Keys to a successful partnership with influencers

2023-06-16 09:04:22

Brands originally used influencer marketing for brand awareness or to change their customers’ buying behavior and overall brand perceptions.

Today, we have moved far beyond those early days. With the potential for returns of 20 times the initial investment, many brands see the advantages of working with influencers, from niche influencers to celebrity influencers, whose audiences and viewpoints align with their brand values. Brands now work with many different types of influencers in pursuit of various business goals, including:

• Reach new audiences and expand the reach of the brand.
• Bolster overall content marketing efforts.
• Increase the consideration of prospects about your project.
• Drive new sales from new customers.
• Increase the purchase intention of the buyer.
• Create long-term brand value.

The most fundamental basic strategies for working with influencers still deliver results. If you’re not already offering discount codes to influencers and their audiences, that’s a great place to start. Add a detailed review of your product or service by the influencer, start a contest together, and make sure they are using your brand hashtag on all sponsored posts.

Once you have the basics under control, why not spend some time exploring new ways to improve your influencer marketing plan?

Tactics that will improve the overall success of your influencer campaigns and help you get closer to your goals

1. Organize a takeover of your social media channels by your influencer

Schedule a day and time for your influencer to take over one of your social media channels. Whether it’s for an hour, a day, or even a week, a well-publicized acquisition can help you boost your profile and attract the influencer’s followers to your account. You’ll increase brand exposure, reach new potential customers, and amplify important brand marketing messages. At the same time, your current audience will learn more about the influencer, which can gain more followers. That is the very definition of win-win.

To ensure a social media takeover goes smoothly, be sure to define the rules ahead of time and set up a process that ensures inappropriate content doesn’t slip through the cracks. Provide the influencer with simple and direct guidelines on what types of topics and wording are prohibited. Alternatively, you can ask him to send you his content in advance, then your team can publish it.

Acquisitions designed around specific events or experiences tend to produce the best results for both parties. Tie the influencer acquisition to a product launch, for example, to help introduce the new line to a broader audience and potential customers.

Finally, carefully consider which channel or platform to use for your influencer marketing campaign. There should be a good fit or alignment between your product, your marketing goals, the influencer’s content strengths, and the channel you use. TikTok and Instagram are often better suited for graphic content that showcases a product’s features or design, while Twitter and Facebook are solid choices when you want to encourage audience engagement and interactions.

2. Organize unboxing videos for a new or popular product

Reviews and mentions can be very effective in raising your brand profile and increasing sales. However, if you really want to reach out and persuade more prospects to complete a purchase, go a step further and have the influencer create a compelling unboxing video.

The unboxing videos began to go viral a finales ofl 2006, so as a genre they have been around for a while. However, they remain popular, and well-crafted ones can generate a lot of enthusiasm for the brand and the product.

The key to success with influencer unboxing videos is ensuring the highest possible quality, both in the production values ​​of the video and the substance of the influencer’s content. Give them a complete breakdown of the key features and benefits of the product. Your influencer should also have access to proper lighting and recording equipment to ensure strong production values.

3. Get creative with paid influencer marketing

Would the influencer you’re working with be open to a more creative pay structure? A “pay to play” approach, where your compensation is tied directly to the number of signups you can generate for your brand, can strongly motivate the influencer. This approach can also make it much easier for you to track applicable metrics and calculate an accurate ROI.

Many influencers will gladly accept such a deal because they could earn more from such a deal than they would from a direct flat fee. Of course, there’s also the risk that they’ll earn less, but if you’ve chosen your influencer based on a full understanding of their audience structure and reach, you should have a good idea of ​​what you can realistically offer.

4. Reuse your influencer’s content for your brand

If you have a partnership with an influencer that is built on proven results and a reliable track record of performance, they should produce valuable and exciting content that drives the key metrics you want to improve. Why not take that content and repurpose it for your brand to post and promote?

For example, if your influencer’s audience is around 100,000 followers and the average post reaches around half that number, you might choose to spend part of your marketing budget on a paid promotion of one of their branded videos. Treat it like any other paid ad and track its performance compared to your other paid ad campaigns. You may be pleasantly surprised at how well it draws people to your website or offer.

Alternatively, look for ways you can repackage and share the influencer’s content on your own social media channels. Present the creative content you’ve produced in context with additional marketing insights from your team to increase list signups or even sales.

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