Influencer marketing is the fastest-growing online marketing channel, with it projected to be worth over $21 billion in 2023. Businesses are making a strong return too, generating $6.50 in revenue for each $1 spent on influencer marketing.
What is an influencer?
Influencer Marketing Hub defines an influencer as someone who has:
The power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.
A following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche.
An influencer may be a blogger, social media personality, celebrity, industry expert, thought leader, or lifestyle brand.
Why is Influencer Marketing Important for Blood Centers?
As consumers and donors alike are becoming increasingly skeptical of brands and their marketing tactics, building trust is critical and brands have found delivering their message in collaboration with a trusted social relationship is incredibly powerful in achieving marketing objectives. Because of this, influencer marketing is surpassing other strategies like affiliate marketing, paid search, and display.
While predominantly used by consumer brands, blood bank organizations started to utilize influencer marketing, generating substantial awareness, especially with new and younger donors, which have translated to real blood donations.
Related Post: 15 Innovative Ways to Recruit Blood Donors Online
Below are four examples of blood centers around the world that have used influencer marketing programs.
1. NHS Give Blood
NHS Give Blood created a #Date2Donate series that features social media influencers and celebrities sitting down to donate while discussing topics of interest for their following. Jordan Hames and Elz The Witch chat about their show Love Island in one video and Hamilton cast members Rachel John, Jason Pennycooke and Marsha Songcome share backstage stories in another.
Throughout all 16 videos in the series, influencers discuss the importance of donating blood, showing their communities that giving blood is something we could all embrace. To date, the videos on Youtube alone have generated more than 35,000 views and likely countless firt-time donors.
Related Post: Image vs. Video Advertisements | Which ad type engages blood donors best?
2. Canadian Blood Services
Chris Hau, a photographer, YouTuber, and social media influencer, partnered with Canadian Blood Services and Adobe Creative Cloud to celebrate the good in the world - blood donors saving lives! Chris hosted a meetup with his followers at a Canadian Blood Services donor center, influencing more than 20 people to donate with him, the majority of which were first-time donors.
He amplified the need for blood donors through Instagram stories and posts to his 491k followers, generating more than 18k likes and countless more blood donations across Canada and the world.
Related Post: Image vs. Video Advertisements | Which ad type engages blood donors best?
3. Lifeblood Australia
Lifeblood encourages all of its donors to become social media superstars. They offer a four-step guide on their website to help donors amplify their message - the need for 33,000 donations every week to help keep up with demand for blood and plasma products
Neil Allan, star of Australia’s Farmer Wants A Wife, shared a call for blood donors on behalf of Lifeblood Australia. He shared a personal donation story (a 20-time donor!) and encouraged his followers to share a donation selfie to get a promotional discount to Country Mile Clothing. On the same day, Country Mile Clothing shared a similar call to action, amplifying Lifeblood’s message.
This influencer partnership led to more than 9000 video views, 1100 likes, and exposure to more than 50k followers.
4. New York Blood Center
New York Blood Center recognizes the crucial role influencers play in educating their community about the constant need for blood. They’ve created an online resource to support their social partnerships that offer social media posts, images, videos, brochures, and more to ensure their influencers are successful.
When they were experiencing a blood emergency, The New York City Mayors Office posted about the urgent need for donors, reaching more than 100k followers. That reach exponentially increased when the New York City Fire Department reshared the post, getting the work out to more than 310k more followers.
Related Post: Importance of Multichannel Blood Donor Recruitment
Partnering with Influencers
Partnering with an influencer can be a valuable tool for your blood center but it figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. Meta has published a helpful guide for nonprofits looking to partner with influencers that blood centers can utilize to get started with influencer marketing programs.
Here at Incept, we’ve also begun connecting several of our clients with influencers to create an even larger impact through our multi-channel donor recruitment campaigns. We’d be happy to connect to discuss partnering your blood center with influential social relationships to help spread awareness for the need for blood and drive in more live-saving donations within your community.
Our team comes up with campaign strategies based on your blood center's goals: just watch this case study about how Snapchat helped one of our clients target younger donors
About Incept
Incept’s donor-centric, data-driven approach helps deliver the right message, using the right platform, to the right donor, at the right time, helping improve the outcome of donor interactions and create a consistent and predictable daily inventory that matches our client’s needs.
We help our clients solve their donor experience challenges—no matter how large or small, how complex or unique. We don’t settle for merely reaching business goals. Our leadership, talent, and culture are designed to deliver continuous improvement and business transformation.
HOW DOES PARTNERING WITH INCEPT IMPACT YOUR BLOOD CENTER?
We’ve shaped a different future for donor recruitment that’s no longer based on a one-size-fits-all tele-recruitment approach, but rather a multi-channel strategy that engages donors where they want to be engaged.
We have a client coalition of more than 20 blood centers that we’re able to test and scale our multi-channel learnings with, helping us solve donor recruitment challenges quickly and apply unique industry learnings across our campaigns to drive in more blood donations for each of our clients.
We price our blood donor recruitment per productive donor, meaning you only pay when we're successful. This includes tele-recruitment and expands to 6+ channels at no additional cost. Channels include text, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and more - all for the same price.
Ultimately, we help our clients create a consistent and predictable daily inventory that matches their needs.