Influencer marketing is proving hugely popular at the moment, and there’s a simple reason for this. It really works.
Influencer marketing enables brands to reach valuable new audiences, and connect with target markets that traditional marketing channels would struggle to reach. Inspired by the results that word of mouth marketing achieves, influencer marketing has been designed to present products in an authentic, engaging way that resonates with consumers.
With increasing numbers of brands battling for partnerships with world-renowned social personalities, the world of influencer marketing is becoming increasingly competitive. But some brands are still hesitant to dip their toes into the waters of this fast-moving field.
If you’re unsure whether or not influencer marketing could work for your brand, or you have questions about the best way to approach a new influencer campaign, then read on. We’re here to reveal the hidden secrets of influencer marketing, to give you a unique insight into the opportunities that influencers could hold for your brand.
So, is influencer marketing right for your brand? Take a look at the following questions and you’ll soon find out.
What Budget do I Need for Influencer Marketing?
There’s a common misconception that the budget for an influencer marketing campaign must be through the roof. This isn’t true. In fact, influencer campaigns can be designed around any budget, and there are more options for modest campaign budgets than you might think.
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One thing we always recommend is planning and setting a strict budget before a campaign begins. The budget should be at the forefront of your mind when thinking about how the campaign will run. It will, of course, be a huge deciding factor when it comes to choosing influencer partnerships, and it will give you a clear idea of which influencers your brand would be able to work with – and how long for.
A modest budget isn’t necessarily a bad thing in influencer marketing. Smaller budgets tend to encourage brands to think outside the box a little when planning their influencer partnerships and content suggestions.
Brands working with smaller budgets will have a specific pool of influencers that they can partner with. Typically, influencers requesting smaller fees will have fewer followers than more pricey, better-known social personalities. However, the results achieved through partnerships with micro influencers are often the same, if not better than, results from macro influencers and social celebrities.
The difference lies in the audiences that micro influencers have. When an influencer with a smaller following posts content about a product, it usually feels more authentic than it would if a famous influencer with millions of followers did the same thing. The audiences of micro influencers are also typically far more engaged, and more likely to act on the advice and suggestions given by their favourite personalities.
So, a smaller budget doesn’t mean influencer marketing isn’t an option for your brand. It could even be a good thing.
Which Audiences Can I Target with Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing has been heralded for its incredible ability to connect brands with hard to reach audiences. Typically, influencer marketing is used to reach younger audiences, many of whom do not respond well to more traditional campaigns.
If your brand is looking to target younger consumers, then influencer marketing is essential. In research published by Google, it was reported that 70% of teenagers now trust influencers more than celebrities. The same study found that 4 in 10 millennial subscribers believe that their favorite influencers understand them better than their friends.
Instagram is one of the top channels for influencers, and with the advent of new video sharing options from IGTV and Instagram stories, it’s likely to remain a firm favorite with influencers large and small. This is important because the audiences using the platform are the very same ones that the vast majority of brands are looking to attract. They’re the next generation.
According to Statista, an incredible 75% of 18–24 year olds use Instagram. This percentage falls slightly as the age of users increases, with 57% of 25–30 year olds using Instagram, 47% of 30–49 year olds on the platform and just 23% of 50–64 year olds using the app.
When we consider the fact that a huge 63% of Instagram users log in to the platform at least once a day, it’s easy to see why influencer marketing is so important for brands looking to connect with younger audiences.
Will Influencer Marketing Provide the Right Kind of Content for my Brand?
The content created by any influencer campaign is governed by both the brand and the influencer in question.
Some brands look for influencers who are happy to take advice on how content should be presented, and what it should say to followers. Other brands might be more laid back in their approach, letting their influencers take the lead creatively.
There’s no right or wrong way to do things, it all depends on what your company needs and how you’d like influencer marketing to work for you.
If you’re hoping to create a very authentic campaign that provides plenty of unique, original content then we always recommend partnering with influencers who are known for their artistic flair. Many influencers build their reputations on the content they create for brands, so brands can easily handpick the personalities whose content aligns with their own ideas and plans for the campaign.
