Why Use Influencer Marketing?
You’re an influencer. When you talk about the restaurant you had dinner at, the film you just watched, or the new app you downloaded; you’re influencing the opinion of those in your circle. If you’re trusted and well respected, that’s a lot of power. It’s no wonder online marketers are enlisting more influencers than ever to help build their brands. Influencers start conversations, increase reach, and generate engagement. Depending on the audience you’re looking to reach, influencers don’t need to be someone with millions of followers on their social channels. Anyone can be an Influencer.
Looking to employees/volunteers as potential influencers is a great place to start. These individuals know the organization well and will directly benefit from their efforts. Those who would make a good influencer should be involved within the community and participate in events and outings.
One of Digital Giants’ clients recently hosted an organization-wide fundraiser with the goal of increasing the number of donations from outside of the organization. This fundraiser took place on one day across all of the organization’s locations. Digital Giants proposed the idea of using their staff/volunteers as influencers to help achieve their goals. This was positioned as an internal competition to see who could raise the most money.
The Process of Using Influencers
The first step was to determine who would be an influencer. The client had a number of different departments so we suggested they ask those who were most active or lead that department. In addition to these participants, there were also mid-level managers involved.
Once we had determined who would be an influencer we outlined what was expected of them throughout the campaign. Each influencer was provided with a branded avatar for their social profiles and a unique URL to track their performance. They would use this URL in their content and posts during the campaign.
Before the day of the event, we asked the influencers to share messaging across their social channels to raise awareness for the event and to inform their followers that they were raising money for the cause.
On the day of the event, the influencers reached out to their audience to remind them of their efforts and ask for a donation.
What Our Influencers Achieved
Our goal for the campaign was to get 50 online donations. The 11 influencers who participated in the campaign resulted in 470 people going to the donation page. Of the 11 influencers, 2 of them resulted in 258 (55%) of the total visitors. This was a huge success for our client and exceeded what was expected. By using influencers who were part of the community we were able to reach those who cared about the cause and get them to help support the cause.
Influencers are a great tool for an organization of any size and industry type. They help expand the reach of campaigns and get the audience engaged. Influencers can also be cost effective, just two of our influencers exceeded our client’s goal and drove 5x the desired traffic to the landing page.
If an influencer strategy is something you may like to try, feel free to send us an email with any questions you may have.
