What makes a successful influencer marketing campaign? Well, it is more than just the results. It is also based on the relationship you make with the influencer along the way. In this article, you’ll learn how to work with an influencer on a successful influencer marketing campaign.
Research Influencers
You can only create a successful influencer marketing strategy if you know who to ask. You can only find this if you do your research. The success of your campaign will significantly depend on the influencers you choose. For this, research is essential. You need to find the influencers who are the most compatible with your business.
There are many ways to do this. The most common is to use Google. It allows you to uncover influencers by merely inputting some keywords quickly. However, there are also other ways to do this. One website that you can use is BuzzSumo. In this website, you’ll uncover posts that have the highest engagements and shares. You can then discover influencers in the niche who managed to create these content.
NOTE: More than celebrity influencers who have millions of followers, you can choose to target micro-influencers instead. These are influencers who have a few thousand followers but have highly responsive followers. This type of influencer is usually more open to collaborations, and they don’t require a hefty sum for sponsorships.
Observe Their Content
You can only ask an influencer to promote you if you know how they create content. For this, you’ll need to know and understand their content. You need to do this so that you can understand the types of content that they produce and what will get the best results. Influencers are expert content creators. Aside from having tons of content ideas, you can also observe how they create their content. You can look at the titles and the format.
Another thing that you can observe is the topic. Every influencer works in a focused niche. This will give you an idea of the type of content that they resonate with and easily absorb. It can power your suggestions so that you only give them ideas that will interest them. This step is essential if you want to partner with an influencer. You need to know them and their content before you can ask them to promote you.
Look at Habits and Behavior
Another area that is worth looking into is the habits and behavior of an influencer. This will give you an idea of what products you can promote with them. Every influencer will have a set of practices and routines. For example, an influencer may like to drink coffee every day. That is an example of a habit. Another influencer may be vegan and only eat plant products. That is also a habit. If you have products that resonate with these habits, you can easily promote your products to them.
This is the reason why observing content is essential. Not only do you need to follow the topic and writing style. You also need to see the actual content so that you can get to know the influencer better. If you are lucky, the influencer may even disclose his or her daily routine. This will give you some areas where your product can come in. You can keep these in mind as you think of ways on how you’ll approach the influencer.
Think of Ways You Can Help Them
One of the greatest mistakes that business owners commit is they always think of how the influencer can help them. They look at the influencer’s followers and content and think of ways the influencer can help them in terms of promotion. But this is a grave mistake. Instead of looking at it this way, it is far better to think of ideas on how they can help the influencer. This simple shift in mindset can result in a stream of ideas that are far more effective.
Think of how you can help them. This is a strategy that has worked for every niche. And it works for promotion as well. In the previous tips, you learned about taking a closer look at the influencer’s content and behavior. You can then use this to formulate a strategy on how to help them. This will give you ideas on what is important to them, and it will allow you to help them even more.
Make It Easy for Them to Promote You
You don’t need to focus on the influencer for successful influencer marketing overly. You can also focus on your content. You need to ensure that your content is designed for online promotions.
What does this mean? This means that you need to design your page in a way that can be quickly promoted. If this means that your page should have social sharing or other sharing buttons, then you should do that. You can also create a dedicated influencer marketing page. This is where you take all of your target influencers, and it will have all the essential tools that they need.
Partner with Them on Projects
Once you find your target influencers, you need to think of ways on how you can work with them. You can do this by thinking about partnering projects. Here are some ideas.
Product Reviews
The most common approach in influencer marketing is a product review. This is where you approach the influencer and ask them if they are interested in using your products and testing them. If you did your homework right and you know their habits and behavior, this is easy. This is because you will only propose products that will interest them.
Product Sponsorships
If you don’t want to go through the process of asking an influencer if they can review your product, you can always resort to product sponsorships. In this strategy, you pay the influencer to review your products. Since this is sponsored, it will require some upfront payments. But it is far more effective in encouraging an influencer to promote a product.