While most influencers are happy to take some direction from brands, the amount of direction that can be given will depend on the influencers that a company chooses. It’s worth bearing in mind that influencers who build their reputations on their creativity will take originality very seriously. For this reason, they may want to retain complete creative control over the content shared via their social channels.
It’s a good idea to consider a number of different influencers and look closely at what they’ve created for brands previously, before building any new partnerships. When you find an influencer capable of creating the content that your campaign needs, you’ll know they’re the right choice for your company.
How Will I Find the Best Influencers for my Company?
There are thousands of influencers out there, so it can be tricky to know which influencers would be best for your brand. Hopefully there are many influnecer marketing tools to make your life easier.
Before planning an influencer campaign, think about what you want to achieve. Consider what success would look like, and find out as much as you can about the different audiences that you’d like to connect with via your influencer marketing.
The more you know about your target audience, the easier it’ll be to decide on the best influencers for your campaign.
Once you have a few examples of target audiences in mind, you can start to research the top influencers who are followed by those very people. The more research you do into this, the more targeted your campaign will be.
Take the time to learn as much as you can about the different influencers available for your budget, and consider which ones would be best placed to connect your brand with the target audiences you’re seeking.
How Would I Measure the Success of Influencer Campaigns?
One of the key benefits of influencer marketing is the amount of data it provides. And as we all know, data is invaluable for marketing.
Influencer campaigns can be measured using a huge number of different metrics, every one of which provides actionable insights which can improve the results of future content.
Certain types of content can also help to provide measurable results. For example, a survey, poll or Q&A can encourage followers to provide feedback which may prove vital to the success of future strategies. Using a tool like Woorise you can create beautiful and powerful engagement campaigns collect leads and useful insights about your audience.
We always suggest that a brand sets out clear objectives for a campaign before any influencer partnerships are established. Not only is this a great idea in terms of planning content and keeping organized, it’s also hugely important in helping to measure success.
If you have a set of quantitative goals in mind for your campaign, then you’ll immediately be able to pinpoint the metrics that will help you see how things are going. These metrics may be conversions, referral web traffic, reach and follower numbers. You will also likely want to track figures relating to engagement, such as likes, reactions, shares, comments, clicks, votes, video views and of course mentions.
When working with influencers, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on all of the above metrics for each influencer that you partner with. By examining the figures for specific influencers, you’ll soon see which content is the most effective for your brand, and which influencer partnerships are delivering the most in terms of ROI. When this has been established, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions on how you’ll run future campaigns, and the percentage of your budget that should be dedicated to each influencer.
The quantitative data available to brands working with influencers is invaluable when it comes to planning future strategies. Data can even help to pinpoint exciting new opportunities and untapped potential.
Do I Need a Social Presence to Succeed with Influencer Marketing?
A strong social media presence is important in influencer marketing, but it’s not essential for brands planning their first influencer campaigns.
Of course, there are endless benefits to a solid social presence. A good social presence provides a quick and easy communication channel with an engaged audience, and helps to expand your reach as your social platforms grow. It’s also vital for brands looking to connect with a younger audience, and it can be hugely beneficial for brands hoping to get the word out about a new product or service without investing vast sums of money in a traditional advertising campaign.
Often brands believe that they must build a name for themselves on social media before they can consider partnering with influencers. While it’s always helpful for brands to have this social presence initially, a lack of social presence doesn’t necessarily mean that influencer marketing isn’t an option. It just might make it a little more difficult to find well-regarded influencers who are enthusiastic enough about the company to build a partnership.
If your brand doesn’t yet have a good social presence, then influencer marketing will undoubtedly help in this regard.
Influencers can help to push traffic to your social accounts, helping to rapidly boost follower numbers and engagements. For brands with a modest following, it’s a good idea to incorporate this growth into the overall objectives of the campaign. That way any future campaigns will run with the added benefit of an engaged audience and a strong social presence.
Influencer Marketing Outreach Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
Influencer marketing is an effective and popular strategy to help promote products and brands. You can reach large amounts of people quickly and boost your sales.
But with so many influencers to choose from and so many other marketing teams using the same strategy, how can you make your offer stand out? What influencer outreach mistakes should you be avoiding?
