Top 5 Influencer Marketing Campaign Types for 2020

Mistakes in influencer marketing tactics made companies think working with influencers is a waste of time and money. However, this is still one of the most powerful means of bringing a brand closer to people. So it’s worth looking at some of the top influencer campaigns for 2020.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen influencer marketing becoming one of the most reliable ways to create brand awareness. When nearly 40% of marketers are looking to raise their influencer marketing budget in 2020, that means this form of content delivery is still in its heyday.

But just like other forms of marketing, it has seen setbacks through the years because of strategies that failed. The good thing is, we’re always looking for ways to tweak our approaches, and we’ve seen successful influencer campaigns that will certainly take center stage in 2020.

Sponsored content

One of the oldest types of social media marketing, sponsored content remains popular in the realm of influencer marketing because it’s simple. You reach out to influencers and ask them if they’re interested in promoting your products. Or an influencer may approach you and ask you if you’re willing to have them promote your products.

You may agree on whether you want them to feature your products in a photo, video, or post. You’ll have to agree on certain guidelines, but you have to keep in mind that you’re asking an influencer to feature your products before their audience, not your audience. For content to sound authentic, it must be said in the influencer’s voice, not yours.

For 2020, we’re taking this a notch by tapping multiple influencers at once. A massive sponsored influencer campaign worked for politicians, and companies are tuning in, wondering how they can tap into the collective power of micro- and nano-influencers to turn a brand into a household name in just a few days.

Shopee Indonesia did it by working with 200 influencers at the same time to produce over 300 sponsored Instagram posts. That strategy gave them 2 million views and about 500,000 engagements in just a week.

It’s certainly one of the successful influencer campaigns we’ve seen recently. The catch is that it demands a lot of time, money, and effort, but an efficient content sourcing approach makes things a lot easier. At linkr, we take advantage of our network of high-quality social media content creators, thereby reducing administrative and communications overhead when scaling campaigns with both micro- and macro-influencers.

Product Reviews

If sponsored content is a good way to foster brand awareness, reviews give potential customers a closer look at your products. Unboxing videos and how-to guides are still a great way to bring about brand consideration. Keep in mind that once people become aware that your brand exists, they have to consider your products. And one way to make them consider your products is to show them why your stuff is worth their money.

Consumers looking for objective content about products they’ve shortlisted are looking for honest reviews. Knowing that, companies are looking for people to put out product reviews and guides, and there are no better options than influencers, who are seen by their audiences as credible sources of honest opinions. However, choosing the right partners is a key to an effective campaign. That’s why you won’t see average YouTubers doing camera reviews or tech guys writing about the best Caribbean hotels.

Asking influencers to review your product can be tricky, especially if you’re working with someone who’s just outright blunt. It pays to look at their content to find out how they handle product reviews.

Compelling Stories

Promoting products through traditional ads isn’t working anymore. Aside from reviews, authentic stories are becoming a great way of selling products. Personal stories have something that ads or even reviews don’t have -- an emotional component. They just don’t convince people on a rational level. Emotional stories touch people on a deeper level. Hence, they’re more effective in leaving an impression and converting an audience to customers.

One challenge for influencer campaigns that involve stories is finding the influencers who can write authentic and believable stories. These people should be credible, and their stories shouldn’t sound like sales pitches, or their followers will doubt their intentions.

But just like reviews, stories can be a one-off affair. An influencer can write a fancy story about your brand, and that story gets forgotten the next day. The mistake marketers make is not building relationships with their influencers, and this lack of relationship becomes a problem regardless of the type of campaign.

This is why we need to build strong relationships with influencers for 2020 campaigns to work. We need to create genuine connections that transcend transactional arrangements. It’s not just about making brand ambassadors out of influencers. You want to make meaningful associations with them to motivate them to make powerful stories featuring your products. And powerful stories sell. Thus, storytelling will be one of the best influencer campaigns for 2020.

When an influencer becomes your brand ambassador, they can promote your products more frequently and their followers will get acquainted with your brand more often. The more they see it, the more they remember it. Also, the longer you partner with them, the more your brand becomes credible and trustworthy in the eyes of their followers.

Also, making long-term partners fosters loyalty. Not to mention, it’s easier to work with long-time partners than to find new partners to trust.

Contests and Giveaways

Hosting giveaways works because people love to have fun and win goodies. It’s easy to implement. All you need to do is ask your partners to give away products on your behalf, and watch their engagement surge as their followers subscribe, like, share, comment on the posts, or do whatever you want them to. This creates brand awareness.

There are different ways to host contests and giveaways. You can ask the influencer to tell their followers to like the post, comment on the post with a hashtag or a photo, tag friends in the comments, or share the post. You can also ask your influencer to ask their followers to like or follow your page or subscribe to your website, hence driving traffic to your social media pages and website. You or your social media partners shall pick the winners who will receive freebies and giveaways.

What about sweepstakes and lotteries? You probably haven’t heard of lotteries as a means to boost brand awareness, but companies have been asking influencers to host lotteries on their behalf. Why? They know people love games of chance. The idea of winning products by simply joining an easy online game such as a lottery is thrilling. And when you excite people, they associate your brand with a good feeling. When you make them feel good, they tend to become your customers.

Contests and lotteries should be implemented cleverly, or watch the event fizzle into oblivion. The good news is, we can help you work with the right influencers, target the right audience, and pick the right time.

Social Media Takeover

Sometimes you have to give up control over your brand’s social media pages and let an influencer take over and allow their creativity to reign on your behalf. The success of this influencer campaign rests on choosing a social media figure. You want someone whose personality and content fit your brand so that when they take over your social media accounts, you won’t sound weird.

Are you wondering how influencers can help your business? Do you want to get started with your first campaign and see how far your brand can go? Sign up for a free trial now.