How to test different influencer marketing strategies with marketing experiments: A step by step guide

Influencer marketing is a powerful way to reach and engage your target audience. By conducting marketing experiments, you can optimize your influencer marketing strategies for better results. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Define Your Goal

Start by defining what you want to achieve with your influencer marketing campaigns. This could be increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, generating sales, or any other relevant goal.

Step 2: Identify Variables for Testing

Next, identify the aspects of your influencer marketing strategy that you want to test. This could include the types of influencers you work with (e.g., micro-influencers vs. macro-influencers), the platforms you use, the content format (e.g., posts, stories, videos, etc.), the messaging, the call-to-action, or the promotion strategy.

Step 3: Develop Hypotheses

For each variable you’re testing, develop a hypothesis. For example, if you’re testing the impact of different types of influencers, your hypothesis might be: “Micro-influencers generate a higher engagement rate than macro-influencers.”

Step 4: Design Your Experiment

Design your experiment to test your hypotheses. This typically involves creating two different influencer marketing campaigns – a control version (A) and a variant version (B). The control version should reflect your current approach, while the variant should include the proposed change.

Step 5: Implement Your Test

Launch both campaigns at the same time, ensuring that other variables are kept constant to ensure a fair comparison.

Step 6: Collect and Analyze Data

Run the campaigns for a sufficient period, then collect and analyze the data. Look at the metrics that are relevant to your goal, such as impressions, engagement rate, click-through rate, or sales generated.

Step 7: Interpret the Results and Implement Changes

If your data shows a significant difference between the control and the variant, implement the more successful approach in your influencer marketing strategy. If there’s no clear winner, or if the control performed better, this might indicate that your hypothesis was incorrect or that other factors are influencing performance.

Step 8: Document and Share Results

Document the results of your experiment, including the hypothesis, the changes made, the results, and any conclusions drawn. Share these findings with your team and with the influencers you work with so they can apply these learnings in future campaigns.

Step 9: Repeat the Process

Influencer marketing is an evolving field, and there’s always room for improvement. Continue to test different aspects of your influencer marketing strategy, implement the winning changes, and consistently optimize your campaigns for better performance.

Remember, the key to successful influencer marketing is building authentic, mutually beneficial relationships with influencers. Always respect their creative freedom and their connection with their audience, and aim to create campaigns that provide value to all parties involved: you, the influencer, and the audience.