign.
#1 – Standard and Briefing
Before starting anything, a standard And data analysis is essential, according to Guillaume Doki-Thonon, CEO and founder of Reech, an agency that specializes in influence: “You have to look at how the market is and ask yourself the right questions. Who are the competitors?, Am I the biggest player or not? If not I, I must be careful not to communicate at the same time as others.”
when’advertiser Through the Impact Agency, teams will create a staging to gather information. “This is a key step for us. It will take an hour to an hour and a half. We ask our clients about their expectations, their goals, what they like, and the breakdown of pricing, service, and the core essence of the brand to determine all of them,” says Anael Sarraf, CEO and co-founder of Sparkle, a creative agency. Campaigns are published on Tik Tok.
#2 – Write the strategy
Before embarking on writing campaign strategy and storytelling, brands must set clear and precise goals. They will influence the choice social networks Target and KPIs to be monitored during the campaign. To monitor traffic and sales, tracked links will be useful while having a notorious campaign, impressions and engagement will be more important. When agencies are working on a campaign, they will offer two or three verification options to their clients. “We first discuss with the brand to see what you want to do with the influencer. Then, different mechanisms can be put in place: product testing, factory visit, meeting with brand teams or customers, a capsule collection, a selection of products that will occupy the shelf in a chain store.. . ”, explains Guillaume Duque-Thonon.
#3 – Choosing influencers
Once you have defined the goals and strategy, it’s time to choose influencers. Fanny Bonodot, senior director of influencers at creative agency We Social, advises against targeting the biggest content creators necessarily: “You have to define your brand criteria, who the influencers you’re targeting and pick some that align with a campaign idea whose universe you love and editorial line.” Presenting “a casting selection offer that must then be validated by the brand,” Anael Sarraf explains, with information on the influencer’s statistics, as well as their bids, ages, languages spoken, and regular content. He may have already worked with a similar brand, for example.
For its campaign in the summer of 2022 to display its tent “Easy for 2 seconds” in France, Germany and the United States, the Decathlon brand Quechua preferred to be accompanied by the agency Guillaume Doki. – Thonon, Reech, in Choosing Influencers. “Our goal was to target an outdoor audience that knows nature and extreme sports. The French and German markets are ripe for camping and the American market for us is a market to conquer. We selected influencers based on criteria such as their geographic area, the age of their audience and the quality of the editorial line,” explains Pénélope Sentier, Director Communications in Quechua.
#4 – Check casting and contracting
Upstream, Reech recommended between 40 and 50 Quechua influencers. The first verification was done before contacting these influencers. “We kept eight influencers in the three countries, mainly in France and Germany because we were in the exploration phase in the American market,” continues Pénélope Sentier. After verification, the agency contacts influencers to ensure availability.
In Quechua’s campaign, “the period was complicated because it was before summer, and influencers weren’t necessarily reactive. Some took two to three days to respond, others several weeks. The products had to be used in special conditions, outdoors, and they had to comply.” That’s with their schedules,” says Claire Decommer, Leader Reech’s Customer Success Manager, who handled the Quechua campaign. Once the first contact is established, there is a stage of contracting with content creators that involves negotiating objectives, terms of implementation, and their compensation.
#5 – Filming and Production
Once influencers are selected, validated, and engaged, the agency sends them a brief. Fanny Bonodot of Who We Are Social ensures that content is like an influencer: “You have to listen to better co-create, co-author input is important to us. Authenticity and listening allow us to maintain a good relationship with them and produce better quality content.” The content creator sends their proposal to the agency who will scrutinize, and sometimes rework, the content, whether it’s text or image quality. The production is then sent to the customer for validation.
#6 – Build media planning
In a single campaign, several influencers will sometimes be required to post on several social networks. “We build a media plan and plan our publication dates over a two-to-three-week period,” adds Annaelle Assaraf of Sparkle. Regarding the Quechua campaign conducted with Reech’s help, “the brief was produced for example in April while the campaign was online from the end of June to the end of July and peaked in July,” says Claire Decommer. You also have to look at what competitors are posting at the same time.
#7 – Performance Analysis
Once a campaign is over, “analyzing the results is essential to look at what works and what doesn’t and make recommendations for the future,” says Anael Sarraf. “We analyze performance on the basis of social networks, look at errors made, tracking results and compare them to our initial goals,” continues Guillaume Duque-Thonon. Quechua’s summer 2022 campaign had 3.5 million impressions, 1.1 million views, and 43,000 shares. “It more or less matched our expectations,” says Pénélope Sentier.