3 Tips for Launching a Product with a Local Influencer Marketing Campaign

Planning a local product launch? Influencer marketing can take it to the next level.

Influencer marketing campaigns with local creators are agile, cost efficient, and ultra targeted, making them the perfect fit for these types of launches. 

And, according to a recent influencer marketing report, 61% of US consumers said they are likely to purchase a product from a brand if an influencer they know and trust posts about it. Not only do they already have the attention and engagement of your target audience, they have the potential to actually sway purchase decisions!

Below we share how you can partner with creators to generate early local buzz, engage and intrigue your target customers, and drive sales during (and after) your product launch.

3 Tips for Launching a Local Product with an Influencer Marketing Campaign

Benefits of a Local Influencer Marketing Campaign

When launching a product, the key is to create a sense of anticipation, excitement, and get your product in front of as many people as possible. Partnering with creators who have large followings could certainly help you get good exposure to a broad audience, but if you are launching a local product (i.e. it’s only available in certain geographic areas), this strategy might be overkill and costly. 

Instead, consider launching your product with local creators. Here are some of the benefits of this approach:

• Hyper targeted. The right local creators are already embedded in the community you are trying to reach. This means that your content will reach the community that is in the right area to actually buy your product!
• Less competition, more impact. Because they’re focused on one specific area, it’s common for local creators to have smaller audiences. Not only does this often mean that they are more budget friendly to partner with, it also means that you won’t be competing with as many other brands for attention. In the best cases, you might be able to increase the amount of creator partners you have, without watering down the relevancy of the audiences you’re reaching!  
• Tailored creativity. If you are using locality as a basis for creator discovery and vetting, then it opens up the possibility to experiment with different types of creators. For example, if you’re a beauty brand that wants to increase awareness in the Florida area, why not experiment with working with creators outside your category (fashion, comedy, food, home decor, etc) who are locals? They might be able to bring a different creative spin to your product.

Now, let’s dive into how to actually go about executing a local influencer marketing campaign.

Local Influencer Marketing Campaign Tip #1: Hone in on local creators 

Using influencer marketing for a local launch is all about connecting with local creators in the right community. You can discover top-performing creators who have your target audience using an influencer marketing platform that analyzes:

• Audience demographics. Get a breakdown of age, geographic location, brand affinity, and more
• Performance metrics. Filter potential partners by average engagement rates, views view rates, and more
• Reach. Most local influencers are nano and micro-influencers — 1000 to 100K followers – but they have an engaged audience
• Community. Get a sense of an influencer’s follower engagement by evaluating the quality of comments

Find local creators who are already talking about your brand, mention similar brands, or actively participate in the lifestyle that your brand fits into. You can also use keywords that define the conversation your product launch needs to be a part of. Consider terms your ideal customers would use to talk about your product category or describe how and where they would use it. For example, if you’re launching a new beverage flavor you can find influencers in the health and workout scenes, but you can also find influencers who are foodies.

Tip: Check out how Hey, Hei utilized influencer archetypes in their local influencer discovery to find influencers that embodied the spirit of Miami for their launch.

Instead of sending creators regular messaging briefs, put a personal spin on outreach. If you and your team live in the same area as your creator partners, offer to take them out on the town and build on those relationships for future influencer marketing efforts!

Local Influencer Marketing Campaign Tip #2: Encourage creative freedom and diversity

Local creators can create content that personalizes their experience with your brand. They know their audience best, so collaborate with them on campaign ideas to weave your brand narrative seamlessly into their content. Ask them for their input, and tap into what makes their area unique and resonates with their audience.

To give you an idea of how creative you can get here, here are some combos we just thought up on the spot:

• A skincare brand that is launching a new SPF product partners with food and bev creators. They host meetups where they promote that product at local breweries and eateries that have outdoor spaces.
• A brand new spirits brand that is launching partners with “entertainment” creators like shuffle dancers, street-style interviewers, and more. They incorporate the product into how they engage with local communities, and in their social content.
• An outdoor fashion brand that is launching its new seasonal collection partners with local outdoor creators. They put together a local scavenger hunt to encourage consumers to get out and explore local areas — prizes include the brand’s products. 

To do this, it’s critical to keep your creator search broad and influencer marketing briefs loose! Of course you’ll want to clarify details such as what the creator’s role is in your influencer program’s campaign, if there are events they’ll need to attend, whether they’re expected to post an unboxing video, and how many posts are included in their fee. However, you’ll want to allow your influencer marketing partners to have full creative control. 

Tip: Download our free influencer marketing brief template for a little help!

Local Influencer Marketing Campaign Tip #3: Embed your product

Offer creators exclusive access to your new product with a product seeding influencer marketing campaign. Your creators partners can create engaging content with their freebies like an unboxing video. You can then encourage your creator partners to offer feedback and suggestions and incorporate this into your product development cycle. Showing your partners that they have an impact is powerful!

Of course, one of the big benefits of launching a local influencer marketing campaign is that you can provide very clear CTAs (calls to action) and clear pathways for conversion. Get audiences excited and engaged with your product launch by offering promo codes for a discount or free sample through your creator partners. This can boost organic engagement and allow you to track creator performance. You can also increase sales and foot traffic for your product launch business by inviting creators to local store events where they can use their platform to share their experience with their audiences. 

If you are hungry for more inspiration, check out these real stories from brands that have launched successful local influencer marketing campaigns:

• Gin and juice seltzer brand, Hey, Hei made a big splash with its local influencer marketing campaign in South Florida‍
• Global outdoor apparel brand, Craghoppers, got creative with its local influencer marketing campaign in North West England