Double, double, toil and… are your Halloween influencer marketing campaigns in trouble? With Halloween only a few short weeks away, now’s the perfect time to plan and execute a strategic influencer marketing campaign. Whether as a stand-alone effort, or part of a broader omnichannel campaign, a well-executed influencer marketing campaign can help drive brand awareness, audience engagements, and seasonal conversions. Thinking about upping your Halloween influencer game? Keep these fang-tastic influencer marketing tips top of mind this season.

Author’s Note: In honor of the 2022 spooky season, we’re updating this post with additional tips for driving influencer marketing action this Halloween season!

Don’t Get Spooked By Influencer Marketing

If you’re tired of the same-ol’ banner ads, sponsored social posts, or email marketing campaigns, it’s time to pumpkin-spice up your marketing efforts with an influencer marketing campaign.

In a recent survey, 51% of marketers stated that they are currently using an influencer marketing campaign. Further, they say they are getting a better quality of customer from their influencer marketing efforts. 

So, why does influencer marketing work? To understand the driving success of influencer marketing, it’s essential also to consider that over 47% of online customers are using some form of ad-blocking technology. Additionally, 92% of consumers state that they trust word-of-mouth recommendations from individuals – even if they don’t know them. 

So, how can you leverage the customer-driving power of influencer marketing in your Halloween efforts? 

6 Tips For Creating A Strong Influencer Marketing Halloween Marketing Campaign

1) Creep It Real With A Solid Strategy 

You can’t just “wing” an influencer marketing campaign in the same way you can a last-minute Halloween costume (looking at you ghost-sheet). A strong performing influencer marketing effort needs to be built on a thoughtful foundation of purposeful strategy. 

Start by considering the audience for your campaign:

• Who are you trying to reach? Be specific in terms of age, gender, and demographic. 
• What do they care about? What core feature/benefit/product do you want to communicate to them?
• Who would they consider an influencer in their space (and in yours)? Where is there overlap? 
• What social network(s) does your core audience utilize? 

Answering these questions won’t give you a complete strategy, but it can help get you started on your planning efforts as the answers to these questions will tell you who you’re trying to reach, the content they care about, and your potential influencers. 

2) Keep Your Reach Out Game Sweet 

With your strategy in place, the next step is to begin reaching out to influencers in your space to start developing an influencer list. Please don’t assume that every influencer you reach out to is going to want to help market your product. It takes time to build a list of active, ready to go, influencers. 

To get the most out of your influencer outreach efforts, be sure your outreach message contains the following: 

• A personalized note that specifically says why you believe that influencer would be a good fit for your brand. 
• The level of expected engagement (one post or a series of post)
• The specific content or type of content you’ll be asking them to share. As a note, some influencers want to collaborate with their partner brands; some prefer to be provided every asset. It’s simply a matter of preference. 
• A question asking if they’d like to participate and what their rate card is. 

As a note, there tends to be a misnomer on the brand side as to the cost of an influencer post. Sometimes, all it takes is a few hundred dollars and some free swag to get an influencer bought into your efforts. Other times an influencer’s rate can be over several thousand dollars (or more).

So, what are the key cost factors in determining what an influencer can charge?

• Audience Size – How big is their social following? 
• Audience Engagement Rate – How active is the audience; bigger isn’t always better
• The Celebrity Factor – Do they or others consider the influencer a true “celebrity” 

3) Content is Key

If you take any learnings away from this post, let it be this: the #1 success factor, when it comes to influencer marketing campaigns, is the content you’re pushing through your influencer. You might have the best-fit influencer in the world, but if you’re not working with them to create and publish great content, it might as well be an ROI black hole. 

What makes the “right” content? 

a) Your Content is On-Brand

Whether or not you’re creating the content or working with your influencer(s) to create the content, you still need to keep that content on-brand. Remember, just like with your other marketing messages, an influencer post is an excellent opportunity to reinforce your brand message, promise, and values with your target audience. 

b) Your Content Aligns with Your Influencer. 

Spoiler, your pre-packaged content isn’t going to work for all influencers. If you want to drive active engagement over your entire influencer effort, be sure to take the time to work with each influencer to personalize each piece of content. You’ll get more participation in your post if you allow your influencer to publish content in their organic voice.

c) Your Content is Fun

The better your content, the more engaged your audience will be, it’s that simple. Whether your brand is Halloween-centric or not, you can still use the holiday to create content that connects with your audience. Here’s a couple of ideas to get you started:

• Tap into the DIY-Costume Craze: Off-the-rack costumes are yesterday’s news. Work with your influencers to post creative ways to integrate your brand/content into their DIY-costume efforts. 
• Get Creative: Costumes aren’t the only creative expression on Ol’ Hallows Eve. From houses and party decorations to festive pumpkins and gourds, leverage your influencers to share how your brand is the perfect fit for their Halloween decorating needs. 
• Be Funny: When in doubt (and as long as it’s on-brand), humor is always welcome in an influencer marketing campaign. Don’t be afraid to let loose a bit and allow your influencers to have a bit of fun with your brand or product. 

