Influencer marketing can be tricky, and we’ll be the first to admit that influencer marketing isn’t a strategy that will work for every business. However, the reality is that many businesses and brands shy away from influencer marketing because of their own bad experiences or stories they’ve heard of others’ experiences. But influencer marketing can work, and work well, if it’s done right.
In this article, we’ll look at ways of working with influencers as part of your marketing strategy, and how you as an advertiser can maximise the performance of your influencer partnerships.
Select influencers that align with your brand
One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make with influencer marketing is that they engage with brand ambassadors that don’t align with their brand. It might seem appealing to partner with an influencer who has a large audience or is the flavour of the month, but it appears disingenuous to audiences if the two don’t gel. Modern consumers are smart, savvy and constantly exposed to influencer marketing, both good and bad, and have no hesitation to call out dodgy influencer marketing or poor brand partnerships.
Luckily, the growth of influencer marketing over the past decade means that you can find someone who is a natural fit, no matter what your niche is: there are caravanning influencers, 4WD influencers, crocheting influencers – literally an endless array of influencers. One way to ensure alignment is to work with influencer agencies, as they will help you vet potential partners and find someone that is a mutual fit.
If you’re considering a certain influencer, these agencies will look at who their audience is, where they are based, and if they are even real people. Back in the early days, influencer marketing had a bad rap due to all their bot followers, which significantly reduced the reach and benefit that influencer campaigns offered. While it is harder for fake influencers to find success nowadays, there are a few out there, and a good agency will help you weed them out.
We suggest a multi-pronged influencer approach. Although it’s great to work with larger, higher profile influencers should they align with your brand and budget, don’t rule out working with small or even micro influencers as well, as they often produce strong content that can connect with your audience more effectively than someone with a greater reach and higher cost.
Work with your influencers
Influencers get where they are through their content. It engages and connects with their audience, and ultimately, harnessing that connection is the crux of all influencer marketing. Sometimes when working with influencers there is a disconnect between the advertiser (that’s you) and the influencer which can impact the final output.
One of the most common examples we have seen is the advertiser being too prescriptive. Some influencers like this, but most don’t. Influencers don’t need a script and storyboard to create content, they’re already good at it. Sure, give them brand guidelines and some prompts, but don’t micromanage. Often when brands are too prescriptive or involved in the production, the end result is average content that fails to connect and is, in effect, money down the toilet.
Our recommendation is to work with your influencers. Influencers are creative people, and you’d be surprised what they can create given the flexibility and freedom of a good brief. Work collaboratively and provide constructive feedback if needed, but avoid the temptation to tell them what, where, when, and how to shoot their content.
Giving influencers the room to do their thing leads to better content creation, and it also fosters a stronger working relationship. Remember, an influencer marketing campaign is a collaboration, not a media buy, and taking the time to build a relationship based on trust can lead to ongoing partnership opportunities.
Set expectations from the start
A lot of the horror stories you hear about influencer marketing happens after the fact: your partnership is live and then it hits the fan. No influencer partnership is ever going to be 100% brand-safe, but setting boundaries and expectations at the get-go can solve a lot of other problems before they occur.
When we work with influencers, we make it clear what our expectations are. An oversight that often happens with advertisers working with influencers is that they don’t negotiate exclusivity clauses. To say the least, it is not a great look if your influencer partner is promoting a direct competitor the same time as they are promoting your brand. Most influencers in today’s social landscape are professional and reputable and as an unspoken rule won’t do this, but like any agreement, it never hurts to put this expectation in writing.
Understand your usage rights
It’s also good to negotiate usage rights prior to woking with an influencer. How long can you use the content once it has been published? Can you use it on other social media platforms or other media channels like a YouTube ad? Especially if the content is strong and aligns with the brand, you want to use this across all your assets. It’s good to understand what your usage rights are before your influencers create any content.
Moreover, set your expectations on what you want from the influencer: what is the output you are expecting and what are the deliverables. Be clear on this so there is no misunderstanding between the parties. If you expect a video to be produced, outline the expected duration of the video. If you expect a carousel, set the expectation that you expect the carousel to be 3-5 cards in length. This ensures that the influencer knows what is expected from them, and also gives your marketing team an idea of the type of content they will have to work with.
Support your influencer partners with an amplification strategy
So you’ve followed the steps above, you’ve partnered with some influencers and they have produced stunning content. They’ve posted on their socials, and while their audience is loving the content, few people are seeing it. Does that mean the campaign is a failure? Not just yet. Before you write off a piece of influencer marketing, you need to amplify it and give it a chance to truly perform.
We recommend that any allocation to support influencer marketing includes a budget to support an amplification strategy. This will allow your content to be seen beyond the reach of your influencer’s followers. The principle is the same as paid advertising: the content would be set up to target your desired audience. You can choose the objective and optimisation to run the content against, and can control who sees the content across Facebook’s advertising network.
Trust Retain Media for Industry-Leading Insights
Whether it’s introductions to influencer marketing, TikTok, or voice search, you can rely on our Insights to keep you up to date with the latest developments in digital marketing.
If your business is struggling to stand out online, we can help. At Retain Media, our team of ads managers, SEO experts and content writers have helped dozens of clients connect with thousands of customers online through a diverse, multi-channel approach.
To learn more about what we can do, contact us today to arrange a free, no-obligation consultation and find out how we can make your content stand out from the crowd.
