During the early 2010s, influencer marketing focused on celebrities and a few prominent bloggers. Nowadays, anybody can be an influencer, from a high-schooler dancing on TikTok to a tech junkie posting gadget reviews on YouTube. While there may be thousands of influencers globally, not all of them are the right ones for your brand.
It’s best to find the right influencer who can represent your brand and has a significant number of followers who are your ideal prospects. It isn’t easy to snag influencers, especially if it’s your first time reaching out to them. Some can be very thorough in their brand selection process, only collaborating with brands they know or are already supporting.
Before you approach an influencer and propose a deal with them, you need to have a plan or an influencer marketing strategy in place. But first, you need an overview of what influencer marketing is.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy where a business partners with an influencer (a blogger or popular social media user) to promote their products or services through product mentions and endorsements.
Influencers have a large following and an engaged audience that marketers can tap into to drive their brand’s sales and build credibility. This strategy works because audiences trust the influencers they follow.
Due to their trust in the influencer, followers take the influencer’s advice into account and consider purchasing their recommendations (which they do most of the time). A 2021 survey from Thrive Agency found that 61.67% of users have bought a product/service advertised by an influencer. This means that influencers play a huge role in a customer’s purchasing decision, making influencer marketing a strategy worth implementing.
4 Ways Your Brand can Successfully Collaborate with Influencers
In creating an influencer marketing strategy, you need to incorporate some best practices. When you collaborate with influencers effectively, you’re establishing your reputation as a reliable brand, making your business more attractive to other influencers. Eventually, they’ll be the ones begging to collaborate with you.
Here are some tips on how you can build a strong relationship with your influencers:
- Connect with influencers who you can create organic content with
When looking for influencers to collaborate with, start with those already using your product/service or someone who seems like they will. Review their feed and look through non-sponsored posts. Ask yourself: If they post about your product/service, will it feel real? Will it look out of place?
For example, if your business sells camping gear, the influencer you should connect with should be interested in your products, like someone outdoorsy and likes to travel. It’s best not to connect with posh luxury influencers as their audience may not be a match with yours.
Nowadays, users are smarter as they can tell if the content influencers post is authentic. According to a report done by Influencer.co, about 62% feel that it’s unethical for influencers to promote a product they don’t use. So, when audiences sniff that influencers are faking it, they won’t engage with the post.
- Utilize the right platform
Instagram is one of the most popular social media Influencer platforms for influencer marketing. However, there are other platforms you should consider, depending on your audience. If you want to make your brand relatable to different generations, you must adapt your strategy according to the platform.
For example, Statistia records that TikTok’s users are mostly Gen Z, with 25% of its 2021 US users aged 10-19 years old. If your target audience fits in this bracket, you can make TikTok your primary influencer marketing platform. When you connect with a TikTok influencer, they’ll be able to possibly to developing a strong brand and a stronger reach and higher conversion rates than an influencer from another platform like Facebook or YouTube.
- Lead influencers, don’t command
One of the main reasons influencer marketing works is the genuine content influencers share. Their audience relates to their content so much that they have built a certain level of trust towards them. As a marketer, don’t strain this connection.
The influencer’s voice and style must be prominent throughout the campaign. This gives the content a sense of authenticity, enriching the audience’s trust. It also prevents the promotion from sounding too salesy.
This doesn’t mean that you should be completely hands-off; you can lead the campaign by sharing some important points about your brand and product/services, your collaboration goals, and how your product/service can help your audiences. Align your purpose and strategy, but allow them to execute the campaign with their own flair.
- Personalize the collaboration
To nurture a strong relationship with an influencer, you have to be genuine—or at least appear genuine—during your first interaction. This means that when you’re proposing the brand deal, you should personalize your approach toward the influencer.
Don’t copy-paste a dull and unimaginative email and send it to several influencers. Research and explain why you think they are a perfect fit for your brand.
Once they agree on the collaboration, you can continue the personalization by sending them a catalog or a presentation specifically designed for the partnership. It can include some media guidelines, suggestions, and best practices. If you keep them in mind throughout the campaign, they’ll feel valued, making it more likely that you’ll work with them again or they’ll recommend you to other influencers.
Pull Off a Successful Brand Collaboration
Simply sending an offer to an influencer won’t get you a collaboration that will deliver results. It’s best to intentionally choose an influencer in line with your audience and goals. Then, approach the partnership with a genuine and personalized touch. When you and your influencer see eye-to-eye, they’ll be able to vouch for your brand in a way that captures their audience and motivates them to purchase.
Author’s Bio:
David is the Marketing Manager of Intermedia Print Solutions, a Princeton printing and packaging solutions notable for its high-end print quality printing and on-time delivery. A mixture of technology and creativity is what makes David enthusiastic about his work.
