Influencer Marketing: How to Effectively Market Your Business on Instagram

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59% of influencers find Instagram to be the most effective social media platform when it comes to influencer marketing.

In this post, we’ll look at:

What Instagram influencer marketing is
How to create an Instagram influencer marketing strategy
How much you’ll be spending

Let’s get started!

1. What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a content marketing strategy where a business or brand partners with a social media influencer to promote its products or services.

Consumers prefer influencer-generated content over brand-generated content and we can understand why — just take a look at this breathtaking shot by @calsnape!

Source: Instagram.com

With their beautiful snapshots and catchy captions, influencers already have their audiences' full attention, but they’ve got something else, too — consumer trust.

Influencers can use their audience's pre-existing trust in a business to build a more authentic connection between the consumer and the company and scale consumer trust at an unparalleled rate.

In short — influencers humanize brands.

According to Gretta van Riel, influencer marketing is all about relationships — the relationship that you’re leveraging between an influencer and their followers and the relationship that you’re building between your brand and influencers.

Due to the high levels of engagement and worldwide reach, Instagram is considered to be one of the best influencer marketing platforms for marketing.

Let’s take a look at what makes Instagram a good influencer marketing platform.

1.1. Instagram influencer marketing

Currently, Instagram has around 2 billion monthly active users — that’s 2 billion users for your business to potentially target!

Instagram started in 2010 as a social media platform where users could share photos and videos with their followers.

Today, Instagram caters to businesses, and all of its features can be used for marketing purposes.

Here’s a list of 4 epic Instagram features used for marketing:

1. Account insights

Instagram account insights is an analytics and metrics tracker that helps you understand who your audience is, when they’re most active, and what type of content they engage with the most.

With Insights, you can track the following:

Accounts reached — Access information about the users who have seen your content
Accounts engaged — See who and how users interact with your content
Total followers — See your total new following
Content you shared — Gives your overall number of content shared

Account insights give you the opportunity to analyze your brand’s data and determine what’s working for your audience (and what’s not).

systeme.io Instagram account insights

2. Stories

Instagram Stories allows you to upload either a picture or video that will remain visible for only 24 hours — your stories appear at the top of your follower’s feeds and they can view them an unlimited number of times.

Additionally, your followers can react to your stories, send direct messages to your account, and depending on how interactive your design is, even interact with them.

Instagram stories are good for:

Generating reach
Profile visits
Increase in potential follower count

You’re capable of tracking the number of users who viewed your story as well as seeing exactly who the user was.

systeme.io Instagram stories

3. Collabs

Instagram Collabs is a new feature that allows you to co-author content with fellow Instagram users.

This way you’ll be able to share content on both your own and your influencer’s account and share in the likes, Instagram comments, and views — essentially leveraging and engaging with both communities.

systeme.io Instagram collab

4. Partnership features

Instagram partnership features are also relatively new to the platform and it helps influencers and brands connect on Instagram through brand partnerships, commerce, and more.

These features include:

Partnership inbox — Quickly find and manage communications in one location
Influencer search — Search and select potential influencers for your Instagram influencer marketing campaign
Brand partner’s list — Influencers can add brands they’re interested in partnering with and brands can see which influencers add their brand to the list

This makes Instagram a one-stop shop for brands and influencers alike.

Here are some benefits of Instagram influencer marketing:

Builds positive brand association
Creates an emotional connection
Evokes trust
Increases credibility
Builds long-term relationships with your customers
Generates leads and drives conversions

When done properly, Instagram influencer marketing can be an effective marketing strategy for a wide range of businesses.

Now that you know what Instagram influencer marketing is, you’re ready to start planning your Instagram influencer marketing campaign.

2. Types of influencer marketing campaigns

Instagram influencer marketing isn’t just influencers occasionally posting a photo of them posing with the promoted product — it’s much more diverse and creative.

In this section, we’ve compiled a list of the most commonly used influencer marketing campaigns and examples of how they can be utilized.

