Influencer marketing has become an essential part of companies' and organizations' marketing communications. In Finland alone, marketers are already investing over 40 million euros in influencer marketing annually (IAB, 2022). As influencer marketing investments grow, the importance of planning, effectiveness, and measurement becomes even more emphasized. One way to approach influencer marketing strategically is to incorporate it into the marketing annual calendar.
What should be considered in influencer marketing annual planning?
Typical reasons for choosing influencer marketing as part of the marketing toolkit include, for example, reaching a traditionally challenging target audience (such as young men or cooking enthusiasts) or increasing brand credibility.
Influencer marketing is generally used to increase brand awareness, build perceptions, and generate interest. It is important to note that few consumers immediately purchase a product or service recommended by an influencer – therefore, influencer marketing should not be thought of solely from a commercial collaboration perspective, but integrated as part of other marketing and touchpoints such as websites, applications, company social media channels, or advertising.
A brand's influencer marketing activities benefit from creative and strategic planning. An umbrella concept created for traditional advertising is challenging to implement as-is in influencer channels – the risk is that the content becomes too repetitive and forced. Creative expertise is needed to guide influencer content production and make it more consistent from the brand's perspective. However, sufficient space should be left for influencers to implement concepts authentically to their channels. The trust relationship influencers have with their audience is the foundation of everything.
A creative concept alone is not enough either. A key part of influencer marketing planning is planning and defining distribution channels, influencer profiles, content themes, and actions expected from influencers that are relevant from the target group's perspective. Identifying, briefing, and implementing influencers is easier when you understand what you're doing and serving the ultimate goal. This also saves time when execution is not continuous ad-hoc tinkering.
A central part of influencer marketing annual planning is influencer selection. Unfortunately, this phase is often rushed without careful planning, and thus the work may not serve the ultimate goal. Influencer selection should be carefully reflected against the objectives and defined target groups. It is worthwhile to familiarize yourself with influencer data and channels, as well as genuine interest beforehand. This avoids unpleasant surprises during implementation.
The social media field, channels, and influencers are in constant change. An influencer who is popular in spring may not be relevant by fall, so it's worth being prepared for possible changes. On the other hand, certain industries see fierce competition for large, already established influencers. It may be beneficial for a marketer to lock in key influencers for brand work on an annual basis and also agree on annual-level activities with them. Campaign planning itself should be done closer to implementation – this way problem situations can be avoided if there are changes in content, channels, or the influencer's life that could affect brand marketing. Smaller influencers can also be booked closer to the campaign launch, for example with the help of Boksi.
Influencer marketing does not consist solely of work done by influencers or creative and strategic planning, but also requires resources for planning, finding influencers, and managing campaigns. When you want to do influencer marketing systematically, it also requires technology investments. There are various SaaS tools and marketplaces available such as Boksi.
All different aspects of influencer marketing planning and implementation should be considered in budgeting in addition to the investment going to influencers, whether you do the work yourself or hire a specialized agency.
The largest cost item in influencer marketing is, of course, influencer fees. It is good to estimate the budget through different target groups and consider which distribution channels you want to use to reach each target group. In budgeting, it is important to consider which channels you want to use influencers in. If an influencer's face or content is used in advertising, influencers often request a separate fee for this.
Of course, the challenge is that influencer marketing does not have fixed list prices. Larger-scale influencers typically operate based on supply and demand and their own brand preferences. Additionally, they charge significantly higher fees for content usage rights compared to, for example, micro-influencers. Instagram influencer marketing CPM prices may vary between 15 and 50 euros, while YouTube CPM prices in influencer marketing typically range between 20 and 50 euros. When measuring influencer marketing, it is important to focus on the influencer's actual cost per contact – it often differs significantly from follower counts.
Depending on the marketer's objectives, the budget should be allocated to both key influencers and separate campaign-specific or ongoing micro-influencers. An essential part of continuous work is naturally to negotiate the best possible prices with influencers and build historical price data.
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