Nowadays, an influencer marketing strategy isn’t a case of “maybe”, it’s a case of “when”.
In fact, 93% of marketers have used an influencer marketing strategy at some point, precisely due to the value that it brings to brands. Not to mention, the industry was valued at $16.4 billion last year, and brands are increasingly upping their budgets for influencer marketing.
This substantial growth in influencer marketing opens doors for agencies to support companies with their strategies. Brands can use the expertise, resources, and connections of agencies to strategize, action, and manage influencer marketing campaigns at scale.
Brands that partner with agencies can apply specialized tools that, when combined with agencies’ seasoned knowledge of the advertising space, give them a real competitive advantage.
Still, in the saturated online world, agencies need a refined toolbox for 2024. The industry demands optimized solutions that can deliver results for businesses, offer clear data insights, and consistently prove a return on investment.
Here’s how influencer marketing is changing, and how agencies can stay atop of the shift with the savviest tools.
The Social Media Struggle
Social media and influencer marketing go hand-in-hand. For small or growing businesses, social media offers ways to get in front of users and spread brand recognition; it’s essentially the top of the funnel for conversions.
But with so much noise to cut through, getting visibility on social media is challenging: Content could be great but it won’t automatically be shown to the right people at the right time.
Social media managers can often feel stuck with limited social media tactics that don’t produce the desired outcomes. They may choose to double down on organic content.
But this can be time-consuming, as well as difficult for brands in non-creative verticals. Plus segmentation on social media isn’t always accurate. So managers may not be displaying content to the people that it could benefit most.
Rather than rely on traditional routes then, agencies can boost business’ social media standing with more innovative, effective techniques that leverage influencer marketing.
Sounds complicated? It’s not, and it can be an important step to overcome the social media anxiety that has loomed over agencies for some time.
Agencies and Influencer Marketing Anxiety
Agencies inherently know what an influencer marketing campaign entails: It requires substantial planning, audience targeting, competitor research, and finessed brand positioning. Agencies therefore have to determine if the effort is worth the possible results for the client. On top, they have to set realistic expectations to protect their integrity as an agency. That can be a lot of pressure.
There are existing tools that assist agencies but these can be expensive, too general in scope, or not lead to sufficient audience engagement.
For newer agencies that aren’t familiar with influencer marketing, they may be unsure where to get started. In addition, they may be cautious about suggesting a whole new service to clients that they can’t navigate with confidence.
Yet it would certainly be a missed opportunity not to move forward with influencer marketing. Not only from the perspective of maximizing businesses’ exposure, but also in terms of strengthening agencies’ capabilities and reputation.
The light at the end of the influencer marketing tunnel, however, comes from tools that offer these three things:
- Connect businesses with appropriate influencers
- Streamline content management on social media
- And supply one place to track the process of a marketing strategy.
These types of tools empower agencies to make data-driven decisions. At the same time, they heighten social media activity, and give agencies and brands a more granular understanding of campaigns’ impact.
Does such a tool exist? You bet it does—and it’s right here at your fingertips.
A Comprehensive, Clever Solution
The Influencer Analytics app enables agencies to manage and organize multiple influencer marketing campaigns within one dashboard.
Here, agencies can scale campaign operations up and down with automation features, such as:
- Reporting and analytics
- Creating media plans
- Campaign management tools
- Influencer research
And much more!
They can also invite clients to follow campaigns in real-time. This goes a long way toward building deeper trust between agencies and brands.
Benchmarking a Strategy
Market research is a necessary first step in any marketing strategy. With the Influencer Marketing dashboard, agencies can get a look at what brands’ competitors are doing.
In the example below we can see Playstation’s impressive influencer marketing efforts and some of the results it is producing:
They can view which competitors have teamed up with which influencers, and take inspiration from the types (and successes) of the campaigns that they’ve run.
Likewise, agencies can tap into insights about competitor campaigns that can help them set achievable KPIs and fair budget costs. For example:
Selecting Influencers
Choosing an influencer for a brand is much like dating—the most successful and long-term relationships are based on compatibility.
With the Influencer Marketing platform, agencies can view the best influencers for brands based on criteria that they input. Simply add the channel name and select the characteristics that best suit your brand:
They are then presented with a list of people who match with the client’s values, messaging, and preferred audiences, and they can export this list to clients for a final selection.
What’s more, agencies can look at each influencer’s engagement metrics to confirm that they do have genuine traction with their followers.
Clients don’t need to worry about pairing with a seemingly perfect influencer only to realize that they don’t have the sway they first thought.
Let’s take a peek at Beyonce for example:
Agencies can also filter out influencers that have worked with clients’ competitors and eliminate them from the list of possible influencers if they deem it more powerful to collaborate with someone entirely new.
Alternatively, if there is an influencer who has run a notable campaign with a competitor, agencies can use the ‘Channels’ tab to find comparable influencer profiles and seek to repeat their success.
Managing Content
Arguably the heaviest lifting in an influencer marketing campaign is when, where, and how content is published.
Agencies have to spin many plates at once, and ensure that influencers do actually share the content they’ve agreed upon.
Here’s where the Influencer Analytics dashboard shines. It helps you:
1. Stay in controls of the process
It lets agencies personalize all processes of the campaign, notably specific variables for each content step like influencer, date, time, platform, and target audience. In return, they have a complete overview of content and how it’s received over different mediums and followers.
2. Add influencers and creators
Within the dashboard, agencies can add influencers and creators to the corresponding campaign (even if they’re not in the Influencer Analytics database).
3. Keep an eye on KPIs
All participants have visibility in content scheduling and performance. You can view metrics for the campaign you're involved with (if the client approves this transparency beforehand). For example, cost per registration, cost per click, clickthrough rate, conversion rate, cost per thousand views, and more.
Metrics Tracking and Reporting
Through the Influencer Marketing platform, agencies can access in-depth reports about influencer campaigns, including individual campaign metrics, alongside automatically updated KPI metrics.
Agencies can download and share campaign progress with clients, keeping them in the know over the campaign duration.
Agencies can also choose to edit report fields, so clients only receive the information that matters most for them.
From a testimonial standpoint, these reports are valuable as agencies can quote the most impressive metrics to promising clients down the road.
They also highlight what has and hasn’t worked in campaigns, so agencies can make data-driven decisions that maximize their role in influencer marketing campaigns.
Agencies Having a Real Influence
Influencer marketing works because it’s a more genuine way to connect with audiences. Rather than brands being overly promotional, influencers are neutral parties that already have a trusted following they can speak to. These influencers position products and services according to their existing personality, giving brands the opportunity to align with them as a natural extension of the business.
Agencies then, are the bridge between brands, influencers, and modern, impactful marketing. By embracing resources like Influencer Analytics, you can establish stronger connections with clients and the broader influencer sphere. You can also analyze and iterate campaign performances more acutely, and improve campaign outcomes on a long term basis.
Ready to carry out your agency’s meaningful influencer marketing strategy?