2.2.1. Sponsored content

Sponsored Instagram posts are probably the most popular influencer marketing campaign — it’s typically where brands reach out to influencers to promote their product or service.

The final product is usually a photo, video, or blog post featuring your offer and brand.

Here’s a classy Instagram influencer marketing example by CanadianBros, where the owner’s adorable, four-pawed companion helps him promote a Daniel Wellington Classic Bristol watch:

Source: Instagram.com

These types of campaigns generally start with the brand reaching out to the influencer with a campaign brief — we’ll discuss how to do this a little later.

In short, campaign briefs include the outline of specific guidelines, instructions, and requirements.

Something to remember, however, is to give your influencers a sense of creative freedom — it is their audience after all.

2.2.2. Product reviews

Product reviews involve a brand reaching out to an influencer offering them their product or service, usually free of charge, and in exchange the influencer posts a review.

Generally, it’s a requirement that the influencer has never used the product or service before — commonly referred to as “unboxing” videos.

The purpose of an unboxing is to test out the product or service on camera and give their own personal criticism of it.

In this review, Aurelius Tjin was approached by the systeme.io team and asked whether he would partner with us and review our marketing platform:

Source: YouTube.com

In the campaign brief, Aurelius was given creative freedom in what exactly should be covered in this review with only one requirement — honesty!

There is, however, a risk factor involved as you can imagine.

Some influencers might not be afraid to tell the world exactly how much they hate your product.

Here are 4 tips to avoid an influencer marketing catastrophe:

Clearly outline your campaign goals
Do thorough research on prospective influencers
Choose the right influencer
Make realistic offers

What we can learn from this is: Know exactly what you’re signing up for!

2.2.3. Competitions and giveaways

Who doesn’t love a good giveaway?

With this campaign, brands usually offer a free product or service for the influencer to give to their followers.

Hosting competitions or giveaways is one of the best ways to increase following, brand awareness, and engagement rates with minimal effort.

Instagram provides specific rules and guidelines for competitions and giveaways that must be adhered to in post descriptions:

Rules — Tell followers exactly what they need to do to enter, such as liking and sharing the post
Eligibility requirements — Provide age and residency restrictions, for example (“You must be 18 years old to enter”, “Not available to subscribers outside of the US”)
Prize(s) — Ensure that the followers know what they’re entering for
Deadline — Set a date for when the competition or giveaway can no longer be entered
Winner announcement — Inform followers when they can expect to hear who won

Source: Instagram.com

In this golden giveaway, @grahamsgoldengram partnered with 3 small businesses to send 3 gifts to a lucky follower who followed the mentioned accounts, liked the post, and tagged friends.

These marketing campaigns can benefit your brand, influencers, and followers.

2.2.4. Product and content collaborations

Many brands, especially beauty and fashion brands, choose to work closely with their influencers and co-create products related to the brand.

For example, Lancôme released a collection of lipsticks created together with influencer Camila Coelho.

Lipsticks created by influencer Camila Coelho.

Source: Instagram.com

Product collaboration is a very involved marketing strategy and is mostly used by brands who have already made a reputation for themselves in their particular industry.

Content collaboration also caters to a much bigger audience.

Like how funnel designer Bolivar Muniz collaborates with systeme.io and creates original and beautiful sales funnels by using our software:

Influencer marketing, Bolivar Muniz Example

Source: Instagram.com

Influencer marketing like this can do a lot of good in the long run, especially if your influencers can showcase what your product is capable of.

2.2.5. Long-term brand influencers

A long-term brand ambassador is an influencer who partners with your brand for an extended period.

Instead of posting only one image or video, a brand ambassador might promote your brand for several months.

