In Q3 of 2023, content creators generated sales surpassing the $5.5 million mark for Upfluence clients, with contributions from over 100 companies
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, the retail world is gearing up for one of the most significant BFCM campaigns of the year. Anticipations are high, and all indications point towards 2023, surpassing the previous records set during the 2022 holiday shopping season.
To put it into perspective, last year saw an astounding $9 billion spent by consumers online during successful Black Friday campaigns, with a remarkable 73% of these purchases occurring via mobile devices. Conversely, Cyber Monday 2022 claimed the title of the most significant day for eCommerce sales in U.S. history. Shoppers surpassed their Black Friday spending, reaching an impressive $11.3 billion, marking a 5.8% increase from the previous year.
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for driving product sales during BFCM in this dynamic landscape. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have risen to dominance in social media. With them, influencer marketing has seen remarkable growth, evolving into a colossal $21.1 billion industry, up from $16.4 billion in 2022.
This comprehensive guide will provide step-by-step insights on harnessing the power of best Black Friday marketing campaigns and influencer marketing to drive product sales during the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales events in 2023.
Why Use Influencer Marketing for BFCM Campaigns?
Influencers are distinguished by their creative prowess and remarkable engagement levels within their online communities. They’ve nurtured a dedicated following that trusts their recommendations and actively engages with their content.
In recent months, the influence of influencers in driving consumer behavior has become increasingly evident. According to the 2022 U.S Consumer Trends Report, 33% of Gen Z consumers have purchased based on influencer recommendations, and 28% have embraced the convenience of in-app shops. Millennials have followed suit, with 26% relying on influencer endorsements and 28% making in-app shop purchases.
Moreover, research by Hubspot highlights short-form video and influencer marketing as the dominant marketing trends. But it’s not just consumers who are benefiting from influencer marketing. Marketers are witnessing tangible results, with the majority reporting that influencer marketing draws in higher-quality customers.
Leveraging influencer marketing for Black Friday Marketing campaigns presents a potent means to capitalize on the shopping frenzy accompanying this year’s most significant retail event. In today’s landscape, online sales are paramount, whether you’re a well-known brand, a small business, or a direct-to-consumer operation.
Given this shift, strategies for BFCM campaigns should be meticulously tailored to convert and engage with digital audiences.
- Sales Analysis: This involves tracking the sales generated from your influencer marketing campaigns. It helps you understand how effectively your campaigns are driving conversions and contributing to your bottom line.
- ROI Analysis: ROI is a crucial metric that measures the profitability of your campaigns. It is calculated by comparing the revenue generated by the campaign to the cost of the campaign. A high ROI indicates that your campaign is profitable.
- Social Performance Analysis: This involves analyzing metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and followers to understand how your campaigns are performing on social media. High social performance indicates that your content is resonating with your audience and driving engagement.
How to Find Best-Performing Creators for BFCM Campaigns? Step-by-Step Guide
Here is a step-by-step guide for finding the best-performing influencers for BFCM campaigns.
1. Define Your Goals
Before embarking on your search for influencers, defining your specific goals for the best Black Friday campaigns 2023 and Cyber Monday is crucial. Consider whether you aim to boost sales, increase brand visibility, drive website traffic, or achieve a combination of these objectives.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Gain a deep understanding of your target audience. Analyze their demographics, interests, preferences, and online behavior. This insight is invaluable in choosing influencers who can effectively connect with and influence your desired customers. The more aligned the influencer’s audience is with your target audience, the better the campaign’s chances of success. You can enhance this understanding by using our free fake follower tool to ensure that the influencers you partner with have genuine, engaged followers.
3. Create a Shortlist of Potential Influencers
Start your influencer search by compiling a list of potential candidates. You can employ various methods, including manual research on social media platforms and leveraging influencer marketing tools and platforms to reach out to influencers. These tools streamline the process by providing insights into influencers’ reach and engagement metrics. You can also use the free influencer Analytics Chrome plugin by Upfluence to make this process even more efficient and effective.
4. Analyze their Audience Engagement
Engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, and shares on an influencer’s content, provide valuable insights into their audience’s responsiveness and activity. A high level of engagement indicates that the influencer’s followers actively interact with their posts, making them more likely to respond positively to your campaign.
