Influencer ambassador programs can make your marketing more EFFICIENT

Having been around for 15 years or so, influencer marketing now has strategies that can be executed many different ways by brands. But as we head toward 2020, we're heading into an era where brands are demanding a more effective way to execute programs and measure ROI.

Enter Influencer Ambassador Programs

Many brands may already have ambassador programs set up, but the specific approach I'm outlining here focuses on turning effective influencers into long-term partners, essentially turning them into ambassadors for your brand. These types of programs allow for better, longer optimizations, an increase in overall engagement rates, improved content quality, and efficiency over time... aka a win-win-win for you, the influencers and your customers.

How Ambassador Programs Work

To be successful with an ambassador strategy, there are four key tactics that need to be in place:

1. Pulse-Style Phases

An ambassador campaign should run over the course of 6-12+ months, but don't let that lead you down an "always-on" approach. Instead, plan out key times in the year in which you want to implement a campaign flight, and plan for that flight to last for about 4 weeks (no longer than 8 weeks since social content isn't built for the long haul).

2. Content & Amplification Strategies

A well-rounded influencer marketing strategy also has a firm content creation strategy and media plan incorporated. When it comes to your content, be sure you're asking influencers to create content that drives your campaign objectives (aka, no blog posts or YouTube videos if your going for web traffic). As for your media plan, make sure you have a process in place that identifies top-performing influencer content in real time so you can put paid dollars behind only those pieces that are driving results.

3. Influencer Contracts

Before you kick-off the program, make sure you have properly identified your influencers and have contracts in place for your first phase/pulse. Notice, I did not say to have contracts set for the duration on the entire long-term campaign. Why? Because at the end of that first phase, you want to measure the performance of each influencer against one another and identify those whose content helped you drive the most results-to-goal.

4. Influencer Contracts... Part 2

After you have those initial results from phase one, and maybe even phase two, now is when you dive into developing those longer-term contracts with top-performing influencers that you want to invite back and make ambassadors out of. Not only will the influencer be locked into a longer term commitment that prevents them from talking about any other competitors, but the repeated exposure of your brand to their audience is what will lead to additional results down the road. In fact, after each phase, you can review the new influencers to see which should be converted to brand ambassadors.

In addition to this strategic plan, for all of our clients at Carusele running similar-style campaigns, we optimize influencers, audiences, content, ad types, platforms, and targeting, leading to improved results each month. So if you're interested in partnering with an influencer marketing agency that can help your band drive measurable results that compete with Google CPCs, contact us using the form below.