This type of marketing campaign can be beneficial in a few ways:

Repetition helps the ambassador's audience remember your brand
Frequent promotion allows you to demonstrate the breadth of your brand's products
In the eyes of their audience, a greater relationship with the influencer equals more trust, trustworthiness, and authenticity
Your marketing plan has a lower churn rate, which means less risk and more convenience

Here, Instagram influencer, Dahlia Bernardini, posts an image about a Red Bull event as a long-term brand ambassador for the extreme sports and energy drinks company:

Source: Instagram.com

You can also create a brand ambassador program that will essentially recruit and train your influencers, keep them up-to-date with your products, and reward them for their hard work.

2.2.6. Guest appearances on your platforms

This marketing campaign involves your influencers appearing on or “taking over” your brand’s platform for a set period of time.

Takeovers allow a brand's audience to get a different viewpoint on an issue or get an inside look with an influencer.

Silvia Grossi, the chef of Il Salviatino, took over Travel and Leisure's Instagram stories to share a simple, home-cooked supper:

Source: Instagram.com

Takeovers allow influencers to create fun behind-the-scenes or “a-day-in-the-life-of” posts and stories to keep your audience excited and engaged.

One thing to keep in mind when utilizing this campaign is that there has to be a high level of trust between you and your influencer — and you might want to throw in a contract too!

Now that you’ve got a solid idea of the different types of marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to start creating your own.

3. How to create a successful Instagram influencer marketing strategy

For you to utilize Instagram influencer marketing to its fullest potential and reap what you sow, you need to have a solid influencer marketing strategy.

Here’s how you can create one.

3.1. Determine your goals

Before you can create your first influencer marketing campaign, you need to set some expectations or goals — this is crucial to help you figure out how well your campaign is performing.

Some goals that your brand may have are:

Increasing your brand awareness
Growing your social following
Improving your engagement rates
Expanding your reach
Driving sales

The goals you set out for your brand should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART) — this'll help you later on when you start tracking and measuring your campaign’s performance.

3.2. Define your target audience and choose relevant influencers

The next step is to find the right influencers for your brand.

Remember, your brand will be judged by who you partner with, so make sure the influencer you choose is the perfect fit!

Identifying the right influencers to deliver real results can be challenging, especially when there are 5 different influencer types to choose from:

1. Nano-influencers — 1,000 to 10,000 followers

2. Micro-influencers — 10,000 to 50,000 followers

3. Mid-tier influencers — 50,000 to 500,000 followers

4. Macro-influencers — 500,000 to 1 million followers

5. Mega-influencers — More than 1 million followers

No worries though — here are 2 easy steps in finding the right influencers for your brand:

1. Define your ideal customer by creating customer personas

Customer personas give a detailed explanation of who your ideal target market is and real data of your existing customers.

When determining your customer personas include:

Customer demographics
Behavioral patterns
Motivations and goals
Pain points

The more detail the better!

2. Conduct an audience analysis on an ideal influencer to determine whether they’re the right match (or not)

Determine exactly what you want in an influencer.

You can use the 3 “R’s”-method (reach by relevancy by relationship = influence):

Reach — Make sure to check both the influencer's social following as well as the number of views that they get on their posts. Total reach is quantitative and therefore easier to measure
Relevancy — Relevancy is qualitative, which makes it exceptionally harder to measure. Consider the influencer’s niche, their main areas of expertise, interest, skills, and hobbies that they’re actively posting about
Relationship — The influencer-follower relationship is directly related to the affinity, authenticity, and engagement with their audience. Check things like their engagement rates and the quality of their comments

After conducting your research, make a list of all influencers you would potentially want to work with before you reach out to them.

3.3. Pitch your collaboration idea

Once you've narrowed down your list of potential influencers, you'll need to pitch to them about working together.

The way you choose to reach out to influencers is crucial since it will impact whether or not they agree to collaborate with you.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when reaching out to potential influencers:

Keep your reach-out brief and to the point
Try to spark influencer interest right away
Inform them why you reached out and why they would compliment your brand
Introduce your brand and how it’s different from other brands
Don’t be pushy
Don’t try to control all of what they’re doing

It’s important to build a relationship with the influencer you plan on working with.

