The Power of Influencer Marketing: How to Partner with Influencers for Your Brand

Working with influencers is a great way to connect with potential buyers. Customers trust influencers they have been following more than advertisements. If you connect with the right influencer, you can increase sales and brand awareness. 

Utilizing influencers can also help your brand to build trust. If a customer sees your product repeatedly online, it will increase brand recognition and build trust because your brand is so present. 

Set a campaign goal

It is crucial to have a well-defined project scope and goal. Knowing why you want to work with an influencer will help you determine the kind of influencer that you need to activate to achieve your objectives. 

Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate user-generated content, promote a specific product, or drive sales? These are all important questions to consider when defining your objectives.

Having a clearly defined objective is important because it will give you a better understanding of what type of influencer you need to work with.  

For example, if you want to build brand awareness and get people talking about your brand, you can send your product to an influencer without strings attached. You don't have to compensate them, and you don't have to tell them to post about your product. You can simply ask them to share their thoughts on your product, and if they like it, you can ask them to share their experience with their online community.

If your objective is to drive sales, then you need to understand the following of the influencers you are considering working with. The size of an influencer's following does not really matter. In fact, smaller influencers often have a more loyal community that cares about product recommendations. You should look for influencers whose audience aligns with your target audience and who have an engaged following. This way, you can ensure that the influencer's followers will be more likely to trust their recommendation and take action, resulting in increased sales for your brand.

While sending products to influencers can be a good way to generate user-generated content, it's important to do so strategically. It's not enough to simply send products to any influencer with a large following; instead, it's important to identify influencers whose audience aligns with your target audience and values. This requires research and analysis to understand the influencer's niche, content style, and audience demographics.

Provide clear guidelines

Brands should provide clear guidelines and expectations for the influencer's content creation. This includes giving information on how the product should be used or featured and any hashtags or other branding elements that should be included. By providing clear direction, brands can ensure that the content generated by the influencer aligns with the brand's messaging and values.

Create a branded hashtag

A branded hashtag is a unique hashtag created for a brand or campaign and is used to track and organize social media content related to the brand or campaign.

When working with influencers, brands can encourage them to use the branded hashtag in their posts about the product or campaign. This helps to increase the reach of the content, as users can easily find and engage with other content related to the campaign by searching for the branded hashtag.

When creating a branded hashtag for an influencer campaign, choosing a unique, memorable, and easy to spell and remember is important. The hashtag should also be relevant to the brand or campaign and should not already be used by another brand or campaign.

Identify influencers

Identifying the right influencers is a crucial part of any influencer marketing campaign. It's essential to determine which type of influencer would be the best fit for your brand and campaign objectives. There are four categories of influencers based on their number of followers on social media platforms: nano-influencers, micro-influencers, macro-influencers, and mega-influencers.

Nano-influencers typically have a following of fewer than 10,000 people, while micro-influencers have between 10,000 and 150,000 followers. Macro-influencers have a following of between 150,000 and 1 million people, and mega-influencers have over 1 million followers.

When selecting influencers, it's important to keep in mind the demographics of their audience, engagement rates, and their niche. You want to choose influencers whose following matches your target audience and whose values align with your brand. Influencers with a highly engaged following are more likely to generate better results.

While mega-influencers can help you reach a broader audience, they come with a higher price tag. Working with nano and micro-influencers can be more cost-effective, and they often have a more dedicated and engaged following within their niche.

It's important to note that choosing the right influencer isn't just about the size of their following. You should also consider the type of content they produce and their audience's interests. For example, if you're promoting a vegan food product, working with an influencer who creates content related to veganism and healthy eating would make sense.

Where to find them

Social Media Platforms: Social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are popular places to find influencers. You can search for hashtags and keywords relevant to their industry or product to find influencers who are already creating content around those topics.

Influencer Marketing Platforms: There are several influencer marketing platforms, such as Octoly, AspireIQ, and Social Native, that connect brands with influencers. These platforms allow brands to post their campaign based on criteria such as location, niche, and audience demographics.

Referrals: Referrals can be a powerful way to find influencers. Brands can ask their customers, partners, or other influencers they have worked with in the past for recommendations.

Industry Events: Attending industry events, conferences, and meetups can provide an opportunity to meet influencers in person and establish relationships.

How to approach them

Craft a clear and concise message. When reaching out to an influencer, it's important to clearly and concisely communicate the campaign's goals, expectations, and compensation (if applicable). The message should be personalized to the influencer and should highlight why the brand thinks they would be a good fit for the campaign.

Once the influencer has expressed interest, providing a detailed campaign brief is important. This should include information on the campaign goals, timeline, content requirements, compensation, and any other relevant details.

It's important to establish clear expectations for the influencer's content creation, including any branding guidelines, hashtags, or other requirements. This helps ensure that the generated content aligns with the brand's messaging and values.