If you've ever tried to execute an influencer marketing campaign, you know that the hardest part is often connecting with the right influencers in the first place. Since your relationship with the influencers can impact the authenticity and effectiveness of your campaign, you need to build genuine connections with them. But how can you do it? Brybe simplifies communication with influencers – read the article below to learn our few useful tips.
1. Get to Know Your Influencers
The main reason influencer marketing works is because it feels more authentic and personal, than regular advertising. Just like when your friend or colleague recommends a product to you, it allows brands to tell their story more authentically and helps them instill a sense of trust in their customers towards their brand. It is this same sense of trust that you should also instill in influencers if you want to influence them. The best way to do that is by getting to know them, then building a connection based on that knowledge.
2. Allow Them to Do What They Do Best
Choose an influencer who is a good fit for your brand, and let them do their thing. If you try to force them into your own marketing mold, you risk a campaign that comes across as contrived. After all, they developed a following by creating videos, great blog posts, or social media posts that draw significant attention. Let them use your product in the environment in which they have already experienced success.
3. Ask Them About Their Best Successes and What They Attribute Them To
Whether or not an influencer you want to work with uses extensive analytics, they know what works and what does not. Ask a potential influencer-partner about their biggest successes (and biggest duds), and they will tell you! Often, they know exactly why a particular social media or blog post outperformed others, or why one fell flat, so listen to what they have to say. Analytics can’t capture everything.
4. Give Them a Good Reason to Help You
A TapInfluence and Altimeter study found that the biggest mistake you can make with influencer marketing is failing to offer sufficient compensation. Some brands do not offer financial compensation at all, which can be harmful because the study also found that the main motivation for influencers to become influencers is so that they can earn revenue from their presence. Even if you do not offer monetary compensation, the free products or experiences you offer should be valuable enough to win over influencers.
5. Allow Them to Maintain Authenticity
The last thing you want is for your influencer campaign to look like you pulled your influencer into your world and put them to work for you. They have developed their following through organic content. In other words, their photos or videos of products in their own kitchen or home resonate with people in a way that in-store photos or “forced” campaigns simply cannot.
6. Think Long-Term
Many influencers are eager to work on longer-term collaborations with brands. While one-off campaigns can be great for a start, developing ongoing relationships with influencers can benefit both you and them over the long-term. Think of your partnership as more of a marathon than a sprint, and give the relationship time to develop through strong communication and collaboration.
7. Keep Lines of Communication Open
Communication is the key to a strong relationship, regardless of context. Before, during, and after a campaign, communicate regularly with your influencer. Ask questions and listen to their answers. Likewise, if they have questions, answer them candidly and with honesty. With long-term collaborations, keep your influencers in the loop about relevant company developments.
8. Incorporate Them Into Your Company Culture
You may find great opportunities to strengthen your relationship with your influencers and their audiences by thinking offline. For example, could your influencer make an appearance at a trade show or a product launch? When you allow influencers to become integrated into your company culture, you strengthen the relationship and have more chances to draw upon their experience and ideas.
9. Minimize the Hassle for Them
If you want influencers to share your content, or talk about your brand with their followers, make sure it is not a hassle for them. Try to keep things as effortless as possible so they will be more open to helping you out – provide them with all the information they will need without them having to ask you. For example, when you initially approach an influencer with a partnership offer, let them know whether or not you'll be providing them with financial compensation. If not, what can you offer them? And if you are, what kind of compensation model will you follow? And you should make it clear what you expect from them in return.
10. Give Them Creative Control
The only thing influencers hate as much as brands that do not pay enough is brands that are far too controlling of what the influencer posts. The TapInfluence and Altimeter study listed it as the second biggest mistake brands make with influencer marketing – the study also found that the most important and effective method for influencers to engage their audience is to maintain their authenticity and honesty. According to a Julius study, 63% of influencers would not work with a brand more than once if the brand was too restrictive with their content guidelines. This suggests that brands must provide creative control to the influencers they work with – otherwise, it could frustrate the influencers and make them feel less inclined to portray your brand in a good light.
After reading all these tips above and following them, we are more than sure that your next influencer marketing campaign is going to be just great – we make sure that here on Brybe.com, all your efforts are paying off as much as possible, so you can be sure that we too are doing our best to make this communication as straightforward as possible for both sides – influencers and brands!