If you take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. If you take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. 

You’re still reading? Red pill it is!

You Need This Guide. Here’s Why.

Matrix references aside, in the world of social media marketing, things change quickly. Really quickly. What works today may be completely outdated by tomorrow. That’s why it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices. And when it comes to Instagram influencer marketing, there’s no better time to start than now.

With so many platforms and options available, it can be tricky to know where to start. That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to using Instagram as an influencer marketing platform in 2023. By the end of this guide, you’ll know everything you need to get started with Instagram influencer marketing, including how to find the right influencers for your brand and how to measure your campaign’s success.

The Opportunity: Why Instagram Influencer Marketing?

Instagram has over two billion monthly active users, making it one of the most popular social media platforms on Earth. Pretty impressive, right? What’s more, 72 percent of users say their trust in influencers has increased. Meanwhile, trust in brands is on a steady decline. In fact, 66 percent report that influencers are driving factors in what they choose to buy, and 64 percent look to influencers to help them discover new brands and products.

So, does Instagram influencer marketing work? Absolutely! Because Instagram is such a visual platform, it’s perfect for promoting products and services that are visually appealing. And because users can easily like, comment, and share posts with just a few clicks, Instagram also provides an easy way for influencers to connect with their followers and build relationships.

Instagram also offers several features and tools that make it easy for brands to track their influencer campaigns and measure their success. For example, with Instagram Insights, brands can see detailed information about their followers, including age, gender, location, and interests. This data can be used to create more targeted and effective campaigns in the future.

The Strategy: Build A Ridiculously Successful Campaign

Now that you know a little bit more about influencer marketing on Instagram, it’s time to start planning your campaign. When it comes to influencer marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why we create bespoke campaigns for brands like yours. Here’s how we work our magic.

Determine Your Campaign Goals

Now that you’ve started to uncover the value of having an Instagram influencer marketing strategy, let’s take a look at how we’ll help you get the results you want. Success in influencer marketing starts with having a clear and defined goal. Without a goal, you’ll never be able to measure the success of your campaign.

There are many different goals you could set for your influencer marketing campaign, but this step details all measurable aspects of the campaign. If you know what you want your influencer campaign to do, you can structure it to achieve specific goals.

Ask yourself these questions to help determine the goals of your campaign: What do you want to achieve? Who’s your target audience? What are your expectations? What’s your influencer whitelisting strategy?

Choose Your Target Audience

You may say, “Oh, this is an easy one. We know exactly who our audience is.” Here’s where I encourage you to trust the process. Bear in mind that influencer marketing is a tool that helps you to reach new audiences that you may not have had access to before. To do this, it’s sometimes necessary to think outside the box when it comes to targeting.

For instance, we had a ridiculous amount of success with a campaign for a popular cosmetic brand. Even during one of the most expensive holiday shopping seasons ever, we saw unprecedented results with both interest-based and influencer engagement lookalike audiences. In other words, we were able to expand awareness to a whole new group of potential customers who had never even heard of the brand before — even though the brand is well-known.

Find Your Ideal Influencers

A benchmark report issued by Influencer Marketing Hub affirms the most challenging part of running an IM (influencer marketing) campaign is finding the right influencers. But don’t fret. Our expertise relieves you of the stress of influencer searching and vetting.

Keep in mind that the best influencers are those who have an engaged following of users who are interested in your industry or niche. Generally, the primary goals in working with influencers should be to increase brand awareness and brand reputation. These are followed by building brand community and social media followership. Then increasing customer loyalty and generating revenue are the cherries on top.

To find the right influencers for your brand, consider their expertise in your particular industry. This step is important because you want to make sure they have the knowledge and experience necessary to accurately represent your brand. You should also consider their engagement rate, or the number of likes, comments, and shares, they receive on their posts. Influencers with high engagement rates are more likely to have followers who are interested in their message.

Be Selective When Partnering with Instagram Influencers

Plunging beneath the surface is an essential step in influencer vetting. Demographic factors like age, gender, and socioeconomic status are important to consider when assessing influencer appropriateness for your brand. Additionally, there are performative and behavioral elements that need to be considered. These include previous partnerships, categories of authority, post topics, quality, and frequency. Finally, creative assessments help determine whether the influencer’s storytelling, values, personality, and other attributes are the best fit for your brand.

We know this is an extensive process, and it can be a bit daunting to do all of this on your own. Luckily, we can help you with influencer research, influencer marketing strategy, and influencer outreach using our proprietary influencer marketing platform. This saves you the headache of guesswork and the expense of trial and error.

It’s also important to consider an influencer’s overall reach when choosing who to work with. An influencer with 200,000 followers is not necessarily more valuable than one with 10,000 followers if their engagement levels are low. In fact, 67 percent of marketers choose to work with micro-influencers (those with between 10,000 and 50,000 followers). They often have higher engagement rates than even the most popular celebrities because their followers feel like they have a personal connection with them. The moral of the story is to capitalize on trustworthiness, not just popularity.

The Cost and ROI of Influencer Marketing on Instagram

One of the most common questions we get from brands is, “How much does Instagram influencer marketing cost?” Great question! As with any investment, the amount you spend on influencer marketing should be based on your goals and objectives.

To determine how much to spend, start by identifying what influencer marketing can do for your business. As we’ve discussed, influencer marketing can help to increase brand awareness, improve brand reputation, build brand community, and increase sales. With these objectives in mind, you can begin to determine how much you’re willing to spend on influencer marketing to see a return on your investment.

Determine Your Campaign Type

The kind of campaign you choose will determine your influencer marketing budget and ultimately your ROI. For example, a product review campaign will require a different budget than an influencer-led event. There are three main kinds of campaigns to choose from: brand awareness, content-focused, or click-focused.

Brand Awareness Campaigns

Brand awareness campaigns are great for new brands and those looking to launch a new product, rebrand, or re-establish industry value and position. These types of campaigns make new consumers aware of your brand so you can grow your reach. Giveaways and social media takeovers are examples of this kind of campaign.

Content-Focused Campaigns

Content-focused campaigns are the way to go when you’re looking to reuse influencer-generated content across your branded channels. If your goals include creating scroll-stopping ads, this is likely the campaign type for you. Measured social media posts are an example of this kind of campaign. 

Click-Focused Campaigns

Click-focused campaigns are the ideal option when the goal is to increase site traffic, grow a mailing list, retarget offerings, or grow sales. Sponsored blog posts, reviews, and affiliate marketing are some post examples you’ll find in these campaigns.

Track Your ROI

Now comes the fun part: tracking your campaign’s ROI. As you know, influencer marketing is a data-backed science aimed at converting engagement into leads. So, to accurately track your influencer marketing ROI, you’ll need to set up some tracking infrastructure. This allows for optimal results as you track and measure the effectiveness of your influencer campaign.

Of course, this means absolutely nothing without a complete understanding of the things we’ve discussed in this guide so far. That explains why upward of 80 percent of marketers have tried influencer marketing, but  25 percent of them have seen a zero percent ROI. Making sure that you avoid influencer marketing mistakes, have a clear strategy, and use influencers that are the best match for your brand is essential to influencer marketing success. Luckily, that’s our bread and butter.

Focus on Your KPIs

The key to influencer marketing success is to track your most important KPIs (key performance insights). These are the backbone of any influencer program and indicate whether an influencer is effective in meeting your business goals. So it’s important to have a good understanding of which ones you should track before launching a campaign. To make things easy for you, we’ve listed the metrics you can expect to see in our reporting, as well as how they map to your business goals.

Important influencer marketing KPIs for brand awareness, click-focused, and content-focused campaigns include:

Awareness: Reach, impressions, and social media mentions. This measures how many people lay their eyes on your content.

Engagement: This counts how many times people stop what they’re doing to interact with your content. This could be anything from a like, comment, or even share.

Followers: This number measures the growth of your audience.

Views: This value indicates the number of people who have watched your video content for at least 3 seconds.

Link Clicks or Swipes: This metric gathers data on the number of times a prospect used one of your links to get more information about your brand or to access your product from a different platform or website.

Promo and Discount Codes: These allow you to measure how effective influencer-generated content is in getting people to make a purchase from your brand by tracking how many times consumers viewed and acted on your brand’s offer.

Instagram Influencers Who Are Crushin’ It

Finding the perfect Instagram influencer for your brand is one of the influencer marketing tips that can make or break your campaign. Our proprietary SaaS influencer matching platform is the perfect tool to find influencers that will help you reach your business goals. We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. The perfect influencers are now at your fingertips in seconds using various search criteria including location, industry, engagement rate, followers, and much more.

There are tons of influencers who can be an asset to your brand. Here are a few examples of influencers who are absolutely crushing it right now:

Nataldee

Natalie (@Nataldee) is an influencer and content creator known for her vibrant, body-positive feed. She loves to romanticize her life, and she makes sure her followers feel like they’re on this journey with her as she welcomes them to her fairytale. Her content is engaging, aspirational, and absolutely breathtaking, which is why she’s amassed a sizable following across social media platforms.

me_and_my_butts

Cat (@me_and_my_butts) Buttigieg’s children Clementine, Felix, and Robin are her biggest muses! The four, five, and seven-year-olds are the stars of her content as they go about their daily lives and explore the world around them. From enjoying hot cocoa at the dining table to celebrating birthdays, Cat’s content is relatable, heartwarming, and hilarious. These pint-sized fashion icons from down under are sure to put a smile on your face and inspiration in your heart!

TheGroomerGal

Lindsey Dowling (@thegroomergal) is a dog lover, dog handler, and Master Creative Groomer. She owns two pet grooming salons and is frequently featured in professional dog shows. On her feed, this nano-influencer often posts videos and photos of her beloved fur friends being groomed in her salons as well as tips on the best pet-safe grooming products. 

Frequently posing with the best-in-show, her passion for animals is evident in her work, and she has used her influencer platform to educate others on the importance of mindfulness and appreciating a pet’s true nature. If you’re a dog-focused brand, Lindsey may be the influencer for you.

As you can see, influencers come in all shapes and sizes with a wide range of interests, backgrounds, and styles. It’s important to remember that influencer marketing is all about finding the right fit for your brand. This is a vitally important process, and it shouldn’t be left to chance or trial and error.

Time to Dive Into Instagram Influencer Marketing

The Shelf is the influencer marketing agency for forward-thinking brands. We take a holistic and data-driven approach to influencer marketing, and we are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their business goals, and defeat the Agent Smiths of the marketing world. Booking a strategy session and getting started has never been easier.

You’ve made it through his entire guide — so you’re looking to take your influencer marketing to the next level. We’ve got you. Connect with The Shelf today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lira Stone | Effective, Magnetic Strategist

For over a decade, my focus has been ensuring that professionals stay ahead of the curve in the most time-efficient, task-prioritized, and stress-free manner possible. My extensive experience has equipped me with the knowledge to design a concise, company-culture-relevant, methodical approach to internet sales and marketing.

The post 2023 Guide To How Instagram Influencer Marketing Works appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

So, our annual Mother’s Day strategy post is aimed at assisting the marketers who are inevitably targeting the daughters, sons, hubbies, grandkids, and partners who will be making their way to stores between now and May 14th. Friend, it’s time for some Mother’s Day marketing strategies… and right here is where you’re going to find some really legit influencer marketing strategies. But first…

Here Are the Mother’s Day Stats That Matter to Marketers

Mother’s Day is now the second biggest gift-giving holiday, after Christmas, and the fourth-largest retail event of the year (Back-to-College, Back-to-School, and the Winter holidays – in that order – hold the top three spots). When it comes to gift-giving, moms typically receive more gifts than dads, and in an effort to make Mom feel super special, Mother’s Day shoppers consistently outspend Father’s Day shoppers.

According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, 2023 Mother’s Day spending was on track to be the highest in the survey’s entire history at $35.7 billion. Consumers expected to spend more than $7.8 billion on jewelry, $5.6 billion on special outings, and $4 billion on electronics.

Thirty percent of those planning to buy Mother’s Day gifts planned to splurge on personal services like massages, manicures, and pedicures for a total of $3 billion.

Those buying for fashion-forward moms planned to spend another $3.3 billion on clothing and accessories. And for those keen on letting mom do her own shopping, the amount shelled out on gift cards could surpass $3.4 billion in 2023.

Now, this last group of purchases is where the big bucks are generally spent (like, every year…). Shall I compare thee to $3.2 billion in flowers and floral arrangements? Mother’s Day is one of the most active periods of the year for flower growers.

While three in four Mother’s Day shoppers will be adding greeting cards to the mix, the percentage of people who buy greeting cards for Mother’s Day has dropped 13 percentage points since their height in 2007.

Mother’s Day Trends That Impact Your Marketing Efforts

With millions of consumers in search of the perfect gift, they are spending billions of dollars on Mom. It’s no wonder brands compete to get in front of ready buyers in the days and weeks leading up to Mother’s Day. Here are a few Mother’s Day trends that marketers have had to keep in mind.

Subscription boxes… We’ve all done our fair share of online shopping over the last three years. So, it’s no surprise that one in three shoppers say they have their eyes on subscription boxes and services.

Experiences are also still pretty popular, considering… Experiences? Really? Yep. One in four shoppers are planning to give Mom some sort of experience for Mother’s Day. Also, consider this stat: 60 percent of celebrants are planning to take Mom out on a special outing. Millennial and Gen Z gifters are more likely than Gen Xers and Boomers to gift experiences. They’re also more likely to share their gift idea and Mom’s reaction on social channels.

This means… the gift – whatever it is – needs to be feed-worthy.

Social media is ultra-shoppable… Social media is a powerful, almost MATCHLESS sales tool for spring holidays like Mother’s Day. Not only is social constantly changing the ways in which consumers shop… social is also changing consumer expectations… and changing what they buy, how they buy, and why they buy.

New to Influencer Marketing? Start Here

The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing

In This Particular Mother’s Day Marketing Post

We’re at a time in digital marketing when over 70 percent of the decision-making process is happening on phones and tablets, and half of all Mother’s Day shopping is being done on a smartphone.

That means being visible, searchable, and social just became the only way to get on anyone’s shopping list. So, we pulled together a list of social media and influencer marketing strategies that will help retailers craft Mother’s Day marketing campaigns designed specifically to boost traffic to your website and to your store.

Yeah, foot traffic. So, you need to give customers a compelling to spend their money on your site (or on-site), right?

Right.

To grab that attention, you’ll need to offer them more than just great ads. Storytelling is going to be HUGE for brands this Mother’s Day… as will creating customers experiences that help shoppers streamline and simplify the process of gifting Mom and Grandma something AWESOME.

The typical buyer is looking for something completely different than what they may have gifted in the past. The key to leveraging Mother’s Day gift-giving as a marketing strategy is to create a supply of experiences, special gifts, and rare items that will meet the demand for something awesome that mom will love.

Related Post

What Makes Them Buy: Millennial Women and Moms

Strategy 1: Video Marketing with YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat

Target Shopper: Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and Millennials

Gen Alpha? Yep. Gen Alpha should be on your radar this year. Because the oldest Gen Alphas are in middle school and the youngest are still on their way to Earth in the next two years.

There are lots of ways brands can use video in their Mother’s Day marketing strategies. Zeroing in on Generation Z and Millennial shoppers with a video campaign is smart because Gen Zers – the 13 to 27 crowd – defer to YouTube for product recommendations and to help them make final purchasing decisions. More than half of Millennials (54 percent) check YouTube daily. Their content of choice includes things like product unboxings, hauls, tutorials, and content that’s quick, fun, and entertaining.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Holiday-Focused Primer Videos

One of the coolest videos I’ve spotted in recent months is one the youngest girl in my household has probably already seen, and it’s from the Come Play with Me channel on YouTube. This channel is one that older shoppers may not have seen unless they have little ones in the house, but it’s bascially a channel built for kids who want to watch other kids (and I think adults as well) play with toys.

In this video, the kids and the dads – including Eric from The Little Mermaid, Snow White’s toddler daughter, Frozen’s Kristoff, as well as a host of other characters from Arendelle – are preparing a huge Mother’s Day brunch for the Disney Princess moms. So, they are expecting Princess Tiana from The Princess and The Frog, Elsa and Anna, Snow White, and other famous Disney heroines to show up for a fantastical Mother’s Day surprise.

There aren’t any products being promoted. Just a video that helps kids understand the value and potential of Mother’s Day, and provide them with family friendly ideas for how they can celebrate Mom this Mother’s Day.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Branded Insider Videos

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: The #EveryMum Mother’s Day Campaign from Blue Illusion

To watch this video, it wouldn’t be immediately apparent what Blue Illusion is – the video isn’t at all about the stuff it sells. The only hint is that Nicole, daughter to Lisa and one of the company’s apparel buyers, was included in the video.

Self-proclaimed curators of personal style, French-Inspired Australian fashion boutique Blue Illusion is dedicated to selling clothes that showcase the modern woman’s spirit, the pursuit of style, passion for life, and generosity of heart.

The company’s #EveryMum Mother’s Day campaign on YouTube was a sweet but candid look at the mother/daughter relationship, and how valuable the family is to Blue Illusion’s company culture by featuring employees who were mother and daughter.

These kinds of videos are often endearing and tug a bit on the heartstrings. More important, they immediately humanized your brand and give it a face… Actually, this video gave the brand eight faces… all of them believable and relatable.

There was dialogue in the videos between mother and daughter, where both mum and kid revealed interesting things… like Esther isn’t great at picking out clothes for her daughter Lexi.

Totally relatable.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Mother’s Day Gift Ideas and Guides

Another effective way to use video marketing for Mother’s Day is to partner with influencers who can create great gift-idea vlogs.

Now, YouTube videos will typically be one of the pricier options for an influencer campaign, especially if you’re partnering with a macro-influencer. Like, add-a-zero pricey. But these kinds of short, personal videos can get tons of eyes on your product and get ears listening to the good things about your product.