5. Review Past Content Quality
Quality and relevance are essential when assessing an influencer’s previous content. Carefully examine their posts to ensure they align with your brand’s image and values. Consistency in content quality and alignment indicates that the influencer can effectively promote your products during BFCM campaigns.
6. Evaluate the Influencer's Reach
A survey has revealed that 33% of marketers have found tremendous success with micro-influencers, surpassing nano, macro, and mega-influencers. This underscores the critical role the size and reach of an influencer’s audience play in determining a campaign’s success.
When selecting influencers for your BFCM campaign, it’s vital to consider whether a macro-influencer, boasting a substantial following, or a micro-influencer, with a more specialized and engaged audience, aligns better with your campaign’s objectives. In some cases, a combination of both can prove to be a highly effective approach.
7. Assess Proximity to Your Brand
Authenticity is vital in influencer marketing. Ensure the influencer’s content and values align closely with your brand’s identity. Influencers whose content feels authentic to their audience are more likely to convey your brand’s message convincingly.
8. Check for Promo Code Experience
Promo codes and affiliate links are crucial for tracking the most successful Black Friday campaigns. Determine if the influencer has previous experience using them in their promotions. This enables accurate measurement of the impact of their efforts on sales and conversions. To enhance your Black Friday marketing efforts, you can maximize the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing programs by utilizing Upfluence’s affiliate marketing platform.
9. Review Influencer Compensation Preferences
Discuss compensation preferences with potential influencers, whether they prefer gifting, payments, or performance-based incentives. Align your compensation with your budget and the influencers’ expectations for effective collaboration, addressing the question of how much you should pay influencers.
10. Use Tools to Streamline Influencer Programs
Use influencer discovery tools and platforms like Upfluence, to streamline the influencer search process by providing insights, analytics, and influencer databases to help you find creators that match your criteria and campaign objectives.
Additionally, ensure transparent and well-structured influencer payments, covering payment structure, negotiation, incentives, compliance, and taxes. Upfluence’s Affiliate & Influencer Payment Platform facilitates compliant payments aligned with industry standards and helps you pay influencers based on the value they bring.
BFCM Campaigns Content Examples
Let’s explore various Black Friday examples and templates influencers can leverage to elevate the BFCM campaigns:
- Unboxing videos: Unboxing videos generate anticipation and excitement. Influencers can unbox your products, highlighting their features and benefits, offering viewers a firsthand experience of what you offer during the black week campaign. This strategy is especially effective for new brands with budget constraints that preclude large-scale influencer campaigns.
- Product reviews & social proof: Trust and great deals are paramount for the black Friday campaigns. Influencers play a key role in building trust during the crucial consideration phase, making them ideal for converting new customers. Collaborating with influencers on product reviews or curated gift lists provides vital social proof, especially when shoppers seek recommendations for the perfect gifts.
- Vlogs, demos, and product comparisons: Influencers can create engaging vlogs, demonstrating how your products fit into their daily lives. Product comparisons can also help viewers make informed decisions during the black Friday campaigns.
- Live selling and social commerce: In the era of live streaming and social marketing, influencers can host live selling sessions where they showcase and promote your products in real time for an active Black Friday campaign. This interactive approach can boost sales significantly.
- Sponsored posts: Sponsored posts provide a direct channel to present your BFCM campaigns. Influencers can craft persuasive, visually appealing posts that convey the essence of your promotions, driving customers to your online store.
- Use promo codes: Leverage the Cyber Weekend shopping frenzy with exclusive discount codes. Partner with influencers to offer unique deals, boosting Black Friday sales and tracking results in real-time through individual promo codes. Utilize platforms like Upfluence for effortless best Black Friday advertising campaigns’ setup, distribution, and performance tracking, facilitating ROI calculation and influencer identification.
Is Video Better than Static Pictures?
The choice between video and static pictures for your BFCM campaign content largely depends on your marketing strategy and the nature of your products or services.
Video content can be highly engaging and attention-grabbing, which is crucial during the competitive BFCM period. It’s excellent for showcasing products, highlighting their features, and conveying promotional messages effectively, such as discounts and limited-time offers. Videos often perform well on social media platforms, making them a valuable tool for reaching a wide audience during BFCM.
