Influencers make a living creating and sharing content. If you want their help, be prepared to give it in return.
Make sure the influencer’s audience lines up with your own target market before hiring them. This helps ensure that your product is seen by people who will actually be interested in it.
1. Don’t be afraid to pay
Influencers work hard to make a living and rely on compensation for their content. If you’re able to, consider offering a pay-per-post model for influencers who are interested in working with you.
When choosing an influencer to collaborate with, evaluate their following and engagement. If they have a high engagement rate compared to their audience size, that’s a good sign that they’re worth investing in. Be sure to also ask about repurposing influencer content — this can be an effective way to drive traffic and fill in posting gaps on your feed. Finally, it’s important to agree on a timeline, deliverables and payment structure beforehand to prevent confusion down the road. This will ensure that your campaign stays on track to reach your goals.
2. Don’t be afraid to negotiate
Often, influencers will be willing to work for lower rates because they know the value of their content and brand. Be sure to communicate clearly with them during the negotiation process and provide a clear understanding of your goals and what is expected.
Look at their engagement rate, tone of voice and type of content when choosing an influencer. You want to ensure that they match with your campaign and brand image.
Consider asking influencers for permission to repurpose their content. This can help you reach a wider audience and fill in posting gaps in your social media accounts. It can also generate more traffic and increase your ROI on the original cost of the campaign. You can do this by re-sharing on different platforms or even tailoring the content for specific audience segments.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for creative freedom
In a world where 54% of people say they won’t click on a banner ad, influencers are the way to go. They are able to connect brands with consumers in an authentic and engaging manner.
When collaborating with an influencer, it is important to give them creative freedom. It is also important to set clear guidelines and deliverables for the campaign. This ensures that the content created is aligned with your goals.
When selecting an influencer to partner with, look at their interaction rate, tone of voice and content style. You don’t want to collaborate with someone who doesn’t fit your brand image or feel natural in their content. Instead, focus on finding influencers who genuinely enjoy your products and can showcase this in a way that is relevant to their audience.
4. Don’t be afraid to repurpose content
It’s not always possible to create new content to match the goals and objectives of your campaign. That’s why it is important to have a content repurposing workflow that you can stick with.
Repurposing is one of the best ways to extend the reach of your content and make it more accessible to a wider audience. For example, some people may not enjoy reading blog posts but would be more inclined to listen to a podcast or watch a video.
Repurposing content is also a great way to breathe life into old content and keep your audience engaged. For example, you can take a list blog post and turn it into a graphic or infographic. You can also break down a long-form whitepaper into individual points and then turn those into blogs or videos.
5. Don’t be afraid to measure
As with any digital marketing campaign, you will need to set clear-cut goals and simplify communication to extract the maximum benefit. This will include monitoring what the website and social media traffic looks like before, during and after.
Remember, the ultimate goal of influencer marketing is to increase sales, not just engagement and brand awareness. Even if the results are not immediately apparent, you will need to be able to show your clients (or your finance department) that the money spent on this form of marketing is truly worth it.
Use tracking pixels, attribution links and full-funnel analytics (including in-store sales) to measure and demonstrate the impact of your campaigns. These metrics provide concrete evidence that your campaign is driving consumers down the sales funnel.
