We recently introduced the idea of influencer marketing and how it can benefit your business.

Many of you have also asked us how to get started building an influencer marketing campaign. Well, it's all right here! By following this plan, you improve your chances of success, all while reducing the inherent risks.

Obviously, the process varies from company to company, depending on whether you choose to work with an influencer agency or take control of the campaign yourself. However, these steps will provide you with a general outline.

Strategic planning prior to the campaign is essential to ensure a return on investment.

• Building an influencer marketing campaign, step-by-step
  • Defining your goals
  • Knowing your target audience
  • Choosing the right influencers
  • Drawing up a campaign brief
  • Drawing up the contract and terms of collaboration
  • Reviewing content
  • Publishing and amplifying content
  • Tracking and analyzing results
• Ready to get started?

Building an influencer marketing campaign, step-by-step

Defining your goals

The first step is to determine what you want to achieve with an influencer marketing campaign. What kind of objectives are you looking for? Whether you’re aiming, say, to increase sales or boost awareness and visibility, make sure you also set performance indicators.

These performance indicators, also known as KPIs, are specific measures for evaluating the level of performance you’re looking for. On a visibility campaign, for instance, you may select a KPI based on views (for example, we want to obtain 500,000 views on the publication).

KPI (Key Performance Indicators): measures used to evaluate a company's success and efficiency.

Knowing your target audience

To find out who to target with your campaign, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is this campaign aimed at? Women, young people, seniors, self-employed individuals, single mothers, etc.
• What's the profile of the ideal customer you want to reach? Draw a detailed portrait. We even suggest creating a target persona so as to humanize this ideal customer.
• What kind of content are these consumers interested in? Travel content, videos, food, etc.
• Where are these customers? On TikTok? YouTube? Twitch or Instagram?

Once you've answered these questions, you’ll have an easier time knowing which influencers to target.

Choosing the right influencers

Selecting the right influencers for your campaign is a crucial step.

As demonstrated in our previous article, influencers can be characterized according to the number of their subscribers.

• Nano-influencer: fewer than 5,000 subscribers
• Micro-influencer: between 5,000 and 100,000 subscribers
• Macro-influencer: between 100,000 and 1 million subscribers
• Mega-influencer: millions of subscribers

We cannot stress this enough: it’s important to rely on nano-influencers to foster authenticity and engagement.

Here are some important questions to ask when choosing your influencer:

• Who is the content creator's audience? Does it correspond to your target audience?
• What channels are they on? TikTok? A blog? Instagram? Is your ideal customer on this platform?
• Is the influencer related to your industry? (If you sell soaps and an influencer creates budget-friendly recipes, maybe he's not the right person for your campaign!)
• Do the influencer’s values match your own?

Searching for influencers

To find the right influencer, you have to do some research. There are several ways of doing this:

• Use platforms or search tools such as Upfluence, Favikon or Stellar. Most of these platforms charge a fee, however.
• Do a manual search: on TikTok or Instagram, enter a few keywords and you'll find some relevant influencers.
• Contact an agency such as La Boîte d'Influence, Clark Influence, Haute Influence, etc. that can put you in touch with the right influencer.

Don't hesitate to follow the content of the influencers you’ve set your sights on, as well as interact with them. You'll see how they behave and, above all, how they respond to their community.

Drawing up a campaign brief

This step may seem trivial, but it's essential to a smooth-running campaign.

What is a campaign brief? It's simply a document that outlines the creative process and the company's expectations while leaving room for creativity and respecting the voice of the selected influencer.

This brief will also indicate how the content will be used, and the various campaign parameters.

Drawing up the contract and terms of collaboration

Contracts are essential, even when you work on the web! In the contract, make sure to clarify your objectives and what you expect from the influencer.

Here are some elements to include in the contract, which you can have checked and validated by a lawyer:

• Terms and conditions of the agreement (confidentiality policy, intellectual property, contract termination, etc.)
• Price and duration of contract
• Expected services (desired scope, type of content, etc.)
• Other legal information usually found in a service contract

An airtight contract will not only protect you against potential lawsuits but also avoid any misunderstandings with collaborators.