To reduce the cost of a sponsored YouTube video, consider including your product as part of a larger list of gift ideas rather than choosing to have an influencer make an entire video strictly about your product or products.

The challenge with sponsored videos is to partner with an influencer who can disclose that the video is sponsored without the whole thing seems like a big, fat sponsored video. Here’s a GREAT example of an influencer who’s great at that.

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: Fleur de Force x L’Occitane

Lifestyle vlogger Fleur de Force (on Instagram @fleurdeforce and here’s her YouTube channel) put together a Mother’s Day video that now has more than 61K views.

If you have never seen one of her videos, they are very well done. Fleur de Force is easy to understand, personable, refined, and gorgeous. What’s cool about the way she does gift idea videos – and this one in particular – is even though it’s a sponsored video partnership with L’Occitane (which she noted in the video description and the title), the video itself really is full of good Mother’s Day ideas that feature lots of other brands.

In addition to L’Occitane gift sets, she talked about jewelry and modeled some comfy pajamas. She also noted in her video that after polling the moms in her life, she discovered most of them just want some time off, time to themselves, which gave way to the idea of creating a relaxation basket for moms that include things like books, bath salts, nail polish, a scented candle (which was a collaboration between Cowshed x Scamp & Dude), and those pajamas… She talked a bit about subscription boxes as well.

Here’s the important part: L’Occitane was featured in the video, yes, but it wasn’t a L’Occitane commercial in the eyes of her viewers, and THAT’S what’s powerful about a video haul or gift idea video like this one.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Hauls

Mother’s Day gift hauls are entertaining to watch. These informal discovery videos come in all types and are done by bloggers from all over the world who have audiences of all sizes.

What makes hauls so valuable to brands is hauls provide prospects with an easy discovery method as they are already knee-deep in Mother’s Day gift research. This is great for holidays like Mother’s Day when shoppers are more deliberate and thoughtful about the kind of gifts they buy. Gift cards are more popular at Christmas time than they are for Mother’s Day, and that’s because Mother’s Day is an appreciation holiday the Moms 84 percent of people are setting aside time and funds to honor.

Another thing that’s cool about hauls is they come across as authentic because they’re usually loosely scripted or completely unscripted. They’re not over-produced.

If you watched a bit of Fleur de Force’s video, you saw the lighting in her bedroom changed, probably affected by the cloud cover outside. That sorta thing doesn’t negatively impact haul videos.

Now, I’m not saying that production isn’t important at all. I’ve actually skipped haul videos that looked interesting because the vlogger’s messy bedroom in the background was distracting and I quickly realized that mess would influence my view of the products she found in her haul. What I am saying is no one’s winning an Oscar for their holiday hauls.

I think the key element that makes hauls compelling is the same thing that drives Instagram videos to grab so much attention – it’s the opportunity to engage with the video’s creator and to engage with other viewers about THEIR experiences with the brand.

Another thing about haul videos is that timing is important. Mother’s Day in the UK is just a few weeks before Mother’s Day in the US, and there are lots of Mother’s Day videos from bloggers in all those countries (and Australia).

As we’re writing this in mid-March, most of the new content we see is from UK vloggers preparing for UK Mother’s Day on March 31st. Keep that in mind when planning your campaigns.

Mother’s Day Campaign Example: In-Store Shopping for the Budget Shopping

This gift idea video is way more focused on Target than on a particular product, which sets up a really relaxed, in-store browsing kind of feel.

While the previous video was focused on extoling the virtues of specific products, this one zeroes in more on providing a bunch of different products that would be available at your local target store OR on Target’s robust, AR-powered ecommerce platform.

This video from Mily Fitzgerald is pretty much an in-store walk-thru – no faces, no family, no distracting personalities. It’s a straightforward method of creating a gift ideas video that’s not at all salesy.

While Mily actually has a whole list of trackable links in the description of her video, nothing about the video feels like she’s trying to push one product over another. AND the quality is great without being overly produced.

One of the benefits of a video like this is that the over-45 crowd tends to tune out recommendations. You’re talking to Gen Xers who are FAMOUS for being completely unmoved by other people’s opinions. And Baby Boomers who are far more swayed by facts and stats than opinions and editorials, the in-store browse would be engaging without being annoying. For those types of shoppers, this format would be ideal.

Mother’s Day Campaign Example: Shopper Mandy Luxury Haul

So, one of the more produced hauls we found was by a popular vlogger named Shopper Mandy (get her YouTube channel here and you can find her on Instagram @shoppermandy).

Okay, you’ll notice even from the screenshot below that Mandy’s video has been produced a bit. She puts the products featured in the haul in a little white box on-screen so viewers can see the actual color of the product, unaffected by her lighting and movements. Smart.

Shopper Mandy also includes in the description section beneath her video beauty and fashion affiliate links to the products in her posts.

Affiliate marketing and influencer marketing work well together. According to Rakuten, 80 percent of advertisers run affiliate programs, and you would be hard-pressed to find a micro- or macro-influencer who didn’t participate in affiliate programs.

For instance, the link for the Yves Saint Laurent ‘Volupté’ Lip Gloss Trio goes to the Nordstrom product page for that set. It’s sold out.

For instance the link for the Yves Saint Laurent ‘Volupté’ Lip Gloss Trio goes to the Nordstrom product page for that set. It sold out.

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: KyleandCourt | Bath & Body Works Mother’s Day Haul

Another way to do hauls is to sponsor an actual branded haul. Go Team Fam! is a family YouTube vlog channel from Kyle and Court Hale and their kids. Now, I don’t see any indication that this is actually a sponsored post, but… for Bath & Body Works fans, this would have been a legit win because of the Mother’s Day promotions that were going on in-store.

(Just an aside… Bath & Body Works is a BOSS at reaching customers where they are and driving traffic into the store, from their end-of-summer clearance sales (never miss ‘em) to their free holiday gifts, and those break-apart cards that come in direct mail promoting different time-sensitive offers for 30- and 60-day periods… this company knows how to drive foot traffic).

So, here’s what really grabbed me about this particular haul…

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: In-Store Mother’s Day Promotion

At the very beginning of the video, we find out that this haul video was compelled by a great in-store buy. Court went into the store and discovered there was also an in-store Mother’s Day promotion going on that allowed shoppers to get a large zippered navy or bronze tote in a chevron weave.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: The Free Gift

Shoppers who spent $50 could get an additional box of products valued at $100+ for just another $30. It’s possible to buy for Mom and yourself, or buy for Mom and Mother-in-Law, or Mom and Grandma or your best friend who’s a new mother…

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Digital Coupon Went Out to Subscribers

There was also a coupon available (list-building opportunity) to Bath & Body Works email list that gave them another $5 off their purchase. So, Mother’s Day shoppers paid $75 and got $167 in product + a tote.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Easy Returns and Exchanges for Moms

FINALLY, scents (even those given as a gift) were eligible to be exchanged for other scents. That means Mom could get her gift and go back to the store to swap out her fragrance and be upsold by a perfume, spray, scrub, or lotion with the same scent for layer.

(Coincidentally, I went to their site immediately to be signed up for upcoming email offers… even though I know I got direct mail Bath & Body Works offers that also send me running to the stores.)

STRATEGY 1 RECAP

Video marketing is legit, especially if you’re incorporating influencers into your strategy. Video gift guides and hauls really can come in all shapes and sizes. But remember, YouTube videos can get really pricey, especially if you want the entire video to focus exclusively on your products.

If the price of a branded video is too steep, consider including your product as part of a larger haul that includes complementary products from other brands.

Last thing to think about is timing. The UK vloggers and US vloggers produce tons of Mother’s Day content, but Mother’s Day in the UK typically falls a few weeks earlier than in the US, so plan to publish and promote videos starting in March for the UK and April for the US.

Related Post

How To Use Pinterest Marketing To Power Your Digital Strategy

Strategy 2: Create Experiences Outta Nowhere

Target: Adult children buying for Mom, adult children with families, free-spirited Gen Xers and Boomers (birds of a feather, you know…)

EXPERIENCES SELL. For social media users (which is literally half of all Internet users at this point), cool-looking experiences are Instagram fodder. Before COVID that meant Instagram pop-ups and interactive museums. These days, it’s a raised-bed garden in all its glory or a staycation backyard setup or documenting that all-important trip to At Home when it’s time to decorate a new house.

Not everyone’s ready to hit up the Museum of Ice Cream while cases are still spiking in hot spots around the world. And the pandemic accelerated the shift from the super-curated feed to the less perfect feed that was already happening on Instagram.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Create those In-Store Experiences

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: Bass Pro Shops Does It All

Creating in-store experiences isn’t a new strategy. But it’s one that has helped retailers like Bass Pro Shops grab mall foot traffic from shoppers who may have had no intention of visiting the store, but who go into the store simply because of the forest-themed spectacle.

Getting in a little Easter Bunny action. : @shawnaalward

Image Source: Instagram

The company’s retail locations are humongous stores full of outdoorsy things (totally a scientific term), equipped with a 25-cent shooting range (not real guns), a fishing pond, full-sized stuffed wildlife, and one of my kids’ personal favorites, the in-store mountainside stream (the stream part is really just a gigantic aquarium) that’s gotta be like 20feet high.

Bass Pro Shops does a great job at translating the wonder and majesty of nature into an awe-inspiring in-store experience for visitors. The store’s team members are knowledgeable and accessible, with younger and (thank goodness) older team members ready to be engaged when you need them (translation: they don’t stalk you around the store).

But BPS doesn’t skimp on seasonal photo opportunities either. And that’s perfect social media fodder in a world where Instagram backdrop culture and pop-ups have all but disappeared.

Another thing Bass Pro Shops does well is they create opportunities offsite with special events to engage with customers. I screengrabbed this digital flyer that was on the company’s main website. This sorta segues into my next tactic, which is creating experiences that Moms can do with a small group of people who are in their bubbles in locations that naturally allow for social distancing (because who wants to be right near a woman firing off a bow and arrow?)

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Create Experiences That Mom Can Do with Her BFF, Not Her Famly (hello, REFERRALS!!)

One of the cool things about experiences is they pave the way for customer referrals. Fleur de Force mentioned in her video that many moms want some time to themselves for Mother’s Day. The flipside is, often moms who have adult children are game to do some activities either with their kids and grandkids for Mother’s Day, or share in experiences that allow her to still have a day off, but maybe spend it with whomever she chooses.

This is where things like gift certificates, paid reservations, open travel plane tickets, and accommodation/hospitality gifts can come in handy. These sorts of gifts compel Mother’s Day shoppers to buy “in pairs” so Mom has someone with whom she can share the experience.

Here’s the thing though: It’s smart to create experiences that she will want to share with a friend instead of a family member. I came across an interesting factoid in Mention-Me.com’s Referral Success for Luxury Brands report.

“As a rule of thumb, women share more than men & under 30s share more than 30+. However, whilst older ages share less, the shares they make tend to convert better.”

Strategy 2 Recap

Think about creating Instagrammable experiences that kids can share with Mom like Museum of Ice Cream, create in-store experiences that drive people to want to come inside like Bass Pro Shops, and create referral-worthy buddy experiences that Mom will want to do with her own friends.

Strategy 3: Go Narrower; Find the Outliers

Target: Gen Z teens, kids of 30-something moms, friends of Millennial moms

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Tap into Mom’s Uniqueness

“It’s a vegan, cruelty-free, no-waste, upcycled, circular movement naked cupcake. Proceeds go to save the Whatevers…” Right? Is that your mom, or a mom you know?

Different generations of women look completely different from one another… until they have kids. That’s when the youngest generation of parents start to adopt (and finally “get”) the principles and values their parents and grandparents were working so hard to instill. There are still marked differences in parenting styles from generation to generation, but it’s not oranges-to-apples differences… they’re green-apples-to-red-apples differences.

As parents start to deal with the very unsnowflake-like moments that come with having kids (temper tantrums, remote learning, iPads that work attached to school district virtual dashboards that are ALWAYS on the fritz, being captured yelling at your kids when you don’t know their mic is on, moody teens, weird things happening with grades, dating, crashing the car, missing curfew, dirty bedrooms, messy closets…), parents all start to sort of blend together.

Long gone are those early years when Mom still had enough energy to kick butt AND take all those names. But every mom want’s to be reminded of what a doll, boss, beast, maven, genius, Creative she was before kids came and tried to make her seem dumb.

Is there anyone out there who remembers when their mom had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do (mine did)? Or seen the footage of your mom raunchy and commanding as she fronted a pretty sick grunge band in the 90s?

Reminding Mom of all the things about her – unrelated to kids – that make her awesome is a great way to help her celebrate Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day gift choices that reflect her uniqueness, fire and strength are always winners.

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: Lush Honors the Super in Moms

Lush Cosmetics is known for its vibrant, beautiful, vegetarian cosmetics line. The company prides itself on living by six principles: the freshest cosmeticas, 100% vegetarian products, ethical buying, homemade, naked (unpackaged), and the charge to fight against animal testing. During its Mother’s Day campaign, Lush offered special gifts for the SuperMom.

What’s cool about Lush is the company has a very strong social media presence, and there are multiple Lush accounts on Instagram alone. The one below is for the Australia / New Zealand Lush stores.

Here’s another thing you probably didn’t know – Lush had naked stores.

Yeah… naked.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Be Unapologetically Something

The next tactic is about going all-in on some fringe thing. Maybe your new company memo isn’t going to force people to come to work naked. Lush’s Naked stores aren’t really about being helped by naked sales associates. These are actually the company’s packaging-free stores. The naked workers thing just sort of drives the point home (and the traffic in).

Think that drives in-store traffic?

Okay. Okay. Maybe now’s not the time to do a naked store. But Lush also does the R&R-for-mom thing pretty nicely, too.

Source: On Instagram

Lush has been around since the 1980s, but it remains a staple for young, environmentally-conscious adults, regardless of their defined generation.

STRATEGY 3 RECAP

Help kids and friends find ways to remind Mom of who she was before motherhood consumed her (it’s totally an all-consuming type of thing…). Remember the movie Avatar… and how audiences made a big deal of the way they greeted one another? Well, instead of saying, “Hey, how are you?”, they greeted each other, “I see you.” Help kids see their moms again.

Bold, tongue-in-cheek, quirky products can grab the attention of shoppers and help them align the intention behind your product with their mom’s personality. And having marketing collateral that aligns with Mom’s sense of humor, her college days, her fearlessness, or her time as a singer/songwriter can trigger the connection for shoppers.

Related Post

Launching an Influencer Campaign to Boost Brand Awareness

Strategy #4: Target Non-Mom Moms (because everyone is a mother of something)

Target: Friends of older Millennials, friends of Gen Xers

Fun fact: Moms are liable to get gifts from just about anyone. Mother’s Day shoppers don’t just buy for the woman they call “Mom”, they buy for moms in general – significant others, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, other family members, and friends.

But there are non-traditional moms out there who also get Mother’s Day love.

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: Barkbox Celebrates Dog Moms

Okay. This didn’t drive traffic into a store, but it was a great idea from BarkBox to kinda loop non-moms (and her friends and family) into the Mother’s Day shopping.

The web-based subscription took Facebook by storm as it dared to redefine the traditional idea of motherhood. #DogAnthem didn’t target all moms, just dog moms. As the two performers rap about the popularity of their fur babies, it’s almost impossible not to get this tune stuck on your head: “If you’re a dog mom, put your hands up. This song’s for all the ladies who provide for their pup. When you’re a dog mom, it’s just what you do. ‘Cause they say you’re not my baby but I know it ain’t true!”

Dog Mom Anthem

STRATEGY 4 RECAP

Widen your market by not taking yourself (and Mother’s Day) so seriously. If you don’t have traditional Mother’s Day stuff to sell, create a message that will resonate with non-mom moms.

Strategy #5: Take the Straight-Laced Out of Luxury Gifts

Target: Significant other, adult children

We came across a pretty neat little Mother’s Day haul video from popular luxury YouTuber Sonal Maherali (you can check out her channel here). Now, the setup of this haul is that Sonal is opening Mother’s Day gifts that she received from her husband, who was traveling on Mother’s Day.

(FYI: We didn’t include this video at the top with the other haul because this one targets a different buyer).

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: The Gift-Opening Haul

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: Sonal Maherali’S Super-Luxe Haul

The video opens with Sonal sitting next to a set of black Chanel gift bags and a fourth big bag in the back. The first gift she opens is a genuine leather passport holder with a super-cool illustration on the front, featuring leopard print Christian Louboutins.

Other than that AMAZING passport holder, here’s what’s cool about this video – as she proceeds to open the rest of the gifts, there are times when she doesn’t know the name of a shoe and other times when she does… and she’s seen the shoe before online… but has never actually touched it.

She’s trying to describe each item as she sees it, instead of having scripted keywords that she had to use for the video. She comes across as really sincere, and the gift haul seems authentic.

It’s sort of a backdoor into a haul video that would make for great, low-key product placement.

Another thing that’s sort of clever about this particular type of haul is that for the products she doesn’t know well, that could have been a great opportunity to follow up the video with a blog post of her modeling the shoes and reviewing the products.

She didn’t do that, but what did happen in the days, weeks, and months that followed was that as people watched the video, other users chimed in with information about the products and their experiences with those and similar products.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving. And here it is two years later and we’re checking out this Mother’s Day haul as well.

PS. Sonal is extremely likable.

STRATEGY 5 RECAP

Gift-Opening hauls are a great way to foster YouTube engagement from viewers – solid engagement like comments and sharing experiences, and talking candidly about your brand and your products. It’s also a great way to source insights about the level of knowledge her followers have about your brand. And, of course, it presents a great opportunity for your team members to chime in organically about your products.