On the other hand, high-quality static images can also be visually appealing, especially when designed with eye-catching graphics and text. They are easy for consumers to scan quickly, making them suitable for showcasing multiple products or deals in one ad. Static images are commonly used in Black Friday email marketing campaigns and can effectively communicate special offers and product highlights. Creating compelling static images can also be more cost-effective and quicker than producing videos.
Ultimately, combining both video and static images might be the most effective strategy for BFCM, allowing you to leverage the strengths of each format to reach a broader audience and meet different marketing objectives.
Influencer Compensation Types
Here is a list of various compensation models for influencers, each offering unique advantages and considerations:
1. Gifting Only
Under this model, influencers receive products or services from brands to promote them on their platforms. This compensation type is often preferred for micro and nano-influencers.
- Advantages: Cost-effective for brands, influential for smaller influencers, builds brand loyalty, and authentic reviews.
- Considerations: Limited financial compensation for influencers may not appeal to more significant or established influencers.
2. Gifting Plus Payment
Besides receiving products, influencers are paid a fee for their promotional efforts. This compensation model is popular among mid-level influencers who have established credibility.
- Advantages: Attracts influencers of varying sizes, balanced compensation mix, encourages genuine promotion, and broader reach.
- Considerations: Increased cost for brands, influencer expectations for monetary compensation.
3. Performance-Based Payment (Affiliate Marketing)
Influencers earn a commission or fee based on the number of conversions or sales generated through their unique promo codes, affiliate links, or tracking metrics.
- Advantages: Directly ties compensation to results, scalable for more extensive BFCM campaigns, effectively drives conversions, and attracts influencers driven by performance.
- Considerations: Influencers’ ability to impact conversions, monitoring and tracking efforts, and upfront costs to set up tracking mechanisms.
4. Compensation Per Post
This method calculates the cost per content creation, with pricing often contingent on factors such as the influencer’s follower count and the platform used. It is commonly embraced by more prominent brands with ample influencer marketing budgets, even for more costly campaigns.
- Advantages: It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Brands cultivate relationships with prominent creators, encouraging future collaborations, while creators receive compensation in proportion to their content production.
- Considerations: Assessing the exact value derived from a post can be challenging, given that successful influencer campaigns often hinge on a range of actions beyond the individual post.
5. Content Licensing Fee
This approach entails compensating a content creator who is already an active user of your products or services for their efforts in promoting the content they create on your behalf. This content falls into the user-generated content (UGC) category and is acknowledged as one of the most potent forms of content.
- Advantages: It serves as a compelling means of advertising for brands, as the content is authentic and relatable. The creator handles the entire production process, alleviating the brand of additional expenses.
Considerations: Not all brands can adopt this method, as integrating UGC may not align with every brand’s overall strategy.
Best Practices for Influencer Marketing Success During Black Friday Campaign
Achieving success in influencer marketing for the best Black Friday campaign requires a well-thought-out approach. Here are the best practices to follow:
- Conduct tests: Experimentation is key to achieving the best results. By running tests on different marketing strategies and approaches, you can fine-tune your Black Friday campaign and discover what resonates most effectively with your target audience. Testing enables you to optimize your tactics and increase the likelihood of success.
- Influencer outreach and early engagement: Engaging with relevant influencers whose niche and audience align with your brand and Black Friday ad campaigns’ goals should be a strategic priority. To establish successful collaborations with influencers, it’s advisable to reach out well before the end of November. By doing so, you provide influencers with sufficient time to familiarize themselves with your brand, products, and campaign objectives.
- Diversify content formats: To engage a broad and diverse audience, it’s essential to experiment with a range of content formats. This may include unboxing videos, product reviews, how-to guides, and live demonstrations. Different consumers have different content preferences, so by diversifying your content, you can effectively reach various segments of your target audience.
- Offer discounts through affiliates: Encouraging your influencers to provide exclusive discounts through their affiliate links can be a game-changer for your Black Friday marketing campaign. Exclusive discounts create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, compelling potential customers to take immediate action.
- Use unique promo codes: Assigning unique promo codes to each influencer is a strategic approach to ensure precise sales tracking and to attribute successful Black Friday campaigns. These distinct codes allow you to monitor the performance of individual influencers accurately.
- Leverage advanced tracking methods: Employ tools like affiliate links and analytics to gain insights into the performance of the Black Friday sale campaign. These tools provide valuable insights into the performance of your affiliate marketing programs, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your campaigns.
