You’ve nailed your first influencer campaign, but scaling is another story

The 3 steps to growing influencer marketing without the headache. Plus real results from Hotel Indigo.

Scaling Influencer Marketing

4 min

You found a couple of great creators. They captured gorgeous shots of your suites. Shared stories showing off your restaurant’s flair. Posted reels sipping sumptuous cocktails in your bar.

And the results spoke for themselves:

Engagement and follower growth.
Stunning content to repost across your channels.
Even a few direct bookings you could tie back to posts.

It worked. But now… maybe ramping up is starting to feel less manageable.

Message inboxes to trawl for “influencers” that may or may not have the followers or the fit. Profiling lists of on-brand creators for blind DMing. Campaign spreadsheets are multiplying. Deadlines are getting tighter. Suddenly, what felt like an exciting new channel now feels like… a full-time job.

Sound familiar?

This is the reality of scaling influencer marketing. But here’s the good news: with the right systems and strategy, you can keep growing this channel – without the hassle and the headaches. Here’s how.

Step 1: Get your house in order

When you’re running a handful of influencer campaigns, it’s easy to make it up as you go (some dms, a spreadsheet or two, plus a trello board and google drive can get you going). But as things grow, this ad hoc approach starts to crack. Ask yourself:

Are you still rewriting briefs and agreements for every new creator?
Do you have a clear process for vetting influencer requests, and approving content?
Is there one place where your team can manage every promotion, deliverable, and deadline seamlessly?

Without these systems, managing multiple creators, promotions and venues becomes chaotic fast.

Pro tip: Best-practice templates and workflows save hours. Or better yet, use a platform to take the admin off your hands entirely. Get Gifted.

Step 2: Spreadsheets can’t scale

At some point, the classic “spreadsheets plus XYZ” system just can’t keep up. Profiling influencers, outreach, campaign terms, tracking deliverables, approving content, influencer comms, and analysing results in multiple applications? It’s a recipe for missed deadlines and mounting stress.

Here’s what a scalable system looks like:

Best-practice templates with asks and offers tried and tested with successful Hotel Influencer campaigns,just click and go.

One central hub for everything influencer – vetted, inbound requests from on-brand influencers, aligned to targeted Collab Briefs, with end-to-end management.
Clear workflows that keep your team aligned and campaigns moving, with scheduled reminders, automations, and influencers comms handled effortlessly.
Content usage rights, Terms and Conditions, Legals, GDPR all taken care of for every campaign, venue and territory.

Psst: Gifted was built for this exact stage of growth.

Step 3: Grow with insight, not guesswork

Scaling isn’t about running more campaigns. It’s about running the right campaigns that drive the right results. To do that, you need quantitative and qualitative data.
Track what matters:

Reach & Engagement – are more people viewing, commenting, saving and sharing?
Site traffic & bookings – is influencer activity driving awareness & revenue?
Content quality & advocacy – is it building a library of assets you can repurpose?

Use these insights to refine your strategy and double down on what’s delivering results.

Case study spotlight: Hotel Indigo Manchester

Hotel Indigo turned a scattergun approach into a streamlined, scalable system shifting from ad hoc gifted stays to structured campaigns with micro creators.

The team aligned their influencer content strategy with business goals, boosting off-peak stays and putting their restaurant, Mamucium, on Manchester’s foodie map.

In less than six months, they saw a 30% lift in Instagram followers, cost-per-engagement well below paid media benchmarks, and a 1000%+ increase in reach and engagement. Plus memorable content that kept delivering long after campaigns ended.

And the best part? They created a model for global scale - through the UK, Dubai and beyond. Designed and delivered on Gifted.

Want to see how they did it? Read the full story: From Ad Hoc to Impact at Hotel Indigo