Related Post

Influencer Strategy: Getting Clicks vs Boosting Brand Awareness

Strategy #6: But If You Teach a Mom to Fish…

Targeting: Husbands and sons, brothers, dads and kids, daughters only

Our final strategy caters to the sentiment motivator for picking gifts and that’s DIY tutorials on or around Mother’s Day. Of course, there are tons of cool DIY and handmade videos, Pinterest boards, and blogs from everyday users.

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: Handmade Gifts Anyone Can Do

Mother’s Day Gift Inspo: Handmade Gifts from If You Want It D.I.Y.

If You Want It D.I.Y released a Mother’s Day Gift Ideas video that provided step-by-step instructions for four different DIY gift ideas in under 10 minutes. Brilliant.

The video is detailed enough for viewers to follow along and see the types of products being used. But it’s edited in a way that speeds up the video so it’s easy to follow but doesn’t take a lot of time to initially digest all four ideas.

Now, my original thought with the DIY angle was for a brand like The Home Depot or the local hardware store to create a series of detailed step-by-step tutorials targeting dads and sons who could work together on an outdoor DIY project for Mom in the days leading up to Mother’s Day. A tutorial.

SMART MARKETING TACTIC: DIY BIG PROJECT TUTORIAL FOR MOM

Why a Tutorial? Believe it or not, How-to videos and tutorials are what followers want to see most from the influencers they follow.

Courtesy of: The Shelf

Well, tutorials are crucial for the YouTuber. In our post on YouTube user stats (this one), one of the things we talked about was how Gen Zers and Boomers use YouTube as a learning channel. Baby Boomers are big on watching tutorials to decode tech-related stuff. And, of course, who fixes cars anymore without having their phone nearby to reference the tutorial that’s walking them through the task they’re doing? Nobody. That’s who.

Tutorials and DIY videos are powerful marketing tools for brands because most viewers will try to adhere to the tutorial as much as possible to recreate the results they saw in the video. So, this provides a good opportunity for brands to partner with DIY influencers for natural-looking product placements.

It doesn’t have to be a video though. Pinterest is a HAVEN for this kinda stuff, a virtual library of beautiful backyard projects from super-simple stuff to more complex large backyard projects. Plus, Pinterest is great for SEO, showing up in search results, and especially Google Image search results, which means shoppers don’t have to be pinning fanatics to find your tutorials on Pinterest… they only have to be using a search engine.

In the screenshot below, the content on the far right is sponsored by TimberTech, and the one below it is sponsored by The Home Depot.

We penned a post at the end of last year (this one) on how HUGE Pinterest is for home decor and DIY brands. Let me just recap one piece of that info here:

Pinterest alone reaches 40 percent of the people who have made home furnishing purchases within the last six months, and users say Pinterest is THE MOST influential platform for home decor and home design inspiration.

User-wise, Pinterest doesn’t have as many monthly active users as Facebook or Instagram. As of May 2023, the platform has 463 million monthly active users, according to the company’s Business page. But unlike Facebook and Instagram, 9 in 10 Pinners use the platform to plan for or make purchases. Sixty percent of Pinners have used Pinterest to actually MAKE purchasing decisions for home decor.

Home decor is one of the three most popular search categories on Pinterest as well as one of the top shopping categories that lead to purchases.

Now, a large DIY project (like building something in the backyard) is probably going to require a longer campaign to get the attention of dads, sons, and daughters, AND give them time to mentally plan how they would do it without Mom finding out, AND to buy materials, AND to do the work.

The key is getting them to finally DECIDE to do the project… which retargeting ads can help with nudging them toward a commitment to do the project and the subsequent purchases required to do it right.

So, the process could go this way – YouTube pre-roll ads for Mother’s Day targeting different shoppers. The brand grabs viewers’ attention in those precious first five seconds with an on-screen message. Here’s what I’m thinking as far as targeting goes…

To Mom from All of Us

To: Mom… Love, the boys

To: Mom… Love, Your Favorite Son

Here’s a Mother’s Day Project for Kick-Ass Daughters (I imagine this one in an Alec Baldwin / Will Arnett type of voice)

Smart Mother’s Day Marketing Tactic: DIY Project to Do WITH Mom (hear us roar)

Mother’s Day Campaign Inspo: Darvin Orvar’s Backyard Gazebo for Her Dad

Darbin Orvar created a step-by-step video for building a small, low-cost gazebo in her dad’s garden that is actually targeting people who aren’t carpenters… or may not be great with their hands. She uses hand tools in the video – not HGTV-grade super tools that need their own area of the yard to operate. Just something simple.

The video includes a trip to the local Lowe’s Store. She also talks about her hammering skills (great opportunity to teach, share techniques, and recommend gloves, hammers, and maybe even something to combat the calluses that will inevitably result from spending one day as a construction worker).

Take a look at this video because it also has a sponsor mentioned in the beginning, GAF, the company that provided the shingles for the roof of the gazebo.

The Smoaks Vlogs (they’re just so darned charming!)

Okay. I think this may be as unscripted as it gets. But, this video is a great example because The Smoaks Vlogs are laid back but really captivating.

In this particular Mother’s Day video, it’s Mom who wanted to clean out the barn and build a new kennel for the pups (looks like they have 7 or 8 dogs), so they head out to the stores and pick up supplies.

What’s cool about this video is actually Shawn Smoaks’s narration. The couple goes to The Home Depot and Tractor Supply Co and loads the flatbed of their pickup with supplies. Another easy way to incorporate products.

STRATEGY 6 RECAP

Like HAULS, DIY videos and tutorials can provide a natural product placement opportunity. I think the primary difference is it’s a little easier to zero in on grabbing men with DIY videos, compared to hauls.

One thing I didn’t mention is a lot of these home improvement project videos have natural spots in them for objective product reviews… like this drill works on this, but not on that. You may have heard Shawn Smoaks talking about the capabilities and limitations of his Milwaukee drill in his Mother’s Day video. Those types of objective reviews resonate with men and Baby Boomers who would much rather have the facts and make their own decisions about the product than an editorial. Just an FYI…

For larger projects, give your campaign more lead time because there’s a good chance you will need to incorporate retargeting as well as sponsored posts across multiple platforms (like, reaching Boomer husbands on Facebook, targeting sons on YouTube and Snapchat, getting to Millennial husbands on Facebook and through retargeting and emails).

Wrapping This Up with a Pretty, Pink Ribbon

It’s vital to get your product in front of the right people. And with Mother’s Day right around the corner, it’s really time to pull those campaigns together. If this post provided you with your game plan, awesome. We see you.

If it made your blood pressure shoot up and you had to take a Honey Bun break, you probably need our help. Don’t sweat. We’re cool, we’re creative, and we stay on top of trends and tactics that convert. Call us to set up a demo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lira Stone | Effective, Magnetic Strategist

For over a decade, my focus has been ensuring that professionals stay ahead of the curve in the most time-efficient, task-prioritized, and stress-free manner possible. My extensive experience has equipped me with the knowledge to design a concise, company-culture-relevant, methodical approach to internet sales and marketing.

The post 6 Mother’s Day Marketing Strategies to Boost Foot Traffic appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Product launches are an exciting opportunity to increase sales and grow your audience. In this guide, we’ll demystify the process with a step-by-step plan for introducing Instagrammers to your brand and new product. 

Step 1: Figure Out Who You’re Targeting and What They Want to Fix

The first step to any successful product launch is defining your target audience. You’ll want to identify which demographics you’re speaking to and how they shop on Instagram. Consumers behave a little differently on each social platform, so make sure you’re tailoring your launch specifically to your audience’s Instagram habits. 

It’s also great to understand their pain points. What problems are they trying to solve? Pain points could be the specific reason they’d buy your product or service, and pain points could include any challenges they’re having with one of your competitors.

Here’s what I mean…

Let’s say you’re a sea moss brand. Last year, sea moss gel was trending all over TikTok. Kim K was spotted having a sea moss smoothie and A-List celeb (and TikTok darling) Kevin Hart invested in a sea moss brand during an episode of Shark Tank.

People choose to drink sea moss for a number of reasons, many of them health-related. So, customer pain points can be focused around things like trying to get more essential and trace minerals in their diets without adding a bunch of calories. Or maybe they’re trying to find a fix for respiratory issues.

BUT a quick look at the customer reviews of some of your competitors could reveal that one of your competitors has logistics issues that result in sea moss gel jars arriving cracked or reaching the customer spoiled because of refrigeration problems during shipping. Another competitor may have customer service issues – customers can never reach anyone to get their questions answered or address their problems.

Both aspects – the health-related ones and the quality control ones – are pain points for your customers. So, understanding the pain points of your prospects provides you with different ways to shape your messaging during your launch campaign.  

TIP: IG Stories is the PERFECT way to test messaging since Stories disappear from the feed, your profile, and Direct after 24 hours unless you add the Story to your highlights.

Step 2: Grow Your Instagram Following with Members of Your Target Audience

Okay, this one may seem like a chicken-egg situation, but you’re going to have to put some time, effort, and other resources into growing your following.

This is an essential step for two reasons. First, you want to promote your new product to a full house, not an empty crowd. And second, influencers will be more excited to work with you if you have a greater audience reach.

The good news is that you don’t need to garner millions of followers. Nor do you need hundreds of thousands. A couple hundred is a great place to start.

Here are a few no-sweat ways to grow your audience quickly:

• Fill out your Instagram bio. Infuse it with your brand voice, and tell new followers what you’re all about. Don’t forget to add a link to your website. 
• Lean into video. In years past, we urged readers to build a grid of at least 12 images. That’s cool. But if you have 12 images, you’ll want to have at least 12 videos. And maybe make half of those image spots carousels instead of single pics. Make your grid as engaging and interactive as you possibly can.
• Ask your existing network to follow your page and pass it along to their friends. A story share goes a long way for brand exposure. 
• Use the hashtags your customers are using. Instagram allows users to follow not just people, but also topics, right? So, make sure you’re cataloging your content with hashtags.

Step 3: Clearly Define the Goals for Your Product Launch

We’ve been harping on this one for years. Set goals for your influencer marketing campaign. Build your campaign out to meet those goals. Know which influencer campaign metrics to check to determine whether your campaign was successful.

The trick here is to set specific goals that you can track and measure. Of course, you want to generate max buzz, pre-orders, and sales for your new product. Setting more specific, intentional goals will help you reach even more conversion-focused goals vs awareness goals.

Before building your campaign, you need to ask yourself: Is your main goal to gain more followers? Increase brand awareness? Sell lots of your new product? Drive downloads of your app? Gain a bunch of 5-star product reviews?

Narrowing down your specific campaign goals will help you tailor your content and choose the right influencers for your campaign (more on that later).

Remember, when it comes to influencer marketing, not all success has to equate to a sales transaction. In fact, influencer marketing helps drive action that eventually will lead to a conversion. But that’s eventually.

If you don’t hit your sales goals, but you get thousands of views, gain hundreds of followers, and increase engagement with your campaign, that’s a major win. That sort of increased brand lift always precedes more sales.

Want more specifics on how to create product launch goals? We penned a short ebook that shows you how to structure influencer campaigns to meet specific goals. If that’s your thing, click the big, ol’ button below.

Step 4: Map a Timeline for Your Launch Date

How long does it take to run a good campaign? Ideally, you want to create an Instagram marketing campaign that’s around 30 to 60 days. This gives you enough time to grow buzz, track analytics, and optimize the best-performing content.

Remember that it typically takes a couple of weeks just to recruit influencers, ship products, approve influencer content, and schedule posts to go live. So, make sure you start your campaign a few months before you want to see those results.

Start by selecting the date you want your campaign to go live. Then work your timeline back from there. Just know that this is a weeks-long process.

If you don’t have four months, don’t worry. We’ve pulled together successful campaigns in a few weeks. You can always scale down your campaign. Launching a service is also more flexible. Because there’s no need to ship physical products, you can get away with a service launch campaign that’s only a month long, depending on when you’re running the campaign. You have to snag influencers for a holiday campaign early because they get booked up fast.

HERE’S WHAT A TYPICAL PRODUCT LAUNCH TIMELINE CAN LOOK LIKE:

Day 1-7: Building hype

Day 8: Product launch

Day 9-14: Post-launch follow-up

Day 15-30: Maintaining momentum

TIP: Lean on your influencers for content. Not in a mafia way, but in a trusting-them-to-do-what-they-do kinda way. Influencers literally make money by knowing how to create content that resonates with their audiences. So, let them do that. You want to allow for structured creative freedom, meaning they know what your goals are and they understand your brand and message, but they have the freedom to introduce your product and present your brand in a way that THEIR followers will find compelling. (the best way to do this is to provide them with an influencer brief that outlines the expectations.)

BENEFIT: If you do it this way, you’ll have a ton of influencer-generated content that you can repurpose later across your own branded channels. And the content that comes from each creator will be different. You know what they say: Variety is the spice of life. Just make sure to get the content rights.

Step 5: Choose the Right Influencer Partners

Okay, influencer marketing is a whole big thing – you know it, we know it. We’ve penned a massive, detailed, everything-you-need-to-know guide to influencer marketing strategy. But for now, we’re just going to talk about influencer selection.

Finding the right influencer partners is a crucial part of the process. And we’ve gotta be honest here: it may take you a few weeks to get the right influencers committed to your campaign, especially if you’re not using an agency like The Shelf for the influencer selection process.

But never fear – you can totally find influencers on your own. We’ve laid out this checklist to help you do just that.

So, who are the “right” influencers? Well, the trick is to choose influencers whose audiences overlap with your target audience. Once you’ve found them, you’ll want to consider your budget and the reach you’re hoping for with the campaign.

Would your influencer budget be better served on one mega-influencer or would your audience be better served using several micro-influencers or even nano-influencers with more defined niches? This all depends on your campaign goals, budget, and whether you’re hoping to reuse influencer-generated content (which we recommend, if possible). We’ve broken down the influencer tiers here so you know which creators to target. 

Step 6: Use Your Team’s Creative Genius

Cue your creative vision. This is the “structured” part of that structured creative freedom I was talking about before. Now, what makes Instagram so compelling is that it went from being a photo-sharing app to being a storytelling platform.

The photos you use on Instagram should support your corporate brand. When people arrive at your Instagram account, they should “get” how the pics align with your brand and the launch. We’re talking about having a color scheme that’s in line with your brand, consistent use of filters, camera angles, layouts, frames, negative space in your pics — the regular Instagram stuff. A pretty feed that’s eye-catching and useful, just branded. Create & Cultivate is great at this. And Compartes Chocolate – they have such a great feed.

Anyway, my point is that with influencer campaigns, you get to have a little more freedom with your brand theme. Reels and Stories are a great place to allow your influencers to run wild with their own creativity. 

New Product Launch Examples

When Activewear brand @popflex_active launched their Stardust collection, it featured a range of black and sparkly leggings, bras, and tops. This is what their Instagram feed looked like in the week leading up to the launch and the week of the launch itself. You can see they had a clear vision for the visual direction: blacks, whites, and pops of iridescent shimmer. 

Their influencer partner @zoestone posted this all-black Popflex ‘fit the day before the Stardust launch. Although it’s not as stylized as the in-house creative the brand generated, it still sticks with the theme of the launch and effectively teases the new products. 

Step 7: Build a Catalog of AMAZING Assets for Your Campaign

The content influencers create should be centered around themes and concepts that your in-house creative team (or your influencer marketing agency) comes up with. And the type of content you need for your campaign (i.e. video hauls, product reviews, memes, etc.) plays a huge role in which influencer partners you choose for the campaign.

But you don’t have to rely solely on the content your influencers create. Feel free to also create assets and content in-house to run alongside your influencer-generated content.

We recommend coming up with unique branded hashtags so you can follow along with consumers who are reposting your products and have all your influencer-generated content accessible in one place. Have influencer partners add that branded hashtag to all of the posts they publish throughout the product launch campaign (including their Instagram Stories).

Keep the lifespan of each post in mind as you’re planning out your calendar. Stories last for 24 hours, which makes them perfect for testing out messages. (Of course, you can add a story to your highlights within that 24 hours if you want to hang on to them.)  Whereas infographics can be shared over and over for weeks, especially if they’re funny, informative, or entertaining.

One of the primary benefits of working with influencers is the sheer amount of sponsored content you get so you can repost campaign content across your own branded channels without having to recycle the same content over and over again.

Step 8: Rock Your Launch Day!

Instagram marketing goes beyond pushing the “publish” button and monitoring the launch. You need to be online all of launch day engaging with your audience.

In fact, why not go live so you can answer questions and see all the excitement first-hand?

Here are other tips you can use to ensure your launch day goes well:

• Answer DMs promptly
• Reshare relevant content from followers
• Add your Instagram Stories to highlights for the late-comers
• Edit your bio to reflect your launch specifically (including a trackable link)
• After launch day, don’t forget to continue measuring the results of your campaign

Final Words On This…

Planning an effective influencer marketing campaign for your product launch may seem tedious, but it’s well worth it. Once you have all your nuts and bolts, all you have to do is screw them into place. We hope these 8 steps help you take your next launch out of this world. 

And if you’d like help crafting the perfect influencer campaign for your launch, you’re in the right place. In addition to the tips above, our experts have all the industry know-how to get eyeballs on your products and sales in the bank. We’d love to help make your campaign goals a reality. Schedule a strategy goal with us by clicking below. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ariana Newhouse | B2B Writer

I am a freelance writer and comedian based in Los Angeles, and while making people laugh is my jam, it’s not always the company brand. So, I strive to make people feel something. My writing philosophy is collaborative, empathetic, and humanistic. At the end of the day, no matter the message, there are real people on both ends of the process.

