So you’re ready to take the plunge into the exciting world of influencer marketing. Welcome!
Collaborating with influencers is an effective way to expand your reach to targeted audiences, with content creators specializing in almost any field you could imagine. It’s like the old Apple tagline – there’s an influencer for that.
But where do you start? We put together five things to consider when working with influencers to ensure you build solid relationships while facilitating authentic content creation.
Working with Influencers
Audience engagement is often a more valuable metric than follower count and post likes. A focus on follower count excludes a strong pool of micro- and nano-influencers.
When researching who to collaborate with, follower count is probably the first metric that will catch your eye. But how engaged are these followers, and will they interact with your collaborative content? Ask for the influencer’s recent metrics, and make a beeline for their engagement rate. If you’re working with a smaller influencer (e.g. less than 15,000 Instagram followers), you’ll likely have a higher engagement rate than those with 200,000 followers since they have built a tightknit online community. A good engagement rate is considered 1 – 5%, with more than 5% being great.
Evaluate an influencer’s past paid collaborations and the original content they publish. Do you seem like a natural partner?
What companies or brands have they previously worked with? Are any of them your competition? Have they posted content that doesn’t align with your organizational values? Before confirming a partnership, make sure you understand your influencer, who their audience is, and the content they produce to prevent headaches down the road.
Be comfortable with letting go. The best influencer content comes from creative freedom.
Influencers have gained a following because of the type of content they create, so trust that they know what resonates best with their audience. Outline the parameters of your campaign, provide suggestions, and then ask, “What do you think your audience would best respond to?” You want your sponsored content to feel authentic to the influencer’s audience, so don’t force creators to post something that may feel unnatural or out of character for them. That said, be sure to approve posts ahead of publishing to catch any typos, branding inconsistencies and to check that all agreed upon deliverables are included.
Look for a healthy mix of original and sponsored content on the influencer’s feed.
If your influencer posts frequent ads, your partnership could get lost in the noise, and you may not see your desired results. A good way to give yourself a small sponsored content buffer is to include a clause in your contract that your ad will be the only sponsored content posted on the influencer’s platform for 24 hours/two days/a week/etc. Reach out early in your campaign development and be open to negotiating this clause, as the creator may have other brand deals to work around.
Influencing is a career – treat it as such.
Gone are the days of influencers advertising for free or for product trades. Influencers can bring immense value to your brand, providing credibility for your product, visual demonstrations of your product or experience in action, driving traffic and conversions to your website, and incenting engagement or purchase. These campaigns take time and effort to read through contracts, shoot content, edit photos and videos, commute to your event, go back-and-forth with you on edits – and many of today’s influencers have a full-time job on top of content creation. Compensate your influencers appropriately and build a strong relationship with them. That is how you will succeed as you venture into influencer marketing.
Thinking about integrating influencers into your next campaign? Get in touch with the Devine + Partners social media team at resteasy@devinepartners.com.
Devine + Partners is a Philadelphia public relations agency . We offer a full range of communications services – from message and content development and media relations to issues management and employee and community engagement.