In this section I have created a list with the most important influencer outreach mistakes brands do and how to avoid them.
Establish Clear Campaign Objectives
The first step in any successful campaign is having clear objectives. Identify what the key aims and objectives of your campaign are.
- Is there a particular aspect of your brand that you are hoping to promote?
- Is there a specific product or service that you want to advertise?
- Who is your target audience?
Once you have a clear idea of what it is you want to achieve with your campaign, then you can start to research influencers. It is important to spend some time carefully researching different influencers, before you even start reaching out to them. The type of campaign you want to run and the overall objectives will determine the type of influencer and the platform you should be using.
Different social media influencers have different target audiences, operate on different social networking platforms and have their own brands and styles. Each has its own strengths, but you need to spend some time researching these and identify whether or not the influencers you are interested in actually match your campaign goals.
Reach Out To The Most Relevant Influencer
One of the most common mistakes to make is to get in contact with the wrong type of influencer. It can undermine your entire campaign and even cause it to fail, if you do not choose the correct type of person to help promote your brand or product. This is why research is so vital.
It is essential that you look carefully at the influencer(s) you are thinking of contacting to be involved with your campaign. You need to make sure that they meet the correct criteria, which involves the influencer having the correct type of target audience. Otherwise, you may end up working with someone who has a large number of followers, but who does not help your brand or product because you are simply failing to reach the intended audience for your particular needs.
When deciding which influencer(s) to work with, you need to think carefully about prioritizing the right type of criteria. Invest some time conducting thorough research into each influencer’s account. Make sure that you familiarize yourself with the types of brands that they are usually associated with and which types of products they promote. Ensure that you also look carefully at their followers. You need to check that the type of followers that they have match your brand needs and that those followers are in fact your intended target audience. There are multiple social media networking platforms to choose from. It’s also important that you work with an influencer who is working within the most relevant platform to your campaign.
Although high numbers of followers are desirable, in that they allow you to communicate or promote your product or services to a large amount of people at once, they should not be the priority when choosing which influencer to work with. You should always aim to prioritize the influencer’s relevance over their number of followers. It can be much more successful for you to work with an influencer who has fewer followers, but whose niche is more similar and in-keeping with your brand. Despite having fewer followers, those audiences will be far more likely to be engaged and interact with your campaign.
There are some online services which offer some research tools or outreach services and these can be very helpful. Ideally, you want to work with someone whose brand is in line with yours. The key is to look into the data which shows the kind of actions that the influencer’s followers took once they had been exposed to particular content. At the end of the day, the entire purpose of working with an influencer is to boost your sales. So, try to find an influencer who works within your niche market and who has a proven track record for improving sales for other brands.
Reach Out On The Most Relevant Channel
Once you have identified the key influencer(s) that you want to work with, you then need to contact them. Again, this is an area where many people make mistakes. Despite being social media influencers and despite the popularity of social media itself, this is often not the best way to try to make contact. Influencers get a lot of communication every day, most of which they simply ignore or delete. You want to make sure that you are contacting them on the most relevant channel to increase your chances of actually being noticed.
Contrary to popular belief, email continues to be one of the most effective outreach platforms. It will be much easier for you to be noticed this way. Moreover, email communication also enables for easier and more accurate records of your conversation to be maintained.
There may be times, however, when you have no alternative but to make initial contact via social media. The first influencer outreach mistake to avoid is contacting the influencer on the wrong account. Make sure that you contact them on the account that they use for business purposes. Rather than sending them a full pitch via DM, send an initial short introductory ‘pre-pitch’ DM and make sure that you ask them if there is a different platform, such as email, where they would prefer to receive the full pitch. Make sure that you send them the full pitch via their preferred method.
Send A Concise Pitch
When it comes to making the full pitch to an influencer, it’s important to keep it short and to the point. Influencers are usually busy people and if your pitch is too long or overly complicated, they are unlikely to respond. The first step, especially if you are using email to make contact, is to make sure that your subject line is relevant and captivating. This should make the influencer want to open the email and find out more, rather than instantly delete it.