- Support a cause: An effective way to connect with modern consumers who prioritize purpose-driven brands is to align your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns with a social or environmental cause. By supporting a cause, you not only showcase your brand’s commitment to making a positive impact on the world but also resonate with conscious consumers.
- Start a countdown: Initiating a countdown leading up to your BFCM campaigns is an effective strategy to generate excitement and anticipation among potential buyers. This marketing tactic creates a sense of urgency and encourages customers to mark their calendars for your special promotions.
Prepare for engagement surges: As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, it’s essential to anticipate a significant surge in engagement and inquiries from customers. This heightened activity may include increased website traffic, inquiries via social media, and customer support requests. To ensure a seamless experience for your audience, preparing your team and resources for this influx is crucial.
Best Practices for Influencer Marketing Success During Black Friday Campaign
Achieving success in influencer marketing for the best Black Friday campaign requires a well-thought-out approach. Here are the best practices to follow:
- Conduct tests: Experimentation is key to achieving the best results. By running tests on different marketing strategies and approaches, you can fine-tune your Black Friday campaign and discover what resonates most effectively with your target audience. Testing enables you to optimize your tactics and increase the likelihood of success.
- Influencer outreach and early engagement: Engaging with relevant influencers whose niche and audience align with your brand and Black Friday ad campaigns’ goals should be a strategic priority. To establish successful collaborations with influencers, it’s advisable to reach out well before the end of November. By doing so, you provide influencers with sufficient time to familiarize themselves with your brand, products, and campaign objectives.
- Diversify content formats: To engage a broad and diverse audience, it’s essential to experiment with a range of content formats. This may include unboxing videos, product reviews, how-to guides, and live demonstrations. Different consumers have different content preferences, so by diversifying your content, you can effectively reach various segments of your target audience.
- Offer discounts through affiliates: Encouraging your influencers to provide exclusive discounts through their affiliate links can be a game-changer for your Black Friday marketing campaign. Exclusive discounts create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, compelling potential customers to take immediate action.
- Use unique promo codes: Assigning unique promo codes to each influencer is a strategic approach to ensure precise sales tracking and to attribute successful Black Friday campaigns. These distinct codes allow you to monitor the performance of individual influencers accurately.
- Leverage advanced tracking methods: Employ tools like affiliate links and analytics to gain insights into the performance of the Black Friday sale campaign. These tools provide valuable insights into the performance of your affiliate marketing programs, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your campaigns.
- Support a cause: An effective way to connect with modern consumers who prioritize purpose-driven brands is to align your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns with a social or environmental cause. By supporting a cause, you not only showcase your brand’s commitment to making a positive impact on the world but also resonate with conscious consumers.
- Start a countdown: Initiating a countdown leading up to your BFCM campaigns is an effective strategy to generate excitement and anticipation among potential buyers. This marketing tactic creates a sense of urgency and encourages customers to mark their calendars for your special promotions.
Prepare for engagement surges: As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, it’s essential to anticipate a significant surge in engagement and inquiries from customers. This heightened activity may include increased website traffic, inquiries via social media, and customer support requests. To ensure a seamless experience for your audience, preparing your team and resources for this influx is crucial.
Find Best Performing Creators for Your BFCM Campaigns with Upfluence
Discovering the ideal creators for your BFCM campaigns is pivotal in achieving success. By leveraging influencer discovery and analysis tools like Upfluence, you can pinpoint the best-performing influencers to meet effective black Friday social media campaign objectives.
Upfluence simplifies influencer management, effortlessly handling budget tracking, ROI measurement, streamlined workflows, and seamless connections with content creators. Its integrated ChatGPT solution enhances your outreach and engagement. Streamline your workflow by reviewing applications, drafts, and payments in one dashboard and simplify product shipping and notifications with Upfluence.
Maximize your impact by collaborating with influencers who resonate with your brand and audience and employing strategies like fake follower checking and detailed analytics. The Ultimate Guide to Finding Best Performing Creators for BFCM equips you with the insights and tools you need to elevate your influencer marketing game this holiday season.
Discover the most effective tactics for identifying and choosing the perfect influencers to represent your brand in our How to Find Influencers – The Complete Guide.
