November 10th, 2023 | Alex

7 Steps to Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy

Influencer marketing campaigns allow you to promote your products, services and events using influencers that resonate with your audience.

In the events industry crafting an effective influencer marketing campaign can be a smart way to increase visibility of your event.

By using relevant influencers to promote your event or campaign you can reach new audiences and maximise on their reach to benefit your event.

In this post, we will cover how you can create an influencer marketing campaign that you can use to promote and market your live event.

What is a Good Influencer Strategy?

Not all influencer strategies are created equal.

While some strategies will differ slightly, there will be a few guiding principles that should be present throughout all influencer strategies.

They should align with your brand’s:

Goals.
Values.
Target audience.

You should identify and collaborate with influencers who authentically resonate with your brand and have a genuine connection with their followers.

Building long-term relationships with successful influencers is valuable practice within any influencer strategy, fostering consistent brand presence and building trust with the influencer’s audience.

A well-executed influencer strategy maximises brand exposure, drives audience engagement, and delivers a tangible return on investment.

How to Create an Influencer Marketing Strategy

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create an influencer strategy for your live event:

1. Define Your Goals

The first thing you must do is define the goals of your influencer marketing strategy.

Without setting clear goals you’ll risk aiming your strategy in the wrong direction.

Imagine your goal is to drive strong ticket sales for your live event.

You could hire an influencer to promote your event and encourage people to grab the tickets while they’re still available.

If you didn’t clearly state that your main objective was to drive ticket sales the campaign could have ended up being a brand awareness campaign.

Brand awareness campaigns can be very beneficial but they shouldn’t be used to drive ticket sales.

That’s why it’s so important to get crystal clear on your campaign goals.

They determine the actions you take before, during and after the campaign.

So whether you want to grow your social media following or increase your website traffic numbers, you need to clearly state your intentions.

Influencers can only help if you use them to achieve the goals you set out.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

If you don’t identify your audience then you’ll end up targeting everyone, or reaching for the wrong demographic.

You need to be very specific about who you’re trying to reach with your influencer marketing campaign.

There are many methods you can use to identify your target audience including:

Market Research – Start by conducting market research. Look at your existing customer base and analyse their demographics, behaviours, and preferences. Consider factors such as age, gender, location, income, education, and occupation.

Create Buyer Personas – Develop detailed buyer personas representing your ideal customers. These personas should include information like name, age, job, hobbies, pain points, and goals. The more specific and detailed your personas are, the better you can target your audience.

Segmentation – Divide your audience into segments based on common characteristics. This can be demographic, psychographic, or behavioural. For example, you might have different segments for young professionals, parents, or retirees.

Competitor Analysis – Analyse your competitors and their customer base. Who are they targeting, and what strategies are they using? This can provide insights into potential gaps in the market or underserved segments.

Social Media Insights – Utilise social media analytics tools to understand your followers and engage with them. These tools can provide data on demographics, interests, and engagement levels.

Website Analytics – Review your website’s analytics data to gain insights into the people visiting your site. This can help you understand their behaviours, interests, and the pages they frequent.

3. Choose the Right Influencers

Now it has come to the crucial moment in choosing the influencer you want to use in your campaign.

This is the influencer that you believe will help you achieve the goals set out at the beginning of your campaign.

Look for influencers who align with your brand and have a genuine connection with your target audience.

Consider the following factors:

Follower count.
Engagement rate.
Content quality.
Values alignment.

You can find influencers on social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and blogs or use influencer marketing platforms and agencies.

When it comes to finding influencers for your live events, Gala PR has access to a high-profile talent network.

This network is full of relevant and authentic influencers who can help create an effective influencer marketing strategy for your brand.

Our talent booking team are very experienced at reaching out to the right influencers which will be used to promote your live event.

4. Set a Budget

Let’s talk about money.

Your budget will have a huge impact on how your campaign will perform.

If you have budget set aside, you’ll typically stand a better chance of creating a successful campaign. It gives you authority on content approvals, direction of the content, timings and key messaging.

Although, if you don’t follow the other steps correctly your budget could have less of an impact.

According to the Activate 2018 State of Influencer Marketing Study, most influencers are paid a flat fee for creating and publishing content or with in-kind services such as a free product or service.

It’s not only the fee for the influencer that you will need to consider.

You’ll need to consider additional costs such as transport and accommodation for the influencer.

This will be specific to each influencer and should be stipulated in the contract so there is no risk of miscommunication.

5. Create a Content Strategy

Creating a content plan for an influencer can be a daunting process.

You want to try and mix the influencer’s unique style and voice with your brand message and objectives.

Start by identifying key themes, messages, and product/service features that you want to highlight.

If it’s for a live event you might want the influencer in amongst the event whilst it’s taking place, especially if they have a creative flair for their content.

Collaborate closely with the influencer and capitalise on their creativity and insights.

Encourage them to infuse their authentic personality into the content while ensuring it resonates with your brand values.

Determine the type of content that suits both the influencer’s platform and your audience.

Content can be in the form of:

Instagram stories.
TikTok posts.
YouTube videos.
Blog posts.
Interactive social media challenges.

Establish a posting schedule and include a mix of promotional content, engaging stories, and behind-the-scenes glimpses to maintain audience interest.

It’s crucial to maintain a balance between showcasing your event and providing valuable, entertaining, or informative content that keeps the audience engaged.

Regularly evaluate the performance of the content plan, allowing flexibility to adapt and optimise based on audience feedback and campaign objectives.

6. Negotiate Terms and Contracts

Contracts clearly define the terms of your collaboration, including:

Deliverables.
Timeline.
Compensation.
Usage rights.

Having a formal contract is essential to protect both your brand and the influencer. The terms set out in the contract give a clear indication of who is responsible for which tasks.

Contract negotiations can be a stressful process.

It will involve cooperation from both parties to come to an amicable agreement that is suitable.

The key to contract negotiations is to always have an open and honest dialogue with the influencer.

The level of influencer you’re dealing with can also play a massive part in the contract negotiations.

If they have a relatively small audience and are eager to work with a live events brand then you may be able to steer the negotiations slightly more in your favour.

As long as you don’t take advantage of course.

When dealing with an influencer who has a huge following they may see themselves as having more leverage in the negotiations.

Therefore, they will want a deal that they deem is more in their favour.

How you handle these negotiations is dependent on how much you want to work with that particular influencer.

There is no reason you can’t come out with a deal that is suitable for both parties, after all, that is what negotiations are all about.

Just remember, when handling objections, always seek to resolve them by:

Being flexible.
Listening actively.
Seeking creative solutions.
Staying calm and collected.

7. Track and Measure

As you execute your influencer strategy, you will need to monitor its progress.

That way, you’ll know if you’re running a successful campaign that will reach your goals.

Use tracking tools and analytics to monitor the performance of your influencer campaign.

Measure key performance indicators (KPIs) like engagement, reach, clicks, conversions, and return on investment (ROI).

Using data, you can make changes while the campaign is ongoing.

Allowing you to collaborate with the influencer and work to make any changes needed.

Once the campaign is finished, you can review the data and refine your influencer strategy going forward.

Gala PR Influencer Strategy

There you have it, 7 steps to creating an influencer strategy that you can use for your live events brand.

Influencers have proven to be a great asset to attract new customers and a wider audience to your event.

If you would like to work with influencers to promote your live event, we would love to work with you.

Our talent booking team can put you in touch with relevant influencers and reach out to them on your behalf.