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Instagram is a goldmine for businesses.
Instagram influencer marketing is a great way to grow your brand and constantly be on the minds of your audience.
But where should you start? How can you incorporate it into your marketing strategy?
This guide will provide you with all the answers you need to get started.
You’ll find out:
- Why Instagram influencer marketing is a great idea
- Examples of Instagram influencer marketing campaigns
- Steps to starting your Instagram influencer marketing campaign
Let’s dive in.
Introduction to Instagram Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has been an integral part of marketing since humans began buying and selling.
Contrary to popular belief, influencer marketing is not a recently invented form of marketing.
Far back in 1760, the first example of influencer marketing was recorded when Josiah Wedgwood, an English manufacturer, received a royal stamp after making a tea set for Queen Charlotte.
He described the product as “Queen’s Ware”.
Think about it.
The Queen, at the time, was the “influencer” — the person whose influence created so much ‘brand’ awareness for Wedgwood, earning them a great reputation to this day.
Over the years, influencer marketing adapted to modern technologies.
Nowadays, you can see it being leveraged on various social media platforms like Tiktok, Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram—the fourth most used social platform in 2023.
On these platforms, you’ll find influencers standing out from the pool of users thanks to their high follower count, community, and influence.
Instagram influencer marketing is simply the collaboration of brands and influencers to create sponsored content, launch and promote a product or a service on Instagram.
With the growing popularity of Instagram, it is estimated that at the end of 2023, 87% of marketers will use Instagram for their influencer campaigns.
If you’re wondering why Instagram is considered such a great platform for influencer marketing, the next section will interest you.
You’ll find out why Instagram influencer marketing is a great idea for you to try out.
Why Giving Instagram Influencer Marketing a Try is a Great Idea
A survey by Meta showed that 87% of respondents took several actions after seeing product information on Instagram.
Some of these actions were:
- Following a brand
- Visiting a website
- Sending a message
- Online purchases
Now imagine when your brand collaborates with an influencer to showcase your products on their Reels, Instagram Feed, and Stories.
The remarkable benefits would include a wider audience reach, more visibility, increased brand trust, engagement, and many more.
Let’s take a look at each of these benefits.
- Wide Audience Reach
We have already established that Instagram is the fourth most popular social media platform in the world, with 1.35 billion active users.
Imagine reaching even just 5% of these monthly Instagram users by tapping into the follower base of influencers.
The best part about this massive exposure is that you can choose to partner with different types of influencers.
The categories of Instagram influencers and their follower count include:
- Nano-Influencers: 1k to 5K followers
- Micro-influencers: 5K to 20K followers
- Mid-tier influencers: 20K to 100K followers
- Macro-influencers: 10K to 1 Million followers
- Mega-Influencers: >1 million followers
Each influencer type comes with its specific rates, thus providing you with flexibility in choosing the best budget-friendly influencer for your brand.
- Authenticity and Trust
Your potential influencers have built strong relationships with their followers, often based on trust and authenticity.
Collaborating with them not only exposes your brand to a wide and engaged audience, it also increases the credibility of your brand.
Since 61% of consumers trust recommendations from influencers, it is best to leverage this trust factor and partner with a social media influencer for your marketing campaigns.
- Targeted Marketing
Instagram influencers typically have a niche or specific area of expertise. They could be beauty influencers, lifestyle influencers, fitness influencers, etc.
When you partner with an influencer whose content aligns with your brand voice and objectives, you’ll achieve the best result and effectively reach your target audience.
This targeted approach ensures that your marketing efforts are seen by potential customers who are most likely to convert into loyal customers.
- Increased Engagement
Engagement can be measured by the number of followers, likes, shares, comments, views, and clicks on your page.
In comparison to traditional advertising methods, influencer marketing can generate high engagement metrics.
Influencers achieve this by creating engaging and compelling influencer content that resonates with their followers.
You can use their creativity and storytelling abilities to capture the attention of your target audience and encourage them to interact with your brand.
Let’s now see how you can achieve all these benefits and successfully launch your Instagram influencer marketing campaign.
How to Get Started with Instagram Influencer Marketing
Implementing Instagram influencer marketing campaigns is one of the best ways to promote your brand.
Below is a step-by-step guide to help you effectively navigate this process.