Keep the pitch short, concise and ensure that you make your point as clearly and simply as you can. You need to provide the influencer with the key, relevant information about the campaign, your brand and your product/service. You also need to be clear about what the expectations are, both for the influencer and your company or brand. Finally, make sure that you provide cues, so that the influencer knows what steps or actions they need to take next. Your pitch should be engaging and appealing, but you should maintain a professional tone nonetheless.
Personalize Each Pitch
The biggest mistake you can make when sending the actual pitch to an influencer is to send them a clearly generalized, standard pitch. You can create a generalized pitch template to begin with, but it is crucial to personalize it and adjust it accordingly before sending it out to any influencers.
If you want to make your pitch stand out from the many others they may have already received that day, then make sure that you personalize it. Firstly, address them by their name! Explain why you have decided to get in touch with them. What is it about their image or brand that appeals to you and your campaign? It also helps if you can give specific examples of prior work they’ve done which you have been particularly drawn to. This shows that you have done some research and thought carefully about how the collaboration will be beneficial to both of you.
Another mistake to avoid to send out mass emails or pitches. Try to only send your pitch to one influencer at a time. If they reject your proposal, then move on to the next influencer on your list. Remember to tailor each pitch before you send it to help improve your chances of being successful.
Be Clear About The Benefits To The Influencer
Influencers are well aware of the boost their promotion can give to a brand or product. They are also busy people. Promoting your brand, product or service is not something which they will be likely to do for free. After all, it requires time and effort on their part and it is expected that you compensate them for this in some meaningful form.
Part of your pitch should clearly state what the benefits for the influencer marketing would be, if they were to become involved in your campaign. You may choose to pay them a flat fee for their involvement or you may offer them the product or service to try out for themselves for free. If you are promoting a product (for example, a new item of clothing or jewelry), you might give the influencer the item for free to keep, in exchange for their involvement.
You also need to ensure that you word the offer appropriately. You don’t want your proposal to sound like a favor, rather than an opportunity. Be clear that this is an exchange and try to emphasize the benefits to the influencer to being involved in this opportunity. Be specific about what you would require them to do and how they would be recompensed for their time and effort, explaining what you will do for them in return.
Follow Up
Once you have made initial contact and sent your pitch to the influencer of your choice, you should follow up with a second email within a few days. You should allow enough time and space for the influencer to read your email and to consider the opportunity. However, sending a follow up email about 3 to 5 days later will also emphasize that you are serious about the opportunity, as well as give them a gentle reminder to respond to you. You can send a third follow up email about a week later, if there’s been no communication in the meantime.
React Professionally To Rejection
If an influencer hasn’t responded following your follow-up emails, then it’s likely that they don’t want to be involved with the campaign. You can move on to pitching your offer to another influencer. Alternatively, the influencer may get in touch to reject your offer. In both cases, remember to react professionally and not to take their rejection personally.
It can be useful to ask for feedback about why they don’t want to be involved. It may be that it’s poor timing or that they don’t feel the product/brand is suitable for their followers. However, it is information which can be valuable in helping you to improve your pitch when you approach another influencer.
Even if they choose not to be involved, you have successfully made initial contact with them. This can provide you with the opportunity to build on that relationship for future campaigns or approach them again in the future with alternative offers, providing you react professionally to their rejection.
10 Ways How Brands Can Build Better Relationships With Influencers
Influencer marketing is a strategy being used by brands of all sizes from around the world. Regardless of your brand’s industry, Instagram influencers, Youtubers, TikTokers and others can help you get your name out there on social media. This strategy is important because not only does it make a lasting impression on consumers, but it lets both your customers and clients know what to expect from your company.
If you’ve worked with influencers already, hopefully the experience was positive! But if it wasn’t, don’t fret. We’re going to walk through some steps you can take to make sure that you build better relationships with influencers the next time you dip into influencer marketing.
And if you’re new to influencer marketing and have no idea how to start, this section will provide insight into some of the key steps in the campaign process and how to handle influencers during each.