The post How to Launch a Product on Instagram in 8 Simple Steps appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

In recent years, 149 million Americans reported celebrating the holiday… which makes sense. I mean really, who doesn’t love a little luck (and a lot of Guinness)? The National Retail Foundation found that most American St. Patrick’s Day celebrants are young adults, falling between the ages of 18 to 34. In fact, 72 percent of those in this age group report celebrating the green-clad holiday. They are followed by 57 percent of those in the midrange from ages 35 to 54 and some 41 percent of those 55 and older. 

While this holiday does seem to be one for the young, your influencer marketing campaign doesn’t need to stop there. Think of any shamrock fanfare as geared toward the young and the young at heart.

Forget Shamrocks, Show Me That GREEN!

Alright, enough of the who. Let’s get to the how much. We know, as business owners and marketers alike, you want us to show you the money! We’re pleased to report that this holiday could prove quite lucky for your biz, whether big or small. 

In 2022, $5.87 billion was spent on St. Patrick’s Day-related activities in the U.S. alone. The average celebrant contributed an average of $40 to that number. Why not put that $40 to good use on your products and offerings this March, right?  

When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day spending, most moola is dedicated to food and booze, with 41 percent going to grub. Accessories and decorations make up 31 percent and 26 percent respectively, and 16 percent goes to holiday candy. 

Of course, there’s plenty of room to carve out your own percentage in the holiday spenders’ budget, if you set up the right kind of St. Patrick’s Day marketing campaign.  

If you happen to be in the booze business, this holiday is for you. According to Forbes, more than 13 million pints of Guinness were consumed around the world on March 17th in 2021. Not to mention, upwards of 4.65 million cases of Irish whiskey were sold in the U.S. alone. People are willing to spend a pretty penny on liquor for the holiday. 

So Where’s the Party?

This year, celebrants will get merry on ‘Luck of the Irish’ pub crawls in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and more. Some drinkers will even make their run for the pubs in annual Run to the Pub half marathon in Bozeman, MT. (There are others like it, but this one was ranked #2 by the Best-in-the-U.S.) This mini-marathon attracts thousands of runners and St. Paddy’s Day enthusiasts alike. 

People love any excuse to celebrate, but for some, St. Paddy’s day hits closer to home. The most Irish cities in the U.S. each report upwards of Irish heritage at upwards of 15 percent of their population. The cities with the most Irish blessings include: 

• Boston, MA
• Middlesex County, MA
• Peabody, MA
• Albany, NY
• Syracuse, NY

It’s interesting that the cities with the largest Irish populations aren’t necessarily the ones who celebrate the hardest. You’ll find the most popular St. Paddy’s Day parades in Chicago, New York City, Savannah, Philadelphia, and Kansas City. Altogether, these events garner nearly five million spectators each year. In some places, even the rivers run green. Cities including Chicago, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Savannah, and more dye their rivers green for the special day.

Here’s a quick tip: Make sure to pay close attention to the geographic location of your customers. Are you a local business in one of the green-clad cities we just mentioned? Capitalize on that hype! Or if you’re not in the area but you’re happy to ship your goods to wherever the party is, partner with influencers who have the most St. Patrick’s pull. 

Now, Let’s Talk About St. Patrick’s Day on Pinterest!

St. Patrick’s Day is HUGE for pinners. Our research indicates that pinners save the most St. Patrick’s Day ideas from January to March. If you happen to be reading this post after January, don’t fret – it’s never too late to start! 

Plus, your kick-ass content will still be alive and well on the internet next year to entice all those St. Paddy’s Day planners. 

We know, we know. This is a lot of information. Stats and numbers and booze and luck and green. Don’t worry! There is a pot of gold at the end of this post. We’ve put together some lucky examples of posts on Instagram and Pinterest that we hope will spark your holiday inspiration. 

Now to the good stuff. 

Our Tips for St. Patrick’s Day Marketing (and INfluencer Marketing)

With campaigns this good, you won’t need a four-leaf clover. (Unless of course your influencers are including them in their posts in which case the more the merrier!)

Now, we know most brands aren’t launching influencer campaigns specifically for St. Patrick’s Day. But for year-long activations and even for testing marketing messages ahead of the big spring retail events like Easter and Mother’s Day, it’s good to know how to grab the attention of the huge crowds that plan to troll the bars and stroll the streets in mid-March.

Tip #1: Instagram and Pinterest are your go-to social channels for St. Patrick’s Day influencer marketing.

Our research indicates that Instagram and Pinterest are St. Paddy’s Day influencer marketing mainstays. So we’ve included some post examples below to get your creative juices flowing and inspire your next St. Patrick’s Day influencer push! 

So what do people look for when consuming St. Patrick’s Day-themed content on social media? Recent data points to the following: desserts, crafts, outfits, and nails. People want to get decked out from head to toe PLUS get their holiday-themed parties and places just as festive!

Tip #2: Find creators who already have the St. Paddy’s Day spirit.

The numbers say approximately 77 percent of men and 84 percent of women avoid pinching by wearing green on March 17th. This, of course, means that millions will be planning their St. Paddy’s ‘fits in preparation. In fact, “St. Patrick’s Day outfit” is one of the most searched phrases for the holiday on Pinterest  

In fact, on Pinterest, you can find creators and brands who have the holiday spirit just by switching your search filter to Profiles. It’s an easy peasy way to jumpstart your St. Patrick’s Day marketing. 

So, don’t fret much about finding someone who can embed your products into their posts. 

Tip #3: Keep things interesting by partnering with a diverse group of influencers. 

You don’t have to sell green clothing or accessories to use this technique to your advantage. Depending on the vibe of your brand, you can take influencer ‘fits from wacky and leprechaun-esque….

Check out the ultimate St. Paddy’s style from Party City. Source: Pinterest 

…to something a little more subtle and chic. 

Who said you had to sacrifice fashion (or comfort!) to dress festive? Source: Pinterest

Have you considered pet influencers? We didn’t find any stats on the percentage of people who dress up their pets for St. Patrick’s Day. But we do know that 1 in 5 Halloween celebrants will dress up their dogs. We also noticed the search queries such as leprechaun dog costume, St. Patrick’s Day dog collar, St. Patrick’s Day dog treats, and St. Patrick’s day dog shirt (or dress or sweater) are up around this time of the year. 

That said, it never hurts to let your furry friends in on the dress-up trends as well. Like this good boy.

Nothing makes customers say “luck me!” like a cutie like this guy on their timeline. Source: Instagram

And of course, we know sometimes the real magic is in the details. We’re talkin’ nails, makeup trends, and more! Take advantage of those clicks, and get your products to stand out with the help of influencers who are nailing it!

This beautifully designed hand is holding more polish, but imagine if it was your product! Source: Pinterest

The same goes for influencers who love to use their faces as the canvas. Entice holiday enthusiasts with the perfect holiday makeup look alongside the goods your company provides. 

The possibilities for holiday expression are endless with artful posts like this one. Source: Instagram

Sell jewelry, accessories, or beauty products? Or maybe your customer base includes people with faces! All of these are great examples of businesses that are prime candidates for leveraging the power of holiday makeup as part of their influencer marketing strategies. 

Tip #4: Do some more-obvious but not-cheesy product placements 

Enough about holiday style. St. Paddy’s party throwers want to know how to make their festivities magically delicious. This includes snacks, desserts, beer and more! What role can food play in your next campaign? Your customers gotta eat!

Pair your products with treats St. Patrick would love! Source: Pinterest 

St. Paddy’s Day is great for drinking and product placement! Source: Instagram

And last but certainly not least, who doesn’t love a wholesome holiday craft?

This is a great one for the kids and the whole family! Source: Pinterest

We hope this St. Paddy’s post will act as your metaphorical four-leaf clover, bringing you luck and ease in your next holiday influencer marketing campaign. If you want to learn more, or you aren’t sure where to go from here, that’s fine too! Reach out to our experts for even more intel on how we can enhance your influencer marketing to help you reach your revenue and outreach goals!

For now, in the spirit of the season, this is our Irish goodb–. 

About This Author

Ariana Newhouse | B2B Writer

I am a freelance writer and comedian based in Los Angeles, and while making people laugh is my jam, it’s not always the company brand. So, I strive to make people feel something. My writing philosophy is collaborative, empathetic, and humanistic. At the end of the day, no matter the message, there are real people on both ends of the process.

The post St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Tips to Get The Green appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

In a Web 3.0 kind of world, brand perception is not about your logos, brand colors, or tagline. It’s about the message and image you push out, or better yet, the “face” and “voice” representing your company. Being human stays at the forefront of the most successful companies — especially those in the DTC (direct to consumer) market.

That’s because consumers want to like the brands they buy from.  

So, you’re not out to get customers — you’re on a mission to get fans. And to do that, you need to build a connection and trust. This is where micro-influencers come in. 

Not already using them? Or maybe they’re just not on your radar yet? If so, here’s why they need to be. 

What is a micro-influencer?

A micro-influencer is a person who has between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, give or take. These influencers are in various niches and typically have a presence on social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. 

Regardless of which influencer tier a creator lands on, it’s not just the follower count that makes a person an influencer. These individuals are in a specific niche and actively engage with their audiences to earn their trust. So, when they make an argument or promotion, their audience listens. 

Why should you partner with micro-influencers?

Gaining the trust of today’s consumers is not as easy as it used to be. It requires more than just being seen — you need to reach your audience in the spaces they spend time and speak to your audience in their language. 

This is one reason micro-influencer partnerships are gold mines. Yet, it’s still disregarded by many brands. If you’re one of them, then here are several reasons you should start collaborating with them today. 

Micro-influencers are authentic

Celebrities are great for one thing — entertaining us. They keep us on our toes, give us a few laughs, and may even inspire us. But do people trust their product endorsements? Not so much. This is what sets apart micro-influencers from the megastars. Their word is seen as genuine and trustworthy by their followers.

Many marketers assume smaller influencers will take any partnership they’re offered. In reality, influencers decline more opportunities than they accept. The best influencers will only back products and brands they align with on a deeper level.

So, if your message doesn’t resonate with them, they’ll turn down your proposal. And that’s okay. You always want to find the right influencers that align with your brand. This way they promote your products with authenticity. 

Why’s this essential? Simply put: Today’s consumers aren’t stupid. They know when they’re being sold to or being taken advantage of. So, it’s critical to find micro-influencers that can push your product naturally. 

The beauty of the micro-influencer market is that there are hundreds of niches. This makes micro-influencer marketing easier since you can target specific influencers for collaborations.

We actually created an encyclopedia on this stuff…

The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing

Micro-influencers have higher engagement rates

Since people trust the micro-influencers they follow, they’re more likely to engage. And most of the time, micro-influencers engage back. This creates a “friendship” dynamic that builds deeper trust, creating somewhat of a tight-knit community. We shared a stat in our roundup of influencer marketing statistics:

40% of millennials say influencers know them better than their personal friends.

This sense social media users have that influencers understand them is part of what makes micro influencers such powerful allies for brands. That connection is what typically goes missing from the relationships between social media users and mega influencers. Without that genuine connection between followers and the influencer, the relationship ends up feeling more like one-way communication. It’s difficult to “trust” a person that uses social media as a bullhorn. And let’s not get started on the number of “celebrity” accounts that buy fake followers and engagement.

Since there are two-way conversations between micro-influencers and their audience, the engagement is from real people. And they typically stick around for the long haul.

Micro-influencers have higher conversion rates

We know that people follow, chat with, and trust micro-influencers. So naturally, they’ll buy the products they talk about. Why? Because good influencer-generated content is not seen as a promotion — it’s seen as a recommendation from a friend. 

The only other way you’re getting this level of trust is through the online reviews on Google, Amazon, Etsy, or wherever you sell goods online. 

The difference is that with micro-influencers you get some control over the spotlight shed on your products. 

On the fence about using micro-influencers over nano- and macro-influencers? According to Doug Pierce, a Chief Marketing Advisor, using micro-influencers yields better results than nano-influencers. 

“Our results when using micro-influencers have been much better than when we’ve used nano- or macro-influencers. The average ROI we achieve using micro-influencers is 3.25x higher than what we achieved with nano-influencers in the past, and 1.6x better than using macro-influencers in past campaigns.”

Micro-influencers have niche communities

Don’t underestimate the power of a niche. It’s key to finding audiences most likely to find interest in your brand and product. So, it’s vital to target micro-influencers that specialize in certain industries. 

For instance, some micro-influencers call themselves foodies, tech geeks, or fashionistas. If you can find your tribe, you’ll find it easier to convert them into buyers (and potentially longtime fans). 

RELATED POST.

What is an Influencer?

Micro- vs. macro-influencers

The difference between a micro- and macro-influencer is their follower count. Micro-influencers have between 5,000 and 50,000 followers, while macro-influencers have between 300K and 1M.

Macro-influencers sit right beneath mega-influencers and celebrities with over 1M followers. The difference: Macro-influencers are easier to get in touch with and possibly partner with than megastars.

Examples of micro-influencers

Micro-influencers come in all shades and sizes. Finding one that matches your brand and audience is easier than attempting to force-fit a connection with bigger influencers.

For example, you have Nana Agyemang, an IG micro-influencer in the fashion industry. Her focus is on highlighting people of color, plus she’s a contributing editor for NY Mag (potential media connection?). 

Source

Valentin Bruneau is another fashion micro-influencer on Instagram. He also posts content about men’s lifestyle and modeling topics. 

Source

Ali Alexa takes on a different path in the industry, focusing on affordable fashion. She’s also a lifestyle blogger, which means more content formats and mediums for brands that collaborate with her.

Source

Karen Camargo is a beauty influencer that publishes aesthetic makeup videos on Instagram. 

Source

So, you see, there is something for everyone. You just need the right tools and resources to get connected. And this brings us to our next point. 

How do you find the best micro-influencers?

Micro-influencers are everywhere. In fact, you may follow more than a few yourself. But the issue isn’t locating social media accounts with the right number of followers. It’s about finding the “right fit” for your brand. 

This is where it gets tricky. And it’s one reason brands flock to macro- and mega-influencers – they’re much easier to spot, and some are even household names). 

So, what can you do to find micro-influencers partnerships? Depends on whether you’re willing to do the legwork or prefer to take a few shortcuts. Either way,  here are a few ideas. 

Look in your immediate circle

Employees. Stakeholders. Bosses. Chances are, a few of these individuals are brand advocates already. Are they already publicly speaking about your brand and products? Then get them onboard with regularly promoting the brand but from a cultural standpoint. 

Odds are, their audience isn’t looking to buy from you anytime soon. But they are aware of how great the company is as a workplace. Who knows, maybe a journalist will want to interview the CEO one day for a feature story.

Use social listening tools

Social listening platforms are great-to-haves but not entirely necessary. You can use social listening methods to find folks speaking about your brand, products, and industry. Using hashtags and keywords is an easy way to identify potential micro-influencers to collaborate with. 

For example, if you’re in the bathing suit industry, look for the obvious “swimsuit” keyword. But also find those who like to travel to hot places over the summer. Fashion and travel enthusiasts are fair game in this scenario.

RELATED POST.

2022 Influencer Marketing Best Practices

Invest in a micro-influencer platform

Influencer marketplaces are excellent tools for finding potential partnerships. It’s packed with influencers of all niches, locations, and audience sizes. But with an influencer platform, you get more than just a database of influencers. 

You get access to tools to manage your influencer campaigns. This includes project creation, collaboration, and data reporting. Your dashboard organizes everything in one place so you can see how each campaign is performing at a glance. 

The Shelf has proprietary software used for the influencer campaigns we manage for our clients. It contains influencers across various niches from beauty and fashion to parenting and home decor. 

Micro-influencer agency

Hiring an influencer marketing agency is another way to access potential collaborators. Agencies have a network of influencers they built relationships with over the years. This cuts out some of the legwork of “swooning” prospective advocates to work with you.

Plus, you get services from industry experts that develop and oversee your campaigns, and use proven strategies. 

RELATED POST.

An 8-Point Checklist to Find Influencers for Your Brand

Examples of micro-influencer campaigns

Micro-influencers bring a lot of value to the table. But how does a micro-influencer campaign look and behave in real life? 

Hair care brand, Royal Locks Curl Care, regularly uses micro-influencers to grow its reputation. And so far, they’ve had great success. 

“They are genuinely interested in the brand and products. This level of influencer is proud to help build the community in which we have products: the curly hair community. They work with us to ensure their posts are on-brand. And we’ve seen a rise in engagement as a direct result of micro-influencer posts and reviews.” — Casey Simmons, Owner of Royal Locks Curl Care

Here’s an example of one of their micro-influencers demonstrating their product:

Custom Neon also saw amazing results using micro-influencers. 

“We’ve seen the best results with micro-influencers. One example is a collaboration with a mommy influencer, k_neesh_and_kit. Kaneesha posted on her platforms, showing off the sign and doing a series on her story. She also created a video showing the sign, illustrating the ease of hanging and how the wires can be hidden.” — Courtney Stables, PR at Custom Neon 

The result: $30k in sales from their partnership, plus great images for their portfolio. 

We’ve even seen excellent results in the micro-influencer marketing campaigns we ran for our clients. A great example is Moosejaw, the fun outdoor retailer. 

The campaign revolved around collaborations with fun personalities in the outdoor space. We found several influencers on the West Coast (where the brand is headquartered), like Caitlin McNulty. 

The campaign used 37 outdoor adventure influencers, creating over 400 pieces of content (videos, images, etc.) and over 237,000 impressions. Moosejaw’s IG page also generated over 15,000 views. 

Safe to say that was a complete success. 

Don’t underestimate the power of the micro-influencer

One micro-influencer can impact a small group of people, sometimes yielding immediate returns. Now, imagine the power of collaborating with dozens in a single campaign. 

You’ll have a larger, highly engaged audience to build your visibility, reputation, and potential sales. 

Working with micro-influencers is something every brand should do to increase their trust factor. Done right, you can build a small army of brand advocates to promote your business. 

Who knows, maybe this will give you the break you need to increase your revenue. But there’s only one way to find out. 