Product Collaboration
Another strategy is product collaboration. This is where you ask an influencer to create a product with you. This works because it often appeals to the influencer’s creative side. They get to create a product which they will not be able to do with mere content. This strategy is a surefire way to encourage an influencer to promote your brand.
Content Collaboration
If you don’t create your products, you can always go the content route. This is where you work with an influencer in crafting a piece of content. In this strategy, you must know how the influencer works. You should already know his content’s tone and style. This way, working with him will be easy. Video content creation has become very cost effective and can produce high ROI. So why not do a video with an influencer?
Contest or Giveaway Collaboration
You can also work with an influencer through a contest or giveaway. This will give their followers something to anticipate. If it has high priced items as prizes, then that’s better. This is because they can encourage more people to join the said contest or giveaway.
PRO TIP: Contests and giveaways are not reserved for only one influencer. You can also invite several influencers to partake in the online event. You may even find some brands offering you some prizes so that you don’t have to produce them yourself.
Aim to Talk with Them Face-to-Face
Another great way to work with an influencer is to meet with them face-to-face. You can do this by having an offline event or meetup. The best part is that you don’t only need to focus on one influencer for this. You can invite several influencers to the event.
Why are influencers more open to attending events like these? Well, aside from the fact that they also get to promote their brand on the said events, this will also allow them to meet other influencers. One of the most potent ways an influencer grows is through working with other influencers. Networking is essential for them to grow. Meetups and events like conferences are necessary for them to connect with similar people in their field. If you provide this opportunity for them, they are far more likely to jump on it.
Asking an influencer to join a meetup or event is simple. First, think about branding your event. The brand should resonate with the topic and purpose of the game. This way, you don’t need to explain it too much to your target influencers. The name will speak for itself. Next, you should craft an invitation for every target influencer. This should contain more than the date and time of the event. It should also include details of the event as well as what they should expect from joining it. This is important because they need to know that joining the event is worth their time.
Another thing that you may want to include is a list of influencers who will be joining your event. This is important if you’re going to convince other influencers to come on board. It may even be enough to convince a celebrity influencer to join. You see, influencers create content for a reason. Usually, it is to inspire and to change the world in their way. If your event can resonate with this goal, they will be far more likely to participate,
Work with Them on Creating Something Worthwhile
While you may now have some ideas on how you can work with influencers, you also need to keep in mind that what you should create has the potential to change the world or at least fulfill the goal of the influencer. You need to create something worthwhile. You should not only create content just for the sake of creating one. Instead, you should aim to create the best material that is available. You need to create content that will have a lasting impact on the audience.
This is the reason why observing the influencer is essential. You need to work with them by immersing yourself in their world and how they help their target audience. This is the only way for you to create your content that will have the same impact on the world. They are usually creating content to fulfill a goal. You need to find out what this goal is and how you can contribute to fulfilling it.
Give Them a Reason to Promote You
As mentioned, you cannot just approach an influencer and expect them to promote you. You need to give them a reason to do that. Fortunately, this reason can be more than a mere purpose. You can also reward them for the simple act of promoting your business. You can do this through a referral program.
Fortunately, creating a referral system is secure. With referral software, you can quickly launch a referral system in a few clicks. You just need to choose a software that is compatible with your online platform. If you are working with WordPress eCommerce, you need a WooCommerce affiliate plugin. For Shopify, you need a referral app. You can look at new websites like Best Drums Set Labs to know how to promote through such means. This is very effective in getting more leads and sales and in stopping shopping cart abandonment.
Give Them Something Better to Look Forward To
Another strategy is to implement a contest right inside your website. This means that your referrers don’t only get rewarded for promoting your brand to their family and friends. They also get paid if they managed to get the most referrals for your business. This will give them something better to look forward to.
Successful influencer marketing can depend on a variety of factors. But it is not based on one factor alone. You need to observe the influencer and take note of his habits and behaviour to effectively collaborate with him or her. You need to understand that influencer marketing is more than working with an influencer. You also need to ensure that you are appealing to their audience and purpose. This is the only way you can say that influencer marketing is done successfully.