This not only helps you get to know your influencer but also helps them get to know your brand values.

After you’ve built your relationship, it’s time to write your influencer brief — here is some key information to keep in mind when writing your brief:

Be upfront and clear about the deliverables required in exchange for your products or payment
Tell them what you’d like them to discuss or showcase
Your brief should include:

Your brand/product background
The campaign type
The reason for the collab
Any other important details like creative directions/instructions (do’s and don’ts), and deliverables

Focus on building a good relationship
Get creative with compensation — go above and beyond — by offering brand merch, host influencer events, or give vouchers
Simple is better

Here is an influencer outreach email used by our team initiating a partnership with an influencer:

systeme.io influencer outreach email

If you send an outreach message but don’t get a reply, you want to masterfully follow up with the influencer — all it takes is a gentle reminder that you as a brand fulfilled your end of the deal and now it’s time to fulfill their end of the deal.

One last tip before you start writing your brief: Don’t include a brief in the first email, only when the influencer has agreed to collaborate.

3.4. Design your influencer marketing campaign

Once the influencer has agreed to the collaboration, it’s time to design your influencer marketing campaign.

Remember to keep your influencers in the loop!

You don’t want to be planning the campaign all on your own and simply instruct influencers to create their posts accordingly.

When you involve the influencer in the planning phase, you can get their perspective on it, as well.

Additionally, give your influencers some creative freedom to create personalized content — after all, it’s the influencer's followers and nobody knows their followers as well as they do.

It is, of course, acceptable to give a few guidelines about what you as a brand expect to see from them.

That brings us to the final step — track and optimize!

3.5. Track and optimize

Tracking and optimizing your campaign tells you where you stand and what you need to do to reach your goals.

You need to track your goals and expectations which you set out right at the beginning — be it the increase in brand awareness, growth of social following, or generated sales.

Additionally, you can also track:

Return of investment
Click-through rate
Engagement rates

And more.

Here at systeme.io, we use Google Sheets to track our influencer outreach data:

systeme.io social media outreach template

After tracking your results, you can optimize and tweak as necessary to improve your Instagram marketing campaign.

Always remember: Results take time — be patient!

4. Top 3 influencer marketing tools to find Instagram influencers

We know finding and managing your social media influencers can be tough — that’s why we’ve compiled a list of the current top 3 influencer discovery and management tools to make the process a teensy bit easier for you.

Let’s have a look.

4.1. Aspire

Aspire logo

Aspire is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands build communities of ambassadors, influencers, and affiliates to share their brand stories at scale.

Here are Aspire’s key influencer marketing features:

Influencer discovery — This allows you to search for and connect with influencers, brand fans and industry experts
Relationship management — Organize and manage your contacts all from one dashboard
ROI measuring — Track sales, affiliates, and promo codes on their analytics dashboard
Content creation — Create, review, approve and boost your influencer-generated content
Shopify integration — Leverage their Shopify integration for a customized experience

With Aspire, you can search and choose out of more than 100 million influencers across all popular social media platforms.

Aspire doesn’t provide any pricing details, all you need to do is request a demo on their website, fill in your details and wait for them to contact you.

4.2. NeoReach

NeoReach logo

NeoReach is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands manage audiences and influencers through reporting and analytics.

With NeoReach, you can:

Develop a solid marketing strategy
Source from over 5 million top-performing niche-specific influencers
Have the entire influencer campaign process managed for you
Track your ongoing campaigns' progress and results
Spot fake social credentials with powerful algorithms

NeoReach has 2 pricing plans:

Managed services — Full-service influencer marketing
Platform and API — Best-in-class influencer marketing

Neither of the pricing plans has set prices, so you’ll need to contact the NeoReach team to find out how much you’ll be spending.

4.3. Upfluence

Upfluence logo

Upfluence is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform that allows brands to identify their influencers and launch influencer campaigns.