Step #1: Define your Instagram campaign goals
You have to define goals that are clear, specific, and tailored to your brand needs.
Following the SMART goals framework, your objectives should be:
- Specific: You have to set a goal that is specific enough for you and your influencers to work with.
Do you want to increase your Instagram followers? Do you want to boost sales and conversion? Or do you want to grow your engagement rate and website traffic?
What type of licensed creator do you want to work with?
Remember, specific goals help you know the best influencers to work with, as well as the time frame and budget for the campaign.
- Measurable: What increase in engagement do you want on your page? 20%?
How many free products will you give to influencers, and how many do you want to sell through the campaign?
What metrics can you use to measure campaign performance?
Including a percentage or numbers makes it easy to track progress and determine how successful your collaboration was.
- Attainable: Beyond setting a goal, you must ensure your goal is achievable, considering your current reality.
You can ask questions like:
Can this be achieved within my desired time frame? Does the influencer have the right audience to achieve this goal? Am I overshooting for my brand and potential influencer?
- Relevant: Your goals have to suit your overall brand needs.
Here are some questions to help you decide:
Does your goal have a positive impact on your brand?
Will it help your brand grow?
Is it a priority for the brand currently?
- Time-bound: Setting a timeframe for your goals helps you have a better understanding of the amplitude of your project.
Always decide what the timeline is to achieve each goal.
Having this sort of clarity will help you develop a focused strategy, measure progress effectively, and refine your approach based on the results you receive.
Step #2: Identify your target audience
Knowing your target audience will make the search for an influencer so much easier. As this will enable you to find an influencer who can adequately reach your desired demographic.
To perfectly define your audience, here are a few steps you should consider:
- Examine your current customer base: Look for similarities within your current clientele.
Are they of the same demographic (age, location, gender)? Do they have similar interests and purchasing habits?
- Conduct a market research: Market research can be online or offline through surveys, focus groups, etc.
The aim is to gather information on the preferences of your target audience.
- Analyze competitor’s audience: Keeping an eye on your competitor’s engaged audience can provide you with the insights you need to expand your customer base.
With this knowledge, you can easily streamline the search for influencers, targeting only those whose followers make up your audience.
Step #3: Research and find influencers
After identifying your target audience, the next crucial step is finding the right influencers.
This can be a bit tricky without the right guidance.
Luckily, there are influencer marketing platforms you can use to make the search easier. One such platform is Insense.
Insense is an influencer marketing platform, with a creator marketplace feature, which matches your brand with the right content creators and relevant influencers.
The search process is streamlined to enable ecommerce businesses and marketing agencies to find influencers who are experts in specific fields and platforms.
The influencer marketing hub is optimized with a range of filters that are categorized by age, gender, location, follower count, ratings and reviews, and social pages.
The marketplace allows you to find influencers with different prices, match with them, invite them for collaborations, and also manage all collaborations in one place.
Step #4: Craft a detailed creative brief
A creative brief is a document that contains an outline of your objectives and influencer marketing strategies.
Writing these briefs can sometimes be difficult, seeing as they ought to include detailed elements like competitive analysis, marketing tools, target audience, tone, style, objectives, branded content formats, and a lot more.
With influencer platforms like Insense, you can skip the hassle and craft a detailed, standardized creative brief without worrying about forgetting something.
The platform’s intuitive creative brief features ready-to-use options that appear by default.
Additionally, you can customize your user-generated content (UGC) campaigns, to a specific content type.
Step #5: Manage your influencer marketing campaign
A successful influencer marketing campaign is one that is properly managed.
But how do you do this?
Here’s a list of things to do.
- Organize a detailed onboarding for influencers.
- Keep proper records of collaboration data.
- Share high-quality digital assets.
- Communicate efficiently with influencers and team members.
- Monitor and track key performance indicators (KPIs).
The good thing is that you can manage your entire influencer marketing campaign on platforms such as Insense.
The Insense centralized dashboard simplifies the management process.
You can easily recruit and onboard influencers, negotiate with them, work with your marketing budget, and track the progress of your Instagram influencers.
With these steps, you can successfully launch your influencer marketing campaigns.
Keep reading to see some successful influencer marketing campaigns you can learn from.
