4 Ways to Kickstart Your Holiday Influencer Campaigns
It’s been a strange year for influencer marketing. Actually, it’s just been a strange year.
Although retail sales initially saw a slump, the challenges of this year have brought about innovation that we believe should boost the holiday shopping season. And now is the time to create your holiday influencer marketing campaigns.
Here are some ways to gear up quickly.
1. Enlist the help of an influencer marketing agency.
Influencer marketing is one of the best strategies for businesses to reach new audiences, engage with existing audiences, and even drive e-commerce sales.
At Blissful Media Group, we work closely with our clients to build influencer campaigns that boost brand visibility, engagements, and sales across digital mediums
Our team is experienced in helping create campaigns that deliver results, whether that be clickthroughs, product sales, or brand lift. We work with our clients to determine their ideal audience and find innovative influencers that can deliver their message in a creative way to that audience. Our detailed reporting provides metrics and insights into the success of each campaign.
2. Get creative with your deliverables.
For the holidays this year, we’re recommending some of the following platforms for delivering sales results.
On an Instagram feed post, Influencers bring a level of authenticity to your brand or product by showcasing it in creative ways that are relatable to their audience. Instagram carousel posts are on the rise and they offer brands the opportunity to include more imagery, videos or a combination of both to convey their messages. Carousel posts also have higher engagement than single static posts or videos.
By adding Instagram Stories, influencers can further that message by offering personal insights and a call to action through a trackable swipe-up link to the product page of your choice.
Experiment with Instagram Reels. These 15 second videos can reach a broader audience than feed posts or stories. Reels allow influencers to get creative with a video message and share to their feed and/or to the Discover section, where the most creative content can potentially be seen by millions of users.
And don’t forget that Instagram Checkout is now available to all eligible businesses and creators in the US, which allows users to make a purchase without ever leaving Instagram. With this new feature, customers can buy products directly from brands on Instagram. When viewing a shoppable post, customers just tap to view the product and continue to the payment process, all within Instagram.
Instagram also has a “Shopping for Creators” feature, and influencers can add product tags from brand partners to their posts and stories which will allow users to tap and buy all within the app. Creators don’t share in an affiliate program via Instagram Checkout (currently) but Shopping Tags will make it so much easier for both Creators and their followers looking to purchase items.
This is a huge win for Instagram/Facebook in the consumer's shopping journey, it's a simple and convenient way to shop. They control the entire process from the first click and should gain even more valuable info for their ad business and become more of an e-commerce play.
TikTok
TikTok is alive and growing. Despite recent headlines, TikTok has over 80 million active users in the United States. The platform allows creative videos up to 60 seconds long, giving influencers the opportunity to showcase your brand or product in an entertaining way. The new “link in bio” feature being rolled out to users is another way to drive clicks to your site.
TikTok also has an ad product that turns creator videos into in-feed ads featuring a “Shop Now” call to action. According to Digiday reporting, TikTok is testing a similar feature that will include the same call to action in creator videos, with the ad revenues split between TikTok and the creator. Currently, TikTok creators can link out to ecommerce sites from their videos and profile pages.
Although Facebook has become a more challenging platform for organic reach, Facebook Live videos provide 3 times more engagement than regular videos. And Facebook captions provide space for easy, clickable links unlike those mentioned above.
3. Create your own social shopping campaign.
In July of this year, it was estimated that online sales were up by 55% from the previous year. While the growth has slowed some due to the reopening of brick and mortar stores, 67% of millennials still prefer to shop online.
Your brand can take sales directly to the social platforms where these consumers are spending their time. Here’s how.
Instagram Shopping
If you’re a qualified business account that sells physical products, you can now sell your products directly with Instagram Shopping. With Instagram feed posts (including carousels), you can make your feed shoppable by adding product tags. You can also use product stickers in Instagram Stories. And with the addition of Instagram Checkout, your audience can purchase these products without ever leaving the app.
Pinterest Catalogs
It’s time to take your catalog to Pinterest. With over 83% of Pinterest users making purchases from pins they’ve viewed , you can create an entire catalog of products with Shopping Ads. And if you don’t want to be that direct, you can create mood boards for the holiday using rich pins to display product details to potential consumers.
4. Think outside of sales.
The holiday season is a time for giving back and here are two easy ways to do that through social channels.
Sharing User-Generated Content
Take advantage of your strong consumer base and feature content that’s already being shared When consumers share their product love, they’re working for you as a brand advocate. Even better, create a theme and invite them to share their content and feature the best of the best.
Start a Giving Campaign or Initiative
Sometimes goodwill is the best advertisement for your brand. Let your audience know what your focus is during the holiday season and consider creating a campaign with like-minded influencers that can share your message authentically.
Now is the time to be ramping up your holiday content and campaigns. Let us help you figure out how to kickstart your holiday influencer marketing.