It’s time to build your next micro-influencer marketing campaign. Book a call with The Shelf to learn how we make the process simple and effective. Our influencer marketing services can help you run campaigns shaped by data-driven insights.

The post The Macro Guide to Working with Micro Influencers appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

The reason: Consumers no longer purchase from brands – they invest in them. 

And like the savvy investors they are, they want to use products from brands they resonate with. So, you have two options:

1. Study your customers and represent them in all of your ads and marketing

2. Collaborate with influencers your audience already knows and trusts 

One can take many months to see results, and the other drives traffic and sales in days or weeks. But we’re not talking influencers in the realm of a Kardashian or Minaj.

We’re referring to nano-influencer marketing. Not sure what this is or if it’s for your brand? Then continue reading.  

What are nano-influencers (and how many followers do they have)?

Nano influencers are the smallest of the bunch in terms of followers – with 1,000 – 5,000 followers. These are the niche influencers with sacred communities built upon trust and authenticity.  Depending on who you ask, nano-influencers can include social media users with as few as 100 followers and as many as 10,000 followers.

You can find them across all platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok (to name a few). Plus, they exist across all industries, from health and beauty to tech and travel. 

And apparently, nano-influencer collaborations are on the rise (even in B2B). A report from Influencer Marketing Hub shows 52% of brands are working with up to 10 influencers. Another 22% are partnering with between 10 and 50 influencers. 

Source

Something must be working if businesses invest this much in nano-influencer marketing. 

Nano-influencers are not to be confused with micro-influencers, who are also smaller than the traditional influencer but have 5,000 – 50,000 followers. It’s a small distinction – but a powerful one. 

6 reasons why you should work with nano-influencers

Your goal is to sell your products to buyers. And nano-influencers are the gateway to consumers’ hearts (and pockets). 

That’s because people trust people. And unlike macro-influencers, nano-influencers feel more authentic and trustworthy. When they promote a product, 9 times out of 10, it’s because they stand firmly behind the brand and its cause. Here’s a look at the other benefits of nano-influencer marketing. 

1. Nano-influencers are everyday people

Mentioned it already, but it’s worth hammering the nail on the head again. These are hard-working people with families, goals, and careers outside of social media. 

So, followers don’t view them as walking and talking social media ads. And most importantly, they’re authentic. You won’t find a feed filled with promotional content. But when the occasional product-related content appears, it’s a mix of praise and disapproval. 

It’s like getting advice from a family member or best friend. And that’s what makes an influencer collab with a nano-influencer is so effective. 

2. Nano-influencers have high engagement rates

Can’t toot the horn of the nano-influencer without mentioning their exceptional engagement rates. After all, this is what you want to see on brand-related posts. 

These folks built their social media network authentically by starting conversations, engaging with others’ posts, and offering value to their tight-knit community. 

This is easier to do since they have a smaller circle to manage and can reply to comments in a timely manner. In turn, this increases engagement from followers (and potential followers). 

And we’re not just talking likes, shares, and basic comments. But meaningful engagement, such as conversation, deep interest, and tagging folks in posts.

3. Nano-influencers are easy on the pockets

Not only do nano-influencers increase your visibility and sales, but they do it at a reasonable cost. Their rates are substantially lower since they don’t tout a large following. Some will even just do it in exchange for your free product. 

That’s not to say they aren’t worth a fair rate for the work they put in to connecting your brand with their highly-engaged audience. So, it’s best to pay for all nano-influencer partnerships. 

But how much do nano-influencers cost? Well, that depends on several factors (covered more in-depth below). However, you can expect to spend several hundred dollars. 

4. Nano-influencers are personable and enthusiastic

When a nano-influencer enters a partnership with a brand, they’re ecstatic (especially if you’re one of their first gigs). And it shows through the posts they create. 

The posts may not be as “professional” as a macro influencer’s, but they’ll be creative and genuine. The project isn’t “just another business engagement” like larger influencers who live and breathe influencer marketing. 

And whatever they produce will work for their audience, which is ultimately what you’re trying to tap into. Let their platforms be their portfolio. With a little research on your end, you’ll be able to tell the quality of what they typically produce, whether for a brand or not.

5. Nano-influencers are super niche 

Filling your network with generalist influencers – not a good idea. This makes the content they create less relevant to your brand and their audience. In other words, no eyeballs, clicks, or purchases for you. 

But nano-influencers are super niche, making connecting with audiences relevant to your brand and product easier. This is critical to prevent wasting money on little to no engagement with your content. 

And with the increase of influencers in general, you’ll be sure to find a nano-influencer that is perfect for your brand.

6. Fast content production

You can forget about getting your content published fast when you work with a macro-influencer. In some cases, you’ll have to wait months to have your post ready for the public or pay big bucks to have it done sooner.

But that’s not typically the case with nano-influencers. Most can have your post ready for publishing within days of receiving your product (depending on their work schedule, of course) or for a small fee if they are really busy. 

How much do nano-influencers cost?

Nano-influencers are typically affordable for small businesses and brands. You can expect to pay anywhere from $100 to several hundred dollars for a post. On Instagram, nano-influencers typically cost between $10 to $100 per post. 

But what you’ll spend depends on several factors, including:

• The social media platform of choice 
• Type of content they’re creating (e.g. static post versus video)
• Number of posts they must create
• Agency fees (if you’re working with one)
• The amount of effort required (Do they have to travel to a local pool to show off your swimsuit?)
• Influencer’s reach (the closer to 5,000, the higher the rate)
• Amount of engagement (high engagement = more pay)
• Industry expertise (expect to pay higher for fitness influencers vs. health enthusiasts)
• Influencer’s demand (the sought after will cost more)
• Exclusivity (if you want them all to yourself, you’ll have to pay a pretty penny)

So, keep this in mind while searching for a nano-influencer to work with. 

And speaking of which…

How do you find nano-influencers?

If you’re on social media networks, then you’re already a step closer to finding nano-influencers. But locating the perfect one for your brand is another story. 

There are several methods brands use to find relevant social media influencers for marketing campaigns. For instance, you can follow industry hashtags, search for published industry authors or bloggers, or use influencer marketplaces like The Shelf. (The latter speeds up the process by recommending a list of influencers that fit your criteria.)

iHeartRaves, for example, uses relevant hashtags to find influencers to collaborate with:

“We usually find a lot of nano-influencers in our tagged images on Instagram. If we see that a customer has potential as an influencer, we will often send them products in exchange for creating more content.” – Brandon Chopp, Digital Manager at iHeartRaves

How do you find the right nano-influencer?

There are 8 questions to consider before selecting a nano-influencer:

1. Are they relevant to your audience and niche?
2. Do they have consistent (quality) engagement with loyal followers?
3. Are their followers good quality? 
4. Is the quality of their content high?
5. Do they consistently post content?
6. What is their follower count?
7. Do they have good reach?
8. Does their content have a mix of promotional and personal posts?

The best way to answer these questions is to analyze their social media profiles. For instance, to calculate their engagement rate, you divide the number of likes, comments, and shares with the number of followers they have. Ideally, you want to hit between 2% and 3%, but higher is even better. 

Formula: Number of Engagement / Number of Followers = Engagement Rate

Then, you can review some of their followers’ profiles. Are they a real person (not a bot)? And do they show interest in your industry? Do the same for the influencer – check all of their social profiles to see what they discuss. 

This gives a well-rounded view of what they represent and who they target. This also ensures they’re not fake influencers with fake audiences. waht is

Here’s what Brandon Chopp does to find the best nano-influencer for campaigns:

“First, their content has to be of good enough quality that we would want to repost it. Next, we look at their engagement. We generally like to work with influencers that get at least 1,000 likes per photo, regardless of how many followers they have. That said, we do make exceptions if their content is great and we think they have potential.” – Brandon Chopp

Here’s an example of a post from a nano-influencer iHeartRaves collaborated with recently:

Source

Influencer marketing platform vs. influencer marketing agency vs. doing it all yourself

As you’re searching for nano-influencers, you’ll come across three options: 

1. Doing it on your own
2. Working with an agency
3. Signing up to an influencer marketing platform

The first will eat up most of your time and resources, and won’t guarantee results. Hiring an influencer marketing agency is a good option to delegate the creation and execution of your nano-influencer campaigns. And if you use one with a built-in influencer marketing platform – even better. 

For instance, The Shelf is a done-for-you influencer marketing agency that boasts a platform packed with different types of influencers. You can browse through influencers and select those you want to work with. Plus, you can monitor your campaigns in real-time via the dashboard. 

Since agencies already have influencer relationships, it’s quicker to get the ball rolling with your influencer marketing campaigns. And they have dozens of campaigns under their belt, ensuring you generate a nice return on investment. 

How to use nano-influencers in your marketing

You found a nano-influencer you like. Now what? Here are several tips to improve your chances of generating favorable results:

• Develop an influencer marketing strategy with clear goals and expected outcomes
• Use software to monitor key insights from each campaign (and to see what’s working)
• Use relevant existing and branded hashtags to drive visibility and recognition
• Publish content at the right times (use audience analytics to see when their target audience is most active)
• Choose the right type of content (e.g. Stories are best to demonstrate a product)
• Reuse their user-generated content in other channels and content (blogs, emails, social media, etc.)
• Pay nano-influencers a fair rate to show you value their collaboration

In the end, nano-influencer marketing is a partnership. So, get them involved in planning the campaigns to ensure the content and promotions resonate with your brand and their audience. 

An example of a brand using a nano-influencer comes from one of The Shelf’s influencer marketing campaigns for The Smile Generation (a photography brand). 

Nano-influencer, Ilda, did a family photoshoot and used it as a backdrop for Instagram and blog content. She created heartwarming words about what makes her family smile (clever), and how important their smiles are. 

The Bottom Line: You can use nano-influencers to build your brand.

When you need to connect with your target audience authentically, nano-influencer marketing is the way to go. It positions your products in front of potential customers using the people they know and trust. 

It’s an underrated strategy, but it’s quickly gaining steam among businesses and marketers. 

There are millions of aspiring nano-influencers out there, and more are popping up every day. So, there’s plenty to go around. But don’t wait too long, or they may get snatched up into exclusive deals. 

Ready to get started with nano-influencers? Sign up for a demo with The Shelf today.

The post The Everything Guide to Partnering with Nano-Influencers appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Pinterest is a GREAT source for information, inspiration, and advice on beauty and cosmetics. You can find anything from vegan product recommendations to drug store makeup shopping lists. If you’re looking for a product, chances are pretty good that somebody has probably already pinned it.

You’d be surprised at how much info you’d find about skincare and cosmetics on Pinterest.

Need to know which moisturizer works best on oily skin when you’re in your 20s? Pinners (and brands) have already pinned the topic for ya.

Convinced you have crepey skin like the ladies on Sunday morning adverTV? You’ll find natural remedies and products on Pinterest.

Beauty Brands Rely On Pinterest for Every Phase of the Purchase Cycle

I’m not the only one lurking on Pinterest for makeup looks or skincare routines. According to Pinterest, there are more than 1.1 billion hair and beauty pins on the platform, and more than 30 million hair and beauty pinners.

• 98% of people using Pinterest have actually tried something new they found on Pinterest. Let. That. Sink. In. 98%. 
• Over 52 million people go to Pinterest to discover beauty ideas.
• 40% of hair and beauty pinners create boards for products they want to buy, and 67% use Pinterest to learn how to create new, everyday looks.

Those are some pretty awesome stats.

Having the right boards, pins, and keywords is helpful to reach these audiences. But you can also create Pinterest ad campaigns.

Here’s a Spot-On Beauty Pin That Pretty Much Tells the Tale

The nature of Pinterest is super visual, and the human brain can process an image in as little as 13 milliseconds (oh, my goodness, fellow pinners! Think of how much pinning we could get done if we could blink pins to our boards!). It’s the perfect platform for pretty images of interesting lipstick colors or smartly-done ads with before and after photos like this Bobbi Brown example.

Bobbi Brown created a guide so people know how to “Turn on the light,” so exactly the opposite of Nelly Furtado’s song. Once you click on the pin, you’re directed to their online shop to the featured product.

Pinterest is a great place to reach people who are already interested in beauty products, and specific types of beauty products. So let’s get into the details.

LET’S START WITH THE BASICS!

To start creating ads on Pinterest, go to this website. 

Important: Pinterest ads are not available everywhere. To know if ads are available in your country, check this list.

The best part? You can use it for any kind of campaign you have in mind since Pinterest lets you choose your own goal. To start, you should know what you want to accomplish with your campaign. You can choose among 3 goals:

• Brand awareness to reach people that might be interested in your cosmetics or beauty products
• Drive consideration to get traffic to your online store, leads that’d be interested in buying mascara someday or app installs
• Grow sales to convert and sell, sell, sell

HOW PINTEREST IS THE #1 TRAFFIC REFERRAL FOR NATURA BRAZIL

Natura is a makeup brand from Brazil. Their goal was to get more traffic from Pinterest to their website. They started by organizing their boards, pinning 20 images a month, and sharing new products, step-by-step guides, and photos from Pinterest influencers. Of course, they also used rich pins, Pinterest widgets, and the save button.

Just by doing this, after a year, Pinterest accounted for 40% of all social traffic of the brand. Their pin impressions increased by 11x. This is one of their pins:

Now imagine that you add ads into the mix, the results will be even better! Reaching audiences organically has benefits, but with Pinterest ads, you can be super specific thanks to its targeting tools.

TARGETING ON PINTEREST

Now let’s get into the interesting stuff about Pinterest ads: targeting.

#1 The easiest one: interests

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Pinterest almost immediately adjusts the pins on your feed depending on what you’ve looked for recently. That might explain all the how to avoid smushy eyeliner on my feed today. If Pinterest is good at something, besides making me try new recipes unsuccessfully, it is at understanding people. Pinterest understands their tastes, likes, and even life stages. It’s a powerful tool to get to customers that might be interested in you!

Targeting interests is very useful for brand awareness campaigns.

Check this:

If you target the “Beauty” interest, your audience could be of a bit more than 45 million Pinners in the US. But you can choose just specific interests such as Cruelty-Free Makeup, for example, which has a potential audience of 95 thousand people.

Be as specific as you want with your interests. For example, check this pin from Glossier.

This blush is hypoallergenic, dermatologist-tested, paraben-free, fragrance-free, and cruelty-free. The reviews also mention that it’s perfect for dry skin, for skin with acne, and that it looks very natural. So, if you’re creating a campaign for that kind of product, the interests might look something like this:

Even with interests as specific as these, the audience has a decent size.

Talking about trends, something interesting Pinterest does every month is that it publishes the top trends for the following month. They reveal what people will be looking for and how can you use those trends to create valuable content… and great ads in this case!

You can use these trends to inspire your content the whole year but be sure to also check the monthly trends. Also, think beyond just beauty trends. For example, a trend people will be searching during the year is Galaxy painting. Does your brand have palettes that go with this theme? Make use of it for your campaigns!

#2 Keyword targeting

Yes, since people search for a lot of things on Pinterest, you can target specific keywords. If you add keywords, your ads will have more reach in search results and Related Pins.

Keyword targeting works best for campaigns that want to drive traffic or online actions.

Here, things get a bit like Google Adwords as you can see in this image:

Is it too early to start practicing my Christmas makeup for next year?

Get as specific as you want (or can) with those keywords. Brackets and quotations can be used for better results. You can even use negative keywords, just like in Google Adwords.

Remember to include the keywords in your pin.

Besides using the keyword search tool in the ads manager you can also get some ideas for your keywords in the search bar on Pinterest. You know how very weird search suggestions appear every time you start typing in Google? Well, Pinterest has the same, but it has more specific and useful suggestions:

If you pick one of the searches some bubbles with more ideas appear.

Sadly, I’m not a teen anymore… but maybe your audience is! This will give you a better guide on what kind of keywords you can use or add to your ads. See what I did there?

Here’s an example:

L’Oréal Paris created a campaign on Pinterest to launch its Botanicals Fresh Care line. They created some eye-catching videos and used keywords to target women in the UK. The keywords they used were around the themes of hair care, beauty, and health.

Through some tweaking of their keywords for two weeks, they increased the view rate of the videos by 4x! According to L’Oréal’s Haircare Marketing Manager, with this campaign, they “realized that Pinterest is such a unique place to be. Unlike other platforms, people are actively looking for things to try and buy.”

#3 Create audiences

Here’s where things get more interesting because you can do the following:

• Customer lists: It matches the mails or MAIDs of your customers with Pinterest accounts. The final audience has to have 100 people in it, otherwise, you can’t use it. Customer lists are great for re-engaging past customers!
• People who went to your site: You first need to set up a Pinterest tag for this. After that, you can use it to run retargeting campaigns on Pinterest.
• People who engaged with your pins on Pinterest: First you need to claim your website in your Pinterest account, then you can target people who have saved your Pins, commented, liked, or clicked on them. It’s like retargeting but only for Pinterest.
• People similar to an existing audience list: If you already have an audience, you can create a similar one to target in another location, for example. This helps you get to new customers.

#4 And finally, some targeting capabilities

You can also target specific genders, ages, locations, languages, or devices.

HOW TO USE TARGETING IN A SMART WAY

MANSCAPING IS A BRAND FOR MEN THAT WANT TO IMPROVE THEIR GROOMING AND HYGIENE BELOW THE BELT… WHICH MEANS EXACTLY WHAT YOU’RE THINKING IT MEANS. THEY RAN A PINTEREST CAMPAIGN TO GET TO NEW AUDIENCES AND INCREASE THEIR SALES.

The company had two goals in mind: brand awareness and conversion.

For the brand awareness part (which was the first part, of course), they created a campaign for a wide audience of men between 18 and 45 years old. Once they had gotten more recognition, they started with phase 2: conversion.