Reviewing content

Whether or not you participate in the influencer's content creation, always favor authentic content. It's your responsibility to make sure the influencer understands your product or service.

It's also important to remain open to creative, out-of-the-box ideas, as influencers will know what works with their community.

All it takes is a little flexibility when you check that the content proposed is aligned with your target clientele.

Publishing and amplifying content

This may sound like an obvious step, but it’s one that's all too often overlooked!

First of all, check that your content will be published at the right time. If possible, avoid interfering with major news events that will sabotage your content. For example, don't post anything on a day when someone important dies.

Feel free to share publications on your various platforms to ensure maximum visibility.

Finally, don't forget to engage with the community: respond to the various comments under the influencer's publication. Show the public that you're available and interested in their comments!

Tracking and analyzing results

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it's essential to track campaign-specific KPIs. These could be engagement rate, reach of the publication, number of visits to your website, etc.

Following this analysis, you'll be able to decide whether to continue the campaign or modify its content. Perhaps you'll decide to explore new forms of content or a new style with the influencer. Or you may ask yourself whether you want to continue the collaboration or look for someone else who can provide better results.

Ready to get started? 

Now that you have a game plan, remember that each of these steps is important. However, even if you stick to the proposed measures, situations may arise that are beyond your control. Don't lose hope, and reassess your goals for the next campaign!

Finally, prioritize authenticity and the results it can have on your brand. Don't hesitate to experiment and learn from each campaign.

Still reluctant to take the plunge? Why not find an agency to help you plan your influencer campaign? Or if you do decide to go it alone, build your campaign slowly and carefully. The results will speak for themselves!

It's no longer a secret: the meteoric rise of social networks and the internet is opening up a host of new opportunities for businesses. These include a wide range of marketing strategies, such as influencer marketing.

The term "influencer" is sometimes seen in a negative light. Often, we think of influencers who make headlines or dance on TikTok. Things have changed, however. Today's influencers are increasingly sincere and authentic. They create relevant, quality content, rather than just promote products.

And often, their audience is tuned in and highly engaged! So why not harness this engagement to promote your brand? Here's what you need to know:

• What is influencer marketing?
• The benefits of influencer marketing
• Choosing the right influencer
• Influencer marketing costs
• Is influencer marketing for me?

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy based on collaboration between a brand and certain individuals, commonly referred to as "influencers", to promote said brand, product or service. The idea is to use the notoriety and credibility of influencers to reach and persuade their audience. These influencers will promote a product or service, whether through video or in writing, by talking about the product or integrating it into their daily lives.

Unlike other forms of marketing such as affiliate marketing, SEO and content marketing, influencer marketing can illustrate, in a more immediate and convincing way, the impact of a product or service in consumers’ daily lives.

In Canada, influencer marketing has proven to be a particularly effective strategy for many digital campaigns. According to a study by Ressac and Leger, 73% of Canadian internet users who follow influencers have changed their behaviour or made a purchase following exposure to influencer content.

Canadian consumers value recommendations from credible and familiar sources on various social platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, giving influencer marketing considerable power.

Types of influencers

We often have this notion of influencers with 500,000 subscribers. But did you know that there are different types of influencers, and that not all of them have hundreds of thousands of subscribers? Here's a short summary of the different types:

Obviously, this is an average, as there are no precise figures to quantify each type of influencer. However, here's an interesting fact: nano-influencers, those with the fewest followers, have the highest engagement rates. They're often the most accessible, too.

The role of brands and agencies

Brands and agencies have key roles to play in an influencer marketing campaign. Brands are responsible for identifying their marketing objectives, defining their target audience and selecting influencers that match their values.

Agencies specialized in influencer marketing will act as a relay between a brand and an influencer. They can find the best influencer for a given campaign. They also negotiate contracts, design campaigns and measure performance.

A partnership between these two entities will certainly result in a more successful campaign.

The benefits of influencer marketing

We're not telling you anything new when we say that influencer marketing has many advantages. Still, here are just a few of them:

Increasing your visibility

For this type of campaign, when you target an influencer who has a large community of followers – or few followers but who are highly engaged – you expose your company to lots of potential customers. Provided you choose the right influencer, of course.

