To help you grow your brand, we have gathered some tips to guide you to success!

If you are just creating your brand, start with STEP 1 but if you have already an established one you may skip STEP 1 and proceed with STEP 2.

STEP 1: Brand identity and Audience

To start, create a reference point to help you keep your social media style consistent. It could be writing down who you think your brand is and what it stands for. Define your target audience! Then, create a vision for your content and brand aesthetics. Finally, set goals for your posting strategy. To help you out, we are writing down some sample questions that can get you started.

These things can change and evolve in time, but it is a great way to set consistency and remember your goals when setting strategies. 

• Write down your description of your brand identity. Who is your brand in one sentence?
• What does your brand enable your customers to do?
• Define your target audience! (Age, location, occupation, goals, income, and so on)
• What type of accounts does your audience follow?
• What are your primary brand colors?
• What types of visual content do you want to use? 
• What will you utilize to keep your content purposeful and consistent?
• How often will you be posting on social media?
• Will you be scheduling content to post on social media? (Daily, weekly, monthly.)
• Will you assess analytics data?

If you are having trouble or don’t feel confident enough to set marketing strategies, don’t hesitate to reach out to a digital marketing agency in the UAE to guide you through the process.

STEP 2: Campaign Goals and Type 

After deciding what your brand identity is, knowing what you want out of it, determining your target audience, setting goals, and choosing your type of campaign. Remember that the goals you set will heavily influence the type of campaign you run, as well as the metrics you will use to track your success!

Set some specific key performance indicators (KPIs). Make sure they’re measurable because that will be the perfect way to track your success (Step 5). Do not dip your toes into influencer marketing without a clear plan. For example, if you are planning to gain more followers and increase brand awareness, then set a goal for how many followers you gain during the campaign. 

There are many different ways to run a campaign. It could be contests & giveaways, influencer marketing posts, influencer events, or creating a campaign hashtag. The key here is to think about your brand identity and what message you want to convey. For example, @nakedjuice ran a #DrinkGoodDoGood campaign to raise awareness about communities that don’t have access to affordable, good-quality produce. They collaborated with Kristen Bell to spread the word and over 14,000 people shared pictures using the tag.

STEP 3: Find Your Influencer!

Now that you have your campaign goals and a target audience, it is time to search for the right influencer who can help you get the engagement your brand is seeking. Allocate sufficient time to find and vet the perfect candidate! Don’t pick an influencer solely based on vanity metrics. Create a list of possible candidates you want to work with and their budget requirements. When looking for the best candidate, remember to answer these questions about your target audience as well:

• What kinds of content do they engage with? 
• Do they prefer Instagram Stories or regular posts?
• What hashtags do they use and follow? 
• What communities are they a part of? 

Once you find the right influencers, it’s just a matter of reaching out to them. If you don’t have their email to contact them, a polite DM is a way to go! Make sure to supply your contact details too so your influencer can get in touch with you directly as well. Create sample follow-up DM or email templates. This will help you save time and create consistency. Pay attention to keeping the mails short and conscience, clearly state who you are, why you're emailing, and what's in it for them.

Some of the Popular UAE Influencer Accounts:

• @virat.kohli - Sports
• @faz3 – Style
• @shraddhakapoor – Celebrity
• @joellemardinian – Beauty & Fashion
• @khalidalameri – Entertainment
• @farahdhukai – Beauty & Fashion

STEP 4: Promote

Once you’ve successfully identified your target audience, found your ideal influencer, and created compelling content, all that’s left is promoting your new partnership. Make sure to familiarize the influencer with your brand and products before you give them the freedom to craft the content instead of micro-managing the post. Make sure to craft a crystal-clear influencer agreement and ensure that the influencer is transparent and that the content is being sponsored (ad).

STEP 5: Track your success

It’s critical to track the performance of your partnership! The is a lot of potential for high ROI from influencer partnerships, make sure to keep track of the growth by making charts and recording monthly changes. Track the traffic, engagement, conversions, or the other metrics of success you decided when you determined your marketing goals (Step 2). Check in with your original goals to analyze your success and how to repeat them. 

We hope that the above influencer marketing guide will help you navigate a successful campaign. To learn more about Influencer marketing in the UAE, book a call with our team!