Although BFCM is still several months away, the success you achieve with influencer marketing during that time is built in the months leading up to it.
If you just want to directly access our 7 figure+ BFCM case study click here.
In this article we will discuss:
To understand why the work you put in during the months leading up to BFCM determines your success, let’s first recap the importance of seasonal campaigns.
Seasonality campaigns (SC) are promotions activated through influencers - typically those who have proven performance in prior seeding (gifting and affiliate) campaigns.
SCs are the part of your influencer marketing program (IMP) that drives the majority of your conversions and ROI. BFCM is one example of a seasonality campaign. Other examples include Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, or a Summer campaign.
The more performing creators you identify prior to BFCM the higher the success of your campaign.
We constantly refer to the strong power law distribution within IM. It is not uncommon that your top 5% creators drive over 50% of your total campaign revenue.
To answer this question let’s briefly look at the formula below which determines your campaign outcome:
Revenue = #influencers X #posts X (Sales / Post) X AOV
So this means that the outcome of your campaign is determined by:
Every brand should optimize for all 4 of these variables and we discuss through our content how to do this.
The reason BFCM is so important is because for most brands the variable: sales / post is higher during peak selling moments like BFCM.
Hence if you are running an influencer campaign your ROI will be the highest during BFCM
When preparing for BFCM, the most important thing is to ensure you have sufficient stock to sell. The last thing you want as a brand is to put all your effort into running a successful BFCM campaign, only to run out of stock and miss out on potential revenue.
Last week we discussed in depth how to forecast revenue and plan your inventory and cash flow accordingly. Access our revenue forecast budget model here.
As BFCM is typically one of the biggest campaigns of the year, we like to implement relationship improvement initiatives in advance. This helps increase variable 1: the number of creators who agree to join your campaign.
We usually send gifts around 6 weeks before sending out the campaign invitation templates. Timing is key.
Now, you might be thinking - this sounds like a bribe. And yes, it is. But you could also view it as a simple business transaction.
The gift should be unrelated to your products - choose something the creators would genuinely appreciate. If you’re unsure what to send, a bouquet of flowers from 1-800-Flowers is always a safe option.
This is notably the most important prep for your BFCM campaign. Forecasting expected sales based on past performance data and allocating budgets accordingly.
A simplified sheet on how to plan out these budgets can be accessed here.
To forecast budgets for your performing influencers follow the steps below:
To learn more in detail how to allocate budgets access our full article on this topic here.
Once you have prepared all of this it is time to get started with your actual BFCM campaign which always starts with your campaign invitation email.
Access all BFCM campaign templates for free here.
Whenever you craft your templates just make sure to follow the rules below:
All of the above are included in our free templates which have been A/B tested across thousands of campaigns so make sure to use them.
Once you out your campaign invitation email below are the different scenarios for the next steps. What is important here is that you.
Below are some strategies to follow when you don’t get a reply.
Now, once you have convinced as many creators as possible to join your campaign here is your pre launch check list.
Most importantly, send reminder emails to all your influencers. You can access the template here (Reminder 1: Campaign Starting – Onboarded).
With Influencer Hero, you can automate all emails using drip campaigns, automatic follow-ups, and manage thousands of creators at once through our AI-powered influencer CRM.
Once your campaign starts, you’ll typically see a strong spike in revenue as creators announce the launch of your promotion. After that, it’s important to maintain momentum by encouraging creators to keep posting and sharing. Use the “Posted Thank You” template in the folder here.
As you can see from the chart below sales tend to spike towards the end when organizing a good influencer campaign following our approach.
The reason for this spike in sales is that you should leverage FOMO and urgency as key conversion drivers toward the end of your campaign.
Use the “Campaign Closing Template” to prompt all creators to make a final post announcing the campaign’s end.
This often results in posts like: “Hi all, XY brand’s sale is ending today - make sure to access their biggest sale of the year using my link before it expires.”
These are typically the posts that drive consumer action and trigger purchases. Bonus tip: try to receive all posts before the campaign ends, as you can often secure this final post for free (by using our template and following our A/B tested communication strategy).
Once you’ve wrapped up the campaign, make sure to thank all creators and show your appreciation - you want them to work with you again on future campaigns. Use the “Campaign Ended” template for this.
One last tip: if you really want to squeeze out as much revenue as possible, the following technique can add an extra few tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, depending on your campaign size.
Extend your campaign: after it ends, inform all creators using a message like this:
“We received so many messages from customers who missed out on the offer that we decided to extend it for one more day. If you’d like to give your followers one final chance to access our biggest sale of the year, you can use your link and code below.”
As you can see from this article, there are many ways to influence your campaign’s outcome - which is why the role of a campaign strategist is so important.
For a campaign like this, you ideally want one campaign strategist to craft all templates and collaborate with junior associates who handle creator communication.
Just make sure to automate as much as possible so you don’t get overwhelmed by the workload.
We hope you found this helpful! To learn how to implement this for your brand, schedule a free consultation with our team here.
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