4 Instagram Influencer Marketing Campaigns to Inspire You
1. Adidas Neo Ft. Selena Gomez
In 2012, Selena Gomez was officially introduced as the representative for Adidas Neo, an accessory brand for runners and joggers.
The campaign focused on elevating the lifestyle of teenagers and sports enthusiasts.
Seeing as Selena had, and still has, one of the most loyal fan bases on social media, it was only natural for the campaign to be as successful as it was.
The campaign lasted for 3 years, during which strategies such as contests and photoshoots were leveraged to generate UGC (user-generated content).
The influencer's fans were prompted to use the #MyNeoShoot hashtag to tell their stories and create inspiring Instagram posts for Adidas.
The collaboration was so successful that by the end of the campaign, Adidas had gained over 41K new Instagram followers, 71K mentions of their branded hashtags, and 24.2% increase in sales.
2. UberEats Chipotle, Hinge Ft Rebel Wilson
In 2020, Rebel Wilson collaborated with three different brands (Hinge, UberEats, and Chipotle) for an influencer marketing campaign that lasted from November 12th to December 5th.
The campaign was perfect at the time it was launched because it provided a fun and interactive escape for young adults during the pandemic.
The selling point was simple: Hinge users were promised $20 off their next three orders of Chipotle delivered with Uber Eats.
In addition to this, ten Uber Eats customers who ordered from the limited-time menu “Chipotle Cuffing Season Menu” stood the chance of winning dating advice from Rebel Wilson.
As seen in the image above, the influencer’s post had over 1.2 million views. Hence, the campaign boosted brand awareness for all three brands.
3. HelloFresh Ft Mindy Kaling
HelloFresh is considered to be the largest meal-kit provider in the United States.
In 2020, they partnered with Mindy Kaling, an actress and comedian, to improve their brand awareness and extend their customer base.
The collaboration involved a 4 - episode video series titled “Meals with Mindy,” which began airing in January of the following year.
The tagline was to promote the convenience and ease of home cooking.
Mindy’s comedic influence helped achieve this tagline with each episode following her on a sitcom-style entertainment show.
The videos showcased how HelloFresh can help working moms conveniently perfect their mealtime schedules, with recipe cards, personalized grocery shopping, meal prepping, and so on.
To measure the success of the campaign, the brand tracked its visibility using the branded hashtag #hellofreshpartner.
Safe to say, the campaign was very successful.
4. American Express Ft Shaquille O’Neal
Commonly known as “Shaq”, the former professional basketball player collaborated with American Express in a non-conventional marketing strategy.
The aim of the marketing campaign was to help support black-owned businesses for four years.
Why Shaquille O’Neal?
Besides the fact that Shaq has been an American Express cardholder since 1992, he is also the brand ambassador for American Express.
Over the years, he has shown a dedicated and committed passion towards helping small business owners succeed in the community through grants and sponsorships.
For the campaign, American Express earned a large following across all their social media platforms.
These examples are just a few of the many successful Instagram influencer marketing campaigns to inspire you to launch yours.
Let’s wrap it up.
Over to You
After reading this comprehensive guide to unlock the full potential of Instagram influencer marketing, it’s time for you to take action.
The examples above prove that with the right guidance, you can also have a successful Instagram influencer campaign.
Set your objectives, identify your target audience, and use an effective influencer marketing platform to enhance your marketing efforts.
Start today by booking a free demo with Insense.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Looking for answers?
Below are answers to some of your most frequently asked questions.
Q1. Why is influencer marketing so popular?
The influencer marketing industry is popular due to its ability to stimulate authentic connections with new audiences, increase targeted reach, boost social media dominance, and calculate measurable ROI.
Q2. What is the difference between influencer marketing and celebrity endorsement?
The main difference between influencer marketing and celebrity endorsement is that influencers create authentic and genuine branded content that are targeted towards specific audiences.
On the other hand, celebrity endorsement doesn’t inspire as much engagement and is not targeted to a specific audience.
Q3. Is Instagram good for influencer marketing?
Yes. Instagram is currently the 4th most popular social media channel, making it perfect for influencer marketing.
Q4. How much does influencer marketing cost on Instagram?
The prices differ depending on the type of influencer. Learn more about Instagram influencer pricing.
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