Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has released a series of tips on how to get the most out of your influencer marketing campaigns. From maximising reach to encouraging engagement at every step, there is so much that can be done to really make the most of your affiliate partnerships. Make use of the experience and brand trust that your affiliate partners have built and collaborate with them to really make the most out of your marketing campaign. Take a look through some of the top tips for making the most of your influencer marketing campaigns:
Use multiple channels
When it comes to marketing – make use of as many different channels as possible. Even if this is within one platform, most have several channels available. For example, on Instagram, you can make use of posts on the main feed, Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels too. This will help them to hit all areas and reach a wider audience. Be sure to repurpose your content to be used across all of these different platform features to increase brand awareness and reach.
Give creators space to create
Working with influencers and affiliate partners is all about choosing the right partners for your brand to enhance and reflect your brand image. Ideally, the affiliate partners that you work with will share motivations, ethos and approaches to working with your brand, as this will help to solidify and expand your brand recognition. If you’ve done this successfully, you should be able to encourage your influencers to be creative and promote your brand and product authentically, in a way that is unique to them. The best affiliate partners will be able to take their own approach to market campaigns and still encompass your brand spirit.
Picking a creator whose goals and values line up with your own is essential to creating an authentic and relatable partnership. This will help to facilitate a strong and authentic connection between the creator and their audiences which will filter through into your marketing efforts.
It’s not all about follower count
As tempting as it might be to go straight for affiliate partners that have the largest following, it is actually much more effective to take a look at creator analytics and opt for an influencer that has an audience matched to your target market with a high follower engagement and response rate. Make sure that the efforts that potential affiliates are putting in are matched to yours so that you can get the best out of them.
Make in-person connections
Meeting a potential collaborator or affiliate partner in person at an event or even in a scheduled meeting can be a great way to see how you line up as collaborators and work out if there is a real connection. Making contact personally can bring a more personal element to your campaign and facilitate a much easier opportunity to collaborate and bounce ideas back and forth to create an effective and striking marketing strategy.
Pin branded content
A new feature on Instagram that can be extremely useful when it comes to influencer marketing is the ability to pin posts to the top of your Instagram feed. This will mean that any user who visits your profile will be able to see a promotional post which can be a great way to increase the value and reach of your branded partnerships. Encourage your affiliate partners to pin your branded posts to the top of their feeds for the best results possible.
Influencer marketing is all about trust
One of the most important things that brands get when they work with a creator or an affiliate partner is the trust that they have built with their audience. Consumers are much less likely to trust advertisement that is coming directly from a brand itself, whereas an influencer usually has an audience established with trust and authenticity already established. Brands pay for this and make use of the engagement and value of this highly-reactive audience. Creators also need to be aware though whether any brand they partner with will maintain this trust in return and not devalue their efforts.
When it comes to influencer marketing, Instagram’s tips are incredibly useful for brands wanting to make the most of this valuable and effective marketing strategy. Affiliate partnerships are becoming steadily more valuable every day and especially in the digital age where short-form video content is increasingly popular, looking into an affiliate marketing partnership might be the best thing you can do for your marketing strategy.
Instagram has released several videos containing more tips on how to best make use of an influencer marketing campaign with its ‘we create’ campaign. This works to investigate the best ways for content creators to interact and engage with brands on the platform and how to encourage engagement in everything you do.