4) Measure, Optimize, Repeat

You’ve got a killer influencer line-up, persuasive content, and an aggressive posting schedule. Time to set it and forget it, right? 

Nope. 

You’ve got to follow through on measuring your campaign efforts. How else are you going to be able to determine whether or not your influencer marketing effort was a success? You’ve got to measure your return-on-investment (ROI). 

To determine the ROI of your influencer efforts, measure and compare the below KPIs:

• Post Reach: For ease, you can use the size of your influencer’s audience (though not all will see your post)
• # of Engagements: A key metric (more so than post reach), how many comments, shares, likes, etc. did your influencer post receive?
• # of Website Clicks: If your post included a link, take a quick count of how much traffic the post generated. 
• # of Conversions: If your post included a CTA or a discount code, take a count of how many conversions were generated. 
• Cost Per X: What is the individual cost per each of the above actions. You can use your historic average paid media costs to determine a bench line cost per action. 
• Total Campaign Value: What was the total value generated by your marketing efforts. 
• ROI: Total Value/Total Marketing Investment. You’re going for 100%+. Anything below 100% is a negative ROI. 

5) Get Creative With Your Influencer Partnerships

Think outside the box when partnering with influencers for your Halloween campaign. There are endless possibilities to incorporate influencers with different audiences, styles, and aesthetics into your marketing mix. Don’t just stick to carbon c

It’s important to remember that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to influencer partnerships. A smaller group of high-quality influencers will be more effective than a large group of low-quality influencers.

Remember that you’re selecting influencers because of how they resonate with their followers. Take the time to choose the best possible fits. Ask them to develop spooky, creative ideas to engage their audiences and promote your brand. The more unique and engaging the content, the more likely it is to capture attention and drive results.

Then outfit them with the resources they need to execute their vision.

6) Promote. Promote. Promote.

As you finalize your plans for promoting your Halloween influencer marketing campaign, don’t forget to consider additional ways to leverage your influencer relationship (and their creative) to reach new audiences across multiple channels.

Here are six tips to help you get started, have your influencers:

a) Create engaging content that can be easily shared across social media platforms.

Think about what kinds of content will perform well on each platform, and make sure to include calls to action that encourage users to share your content with their followers.

b) Use eye-catching visuals to grab attention on social media.

Images and videos are more likely to stop scrollers in their tracks than plain text, so make sure to include high-quality visuals in your posts.

c) Take advantage of trending hashtags.

Hashtags can be a great way to reach new users searching for relevant content on social media. Do some research to find out which hashtags are being used most frequently in relation to Halloween, and make sure to include them in your posts.

d) Run targeted ads on social media platforms.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer powerful targeting options that you can use to ensure your ads are being seen by those most likely to be interested in them.

e) Use email marketing to reach your subscribers.

Don’t forget about your email list! Halloween is an excellent opportunity to send out a special email newsletter with exclusive content and deals. Make sure your subject line is catchy and intriguing to stand out in recipients’ inboxes.

f) Leverage your advocates to increase visibility.

If you have a social promotion or advocacy marketing program (like, say, a SocialToaster program), tap into their social-sharing power to spread the word about your influencer relationships and the amazing content they are creating on your behalf. This will help improve organic reach while also allowing you to increase the return on your influencer marketing investment.

Following these tips will help you get the most out of your Halloween influencer marketing campaign and ensure that you’re reaching your target audience on multiple channels.

Bonus Tip 7: Managing Your Influencer Marketing Network

One or two influencers in your program? Feel free to manage your influencer efforts via a spreadsheet. However, as your influencer network grows, so too will your program management needs. If you’re looking for a tool to help you stay on top of, and communicate with, your influencers, may we humbly recommend SocialToaster?

Every year, dozens of brands use SocialToaster to recruit and manage their influencer network. Even better, SocialToaster automatically tracks the performance of your shared post, making it easy to calculate your influencer marketing ROI. 

You can learn more about how you can use SocialToaster to manage your influencer marketing efforts here. https://www.socialtoaster.com/manage-influencer-marketing-socialtoaster/

Trick-or-Treat Yo’Self 

Don’t get spooked by how close we are to Halloween. With just four short weeks to go, now’s the time to push on your influencers and launch a campaign sure to resonate with your audience. 

Need some help? We’ve got you covered.

Give us a call at 855.62.TOAST, send us an email, or request a free demo and take control of your influencer marketing efforts!