1. Start with a clearly-defined campaign
In order to find the best candidates for your collaborations, you first have to define your goals and target audience. What do you want to achieve? Maybe it’s to promote brand awareness or gain more followers on your social media accounts. Or perhaps it’s to drive traffic to your website or increase ecommerce sales.
Whatever your goal, establish it and plant it in the minds of everyone on your team. It will be your guiding force when making decisions along the line. Also, set up key performance indicators so you can measure your success. For example, if your goal is to augment web traffic, your KPIs could be visits to your website, time spent on certain pages, clicks on certain links, etc.
As for your target audience, decide who you intend to reach with your campaign. Who are they? Where do they come from? Which social network do they use most? You can only find the right influencers if you know who you want to ultimately communicate with.
2. Find the right influencers for your brand
It is critical to find influencers who are the right fit for your company. There is no one-size-fits-all influencer. The right fit completely depends on your brand’s values and campaign objectives. And building good relationships with influencers depends on them being good fits for your brand.
When evaluating influencers, there are two areas you should check into. The first area includes the thematic elements on their profile, like the type of content they produce, the voice they use, and their aesthetic style. Find an influencer whose values and mission align with your brand’s value and mission. For example: If your brand creates hand-made slow fashion from recycled materials, find an influencer who also espouses those values. Don’t look for someone whose feed is full of fast fashion brands that don’t employ sustainable practices.
The second area involves the influencer’s performance-driven metrics. Or, in other terms, the way their profile stacks up in the quantifiable sense. To evaluate these metrics, you have to dig deeper into the nitty gritty of social media data, whether manually or with an influencer marketing platform. Look into the following:
- Number of followers – it determines reach (and price)
- Growth over time – do they accumulate followers steadily, or is growth stalled or subject to spikes and falls? (the second could be showing bought followers)
- Engagement rate – the level of interaction between an influencer and their followers
- Audience authenticity – see what percentage of their audience might be bots
- Audience demographics – analyze the influencer’s audience to make sure it matches your target
An audience authenticity metric, showing that around 20% of this influencer’s followers may be fake. Source: Heepsy
Selecting the right influencers from the start will promote better relationships. You’ll hopefully have something in common, and you’ll feel more confident knowing you’ve vetted their stats.
3. Know how much they cost, and how much you can pay
Influencer rates vary greatly depending on how many followers they have and the type/volume of content you want them to produce. Influencers can also get very expensive. So, go into the negotiations fray prepared.
Determine how much you have in your budget for influencer incentive. If you don’t have a lot, that’s okay. Try working with nano or micro influencers, who can deliver high ROIs and are budget-friendly. You can often close collaborations with them in return for just free products.
Managing your expectations will help you find influencers who can meet your collaboration needs and limits, and that in turn will lead to healthier relationships.
4. Make a good first impression
Contacting influencers can be difficult when you don’t know the best way to ensure a response. To get off on the right foot with influencers, make your proposal as attractive as possible. Use attention-grabbing language and give the influencer some information about your brand and what you want to achieve with the collaboration.
Also, explain to them why you think they’re the right fit! Maybe it’s their style, or some aspect of their content. Highlighting the positive can instill a friendly and positive tone in the relationship.
As a note, email is generally the best way to get in touch, but DMs can work too if you can’t find an email address. And remember, when working internationally, that cultural norms and customs differ around the world. So take a bit of time to make sure your message is appropriate.
Before outreach, it’s good to be aware of the common response rates seen. You are likely to see less than half of the influencers contacted to actually respond, which is why it is important to determine how many influencers you want to work with and double this number when sending out requests.
5. Be clear about any requirements you have
Another important factor in building healthy relationships is healthy communication. And that means being proactive and upfront. For that, whether you are a small or large company, it is crucial to identify your objectives clearly. Jumping into the world of influencer marketing can be exciting, but it’s important to reign that excitement in to focus on what really matters.
Talk through what your brand wants to communicate in this campaign, as well as any specific publication requirements you have. Think about:
- Deadlines for posting content
- Applicable guidelines related to the proper disclosure of collaborations
- Hashtags, mentions or discount codes you want them to include in their posts
- Key points you want to emphasize about your brand or product
- Style points or something you want to be featured in the content
Fashion influencer @schultzzie disclosed her collaboration with @fabletics using both a hashtag and Instagram’s paid partnership feature.