Upfluence allows you to:

Find influencers for your brand
Nurture influencer relationships
Manage your affiliate network
Drive more sales
Track sales and measure ROI

Upfluence offers 3 pricing plans, each aimed at a different target group:

Growth — Small up-and-coming businesses looking to grow
Scale — Businesses looking to scale
Enterprise — Big businesses looking to unlock brand ambassadors' full potential

Similar to NeoReach, Upfluence asks you to contact them to determine the pricing for their featured plans.

Influencer platforms can be an effective way to streamline your influencer marketing efforts.

Is it, however, a cost-effective way?

Let’s have a look at some of the other costs involved when partnering with Instagram influencers.

5. What are the costs of partnering with Instagram influencers?

Determining the exact rates of influencers is nearly impossible as there are several factors that could potentially be considered:

Influencers’ followers
Influencers’ post engagement
Social media channels they use
Number of posts wanted
Type of content
Amount of effort required
Campaign length
Other platforms where the post will be promoted
Influencer marketing agency fees

The first step to figuring out how much you’ll be spending on an Instagram influencer is to do the research — the 9 factors and their rates!

After that, you can determine your own budget and charge accordingly.

Let’s take a closer look at these factors and their rates so you can get a better idea of what and how much you’re budgeting for.

5.1. Research Instagram influencer rates and determine your marketing budget

So what exactly is a fair asking rate when there are so many factors to consider?

During the rise of influencer marketing, a general rule regarding rates has developed — many digital marketers adhere to the “one cent per follower”-rule, but only as a point of departure.

After that, you can take the other factors into consideration such as engagement rate.

Calculate this by adding the number of comments and likes on a post, dividing it by the number of followers, and finally, multiplying it by 100 to get the percentage.

Instagram influencer, Matt Crump, shared his rate guide with Later, and included his rates per post:

He stated that all other factors were considered when he determined these rates.

When setting up your budget, you need to keep in mind that it’s not only the content you’re paying for but also how the content was created — this includes things like:

Professional photoshoots — $350+
Photoshoot props — $100+
Editors — $400+

Matt Crump, for example, uses professional cameras and photo editors to create his beautiful, colorful content:

Source: Instagram.com

Your budget will depend on the goals you set for your brand at the beginning of planning your Instagram campaign.

5.2. Affiliate commissions

Another way to compensate influencers is through affiliate marketing.

Instagram influencers can easily promote an affiliate product in posts, captions, stories, or even in their Instagram bio in exchange for a commission.

Systeme.io offers an affiliate program that is hard to let pass!

With over $2,000,000 paid in commissions, our affiliate program gets you:

60% lifetime commissions every time your affiliate link is used to purchase a systeme.io subscription or course
5% second-tier affiliate commissions if your referrals earn with our affiliate program
Open and simple rules — There are no conditions to join our affiliate program

Anyone can be an affiliate — you don't even need to be a systeme.io customer!

6. Instagram influencer marketing FAQs

Below we’ve added 2 frequently asked questions — and the answers for them!

6.1. How effective is influencer marketing on Instagram?

Very effective! 2/3 of users believe this social media platform allows them to reach out and connect with their favorite brands.

Not only that but businesses can better cater to their consumers’ demands and needs if they have a strong Instagram presence — be that through the brand’s own profile or an influencer’s.

6.2. Why is Instagram the best platform for influencer marketing?

With 89% of marketers believing that Instagram is the most important platform for their influencer marketing, there’s no denying that it’s also the best.

Instagram’s features are now all geared toward marketing for your business — it builds positive brand association, creates an emotional connection with your audience and so much more.

7. Taking it a step further with systeme.io

systeme.io logo

Systeme.io is a simple, affordable, and intuitive all-in-one business-building tool for anyone who is looking to grow their online brand.

With systeme.io, you can:

Set up your own affiliate program and provide links to your influencers to promote
Create dedicated landing pages for each influencer to promote special offers
Create coupon codes for special discount offers
Track and measure the performance of your Instagram influencer marketing campaigns