When managing an influencer marketing campaign, knowing and following the dos and don’ts can be the difference between achieving a winning campaign or not.

This post, designed to share influencer marketing campaign management best practices, is the fourth in our “Comprehensive Guide to Influencer Marketing” 6-part series in which we discuss the 6 Things you Must do Before Developing an Influencer Marketing Plan, 4 Steps to Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy, How to Create Results-Driven Influencer Marketing CampaignsHow to Successfully Manage Influencers, and 11 Influencer Marketing Tactics to Rock Your Campaigns.

Follow These 6 Steps to Enjoy Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign Management

Certain aspects of an influencer marketing campaign are essential for executing a memorable (for all the good reasons) campaign, including these 6 steps.

1. Develop a timeline.

As opposed to an influencer marketing strategy timeline, campaign timelines, which can be shared in the SOW, are more project-based and should include each campaign’s tasks, resources, deadlines, and a place to update each task’s progress. If a campaign is larger in size or more complex, consider adding dependencies and assigning milestones.

Things to ask yourself when creating a campaign timeline include:

    • Who needs to be involved in the project scheduling development and/or a buy in before we kick off the campaign?
    • What project scheduling tool will work best for our team?
    • What lead times does each task require?
    • Are there critical tasks that require longer lead times that we need to be aware of at the outset (e.g., legal reviews, creative asset development, influencer vetting/sourcing, metrics report development, etc.)?
    • How much time, if any, do we need to add for administrative tasks (e.g., meetings, troubleshooting, expense reports, email, etc.)?
    • Should we add in a buffer (to give us additional time in case we hit delays)? If so, how long? How many?
Tip! Build time in weekly for team meetings to report out on campaign goals.

2. Research and vet influencers.

The SOW should spell out the specific influencer criteria for the campaign. The next step is to research influencers who meet that criteria. You can do this in one of several ways:

If you have an internal influencer network, then research and vet influencers in-house.If you do not have an internal influencer network but you have human resource capabilities, then have your team member research and vet influencers. Go through an influencer network and have them research and vet the influencers for you.Subscribe to a tool that allows you to use their database to research influencers that meet your criteria. The tools often require you to research and vet, but you go through their network instead of random searches on popular search engines, etc.

Researching and vetting influencers is just the tip of the iceberg. Click here to learn more about how to successfully manage influencers and all the steps involved with influencer management.

3. Execute the campaign according to the SOW.

From here on out, carry out the tasks as outlined in the project timeline, modifying tasks and items as required but with the goal to stay within budget and on time, as well as deliver in alignment with the criteria included in the scope of work.

4. Track results.

Depending on your budget and manpower, you can either manually track statistics or use a stats tracking program. By manually tracking stats, creating a spreadsheet will make your managerial life easier. (Google Sheets are a nice option, especially for collaboration.) The benefits? A spreadsheet will help you and your team organize links, sponsored post activity, and sponsored promotional activity.

Lots of programs that offer automatic stats tracking have come onto the market since influencer marketing entered the space. Companies like DashThis!, NUVI, Radian6, Simply Measured, Twingly, and more offer a variety of programs, services, and dashboards to help you track influencer and campaign activity.

Tip! If this type of stats tracking is of interest to you, then be sure to research your options, talk to representatives from the various companies, make a pros and cons list, identify which tools work within your budget, and select the option that is right for you.

5. Report out weekly.

Hold weekly campaign team meetings to go over the campaign’s goal(s) and to determine whether progress on the campaign is on target to help you reach the goals. While all criteria should have been set in the scope of work phase, modify your timeline or tactics as necessary to deliver the best results possible.

6. Create a wrap-up report at the campaign’s conclusion.

Be sure to collect and review all statistics associated with the campaign. You can track metrics in a spreadsheet for easy calculations. The following data is important to collect when compiling a stats report for an influencer marketing campaign:

  • Total number of influencers
  • Total number of blog posts
  • Total number of blog post comments
  • Total number of giveaway entries (if applicable)
  • *Total UVMs (unique monthly visitors) for each influencer
  • *Total page views for each influencers
  • *Total page views that the sponsored post received
  • Total number of Facebook page likes
  • Total likes, shares, and comments each sponsored promotion received on Facebook
  • *Total number of views each sponsored promotion received on Facebook
  • Total number of Google+ followers
  • Total number of +1s, comments, and shares each sponsored promotion received on Google+
  • Total number of Instagram followers
  • Total number of comments and likes each sponsored promotion received on Instagram
  • Total number of Twitter followers
  • Total retweets, favorites, and comments each sponsored promotion received on Twitter
  • Total number of Pinterest followers
  • Total repins, comments, and likes each sponsored promotion received on Pinterest
  • Collective social media reach and impressions
  • Collective blog reach and impressions
  • Screenshots of blog posts and social media promotions
  • *Links to blog posts
  • *Campaign feedback from influencers
  • Campaign feedback from influencers’ readers and followers
* The items marked with an asterisk are stats that might need to be collected directly from the influencers (depending on the stat tracking service you use). Of course, the stats report will depend on how comprehensive you want to get when it comes time to review the results of the campaign. The more stats you can collect upfront and throughout the process, the easier it will be to compile a comprehensive report at the end of the campaign.

Next Steps

Now that you are prepared to manage influencer marketing campaigns, don’t forget about the influencers—the most important part of influencer marketing. Check out these posts in our series to learn more:

Not sure where to start? Let’s talk! Partnering with a professional influencer network, such as Forward Influence, yields many benefits. We’ll meet with you to discuss your ideas, goals, and objectives. From there, we’ll develop a campaign that will meet (and hopefully surpass) your objectives. Does that sound like a plan? Contact us at jyl@forwardinfluence.com to get started.
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