They uploaded a customer list on Create Audience to connect with men that had already purchased their products. With that list, they created a lookalike audience to reach those who could be interested in Manscaping. And, to be more sure about reaching the right people, they added interests and keywords to segment their audience better.

Finally, as the campaign was running, they checked the analytics to know which Pins were doing better and they made the necessary tweaks to optimize the campaign.

All of this sounds nice but, did they get some results? Of course, they did! They increased their web traffic by 13%, their customer acquisitions by 9%, and their online sells in 11%. Talk about results!

Your takeaways when targeting on Pinterest ads

• Be as specific as possible with interests.
• Check your potential audience size. You don’t want it to be too big that it’s too vague (unless it’s a massive awareness campaign), and you don’t want it to be too specific that your costs will go up.
• Check Pinterest’s trends on their blog to know what people will be looking for during the next month. It’ll give you ideas for your targeting.
• Add keywords to your targeting to reach your audience when they’re searching.
• Check what searches pop up on Pinterest’s search bar and related searches to inspire your keywords.
• Use the “Create Audiences” feature for more effective retargeting or re-engagement campaigns.
• Create lookalike audiences to reach new people similar to the ones that are already your customers.
• Don’t forget to add ages, gender, locations, devices, and languages to your targeting.
• Use a combination of the different targeting tools from Pinterest to optimize your campaigns.
• Tweak keywords, interests, and audiences if they’re not working… optimize on the go!

GET CREATIVE WITH THE AD FORMATS ON YOUR PINTEREST AD CAMPAIGN

SO NOW FOR THE VISUAL PART OF YOUR CAMPAIGNS. REMEMBER YOU HAVE TO HAVE THESE PINS PINNED IN YOUR BOARDS ALREADY. LET’S DIVE FIRST INTO THAT WITH SOME AWESOME EXAMPLES SO YOU GET MORE INSPIRATION!

#1 Promoted pins and promoted carousels

You can promote a single pin or a pin with several images (a.k.a. promoted carousels). Promoted pins are useful for brand awareness campaigns, boosting traffic, and driving sales.

What you have to consider when promoting these is:

• Vertical, high-quality images are more eye-catching
• Recommended aspect ratio is 2:3 (so like 1000×1500), if you use other ratios, your image might be cropped
• Use your brand or product as the protagonist of the image. Avoid stock-ish lifestyle photos that say nothing about your brand.
• Use your logo! Not as a watermark. Make it subtle. Oh, and remember, don’t use the lower right corner since it will get covered by other icons.
• Add text to your image. Make it short and sweet, and easy to read on mobile.
• Don’t forget to add a description so people know more about your pin!

Here’s a great example from ColourPop Cosmetics:

The image is vertical, it has little text, it features the brand, and it’s super eye-catching! Don’t you want to buy this set ASAP?

Another example:

Estée Lauder wanted to reach a younger audience for their new fragrance: Beautiful Belle. They ran a two-phase campaign. The first phase was to raise awareness about the fragrance. The second part was a bit more tricky. It retargeted people that saw the campaign and that visited their website. Also, they created lookalike audiences based on those two. Their final goal was to send physical samples of their fragrance to people interested. 

The images used for the second part were like these:

As you can see, they both feature the name of the brand, they use high-quality images, and they catch your attention immediately!

Using the right kind of images resulted in a “12% higher opt-in rate to receive further marketing, a 2% higher response rate, and a 2x higher click-through rate to online retailers than SoPost’s benchmarks,” according to Pinterest.

#2 Promoted videos

So you want to make more dynamic pins, huh? Here’s what you have to know about promoted videos on Pinterest:

• The best videos are the ones that teach you to do something or inspire you to try a new product, routine, or technique, etc.
• Use the first seconds to make people know what you’re talking about.
• According to Pinterest, 6-15 second videos work best for promoted pins.
• A lot of people that watch videos on Pinterest play them with the sound off, don’t rely on audio to explain things, better use text.
• The cover image is SUPER important… make it stand out from the rest! Also, don’t be misleading.
• Pay attention to the copy of the video, use the right keywords, descriptions, and hashtags.

Promoted videos on Pinterest work the best if your goal is brand awareness. For example, check this pin about a skincare routine:

Go and check this video and amaze at all the energy this lady has to have a perfect skincare routine before going to sleep. Now, this woman uses A LOT of products. Only one of them is from the original pinner, the facial steamer. It’s great that the focus is not on the product, but on the routine itself!

Also, notice how it checks all the marks when it comes to the recommendations above.

I have examples for everything:

Guerlain ran a campaign of promoted pins for the launching of their new perfume: Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire Black (yes, that’s the complete name). All the image and video pins had elements that tied them together: the name of the brand, the shape of the bottle, high contrast, the same color palette, and black silhouettes. The image below is a great example of a video Pin that can be promoted on Pinterest and will catch the attention of Pinterest’s audience.

The results? Guerlain got a lot of visibility… more than 50 million impressions! Their videos reached over 6 million people and they spent less money per impression compared to other digital channels.

TWEAK TO OPTIMIZE

One of City Beauty’s most popular products is their City Lips lip gloss. For the holiday season in 2018, they launched a campaign to increase online sales. Before settling in for an image or a definite audience, they spent some time experimenting with keywords, audiences, and images. Check some examples of their pins:

Notice how they use different types of images and ideas on each pin but they still manage to make the lip glosses and the brand the central point. This is a great lesson for every marketer. The flexibility online campaigns have make it easier to tweak to optimize your ads and lower your costs.

In the end, it paid off for City Beauty. They got a 3x return on ad spend during the holiday season, had a 5% higher click-through rate on Pinterest than other platforms, and lowered their CPM on a 5x.

Your takeaways when creating pins to promote

• You can promote images and videos, but both have to have great quality… that’s why we like Pinterest in the first place!
• Use this opportunity to teach something or inspire to use your product.
• Use vertical images and videos, if you can.
• Your brand must be the protagonist of the graphic: make it stand out.
• Text is acceptable so people can better understand what your pin is about.
• The description of your pin is also important, so use the correct keywords and hashtags.
• Try with different image styles and elements. Tweak on the go to get better results!

AND, FINALLY… HOW DO I OPTIMIZE MY PINTEREST AD CAMPAIGNS?

Well, you have to know your numbers first! For that, you have two options: Pinterest’s Ads Manager and/or Pinterest partners. Of course, this depends on your budget and on your goals. For example, for pins that promote app installs, your only choice is to work with a partner if you want to measure your success.

If you’re using Pinterest Ads Manager, you can track how your campaign is doing and change whatever needs change. Ads Analytics on Pinterest are very similar to any other ads platform, so you should be fine.

To have better results, be sure to add the Pinterest Tag to your website. That way, you’ll also have analytics of what people are doing there, and you’ll be able to measure conversions, cost per acquisition or return on ad spend.

The important thing is that you don’t run your campaigns in the dark, and that you know exactly what’s working and how you can optimize.

So, how exactly do you optimize your campaigns on Pinterest?

1. Check your ads manager and check the “Overview,” where you’ll see highlighted numbers depending on your goal (the campaign objective).
2. Go through the numbers. Do they make sense? Are you reaching your goals? If the answers are to these questions is yes, go to step 4. If the answer is no to any of these questions, keep reading.
3. There are many ways your ads can be underperforming. Look into any errors or issues.
4. Have a warm tea or a cold beer depending on your location and enjoy the fruits of your success… but don’t forget to keep checking your campaign!

IN THE END…

Pinterest Ads are a great way to get to new audiences, especially in the beauty and cosmetics verticals. People on Pinterest, just like me, consume content related to this industry every single day. If your message is relevant (as I’m sure it’ll be), they will like it, save it, and buy it at some point!

Now, excuse me, as I’m going to go try this “easy” eye makeup tutorial!

The post Pinterest Influencers and Pinterest Ads Are Driving Sales for Skincare Brands appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

4 Great Examples of Influencer Campaigns for Brand Lift

Best for achieving the following campaign goals: Product launches / Promoting new brands that no one has ever heard of / Product explainers / Rebranding

We’ve actually written a pretty detailed post on building a brand awareness campaign, so we won’t rehash that here. But, we did find some pretty solid examples of awareness campaigns that successfully use a lot of the strategies outlined in our book, How to Set Goals (Real Ones) for Your Influencer Marketing Campaign.  

SUN PEAKS RESORT

Sun Peaks Resort launched a great Brand Awareness campaign which deployed three primary tactics:

1. It partnered with macro-influencer like Callum Snape because for brand awareness campaigns, the key is to get in front of as many people as possible in a short amount of time, and larger influencers are the good way to do it.  
2. It stuck to Instagram, which is typically less expensive than YouTube (also good for brand awareness) and delivers better visibility and better ROI than blogs
3. Created content that’s scrolling-stopping. Quality is important for making that all-important first impression, and because Sun Peaks Resort partnered with the right influencers, it was able to capitalize on getting really great influencer-generated content that can be reused in other online and offline marketing efforts. Callum’s videos and photos featuring the brand did more than just name drop; they told a story.

And no, your eyes are not deceiving you. One photo got more than 18k likes from his followers. The reach of this one photo, through one influencer (the right influencer of course) is pretty epic.

BLISS

Bliss is currently in the midst of a brand awareness push that’s actually pretty interesting. The skin care line is included among the brands being featured in a month-long beauty/cosmetics sale at CVS stores until the 26th of this month (September).

The post below from micro-influencer @curlycandi, we came across by checking out the tab of posts that tagged Bliss on Instagram. If you notice, these posts are basically haul posts which feature multiple products in each picture, along with the campaign hashtags  #cvsbeauty and #beautyunaltered. The eye treatment is actually a Bliss product.

I know. I know. This pic has product placement written all over it, but curlycandi’s feed is filled with these really tight shots of her face, so this pic actually fits in with her typical post style. Nevertheless, let’s look at another post from that campaign.

Check out this video from nano-influencer @amakeupjunkie_, another haul post from another campaign. The caption lists seven products and three of the seven are Bliss products.

Two things to notice: Bliss isn’t adding this content to their Instagram grid, but instead maintains a colorful, curated page that’s packed with really great pictures of their skincare line. Second, the brand is leveraging small influencers who can reach different segments of their target audience with news about Bliss.

SUBARU

Subaru has a great example of boosting brand lift. The company worked with influencer Devin Graham for their #MeetAnOwner campaign to market the new Impreza vehicle. This has been kind of an ongoing “uncampaign” for Suburu because most of the posts using that hashtag are actually from Suburu’s branded accounts on Instagram, with the exception of a few. Among the few are this video from Devin and his Super Tramp film team catapulting off a slip-and-slide and falling off a 500-foot cliff in rocky, mountainous terrain via parachute.

What the heck does THAT have to do with driving a Subaru, right? Their whole thing is safety – safe travel for college kids, driving in the rain and making it home safely… you’ve seen the commercials.

Well, that’s the beauty of this campaign, actually. Those are commercials. This is one, too, but it doesn’t feel like one. The focus of the video is on Devin’s stunt, and the viewer gets to come along for the ride. In the entirety of the four-minute video, the car shows up for a grand total of 17 seconds to drive Devin, the parachutes, and the Super Tramp team around the tough terrain.

Ah… now we see… Suburus are more than cars that get passed down from dads to daughters. It’s also a car the cool kids are using to get them to and fro when filming kick-butt stunts with their friends. Suburu has sponsored this video from Devin and his thrill-seeking buddies because it allows car shoppers to see another side of Suburu.

Suburu really leaned in on the adventure aspect of their branding, too. If you head over to their feed, you’ll see a nice mix of nano-influencers fueling Suburu’s Instagram strategy.

3 Examples of Influencer Campaigns Designed to Get Conversions and Clicks

Best for achieving the following campaign goals: Clicks / Site traffic / Retargeting / Product sales

So, you know that the most important KPI brands want from their influencer campaigns right now is conversions – traffic, clicks, and sales. You can take a look at our post outlining strategies for building campaigns for conversions instead of just brand lift. For now, let’s take a look at a couple of really great campaigns for conversions.

Really quick, let’s rehash a few of the finer points of building an influencer campaign for conversions:

• Unlike brand awareness pushes where your goal may just be to show up on people radars (and Instagram Reels is great for this right now), the goal with a conversion campaign is to answer enough questions and provide enough value to get a conversion . That means posts that are dedicated solely to your content, your benefits, your brand, your coupon codes.

• This is also where you want to partner with influencers who are also bloggers and avid Pinterest users. Adding blogs, YouTube videos, and pinning to your strategy extends the life of your content and affords content from your campaign the chance to surface in search results (hello, SEO) and produce traffic, leads, and sales for you for years to come.
• Incorporate a retargeting strategy that loops in your site, the sites/blogs of your influencer partners, AND social media platforms.

BLISS

Let’s head back to the fine folks at Bliss to check out a partnership with the one and only beauty influencer extraordinaire, Manny Gutierrez. This ad was actually an in-app promotion that didn’t completely suck (a lot of those ads are THE WORST).

 

 

This in-app ad – not the Instagram content – was my first introduction to Bliss. Just another reason why it’s SO important for brands to repurpose and reuse influencer-generated content.

ABSOLUT X DRIZLY

This one is kinda cool. Absolut partnered with one of the cutest couples on the Gram to remind us all that fun can be had at home. The travel bloggers Dani and Nico (known as @twooutsiders) added a beautiful pic to their already stunning Instagram feed to promote Absolut Vodka.

Here’s the #plottwist though: if you read that caption, you’ll see that the CTA is for grammers to get Absolut from @drizly and take advantage of a $5 discount when they place their first order with Drizly. Who the heck is Drizly, right? Drizly is like the GrubHub of beer, wine, and spirits. You can shop a HUGE selection of alcoholic beverages and have them delivered to your house within an hour of placing your order.

Another thing that’s cool about this one is Drizly’s website is set up to make you want to take action. Look at this page. Don’t you want to put your address in here JUST to find out what happens next?

Clicks, ladies and gentlemen. That’s how you get clicks.

BLACK SWAN JEWELS

One of the go-to ways to get clicks is to give something away where the price of entry is a follow + tagging your friends. Black Swan Jewels partnered with larger influencers like style influencer @krsikapamarija (237k followers) and @yefiimiya (79k followers) to announce this contest with the simple instructions.

Black Swan Jewels does giveaways like this all the time because it’s a great way to get clicks and follows while you’re boosting brand awareness, and they’re easy to get off the ground. Just remember to have your influencer partners use different coupon codes (assign one code per influencer so you can track each influencer’s performance) and pixels.

4 Examples of Campaigns to Generate Content (UGC and IGC)

Best for achieving the following campaign goals: Social media content / Product images / Marketing assets / Creative for paid ads / Storytelling

The content your influencer partners create for you can become some of your most valuable assets. Most influencer campaigns have a primary or secondary objective of generating tons of influencer-generated content because that content can be reused across multiple mediums and along different points in your customer’s path to purchase to drive them to your site.

If your goal is to get tons of content from your influencer campaign, micro-influencers are going to be your jam.

 

GREENVELOPE

Greenvelope provides online invitations and announcements that people love to use for their weddings, parties, and other events. Greenvelope’s feed is filled with great pictures of invitation designs and people using them, and makes you wish you had something to announce.

There are two really smart ways Greenvelope gets content for its social media feed and social media marketing:

Greenvelope partners with influencers like @teachingandlaundry, @twooutsiders, and @freshprinceofbuhlaire to create adorable, targeted posts about simplifying the wedding process, zero-waste nuptials, virtual happy hour, and other events.

And there are also some really cool posts that tagged Greenvelope that you can find under Greenvelope’s tagged posts.

Greenvelope shares the designs created by their independent designers like this design from @staceyday. This gives the social media feed depth, color, and variety.

STARBUCKS

You may remember Starbucks’ well-publicized White Cup Contest. Starbucks asked customers to cover their Starbucks cups with imaginative doodles, and submit a photo of their artwork on social media using #WhiteCupContest. The winning design was featured on a limited edition reusable cup. 

With more than 4000 entries (and nearly 4,000 Instagram posts), Starbucks ended up with tons of user-generated content from its social media followers and Starbucks customers had fun in the process.

Here’s one of the great things about this contest though: It happened six years ago, and it was so epic that social media users are STILL posting their doodled cups – whether from Starbucks or not – using that branded hashtag – even up through this summer.

Previous participants repost their winning designs and lament over the day they won the contest with these thoughtful, “how it all began” posts.

Other coffeehouses pay homage by hosting their own #whitecupchallenge .

AERIE

Aerie often collaborates with micro and nano-influencers to promote their body-positive branding. The company recently did this by requesting customers post untouched photos of themselves wearing Aerie swimsuits.

To get the most out of their marketing campaigns, Aerie often collaborates with influencers for influencer-generated content (IGC). The brand is committed to the body positivity movement and wants women to be comfortable in their skin. So, they don’t airbrush the photos they used in their campaigns. 

To promote this cause, they collaborated with several micro and nano-influencers who posted unedited photos of themselves, and encouraged customers to post untouched photos of themselves wearing Aerie’s swimsuits.

This #antiairbrush campaign got the brand major kudos for being socially progressive, and tons of publicity. I think this campaign is a good example of what can happen with a concept that is UGC- and IGC-friendly.

A few more things to clarify for this type of campaign:

• Get full UGC rights, and then you can go crazy using all the goods across all of your branded web-based platforms.
• Here you will want more quality pics. But don’t worry, with a decent camera app on your phone, you don’t have to be Casey Niestat or anything to get great pics.

The post 11 Influencer Campaigns Examples For Conversions, Awareness, Or Content appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

While nearly 91 percent of those doing holiday traveling will be doing so by car, the Christmas season is a popular time for travelers to make their way to faraway destinations. We’re talking bucket list stuff – beachfront resorts, foreign getaways, spontaneous adventure trips.

