How to Achieve the Right Results With Influencer Marketing?

You have found the perfect influencer to promote your brand, but how do you achieve the right results with them?

We believe, a good start would be working with the aim to create ambassadors — people who really carry the sentiment of your brand with them and advocate for it passionately. This is especially important because consumers are becoming more aware about the products they choose to use. So, influencer marketing can really help turn their followers into your customers because consumer buying habits are influenced by their trust in the people they follow.

In this article, we share some tips and ideas on how you can make the most out of influencer marketing for your brand.

Plan Ahead

Plan ahead to give the influencers a quick view into your brand and help them understand the look and feel of it:

1. Be Prepared:

   Make sure your social media accounts are set up and active before the collaboration.

2. Create a Brief:

   • Create an influencers brief that accurately captures the essence of your brand. Keep it to the point, and add only relevant material.
   • If you have examples that you like, add them — these can be ads from other brands, stuff you find inspiring, collages of stuff you've put together, etc. The more visual aid you can provide them, the easier it will be to communicate clearly, the ideas you may have.

3. Be Awesome!

   Remember influencers are also your target audience, so wow them! Be memorable and desirable!

4. Have a Conversation:

   • Engage the influencer in a conversation — ask them for their ideas and give them room to add their own style wherever possible. This is essential because their followers follow them for their content, and allowing them a little creative freedom could go a long way.
   • If the influencer's style does not resonate with your brand then perhaps you need to look for one that does.

5. Collaborate:

   Don't forget that it is a collaboration. You don't want to make things feel too forced for the audience. Allow the influencer to add their own style, touch and creativity. More natural and "normal" it seems to the followers, the better results it would generate for your brand.

6. Have Goals!

   • Ask yourself, what you want to achieve for your brand? Is it brand awareness, tapping into a new target market or to increase sales?
   • Make a timeline so you stay on track and are clear about your campaign goals. This may also be helpful in measuring success.

7. Have a Good Pitch:

   Craft a story, or some ideas that you will pitch to them. It will include key points that you want to communicate about your brand. You want to try to get them on your side so the content they create is more authentic.

8. Start a Trend!

   Pick a hashtag for your campaign. Not only will it help you keep track of all the posts that go live, it will also help consumers find other content about your brand. In addition to that, it will help people learn about their interaction, and feedback of your brand.

9. Be on the Same Page!

   • Make sure you have the right to use the content commercially. That way you can use it across all platforms.
   • Make it clear whether they'll be given credit or compensated, or both, for the content they create.
   • It is also important to talk about the number of revisions they will provide you in case you feel the content does not align with your ideas.

Choosing the Right Influencers

It is very important that you spend time to choose the right influencers for your brand, as they will help convert their followers into loyal customers for you.

The influencers' main task is to engage the audience. So carefully hand-picking influencers, although challenging, will bring about the best results. After all, you can't achieve the right results if you don't have the right people on your team.

Consider for example, a few pointers to help you determine the right people to collaborate with:

Shortlist:

• Start with making a list of all the things you are looking for in a potential influencer to make sure that they align with your mission and resonate with your brand's style and core philosophy.
• Do background checks, because you don't want to be in a situation where your collaboration turns into something negative for your brand. For example, if your brand advocates for sustainability, it won't make sense to work with someone who doesn't believe in it or collaborates with companies that don't.

Analyze:

Analyze the audience that influencer reaches. Choose an influencer with audience that really trusts and engages in their content.

Communicate:

Ask questions. Ask for their opinion. Make sure they are on the same page as you. Communication is key!

Authenticate:

Make sure the creative style of the influencers align with your brand. It has to aesthetically fit with your brand. That way you get content that can be repurposed.

Think Big!

Use Multi-Channels:

Get creative and plan to make use of multiple channels. For example, instead of just collaborating for one Instagram post, use multiple channels such as Instagram stories, Instagram posts and IGTV.

Ask for Mentions:

You could ask the influencers to introduce your brand to their audiences, or give a shout-out to your brand in their posts.

Product Reviews:

Product review can be another great way of introducing your brand / product to the audience. For example, the influencer can share their experience using your products.

Give Offers, Discounts or Free Stuff:

Run exclusive offers and discounts, or do free give-aways or contests in collaboration with the influencer. It is a great way to gain more brand exposure.

Gifts:

Sending gifts to the influencers can be a great way to make them feel valued and important. Everyone loves gifts and often influencers will take the time to share a genuine post about how they feel about it.

Takeovers:

You could let the influencer take over your social media for a short time. It presents a great opportunity for the influencer and you to strengthen your relationship and trust. It is also a great way to get their audience to engage with your brand.

Events:

You could invite the influencer to an exclusive tour, or host an event. It will get the influencers to talk about being a part of it and provide good exposure for your brand.

It Doesn't End There...

Your job doesn't end once you outsource the content-making to the influencers. Consider the following, during-the-campaign tips, to yield successful results:

• Make sure the influencers know that content approval is required from you prior to any content going live.
• Make your deadlines absolutely clear. Generally, a good rule is to keep some grace period, as things will almost always never go according to the plan. Therefore, start as early as possible and request for updates along the way.
• Repost and share from the influencers' accounts. By sharing the influencer's content you will help build a community for like-minded people and also keep your account fresh and engaging.

Make the most of your investment and ensure that the goals you have set, are all achieved. The magic usually happens when you think out of the box!