7 Effective Influencer Marketing Strategies on Instagram

78% of social influencers prefer to partner with brands through Instagram, according to recent research.

That’s definitely evident on Instagram when you examine recent research which reports that 39% of all Instagrammers with more than 15,000 followers are active influencers.

So why would you use Instagram for Influencer Marketing?

Hopper suggests these reasons:

Influencer marketing allows brands to reach their target audience in a way that feels far more genuine than traditional advertising. Rather than businesses selling directly to consumers, they are building relationships with influencers who can sell for them. Instagram influencers have a strong and loyal relationship with their followers, as they share many aspects of their life with them. This leads us to feel like we know them personally, so when an influencer we like recommends something, we listen as we would if it were a friend.

For example, if you follow a travel blogger for their beautiful photos or funny captions, and they post about an airplane pillow that gave them the best night’s sleep on a long haul flight, you’re more inclined to remember the brand and buy it for your next holiday because you like and trust them. Makes sense, right?

With 800 million active users, Instagram has become the platform of choice for influencer marketing. 72% of users said they have made fashion, beauty or style-related purchases after seeing something on the app, proving its power in today’s digital marketing landscape!

We can conclude then that, as long as your product or service is in harmony with the interests and values of your chosen influencers and their followers, you should certainly consider Influencer Marketing via Instagram.

One caveat, though — you have to do it right. You can’t just ask an influencer to mention your product to their audience to be successful — you need to put in the work.

• Pick Influencers that are in harmony with your products/services
• Provide them with meaningful reasons to promote your product to their followers
• Provide them with the creative tools to create a visually-appealing message
• Insist that they put your pitch in their own voice

Let’s review a number of Influencer Marketing strategies that have been proven to work. Grin takes us through 7 influencer marketing strategies you should follow to achieve solid results:

1 Discount Codes

Discounts compel a customer to make a purchase by giving them an incentive. Combining an influencer’s post with a unique code gives the audience an additional nudge towards a purchase.

2 Brand Mentions

One of the most effective marketing strategies, a brand mention on social media has a much wider reach. Brand mentions lead to more digital conversations and a wider social engagement. Mentions of a brand on social media can boost brand awareness immensely.

3 Giveaways

Competitions and giveaways create a sense of excitement in a consumer. They offer the chance of the thrill of winning something. They also encourage your audience to engage more with your content.

4 Long-Term Partnerships/Ambassador Programs

When an influencer becomes the face of a brand, it is similar to a brand endorsement. The ambassador uses his social media accounts to spread the word about the brand. It also has a long-term value since it has the potential to attract loyal customers.

5 Events

This is a great way to have a personal interaction with the influencer, and also to network with influential people. Media coverage and influencer posts on social media platforms about the event leads to more brand awareness. (Just don’t make the same mistakes as the Fyre Festival, okay?)

6 Takeovers

Here an influencer takes over a brand’s social media account for a pre-decided period of time, and posts on its behalf. This way, a brand gets new content and get more followers.

7 Challenge Your Influencers

Competitions are fun, and when it’s among influencers, it can boost a brand’s visibility and engagement. Winning criteria for influencers is based on social shares or traffic generated for the brand’s website.

PS This image needs a little more explanation: Clothing brand prAna started a #7DayStretch challenge on Instagram and Twitter. They challenged bloggers to wear the same pants for 7 days in a row, and to talk about the experience using #7DayStretch hashtag.

Each influencer picked out the pants that suited their style best, and wore them for seven days. All they had to do was take pictures of what they did wearing the pants and talk about it.

This is a creative strategy of incorporating the brand’s products into people’s lives. prAna became an integral part of the influencers’ daily lives for seven days.

The campaign saw some cool posts from influencers. They got to create their own stories without taking away from the brand.

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If you’d like to know more about (a) Instagram and/or (b) Influencer Marketing, check out these two courses:

Our Influencer Marketing online training course is a nine-part course which covers the importance of Influencer Marketing, helps you to determine the smartest and most effective strategies — and to explore how to identify effective Kiwi micro-influencers who will be good ambassadors for your brand.

For more information about our Influencer Marketing course, please click here.