September 14, 2021
5 Things You Must Know Before Working with Influencers
These days, partnering with social media influencers is a pretty familiar strategy to most brands. In fact, 93% of marketers currently collaborate with influencers in some way, most often for content promotion and product launchers.
And the reason is simple: It works–big time. Not only are influencers invaluable in creating brand awareness, but through the trust they’ve built with their established audience, they can also prove to be a steady source of ready-to-convert new customers for you. That means two things. One, if you’re not already in the influencer game, you need to be. Stat. Two, in the always-changing world of digital marketing, doing your homework beforehand always pays off.
Here are five things you must know before you work with influencers:
1. Start with goals–every time
The most successful influencer marketing campaigns always have one thing in common: clearly defined goals. For starters, goals help determine the type of influencer and social platform your brand should work with. For instance, a nano influencer will drive much different results than a macro influencer. The same is true of different social platforms because engagement levels vary from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Goals also provide a way of measuring your success or failure, especially if you take the time (and you should) to identify the key performance indicators you’ll use to determine your return on investment.
2. Consider all of the data
Influencer marketing campaign success is often determined by various combinations of quantitative and qualitative data. In other words, conversions aren’t the only thing that counts. Impressions, page views, likes, shares and engagement are also important metrics in determining the overall success of a campaign, particularly when building brand awareness is a main objective.
3. Set your budget
Before you can engage with any influencers, you have to determine who you can afford–and who you can’t. For example, macro and mega influencers will require heftier flat fees while nano and micro influencers may be open to more of a hybrid compensation arrangement like a mix of commission, product, and smaller flat fees. The best way to stay on budget–and fairly compensate creators for their time and effort–is to determine upfront your CPA rate, the amount and type of product you can provide, and flat fee amounts.
4. Share the reins
One of the biggest benefits of working with influencers is their ability to connect with their audience. The bottom line is, influencers excel at what they do because they know their audience–and they know exactly how to speak to them. If they aren’t being authentic, their audience will smell it from a mile away. While you should always provide messaging guidelines, you need to allow influencers to craft the message in their own unique way.
5. Know you’re not for everyone
It’s important to realize that, first and foremost, influencers must stay true to who they are in order to maximize success for themselves and the brands they promote (remember that whole authenticity thing?). That means an influencer can’t possibly work with every brand that approaches them, including yours. And that’s ok. Really, that rejection allows you to move on to another influencer who will, in all likelihood, produce a better return for you.
Ready to get started with influencer and content marketing through the ROI-driving affiliate channel? Let’s chat.