Just like many of us, influencers are shopping around for the best holiday travel deals. That means if you’re in the hospitality, travel, or tourism business, you need to get your cool packages in front of holiday travelers like, now.

We’re going to keep the stats to a minimum (bummer – I know), and get right down to the strategies of how brands are partnering with influencers to boost airline sales, reduce hotel vacancies, and sell tickets to their respective main attractions.

The Trend is Moving Toward Giving Experiences Over Gifts

Whether they know it or not, people prefer experiences over material things. Even your kids. Over the course of the last decade, more and more intel has been gathered to put science behind the rising trend of giving experiences over gifts.

Several years ago, The Atlantic published a piece on behavioral economics, detailing the emotional impact of receiving an experience over a material gift. The science says the emotions triggered when people receive or even plan experiences  – like the joy of anticipation before an event happens and the pleasantness of the memory after – consistently surpasses the impact of material possessions.

Cornell professor Thomas Gilovich, who has done extensive studies on behavioral economics, shows that experiences tend to make people happier, in part because people are far less likely to measure the value of their experiences against the experiences of others.

On the other hand, you can go tit for tat comparing your new smartphone to your friend’s new smartphone, and if your device doesn’t come out the winner, you can end up feeling bad about yourself. Not sure if phone shaming is a thing yet, but it would be like that.

Anyway, Gilovich’s research says experiences are preferred because they are associated with identity, connection, and social behavior. (Very similar to the way people view sports, oddly enough.)

Coincident with the rise of social media, Millennials are leaning more toward being able to tell awesome stories about their experiences, than just showing pictures of the stuff they got. I think this quote from CNBC.com sums it up pretty well:

Millennials “aren’t spending our money on cars, TVs and watches,” Taylor Smith, CEO and co-founder of Blueboard, told CNBC. “We’re renting scooters and touring Vietnam, rocking out at music festivals, or hiking Machu Picchu.”

Memories Get Treasured, Stuff Gets Trashed… Eventually

Most of us can relate to the idea of longing for a cool, new coat, working to get that cool, new coat, then complaining about the dry-cleaning bills for your cool, new coat once it’s not so new anymore. Even if it is still cool. That’s because we adapt to material things, and lose appreciation for even the priciest and most stunningly posh luxury items. But experiences are just the opposite.

You know that old saying, “In time, you’ll laugh at this”?  The more time that goes by, the more endearing our memories become, even the bad memories.  

I recently told a friend of mine who got stuck at the airport after her wallet and phone were stolen on a trip to London that in a year, the entire ordeal – which she chronicled on Facebook for us – would make a great story to tell over beers and wings. She agreed.

So, I’m going to skip the Sephora gift card this year (which seems cruel, I know). That would be simple and appreciated, but you know what would be even cooler? A family trip to some place warm and pretty.

The Who and Why of Holiday Traveling

So, who is traveling during the holidays? The people who show up at my house, for one. The uncle from Florida, the aunt from Jersey. The brother-in-law from New York. Hopefully, my sister and the kids will come down from Detroit. We’ve pretty much reached a point in American history where folks just aren’t going home for the holidays as much as they used to be.

Millennial Travelers Are Pretty Much Remixing What “Hitting the Road” Means Now

Not to be the person who blames all life’s cultural shifts on millennials, but they are shaking  things up just a little. Baby Boomers and Gen Xers tend to have a more conservative approach to travel.  They travel less, and place a heavy value on the destination of the trip. Millennial travelers on the other hand, prefer more frequent trips.

On average, Millennials take 32 percent more vacations than Gen Xers, and 44 percent more vacations than Baby Boomers.

Making Room for New Holiday Travel Traditions

In comparison to younger generations, Boomers never really ventured that far from home. Gen Xers were more scattered than Boomers, but they returned home to celebrate the holidays with family. They come home for the holidays.

Millennials, don’t feel obligated to venture home as much, so they invented Friendsgiving (spending Thanksgiving with your friends instead of going home to your family).

Other cultural shifts such as adult children staying home with their parents longer, young adults getting married and having kids later in life, the prevalence of blended (and re-blended) families, and the rise of a sort of “global community” are all playing a significant role in how we celebrate holidays.

Seven years ago, Friendsgiving wasn’t even a thing. Seven years ago, we collectively tried to think of good gifts to give, not necessarily good experiences to gift. Today, selling experiences (like paying for the experience of being trapped in an escape room with a zombie chained to a wall that’s closing in on you ever few minutes) is a growing industry.

My point? Things change.

I said all of that to drive home the point that younger Americans aren’t forfeiting holiday traditions. They are effectively creating new ones. 

MULTI-GENERATIONAL TRIPS

Multi-generational trips have seen an unprecedented increase in popularity over the last few years. Adult children are creating experiences as a way to show appreciation to their parents and grandparents. Children are getting the chance to spend time with their extended families, and possibly the rare opportunity to see mom and dad in a more playful, relatable way.

BUDDY TRIPS

Although Millennials travel more frequently, their attitudes about getaways are different than that of their older counterparts. They often believe that even more than where you’re going, it matters who comes along for the ride. And some insist that a vacation isn’t worthwhile if your friends aren’t there to share it with you.

Not only are Millennials more educated than previous generations, they also spend longer phases of their lives unattached, which means travel companions are often friends who are sharing moments, sharing travel costs, and creating stronger bonds. It’s no wonder new traditions like Friendsgiving are becoming so popular.

SOLO GETAWAYS

Solo holidays are becoming more popular as well, and with it, an increase in the number of companies offering guided tours to small groups and solo travelers. According to an article in The New York Times, 24 percent of people traveled alone on their most recent overseas vacations. Of that number, 37 percent were traveling for the first time.

You would think solo travelers would be young unmarried college kids. That’s not always the case though. Those in committed relationships take solo vacations for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s not possible for both partners to take a vacation at the same time. Or one partner needs time off from a lifetime of caring for kids or a disabled partner.

To kind of go back to the point of how experiences impact behavior, one behavioral study found that once travel plans were set, vacationers experienced up to a 2-month boost in happiness in preparation for the trip (I know I did).  And upon their return, the positive energy and relaxing mood could last up to two weeks post-trip.

Related Post

Download The Shelf’s Step-by-Step Holiday Social Media Strategy

Brands Are Using Influencers to Sell Travel Experiences for Christmas

There are two primary end-goals for brands marketing travel and vacation experiences during the holidays. The first is to capture the attention of those who will be traveling during the holiday season. The second is to capture the attention of those who will shopping for travel deals during the holidays and actually vacationing the following year.  Let’s look at a few campaigns for each of these marketing goals.

Brands Marketing to Holiday TravelersTHE PARTNERSHIP: TOYOTA X TAYLOR MACKENZIE

I was surprised to find posts from auto manufacturers a few years ago over the Thanksgiving weekend.  But it makes sense. By Thanksgiving, many local car dealers have already received shipments of cars for the new model year. That means Black Friday is not only a great time to buy a smart TV, but it’s also a great time to get a deal on a new car.

The same is true if you’re buying a used car, whether from Craigslist or an auto auction. People are spending money on holiday gifts, but the holiday shopping season is also one of the best times of the year to save money on a new car purchase.

This post from style blogger Taylor Mackenzie (@lovetaymack) was sponsored by Toyota (@localtoyotadealers). Taylor’s post was one of several we saw of influencers test driving new cars and using them for holiday shopping last year.

What Taylor Did Right in This Post: Style

Taylor’s sponsored post, which got 4.6 percent engagement, pictures a well-styled Taylor standing in front of the new Camry. But… smartly, the car is not the focus of the shot.  She is.  And that one small detail likely shifts the perception of the post from being obviously sponsored to being another cool lifestyle shot from @lovetaymack.

I’ve seen several sponsored posts by car companies, and unless an influencer is specifically promoting an elite sports car or ultra-elite luxury car (think Bentley, Rolls Royce, Bugatti and other cars that typically don’t use influencers), posts that feature the car as the focus of the post tend to under-perform.

One of Taylor’s strengths as an influencers is being able to infuse products into her posts without making them look like ads. The result is consistently higher engagement with her audience.

THE PARTNERSHIP: SLEEPYPOD x NORBERT THE DOG

For many families, a family trip really is for the entire family, including the family pet. According to the 2017–2018 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA) 37 percent of pet owners travel with their pets every year. And this sponsored post from Norbert the Dog (in Instagram @norbertthedog) is capitalizing on just that in this fall 2019 campaign for Sleepypod.

There are a couple of things about this post that are worth mentioning. First, I know this post is targeting holiday travelers because I actually found this post by searching the hashtag #safetravels. Also, when you read the caption, you can see that this particular giveaway from Sleepypod ended on Thanksgiving Day and the brand assures entrants that the winner will be notified on that day and a pod sent to the winner within 5 business days of receiving the winner’s address (so, likely by the following Thursday (which is today, December 5th)).

The second thing is that Americans like to spend money on their pets around the holidays. A Bloomberg article published last year for the holidays reported that the average pet owner would spend about $67 on their furry friend, while higher-income millennials would shell out more than twice that – $183.

What Norbert the Dog Did Right In This Post: Be Adorable

You know how people love videos of cute animals? That’s what’s happening here. Nothing makes people stop scrolling faster than babies and furry little pets like Norbert. People love seeing cute animals in their social media feeds. Nine in ten social media users follow pet infuencers. By comparison, eight in ten Instagram users follow brands while four in ten Twitter users follow brands. Pets trump celebrities and brands every time when it comes to grabbing attention on social media.

THE PARTNERSHIP: MARRIOTT HOTELS X ERICA CHOI

Instagram influencer Erica Choi (@eggcanvas) partnered with Marriott Hotels for a series of six posts published between December 24 and December 26, 2016. The posts – which positioned Marriott as an almost surreal destination and a fantastic alternative to the traditional home-for-the-holidays travel plans, were scenic, blue, and beautiful.

For holiday travelers who are okay with skipping out on next year’s white Christmas, this post from Erica of palm trees, infinity pools, and blue skies captures a more perfect Christmas experience.

What Erica Did Right in This Post: Evoke Emotion

To drum-up more than five thousand likes and 85 comments, Erica Choi crafted a simply breathtaking picture of her hotel. More than being a snapshot, the picture is representative of a luxurious vacation experience that I imagine is overflowing with amenities, comforts, and sun-soaked adventures that you just can’t get in the guest room at your aunt’s house back in Boston. What Erica did right was help her followers relate to the awe and wonder she may have experienced sitting poolside at one of Marriott’s eleven swimming pools.

THE CAMPAIGN: #SOUTHWESTPASSPORT

Southwest Airlines (@southwestair) launched an Instagram campaign during the 2016 holiday shopping season that included partnerships with several influencers as part of their #SouthwestPassport travel campaign and contest.

As part of the promotion, Instagram influencers were sent to secret destinations in the month of December. Followers who saw and reposted their Instagram posts could enter for a chance to win a $500 Southwest gift card.

Travel fashion blogger Alex TravelFashionGirl.com (@travelfashiongirl) writes and posts about what to wear when traveling to help women travel light and spend less. Her first sponsored post was a picture of her with a box from Southwest which contained her secret destination.  

Tiffany Nguyen (@tiffpenguin), a dentist and travel photographer from Los Angeles was pegged for the Belize slot and shared pictures of her Southwest-sponsored trip.

What’s clever about this post is that it’s not of her Belize trip. It’s a striking photo, but it’s actually just announcing her partnership with Southwest. The post garnered nearly twice as much engagement as the post she actually published during her trip to Belize.

Also, if you read the comments, right around the center, you will see Southwest’s efforts have paid off. Someone verifies that Southwest flies to Belize. That, I believe, is the purpose of the entire campaign, to let people know that Southwest isn’t just your favorite low-cost domestic carrier anymore.

The #Southwestpassport campaign sent influencer Jessica Ricks (@hapatime) to Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S. Mexico where this post got more than 13K likes and six dozen comments.

What the #Southwestpassport Campaign Did Right: Possibilities

Without a doubt, Southwest made it clear they are no longer the airline you use for short flights. Heck, when I moved to Atlanta, I had to give up Southwest because it didn’t fly here.

But Southwest used the right influencers to tell great stories about their travel experiences. Each influencer displayed fantastic instincts for creating content that appealed to their respective followers. And since Southwest has historically been known as an affordable airline, the fact that it now goes to all points across the Americas not only makes Southwest a contender for any new vacation plans I may dream up, but the campaign did a pretty good job of inspiring me to look up possible vacation packages.

ONGOING CAMPAIGNS: ILLINOIS OFFICE OF TOURISM

The state of Illinois has some really great holiday travel content aimed at wooing people who love the cold, the snow, and biting winds that “disrespect the hell outta coats” (that last part is how my brother described his winter trip to Chicago).

And I’ll tell you right now what the Illinois Office of Tourism (@enjoyillinois) is doing right on Instagram – following hashtags and reposting some really great user-generated content from people who in Illinois, people who visit Chicago, and local businesses posting to their own Instagram pages. The smarty pants government agency reposts content then adds holiday and travel-themed hashtags like #TravelIllinois and #HolidayTravel.

Like this repost of a pic from the Morton Arboretum…

Or this repost of a pic from Alexanda Charita (@onlylivinggirlny)…

THE CAMPAIGN: #MEDJET

Medjet launched a holiday influencer campaign for Christmas 2017 to boost visibility and increase brand awareness. Medjet is a member-based travel insurance program that positions itself as an affordable way to protect yourself from crisis during your travels.

The brand worked with mommy bloggers / lifestyle micro influencers with sizable, actively engaged audiences. Medjet smartly targeted both road trippers (including this post from Robyn Meacham @robynmeacham), who was driving between Vegas and SoCal for the holidays)…

Source: Robyn Meacham on Instagram

As well as travelers who weren’t specifically driving, like this post from Jennifer D (@savvygreystyles), who is found twinning with her son (who is a twin) during the holiday festivities.

Source: Jennifer D on Instagram

What Robyn and Jennifer Did Right In This Post: Not Make It About Travel Insurance

When you’re promoting something as dry as travel insurance, influencer marketing is absolutely the way to go if you’re targeting the 30 to 50 demographic. Because the worst thing you can do is make your ad or sponsored post look like it’s about travel insurance. Travel insurance is a background player, helping to make holiday moments carefree. By keeping the travel insurance vibe out of the posts, it sort of simplifies the concept for you, as opposed to making it a big deal. Downplaying it works.

Robyn’s caption gives a great soft pitch for the virtues of getting travel insurance, and includes Medjet’s tagline in the caption: Did you know that 1 in 30 trips end in a medical emergency? Protect yourself with Medjet. But the picture of her behind her vehicle, taking in the sun and having a moment with her daughter Saylor.

In the same way, Jennifer’s pic is a fantastic, tight close-up of her and her little one. It’s endearing. It’s engaging. It’s relatable. And has nothing to do with insurance.
BUT you sort of read the caption and walk away feeling like you could probably just bookmark it so you have access to the name MedJet just in case…

Related Post

9 Ways to Get Eyes on Your Holiday Food Campaign

Brands Marketing Vacation Packages for Next YearTHE PARTNERSHIP: ROYAL CARIBBEAN X CODY ANDREW

If you’ve never seen Cody Andrew’s Instagram page (@codywestonandrew), it’s pretty fascinating. It is the story of Cody’s high-couture family, which includes his gorgeous wife, Christine Andrew (@hellofashionblog), and their three adorable kids.

Both Cody and his wife contribute to the http://HelloFashionBlog.com (Cody contributes to http://HelloHis.HelloFashionBlog.com, the site’s subdomain). They are stylish… all 5 of them. They are strikingly good looking… all 5 of them. And they tell fantastic stories of an ideal All-American family with pictures.

This sponsored post of Cody with the three kids lands in the Instagram feeds on Cyber Monday 2016, and the post reads: “First big snow storm today. Wish I was back with @royalcaribbean in the sun. More from our trip on the blog.”

Experience gifts like travel and vacation packages go on sale during the holiday shopping season just like material gifts. In fact, the popular holiday deal guide, CyberMonday.com has an entire section dedicated to vacation deals. NYTimes.com has already short-listed several vacation packages that go on sale this Cyber Monday for travel dates in 2018.

What Cody Did Right in This Post: Tug at Our Heart Strings

A young, attractive father on a dream vacation taking a picture with his three cute kids. That’s pretty much all this had to be. No further social media magic needed.

THE PARTNERSHIP: HAMILTON PRINCESS BERMUDA x FAIRMONT HOTELS x AMBER FILLERUP CLARK

Amber Clark (@amberfillerup) is the author of the Barefoot Blonde blog and creator of Barefoot Blonde Hair extensions. With 1.3 million Instagram followers, Amber is a popular YouTube lifestyle vlogger with 233K subscribers. The stories she unfolds for her followers on Instagram are mostly made up of the day-to-day lives and travels of Amber, her husband, and their two kids.

To promote Princess cruise lines, Amber created a professionally-edited video diary that she hosts on her blog. The snippet, which appears on Instagram as a sponsored post performed quite well with her audience.  

What Amber Did Right: Awesome Video Content

Just ahead of the official start of the 2017 holiday shopping season, Amber published a sponsored post for Hamilton Bermuda Princess and Fairmont Hotels that got 135,222 video views (a pretty impressive 10% engagement) in its first 20 hours on Instagram.

The first 20 hours. Look at the screenshot!

Heck, I watched the video in its entirety two or three times myself.  The video was great. It was engaging, visually appealing, and professionally edited. I think I may even be following her now. Nearly one year later, the post has over 209K views.

THE PARTNERSHIP: AGENZIA IMMOBILIARE LANCISI x THEKITTYLUXE HOLLY AH-THION

THEKITTYLUXE Holly Ah-Thion is a UK-based mechanical engineer whose lifestyle / fashion blog, http://Thekittyluxe.com is a self-professed passion project. In this sponsored post for Agenzia Immobilaire Lancisi, Holly gives followers a glimpse into her stay in Tuscany with a candid shot of the countryside.

