Summer can be a slow season for many marketers. But slower seasons also allow for you to try new things and experiment with your marketing plans. By now you have probably dipped your toes into influencer marketing and noticed all that it is capable of helping you achieve. But, like most things to do with social media, influencer marketing is always changing and adding new aspects into the mix. It’s hard to know which type of influencer or social channel or execution will be best for your brand. Use this time to try different areas of influencer marketing and find your sweet spot!

Here are some bucket list ideas to try this summer for your influencer marketing campaigns:

Try Going Live

Live videos are nothing new on Instagram– many influencers do them all the time. In fact, celebrities like John Mayer even use them as a platform to host their own shows, bringing in millions of views every time. But the word “live” can scare a lot of marketers away when it comes to a campaign. We already know the human error aspect involved in influencer marketing and having content all go on live without being corrected can be a terrifying thought. The important thing is to be prepared, find influencers you trust, and keep the content simple and direct. Live videos can be an innovative way for influencers to connect their audience with  your brand in a more personal and interactive way.

Go All In On Stories

It is becoming more and more apparent how impactful Instagram Stories are for engagement during campaigns. Some influencers get triple the views on a story than on their actual post. The swipe up feature can draw more clicks than a link in a bio and stories allow for more video content which can be beneficial to many brands. Find influencers who thrive through their Instagram stories and test a campaign only through those stories. You may find your engagement and conversion rates go up, all while saving you money since influencers tend to charge less for a story than an in-feed post.

Go Nano

Nano-influencers seem to be all the rage right now. We’ve discussed in the past the pros and cons of all size of influencers. So, depending on your brand and how specific your target market is, nano-influencers can be very beneficial if you are relying on strong conversion rates. Try running a small campaign with some influencers in the 1k-10k reach range. Influencers at this size will sometimes post in exchange for some product, so there might not be much to lose and in return you might find your own perfect influencer campaign. Of course the big “con” for nanos is content quality and control, so if you do choose to trial a campaign and have important brand guidelines you may be better of with the semi-pros in the mid-level range.

Explore Beyond Instagram and YouTube

We know Instagram and YouTube are dominating in the influencer marketing game. The way these social platforms are set up makes for compelling campaigns and easy-to-track engagement and conversion rates, but it might not hurt to explore other areas. TikTok, in the past several months, has seen a huge growth in numbers and could be the perfect platform if your target is in the under 18 age range. There are also streaming platforms, like Twitch, which bring in insane amount of viewers and incredibly influential users. The popularity of podcasts has even exploded in the past year causing many marketers to turn there for influencers. We aren’t saying to completely ditch Instagram and YouTube, but be aware of the impact of other social channels, especially if your audience is Gen Z.

Go Long Term

Summer could be the perfect time to begin a long term campaign that’ll last throughout the remainder of the year or even into 2020. Maybe you are unsure of which way to go in influencer marketing–this is your chance to test the waters with different types of posts or a variety of influencers to see what works and what doesn’t. You also have the chance to start building long term relationships with influencers with the goal of them becoming brand ambassadors. This season is a great opportunity to experiment so that when the busy months and holidays come along, you’ll have set your campaign up for true success.

Influencer marketing is always changing and social media is always adding new and exciting things to the mix. Although it can be overwhelming at times always trying to keep up with every new update, there are always new things to embrace, including some of the ideas on this summer bucket list. One of the most valuable things about influencer marketing is the ability to test a variety of options through mini campaigns to find what brings the most success for your brand. We hope you can cross off one or more of these from your summer bucket list and come out of the season with a new way to ensure a successful influencer campaign.

About MATTR: MATTR, leaders in influencer campaigns for highly regulated industries, is the only full-service influencer marketing provider with detailed audience insights from PersonaMesh™. We go beyond demographics into psychographics such as values and interests so that your influencer campaigns align with your campaign targets.