This point goes hand-in-hand with the next, so keep reading…
6. Give them creative freedom when working on your campaign
Although you should specify any requirements you have for their publications, don’t micromanage influencers! Give them creative control over their own content. This will show you value their work and trust their judgment and will lead to stronger relationships.
Influencers have amassed their followers because of the unique voice and perspective that shines through their content. They best understand their audience, and they best know how to transmit your brand’s message to their followers. So let them do it!
7. Listen to their concerns and be accountable
Everyone likes to feel heard. If an influencer raises a concern about your brand, campaign or content, listen up. Don’t immediately dismiss their ideas and suggestions. Take the time to discuss with them. Find out why they feel the way they do, and what they think you should change.
A few years ago, research already showed that 4 in 5 people believed social media increased brand accountability. And brands are being held accountable now more than ever. 2020 brought new challenges, namely the pandemic, racial reckonings and growing environmental concerns.
Influencers may be able to recognize problems that your own team didn’t catch. And to take this a bit further, actively seeking out influencers of diverse backgrounds and experiences from your own can be a way to proactively approach accountability.
8. Stay in touch and don’t be afraid to follow up
In marketing, rarely does everything go 100% according to plan. There are multitudes of possible hiccups, and planning for them is a marker of successful teams. In the case of influencer marketing, avoid confusion by keeping a constant stream of communication with the influencers.
If you send them products you want them to review and include in their posts, actively manage this timeline. Let them know once the shipment has been sent. Give them a tracking code so they can monitor the progress and plan their content creation accordingly. And be prepared for delays and errors.
Likewise, if you see that an influencer hasn’t posted by the arranged deadline, don’t hesitate to follow up. Maybe they forgot, or there was a technical issue with the social network. Or maybe something happened in their life that prohibited them from posting on time. Communication is key, and both parties will feel better if they keep each other in the loop.
9. Analyze which influencers’ content performs best
By now you know that in order to deem any marketing campaign successful, we have to track its results. If we can’t measure and report on the campaign’s performance, it’s impossible to qualify its effectiveness.
After your campaign has run, analyze its success. As part of that, look at the influencers you worked with and compare their performance. Whose content jumps out at you the most? Who brought in the most clicks, followers or sales? Who is not delivering the expected results?
Not only will you be able to see which influencer was indeed the best fit for your campaign, but if your campaign was multi-channel, you can also get new insight into which channel works best for you. That knowledge leaves you even better prepared for next time, and even more confident when you have to find influencers in the future. Just remember that each social channel has different target audiences, so make sure you consider this too.
10. When the relationship is positive, invest in it further
Sometimes everything just clicks into place. The influencer does a good job and brings in results. The relationship is amicable and communication is fluid. And that makes the whole campaign run smoother.
When you find this, don’t let it go! Bookmark the influencers who make that type of impression on you. You can always collaborate with them again in the future! And if an influencer already knows your brand and team, that means there is less of a learning curve for the next campaign.
Basically: Invest in influencers who have already proven that they can bring in great results without much headache and you are comfortable working with.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is growing rapidly, and providing incredible results to a vast number of brands in all kinds of different industries. Influencer campaigns can help to expand a company’s reach, promote a product, boost trust and loyalty and build valuable connections with consumers.
Influencer marketing offers a wide range of options for all kinds of different products and services, so it’s never difficult to find the ideal influencer for a brand. With so many different influencers available, the perfect partnership could be just around the corner. Take a look at the influencers making a name for themselves in your industry, and consider how they might be able to help to get the word out about your next promotion.
Influencer campaigns are ideal for brands hoping to reach the target audiences that traditional marketing channels no longer connect with. They’re also vital for companies hoping to expand existing audiences and promote their own social presence. With endless amounts of data available to help to inform influencer campaigns, influencer marketing is already providing impressive results for products and services in a huge array of different industries.
If you’re new to influencer marketing, it might be time to tap into the unparalleled potential of influencer campaigns. Only then will you really begin to see what the best influencer partnerships could do for your company.