Building brand trust

When choosing an influencer, make sure they are honest and authentic. That way, they'll be talking about your product or service in the way only a fan could. Their community will trust them, and therefore, your brand.

Benefitting from an engaged community

Influencers are seasoned content creators who publish regularly. It's safe to say that their algorithms are constantly primed and ready! Therefore, a publication from them can quickly go viral. Their subscribers will like, comment on and share their publications. This is even truer in the case of nano-influencers, as they are often the closest to their community. They may have fewer subscribers, but their followers are far more active and engaged. So as soon as they share an opinion on a product or service, people will take note.

Maximizing your chances

To reap the benefits of an influencer campaign, it's important to be well-prepared. Above all, that means effectively targeting the campaign's objectives: make sure to choose the right audience and the right influencer to create a close relationship with that audience.

Choosing the right influencer

This step is crucial to the success of a campaign. A wrong choice may result in an unforeseen, negative impact.

High cost

If you don't take the time to accurately target influencers who match your brand and values, you risk spending large sums of money with no return on investment. A very popular influencer may charge you exorbitant rates, but perhaps their subscribers aren't your target audience at all. It's the same with poorly structured, unclear contracts.

Imagine, for example, that you're collaborating with an influencer on a new product. This person creates quality content, which attracts thousands of followers and significant visibility for your product. However, after the campaign, disagreements arise over the rights to use the content, and intellectual property rights have not been clearly established in the contract. You could end up with legal disputes, and therefore substantial legal costs that could have been avoided.

Influencer controversy

Who hasn't read about an influencer controversy? Remember the Sunwing debacle? Influencers often make the headlines, and not always for the right reasons.

If you don't want to end up with controversial partnerships, be cautious and select people who have the same values as you. Otherwise, partnering with an influencer at the center of a controversy could damage your reputation, and consumer trust or, even worse, result in campaign cancellations.

Lack of authenticity

It's often talked about, but it's a crucial point! Did you know that "61% of consumers believe that authenticity is the most important quality an influencer should have"? Lack of authenticity in influencer marketing risks compromising the trust between the influencer and his or her followers.

And it's so important to be authentic, especially these days! The proof? “Authentic” has been named Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2023.

Picture the following scenario: an influencer chooses to promote a poor-quality product that doesn't correspond to their values, or push a dangerous or counterfeit product without even having tested it. What will happen? The campaign will be perceived as a scam by subscribers. And of course, when the influencer promotes their next product, their community will be much more suspicious, even at the risk of not trusting the product in the first place. Imagine being the company behind that next product!

Hence the importance of reaching out to influencers who maintain a high level of credibility and authenticity. This is also why we often recommend giving an influencer almost "carte blanche" in a campaign. They know their audience better than you do, and they'll know how to talk to them. And the more authentic the content, the more likely it is to pay off!

How to reduce the risks associated with influencer marketing?

To ensure a successful campaign while minimizing the inherent risks, we recommend that you select your influencers carefully, ensure they are diverse and, above all, draw up clear agreements with them.

Of course, even with these measures in place, situations may arise that are beyond your control. But if you put all the odds on your side, there's a better chance that the collaboration will pay off for both parties.

Influencer marketing costs

Many factors can influence (!) the costs of influencer marketing:

• The influencer's reputation
• The number of subscribers
• The type of content to be produced (text, video, photo, etc.)
• The desired engagement
• The number of posts etc.

Obviously, all this will be discussed and drawn up in the contract.

To give you an idea of the real cost of an influencer campaign, the Metricool website offers the following rates, based on the number of subscribers: 

You can also use the rate calculator offered by Influence Marketing Hub to find out the approximate costs on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.

Is influencer marketing for me?

Yes, without a shadow of a doubt, companies will benefit from influencer campaigns in 2023. As long as they're done right.

You can also encourage UGC – user-generated content – which is less costly, more authentic and more diverse. This means encouraging consumers to talk about your product via videos, forums and Google reviews.

It's always possible to work with influencer agencies to find the influencer who best suits your needs. But above all, don't forget to plan a social networking strategy to avoid spreading yourself too thin!

Stay tuned for our next article on influencer marketing!