7 Classic Social Media Campaign Ideas That Work

7 Types of Throwback Influencer Marketing Strategies That Work. They Just… Do

Updated September 2018

Just like there are 7 cosmic stages, 7 pillars of wisdom, 7 colors in the rainbow, and 7 daughters of the Egyptian god, Ra, there are 7 principal kinds of blogger campaigns. Each type of campaign has it’s own set of pros and cons. What’s important is to be able to distinguish what your ultimate goal is in order to pick the right campaign for you.  Here, we give you the SparkNotes edition of our 7 blogger campaign ideas!

NUMBER 1 : Gift Your Duds to Your Favorite Blogger

This is one of the most popular campaigns and undoubtedly boasts the best bang for your buck. Getting a blogger, who aligns with your brand’s aesthetic, to wear your goods is an amazing way for readers to see your products in context of “the every day”. PLUS bloggers usually wear sponsored clothes and accessories more than once, especially if they LOVE them. Which means, you could potentially get more impressions than the cost of one sponsored post. Win-win.

NUMBER 2 : A Good Ole-Fashioned Product Review

While this is a favored choice for makeup and beauty brands, product reviews can be utilized across many different verticals, which is important because 90 percent of consumers say online reviews influencer their buying decisions, and 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as their trust the recommendations of their friends!

Still, product reviews aren’t immune from the disclosure rules outlined in the FTC’s endorsement guidelines (Danielle penned a recent post on the rules of engagement here). That said, it’s important that brands make it crystal clear to their influencers that readers need to know – in no uncertain terms – about the influencer – brand partnership.

Bloggers have high conversion rates because their readers trust them. An honest review can do wonders. On the flip side, a negative review could be very destructive. A word of caution, do NOT send out your products without contacting (and contracting) bloggers first and agreeing on specifics.  If you do not contact them, you run the risk of not getting any coverage at all…bummer!

NUMBER 3 : Drumroll…GIVEAWAYS

We love free stuff. Who doesn’t? To sponsor a giveaway, simply contact a blogger and agree on what type of goodies you want to giveaway on their blog. Bloggers might charge you a certain amount of money for the post PLUS the cost of the Giveaway. Remember to factor that in when you are budgeting out costs!

Giveaways are often loose-ended because you ultimately want the winner to pick their special something. Popular choices for giveaways are gift cards, or a new item you are trying to promote, i.e. pick a pair of boots from our Fall 2018 collection. Readers will need to accomplish specific tasks in order to enter.

Just be sure to choose tasks that’ll help you reach your actual business goals. Influencer campaigns shouldn’t be arbitrary. Are you looking for more newsletter signups? Make the giveaway available only to new and existing subscribers of your weekly newsletter (and word the terms something to that effect because the EU is seriously enforcing GDPR when it comes to collecting personal data). In search of a larger social media following? Ask an entrant to hashtag with your brand specific hashtag or follow you on Facebook. Whatever your goal is, craft the entry process for in a way that ensures you arrive at the desired outcome.

NUMBER 4 : Group Giveaways

What is better than one giveaway? A group giveaway, duh! Group giveaways involve having 10-20 bloggers post a sponsored giveaway on the same day. All entries are entered into the same contest – GROUP GIVEAWAY!

This type of cross promotion reaches an audience up to ten times what it would with a single influencer. The only downside is that this type of giveaway has to have a GROUP GIVEAWAY worthy prize, which could be not the most budget-friendly option.

However, if your brand is planning to do multiple giveaways, this is more cost and time effective in the end than paying bloggers for individual posts. Plus, as an added bonus, bloggers get more exposure. Always a good thing.

NUMBER 5 : Pin-It-to-Win-It

A fun little twist to a basic giveaway is a Pin-It-To-Win-It Campaign.  You can opt for a simple approach where a blogger’s readers pin images of your products to their Pinterest Boards in exchange for an entry in the giveaway. OR you can do something a little more sophisticated like have participants create themed board on which to post your products.

Just be sure to create a unique hashtag for your campaign to make it more searchable! #EasyPeasy

NUMBER 6 : Sponsored Ad Space

There are two paths you can take with buying ad space: Either you can buy space via an ad network or you can buy ad space directly from a blogger. With buying space from an ad network, you get less say on which blogs you show up on. You run a greater risk of being afflicted by the Mix-Match Epidemic. In all fairness, AI has really improved how your ads show up now. Gone are the days when you’re watching Tony Robbins on YouTube and a video vixen splashes across the screen as part of an ad for the latest Hip-Hop video.

Things aren’t perfect. Brand safety is a still a huge concern for marketers, but the algorithms have smartened-up on when it displays ads and is much better than it was when we originally published this post in 2014 at tying relevant ads to the right content.

When buying ad space directly from a blogger you get more say (and sway) on which blogs display your ads, and you can monitor how well your ad is doing. The benefits of using an ad network include less stress because you’re not doing the footwork to find the right publishers or renewing ads or contacting publishers.

Additionally, you can use The Shelf to find the right bloggers within your demographic to reach out to in order to cut down the manual process. Either way works.

NUMBER 7 : Last but Certainly not Least, Blog Competitions

Sometimes a brand just needs to roll up its big, branded sleeves and get creative! A blog competition is a great way to do that.

Essentially the way this type of contest works is you invite stylish bloggers to compete for a chance to win things like an exclusive partnership with the brand, a chance to be the new face of the brand, travel to various countries promoting the brand, etc.

Because bloggers need viewers to vote for them, they will really push the contest, especially just before the deadline. These contests can run for a couple of weeks and they’re a great way to insert your brand in front of your audience across multiple platforms.

AND a blog competition is not only beneficial to you, but beneficial to the blogger as well!

The Big Wrap-Up

If you use the ideas we’ve included in this post as launchpads for your influencer campaigns, you have a pretty good chance of getting strong returns on your investment. These are time-test methods for generating traffic, raising brand awareness and converting total strangers to raving fans.

Of course, if you need help getting everything done, influencer marketing is our area of expertise. It’s where we shine. And getting started with The Shelf is as simple as a phone call.