The post, which got 3.3 percent engagement from Holly’s followers looks like it has a filter applied to mute the colors just a bit so the image fits in with Holly’s black and white color scheme on Instagram.

What Holly Did Right: Non-Touristy Attraction

The chance to get a real-life glimpse into the culture and landscape of a place like Italy is Instagram fodder. To see someone we know (even if it’s just someone we know via social) go to the hills of Tuscany, or ride on the train to Versailles (as opposed to standing in front of the Eiffel Tower), or otherwise engaged in a non-touristy activity is rare and appreciated.

I believe that’s what Holly did right in this post. If there is such a thing, Holly’s post is the equivalent of Tuscany without makeup. It’s brilliantly simple and makes those of us who love solitude long to be there. That’s why it works.

The Wrap-Up

Holiday travel is about more than just getting home for the holidays. Today, it’s about bringing the spirit of being “home for the holidays” wherever you happen to land. So, for your holiday marketing campaigns, it’s important that you focus on selling the experience.

To do that, you need to find and partner with the right influencers, influencers who can make the travel or vacation experience you brand offers meaningful, accessible, and desirable to people who may not yet even know they want to buy what you have. That’s what these influencers are great at doing.

And it’s what we at The Shelf are great at helping you to do.  

If you are marketing experiences and you need help with this year’s holiday campaign, there’s still time to get a phenomenal campaign in just under the buzzer. We can help you.

The post How to Sell Holiday Travel Experiences This Year appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Since the laws governing the use and distribution of cannabis products change from state to state, and sometimes from city to city… the shifting legality of CBD makes marketing CBD oil a pain in the butt. CBD brands can’t use traditional digital marketing channels like PPC and boosted posts to achieve important goals like becoming a household name and breaking the Internet with your crazy Amazon Prime-styled website traffic pile-up.

We get it.

We’ve spied our fair share of great CBD content since launching this series. But most of what we’ve seen in this space – especially as it relates to social media content – sort of sucks. CBD brands as a whole just aren’t using social media as effectively as they could. So, we’ve spent the last few weeks showing CBD brands how to crush it with their social media marketing.

Let’s get on with this week’s buyer persona.

Let’s Talk About Millennial Women for a Sec

Crazy demand has made the CBD industry one of THE fastest-growing markets, expected to reach a whopping $23 billion by 2023. One of the key demographics CBD brands are going after is millennial women.

Millennial women are the largest single segment of CBD buyers. In continuing with the buyer personas examined by the fine folks at High Yield Insights, this post is about the Goop-y Gwyneth persona, which is predominantly made up of married/partnered millennial women, 62 percent of whom are moms, and 40 percent of whom are homemakers.

COPY AND PASTE THIS CODE TO EMBED THIS GRAPHIC.

<div style=”clear:both”><a href=”https://marketing.theshelf.com/infographic-millennial-moms-and-cbd”><img src=” https://marketing.theshelf.com/infographic-millennial-moms-and-cbd” title=”Goopy Gwyneth – Millennial Moms x CBD” border=”0″ /></a></div><div>Courtesy of: <a style=”text-decoration:underline; color:#11d3c8;” href=”https://www.theshelf.com/the-blog/marketing-cbd-oil-to-millennial-women-z”>The Shelf Full-Funnel Influencer Marketing</a></div>

Who Are Millennial Women?

Estimated to be born between 1980ish and 1995ish, millennial women are now 23 to 38 years old. They are the kids of Boomers and Gen X parents.

Approximately a quarter of America’s mothers are millennials, and more than 80 percent of NEW moms are millennials, according to BabyCenter. I want to say the number falls somewhere around 10 to 12 million moms, but I can’t say for sure. What I can say is the percentage of mothers who are millennials will increase over the next two decades.

Two decades?

Well, yeah… in part, because women are starting their families later and giving birth to kids well into their 40s. And the youngest millennial women are still in their early 20s.

Sixty-seven percent of millennial moms are multicultural, according to research from Carat. In fact, millennial moms and their children are part of the two most ethnically diverse generations currently living in the US.

The EXACT Reason Instagram Is So Important with This Group

You know how people are always talking about marketing on Instagram to reach young women? Yeah, it’s true. But I’m a big data geek so I tend to skip what the crowd says and look at the numbers because numbers are awesome.

That said, I want to go through some of the numbers that really tell the story of why Instagram, in particular, is going to be so crucial for CBD brands trying to reach millennial women.

Millennial women are typically a pretty social bunch. Social media is how they find out about new products. In fact, millennial women EXPECT brands to use social as a way to introduce products. Eighty-one percent of millennial women surveyed by Bustle say social media is THE BEST way to reach them, and 57 percent expect to see sponsored content from brands – that’s an important part of product discovery for them. They actually don’t mind it.

Very different from the Gen X demographic I talked about in our last post on marketing CBD oil.

While millennial moms favor Instagram and Facebook (average MM has 500 Facebook friends), the typical millennial mom has at least three social media accounts, according to a Weber Shandwick study.

Millennial moms prefer smartphones to laptops. More than half of the millennial moms surveyed said they spend most or all of their time online on their phones, and spend more than 17 hours on social networks every week. That’s 30 percent more time than the average mom spends on social sites. Millennial moms spend two hours more per week on social than they do watching TV.

How to Market CBD Oil to Millennial Women

Strategy #1: Make Your Own Instagram Feed Count

Instagram is one of three platforms millennial women rely on to learn about new products.

The other two are Facebook and Pinterest (although Pinterest is actually more of a visual search engine than a social media platform). 

With a gal like Goop-y Gwyneth, your presence on Instagram matters. Whether you focus on creating a feed that’s visually stunning or creating a feed that’s just really offbeat and cool, being active and engaged on Insta is a BIG friggin deal. And that’s before you recruit influencers to your cause.

Lord Jones Drumming Up FOMO Like a MoFo

Lord Jones is the first brand that comes to my mind when the term “luxury CBD” is uttered. It’s darn near a staple in the feeds of Hollywood’s quirky cast of cool kids. Lord Jones capitalizes on that by name dropping. Not in a d-bag kinda way.

It’s like…

If you were to overhear the timeless, ageless, transcendent (maybe immortal) Pharrell Williams talking about a few people he works with as part of a normal conversation… I mean, have you heard the soundtracks for the Despicable Me franchise? If Pharrell is talking about somebody, it’s not name-dropping, it’s a regular frickin’ Tuesday.

Lord Jones is kinda like that – a level of cool that’s not obscure or esoteric. It seems normal, familial, and familiar. Like we’re all just out here wearing our big, over-sized, mountain ranger hats to the Grammy’s together.

And tagging one another about it.

And that breed of cool is what makes a post like this one so relatable to everybody when it’s clearly a cute little shout-out to one of Lord Jones’ most vocal supporters, Busy Philipps (host of Busy Tonight) get tagged (look at the comments in the post below).

Big takeaway here: Like most of us, millennial women rely on visual content to help them gather information and input more efficiently, as well as to evaluate purchases.

A striking image or an interesting-looking video is usually a compelling enough reason to stop and read a caption. (It’s also a good opp to see what other people are commenting on and chime in yourself if you are so inclined).

You know the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Yeah, well… That’s because it takes 4 minutes to read 1,000 words and it takes less than 100 milliseconds to process an image. Pictures are a real time saver.

And unlike Senior Susan and Dosing Dads (the two other buyer personas we’ve written about who are more focused on getting useful info than getting somebody else’s opinion), incorporating “peer influencers” who can talk about their experiences with your brand is an important part of reaching this demographic.

Here’s why…

Millennial women use social media as a forum to share ideas and experiences on just about EVERYTHING, especially Adulting 101 topics.

Millennial moms, in particular, aren’t shy about their opinions, and 55 percent of them say they are frequently asked by other for their opinions. According to Weber Shandwick, millennial moms give unsolicited Likes and recommendations to products online 10.4x a month.

Unsolicited.

They also post unsolicited retweets and re-pins of products and services 7.8x a month. That means, even before you partner with a millennial influencer to promote your brand, she has already formed and probably shared an opinion about other cannabis brands or products.

Strategy #2: Tighten Up Your Targeting

TARGETING AND GOAL-SETTING

I will say that for most CBD brands, simply getting your message targeted to the right audience is a step in the right direction, especially in a fast-growing industry like CBD where most of the current users are new to CBD products. But many brands fall short with their targeting. So, let me talk for a bit about that.

You want to make sure that you’re creating the right kind of content for the specific audience you’re targeting. And that you’re hashtagging your RELEVANT content appropriately to attract the demographic that you want to see your post.

AND – and this is a big one – I know it probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but your hashtagging strategy should match the likely intent of the person searching or following a hashtag for posts.

Here’s what I mean…

If you partner with a pet influencer (and this could be either the pet or its person) to talk about how your CBD is helping to minimize pain or anxiety for the pet, you want the picture you post to match the caption you write and the hashtag you add. That’s how you effectively target on platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

So, you COULD use a popular hashtag like #CBDforPTSD because you think adding a that hashtag will help you get more eyes on your pet CBD post. BUT because the chances are pretty good the people searching and following #CBDforPTSD aren’t interested in your pet’s experience with CBD, it’s a bad idea (and probably in poor taste) to use that hashtag for your pet CBD post.

Post + Caption + Hashtag – > Your Prospective CustomerAmber, With the Good Hashtag Strategy

Take a look at this post from beauty influencer and product reviewer @Amberlovesmakeup04 about a CBD face oil that’s actually pretty hard to find. (I think its probably new. I looked up the brand on Instagram to find a new account with 13 posts and 80 followers. I had to do three different Google search combinations before I pulled up the right company (Google kept asking me if I meant revere).)

I’m including this particular Instagram post because it got something like 40 percent engagement, which is really, really, REALLY high for an image post, and especially rare for a product shot. 

This particular micro-influencer averages over 20 percent engagement per post, and generated more than 7400 Likes and 156 comments for Revre in this product post. 

Now, being the snoop I am, I literally went through Amber’s entire feed and discovered when she started her account in 2014, it was pretty uneventful. But there’s a direct correlation between increased engagement with her posts and her decision in 2017 to target her account to the skincare and makeup verticals (by posting makeup reviews, full-face makeup pictures, beauty brands at-mentioned in her posts and the strategic use of skincare/makeup hashtags(we talked about the importance of using the right hashtags earlier, I know)).

Above is the typical engagement on Amber’s account in the first two years.

Notice how Amber’s engagement starts to pick up when she tightens up her hashtag game. Today, Amber’s product review account has more than 30k followers and her engagement stays in the double digits. She reviews a number of different products in the skincare / beauty verticals.

BUT she also has a track record of talking about her struggles with anxiety and depression, which makes her a pretty good pick for CBD oil and cannabis-derived products. Look at the way she captioned this particular post for Not Pot hemp gummies. The post got more than 3700 Likes and 120 comments.

And, as expected, her hashtags are relevant to her post + caption combination, and of interest to her audience.

I talked in a previous post about partnering with vape promoters and product review accounts. I think I compared them to Yellow Pages listings. (Maybe with a legit review of the product, it’s more Yelp than Yellow Pages.) Review pages are a popular way to boost visibility, but I would recommend combining this strategy (if you’re going to use it) with sophisticated influencer strategies as well.

Strategy #3: Get Some Compelling Social Proof from Your Influencers by Letting Them Be Honest

Influencer marketing is built on the power of positive social proof. You need people who can authentically and authoritatively talk about your CBD oil… and it can’t just be you. Partnering with a diverse cast of influencers to get that social proof is important.

One of the challenges of marketing CBD oil is the restrictions. Trying to talk about the benefits of your product is like walking through a minefield. Each time you talk about the benefits resulting outcomes could include anything from gaining a lifelong customer to pissing off a government agency and getting hit with a fine… or worse. 

THAT’S where partnering with influencers across different verticals will really help you (and with CBD products, you really could partner with different people from all walks of life). When it comes to marketing CBD oil, influencers have the freedom to say about your products the things you legally can’t say. 

HOW TO GET THE UGC YOU ACTUALLY NEED FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN

Okay. How do we get them to say what we need them to say?

I mean, the obvious thing is to have a great product. Duh. That makes things way simpler when it’s time to bring in influencers. In order for them to be effective, they have to produce content that’s authentic, creative, and on-brand for them.

But I get it. You want to make sure they’re singing your praises, not ruining your business. Well, if you have a great product that’s great. But good product or mediocre one, you definitely want to set up content parameters… meaning it’s smart to tell influencers what you want them to focus on.

Now, you don’t necessarily need to write out a script. Remember, influencers are masters at creating content that goes over well with their audience. So, tempted as you may be, smile, get out of the way, and let them live their best lives.

Setting up content parameters is straightforward and simple, but it’s important. You’re basically letting your influencer partners know what you expect from the campaigna few things:

• Who you are
• What you’re about
• What makes your brand or product different
• The focus of your campaign
• Who you’re targeting
• What your goal is for the influencer campaign
• What kind of content you expect them to create and any creative ideas you have that you want to be incorporated (and this can be different for different influencers).

So, yeah. You want to include content parameters, but you won’t need to write out a script. (A LOT of brands write out scripts that ALL THEIR INFLUENCERS then copy into their post captions. Well, what’s so authentic and creative about that?!?)

Plain Jane Giving It All Away

One CBD brand that’s boosted its success by letting micro-influencers post about its product is Plain Jane (on Instagram @tryplainjane). Plain Jane is just as it sounds — some mary jane that’s, well, plain. Since one of the main concerns consumers have about CBD oil is that it has a strong odor, the founders of Plain Jane decided to come up with a hemp flower and cigarette with natural flavors and a low odor (without flunking up the potency). Genius!

A screengrab of Plain Jane’s IG account.

Within five months, the young company was generating $20k/mo in sales. Fine. Wonderful. Good. Sorilbran, what does that have to do with anything?

Well, I’ll tell you: The secret ingredient to their success is influencer marketing. The brand used influencers to grow their audience on social media, and to date, its Instagram account has 24.6k followers.

“Influencer marketing has been huge for us. Our approach is pretty simple. We give out samples of our products and ask people to post about us on social media, aka a micro-influencer strategy.” – Evan Marshall, Plain Jane Founder

Plain Jane’s strategy revolves around presenting compelling, relatable social proof. Having Liv Tyler (I really do love her) talk about your brand is awesome (she mentioned Lord Jones in this video she did for Vogue on her beauty routine…)

Here, the lovely Liv Tyler goes through her 25-step beauty routine, which includes Lord Jones CBD Oil (around 4m45s). This video has 2.5 million YouTube views.

But honestly, if my next door neighbor and I are talking about skincare as we wait for the bell to ring outside our kids’ school and she mentions a product, her recommendation really does carry more weight. 

Getting those authentic stories from your customers (can anybody say “Amazing UGC”?) and letting them share their experiences with their followers really is social media marketing gold.

So, here’s what you would do…

Have your influencers create content (specific to campaign requirements like I mentioned above) tailored-made to produce certain results. You can then repurpose that content across your own branded channels (with permission, of course).

For Plain Jane, the micro-influencer strategy has worked so well that the majority of its business now stems from social media. Different influencers are often promoting different products simultaneously.

And no, it’s not all serious CBD business – benefits and healing and education. Sometimes, it’s just a funny video of a guy trying to eat a bunch of CBD like a crazy person. This guy is hilarious, by the way.

Plain Jane has accomplished the one feat that goes beyond building brand awareness – becoming a brand all the cool kids are talking about.

The company uses it’s own Instagram feed to share CBD news and drive traffic to its website. So, if there’s a page on the website that will help followers choose the right kind of CBD Oil or the right strain of hemp to meet their needs, that info gets shared to their Insta feed. Smartly, Plain Jane uses Instagram Stories to introduce new products.

Whereas Lord Jones is all the rage in Hollywood, Plain Jane holds it own from Main Street to the backwoods. Plain Jane’s audience is pretty varied. As such, it’s influencer pool is varied as well. Not sure if that’s a chicken-and-egg thing or not. But that’s a good thing.

Just a parting thought about casting a wide net…

A lot of brands make the mistake of running influencer campaigns using the same type of influencers, which leads to no diversity. Again, let me reiterate that millennials (and Gen Z) are the most diverse generation in American history.

A Few Takeaways + a Wrap-Up

Okay, So Here Are the Key Takeaways About Millennial Women

• Regulations for marketing CBD oil are kinda funky, and leave brands with limited options for getting their products in front of CBD buyers.

• Millennial women make up 46 percent of CBD users.
• 81 percent of millennial women surveyed by Bustle say social media is the best way for brands to reach them.
• More than half of millennial moms spend most or all of their time online on their phones.
• The average millennial mom spends more than 17 hours on social networks every week, more than any other mom.
• Millennial women use social media (specifically Instagram) and Pinterest to find new products
• Instagram is the platform millennial women use as a touch point for brands and branded content.

You only have to glance at a newsstand to know that CBD is trending right now. Major publications have put out research and case studies on CBD use, as well as insights on the federal, state, and local laws governing the distribution, sale and use of cannabis products. And that’s because CBD oil and other cannabis-derived products are big. Like, BIG big.

From cosmetics and personal care items, to fine cuisine and medicinal tinctures… CBD oil is ending up in the most interesting places, and demand for the oil (with or without the THC) and other cannabis-derived products is growing like weeds. (I know. I know. Just… forgive me already, geez…)

The three strategies discussed in this post will help you craft an effective influencer marketing strategy. And of course, if you need more creative ideas for crafting your strategy, our team can help.

The post How to Market to Your CBD Oil to Your Biggest Market – Millennial Women appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.