Using your influence: Maximise your Influencer Marketing ROI, by Heriot-Watt University’s Dr. Paul Hopkinson

With the amount of column inches (or should that be pixels) devoted to influencer marketing over recent years, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was a recent discovery. The reality is, of course, that marketers have been cultivating influence using influencers since the dawn of time. In B2B markets and professional services, for example, influencing third parties such as advisers, architects, specifiers and physicians to recommend goods and services is a well-established practice. Similarly, in B2C markets, the use of celebrity endorsement is common practice. The advent of social media, however, gave birth to an entirely new breed of influencer and a burgeoning influencer marketing industry where individuals from any and all backgrounds (and, some might say, regardless of talent and expertise) can establish themselves as influencers and broadcast their views to a widely dispersed and unsuspecting public.

Ok, so that was a bit harsh! But influencers have not been with their detractors. Concerns have been raised, variously, about the perceived (and actual) degree of independence, the trustworthiness of reviews and the level of bias introduced by the widespread use of incentives. The industry has done much to clean up its act. Here in the UAE, for example, paid for influence has to be clearly signposted and the UAE Government has launched its own media academy to bring a level of professionalism to the industry that is absent in many other regions.

Whether you like it or not, influence and influencers are part and parcel of the marketing landscape and here to stay. Influencers are evolving as markets and consumers evolve and influencers are big business here in the MENA region. Look at the UAE, for example, where influencers need to obtain a license from the National Media Council, especially in the case of influencers who run paid promotions and advertisements on social media. This shows how significant and serious the influencer industry is.

There is little doubt also that influencer marketing generates results. A recent survey with more than 4,000 marketing agencies conducted by the Influencer Marketing Hub revealed that more than 90 percent consider influencer marketing as an effective marketing strategy. But more often than not, brands and agencies lack a strategic approach in implementing influencer marketing campaigns, resulting in misguided expectations and wasteful marketing expenses.

Dr. Paul Hopkinson, Associate Head of the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University Dubai and Academic Lead for Heriot-Watt Online shows how you can create a solid influencer marketing strategy before getting down to the nuts and bolts of a campaign.

So, how do you come up with a solid strategy that maximises the ROI of your influencer marketing campaign?

1. Establish the goals of your campaign

The first step to creating a successful strategy is to establish your goals. Regardless of your sector, size or product, you need to make sure that you establish SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound). Most campaigns are likely to feature a mix of the following:

Reach: This can be important if you are looking broaden the appeal of your offering and connect with new audiences. After all, if your influencers are known for a specific set of interests, focusing on targeting can be a great way to maximise the number of people you reach with your campaign.
Traffic: The other goal could be to increase traffic to your website through collaboration, both in terms of direct traffic and increasing your brand’s searches on Google.
Conversion: Ultimately, most marketing campaigns are all about growing revenues. Thanks to UTM parameters and coupon codes, it is possible to measure engagement and track quantitative results, including sales and conversions.
Engagement: Here the aim is to encourage interaction with the brand that goes beyond purchasing and usage, encouraging consumers to consume share and create content about your brand which will influence the behaviours of others.
Loyalty: Here the aim is to maintain customers’ interest in the brand and encourage them to become loyal advocates. Carefully crafted influencer market campaigns can help reduce post purchase dissonance, reinforce your brand’s benefits, as well as socialise new products and services, linked to wider objectives relating to upselling and cross selling.

2. Define the target audience of your campaign

Influencer marketing is only effective when your business is promoted to the right audience. Getting it wrong simply means a waste of time and budget. Influencer marketing isn’t about reaching a large audience and just hoping that some of those who see it will find it interesting. Before you start looking for influencers, spend time outlining specific details about who you want to connect with through your campaign. Create a buyer persona that includes both demographic and psychographic segmentation. Once you know your audience, it will be easier to identify the top people they follow and websites they use.

In the case of the Middle East, brands and agencies need to define their audiences on several parameters such as languages, interests, age groups, and other demographics, simply because it is one of the most diverse and dynamic regions of the world. Does your audience predominantly speak Arabic? If yes, is your campaign localised to suit the cultural nuances? These are important questions to ask while determining your target audience and defining your overall campaign.

3. Define the key messages of your campaign

Just like you need to know your audience and your goals, you also need to define your key messages before you start approaching influencers. What your campaign messages are, depend on the objectives of your campaign and your target audience. Your message is just as crucial as your goal. While you don’t want to suppress the influencer’s creativity and distinctive voice, you also don’t want them to talk about something unrelated to your campaign. Determine how you want to structure your messaging so you can stick to it later on.

4. Set aside a realistic budget

Let’s make one thing clear: Almost all influencers (even micro-influencers) will want to be compensated for their efforts. Gone are the days when collaborations relied solely on product gifting and experiences. To work with highly engaged influencers, you need to set aside a budget (as well as products or services to offer). When setting an overall budget, you should keep in mind the split between paying influencers and covering the cost of products or services. You should not enter into negotiations with influencers (or contact them) until you know your budget. Without it, you’ll have a hard time coming up with a plan to approach them.

While planning the budget, ask questions like: What is the main objective? How many influencers do you want to work with? Is engagement or targetting the priority? Once you’ve established a budget, you can figure out how to use it more effectively.

5. Find the right influencers and approach them

Depending on the goals of your campaign and the budget available, you need to decide whether you are going to work with macro-influencers as part of your campaign or if you are going to work with only highly engaged micro-influencers. According to a 2019 survey by Mediakix (an influencer marketing agency), 61 percent of marketers consider finding relevant influencers for a campaign difficult.

So, how do you find the right influencer? You can start by analysing hashtags and determining who your competition is working with, but the most effective way to find the right people to work with is to use a dedicated tool created for this purpose. Some of the top tools are: BuzzSumo, Upfluence, and HypeAuditor. It is also important that you can understand in more detail the type of campaigns that work well with these influencers to make sure you collaborate with them in a way that their audience will find worth engaging with. When it comes to working with influencers, it all comes down to how you position your brand and your campaign.

6. Track the results of your campaign

You have several options to track the performance of your influencer marketing campaign. If you are looking to monitor activity on different posts, you can do so by assigning each influencer a hashtag to use in addition to their posts on social platforms; this greatly facilitates monitoring and engagement with campaign activity. You can also use tools such as SEMrush’s Brand Monitoring to track online mentions of any word or phrase you wish to track.

In order to track traffic and sales, you can provide each influencer with a personalised tracking link or coupon code so that you can directly attribute a return to each influencer and calculate the ROI based on their specific compensation. You can also request statistics from each influencer by stating so in the agreement to understand the real reach and engagement of each collaboration. The more you know about the results of the campaign, the more you can make informed decisions about your future collaborations

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