"How do I know when it's time to scale an influencer campaign?"
Good question! From awareness and engagement to awesome content, brands of all shapes and sizes are seeing results from creator campaigns.
Thing is, a whopping 71% of brands run influencer campaigns in-house. We totally understand why brands want to stay lean and run the show themselves We get it!
The problem? Small-scale influencer campaigns rarely reach their full potential.
And knowing when to scale is tricky without past experience or the right tools.
For many brands, maximizing the marketing impact of influencers starts with getting serious about scaling. This post breaks down what that means and signs to push forward.
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What Scaling Your Influencer Marketing Means
“Scaling” simply means ramping up your influencer campaigns to amplify your results.
Think of creator campaigns like any other marketing channel or tactic.
If you’re seeing consistent returns from your social ads or SEO strategy, it makes sense to turn up the dial. Well, the same rules apply to influencer campaigns.
Scaling your influencer marketing typically involves a combination of the following steps:
The fact that influencer budgets are rising year-over-year speaks for itself.
Here's a snapshot of the benefits of scaling for brands already seeing results with creators:
Also, scaling is key to seeing long-term returns from your influencer campaigns. Based on our firsthand experience, brands that see the best results play the long game. That’s why we say that always-on influencer marketing is ideal.
Because long-term promotions produce ongoing content, mentions and attention to your brand.
Most brands experience a sort of snowball effect of momentum from creator campaigns. Look at brands like Glossier who've exploded in popularity thanks to their ongoing investment in influencers.
Source: @Glossier
Again, we’ve entered the era of always-on influencer marketing. Creators are part of brands’ promotional strategies for the long haul. Scaling now builds your momentum sooner rather than later.
If you’re on the fence about ramping things up, we 100% understand.
Investing more in any marketing tactic can feel risky. This is especially true with influencers as the social media space changes all the time.
Again, consider that more brands than ever have a dedicated influencer budget.
Working with creators is a proven tactic that isn’t going anywhere. In fact, all signs point to brands scaling more for the reasons noted earlier.
We believe that brands should approach influencer marketing with a sense of confidence. That’s why we put together this list of five signals that your brand should get serious about scaling.
Food for thought: if you have creators promoting your brand, you’ve already done the hard part.
Think of organic creator content as validation. Social shout-outs confirm that your brand and product are valuable to consumers. Scaling your influencer campaigns means getting in front of even more people.
From engagement to traffic, there are plenty of ways to measure your results. If you’re seeing influencers move the needle with DIY campaigns, that’s a sign to keep the momentum going.
It’s always super rewarding when a piece of creator content pops off.
Sure, viral posts are never a guarantee. If it happens once, it won’t always happen again.
But going viral signals that you have the potential to earn consistent engagement in the future.
One-off campaigns can generate excitement and awareness in the short term. You might go viral. That said, a single viral post doesn’t define the potential of a brand or campaign.
On the flip side, scaling your influencer marketing means earning consistent engagement. If you earn viral posts along the way, that’s a stellar sign and an added bonus.
By the way, you’d be surprised at which products go viral (and how often). From pet food to household cleaners, our own creators have earned millions of views on TikTok with a variety of products. There are tons of CPG brands taking over TikTok with the help of creators.
Source: @naturally_nakeyta / @layerkakes
Let’s say your brand is seeing an increase in reviews and shout-outs from satisfied customers.
Nice! The more authentic and glowing reviews, the better. Fact: 62% of consumers turn to social media content featuring real people before buying.
Buzz from creators ensures that people looking you up via social content see positive reviews.
Given that more than half of all consumers read at least four reviews prior to purchase, having an army of influencers hyping you up is invaluable.
Source: @dermdoctor
Scaling up to a high volume of content (think: hundreds of influencers posting a month) is also invaluable for improving yourf social SEO on TikTok. We're seeing more and more of our own brands rank for product-related terms on TikTok with the help of our own creators.
Remember: you get back what you put into influencer marketing.
A staggering 89% of marketers claim that they’re increasing their influencer budgets in 2023. Again, this rise isn’t happening by accident.
When it comes to marketing channels and tactics, you’re spoiled for choice.
Email. SEO. Content marketing. Paid ads. These don’t even scratch the surface.
Note how scaling your influencer marketing can supplement the tactics above. For example, creator content improves paid ad performance on TikTok and Instagram. User-generated content also improves conversions on product pages and increases average order values.
This is the big one.
Influencer campaigns involve more moving pieces than many brands bargain for. You probably know this all too well by now. This includes:
When you and your teammates are running the show DIY, it’s easy for influencer marketing to become a time-sink. Even a small-scale influencer gifting campaign alone can take 70+ hours just for a handful of posts. This intense time commitment isn’t sustainable, let alone scalable.
As noted earlier, scaling your influencer marketing efforts involves multiple steps.
Making it happen isn’t a one-size-fits-all process, though. Below are a few action items that brands running campaigns DIY should consider.
The more efficient your campaigns are, the better.
We’ll say it again: the time investment required to run creator campaigns is no joke.
That’s why we encourage brands to take advantage of templates and shortcuts where they can, like:
Spotting the right influencers can be daunting and time-consuming.
This is especially true if you’re in a niche industry or want to work with smaller creators.
Finding influencers faster doesn’t mean sacrificing your attention to detail. Instead, explore ways to uncover creators that don’t involve looking them up manually.
For example, you might use database software that compiles creator information and profiles. These databases often let you search for influencers based on engagement and price.
Still, influencer databases require you to do the legwork of outreach and vetting influencers.
With the right influencer platform, brands can amplify the results of their campaigns without sacrificing precious time. For example, Statusphere uses 250+ unique, first-party data points to help brands find the perfect creators based on their target audiences.
If you want to earn creator content at scale, there’s really only so much that’s possible in-house. This rings true even if you bring in a dedicated influencer specialist or hire an agency.
This highlights the value of a micro-influencer marketing platform like Statusphere.
Unlike databases or agencies where content isn’t a sure thing, we guarantee posts from our vetted network of tens of thousands of creators. Our platform also obtains content rights so brands can repost or run their influencer posts as ads faster.
By handling tasks like fulfillment and performance tracking, we empower brands to maximize their micro-influencer campaigns without doing all the heavy lifting.
If you're already partnering with micro-influencers to promote your brand, you're on the right track.
Consumers rely on product recommendations from creators like never before. Brands need to meet that demand by scaling their influencer marketing efforts. Doing so means connecting with the best possible creators for your brand while still sourcing a high volume of content.
And that’s where Statusphere comes in.
Our own scalable micro-influencer platform has saved 400+ brands a collective 11,000 hours. That's because Statusphere programmatically matches brands with influencers from our vetted network to eliminate the most time-consuming tasks related to running campaigns.
We also aggregate all of your performance data alongside each piece of rights-ready influencer content you get. Unlike other platforms, brands that use our platform earn guaranteed content and not a random amount of posts per month.
Want to learn more about how our platform works? Get in touch with one of our experts to see how we can scale your influencer program in a fraction of the time.
This article was first published in November 2022. It was last updated on May 30, 2023.