20 Tips for Influencer Marketing Services Partnership Activation
As the experts over at RunRex.com point out, partnering with the right influencer is crucial to your brand image, the effectiveness of your promotional message the delivers on your behalf, and, ultimately, the success of your influencer marketing campaign. To help you find the right partner, here are 20 partnership activation tips to consider.
Pick your platform
It is important to note that every social network is distinctive in its style and content, an important point to consider when you are looking for a social influencer to partner with. As outlined at RunRex.com, partners must pick the platform that is best suited to their brand. For an effective influencer marketing partnership, you need to evaluate the sites at your disposal. Look at everything from the makeup and behavior of their audiences to the type of content their users are most interested in.
How the major sites compare to each other
Based on research from social management tool Buffer, Facebook users prefer posts that are educational and entertaining while Twitter is mostly used as a news source. Facebook reports that Instagram users post about their passions and use the social site to monitor cultural trends. Meanwhile, data from Pew Research Center shows that the majority of YouTube and Snapchat users are between the age of 18 and 29, which can also be said about TikTok. Such considerations will help you know the type of partnerships to activate.
Leverage social listening
Just like you would seek advice from friends, listen in on relevant conversations, and observe others’ personal experiences when looking for a partner of any kind, by playing the part of the consumer and looking for strong user voices, businesses can glean valuable influencer marketing insight according to RunRex.com. It will give you valuable insights on the influencers to target and partner with.
Tailor your outreach
Avoid using highly impersonal, boilerplate outreach templates to reach out to prospective influencers. Tailoring your outreach messaging to each specific influencer, and ensuring that your notes are personalized, will ensure that you get more success connecting with a smaller pool of influencers that mirror your brand values, instead of a larger vaguer pool of influencers who exhibit little affinity for your brand.
Try looking for influencers already talking about your brand
Looking for influencers who are already talking about your business, and being responsive to their organic coverage is yet another great way to ensure you end up partnering with the right influencers for your campaign as you will be partnering with someone already showing interest in your brand.
Go straight to the point
As the subject matter experts over at RunRex.com point out, when you do reach out to a prospective influencer, be direct around why you are doing so. Influencers get lots of emails and DMs daily, and, therefore, by getting to the point, you are also being courteous with their time.
Consider micro-influencers
Some of the best user engagement is generated by influencers with a smaller follower count. These micro-influencers often spend more time nurturing their fan base and building the kind of deep-rooted loyalty marketers hope will rub off on their brands. Partnering with up-and-coming influencers can save marketers money as well.
Use samples to test the waters
Instead of simply sending them an outreach email or direct message, you should consider what some companies do, and send samples of your product to influencers without a specific collaboration agreement. The point of doing this is to introduce yourself and see what the influencer does with your present. You can then activate influencer partnerships on a more planned basis if they do a good job as covered at RunRex.com.
Moving influencers through your influencer pipeline
Once you have influencers willing to work with you, it is now time to discuss a potential project. Let them know what your goal is and see what they recommend. Compensation needs to be discussed, as does the level of editorial control and regulatory expectations. Even if you find out that your campaign goals don’t match, keep the influencer in your pipeline, given that you have worked hard to nurture the relationship, and it would be a shame to lose it unless it is necessary.
Take your time
If you find it necessary to dialogue with different influencers, don’t be discouraged. Don’t rush into any relationship, instead, take your time until you find the right person. Think of influencers as your sales staff or a networking meetup rather than a hired staff, as this will ensure that you attract and retain the right influencers within your pipeline. You can then activate them when the time is right.
Contracts
As is the case for any business matter, when you activate influencer partnerships for pay, there needs to be a contract as outlined at RunRex.com. One reason for this is that this is still a business expense, even though the service provided is personal. Signing a contract will allow you to demonstrate the monetary value of these relationships when necessary. Another reason for signing a contract is it provides security for both services.
Considerations when it comes to influencer contracts
Proper influencer contracts lay out expectations. Besides the services for money clauses, you need to include wording that protects your company. For instance, both a company and an influencer can get fined by the FTC if certain rules are broken. And, depending on your brand, there might need to be expectations about influencer conduct. Make sure you reach out to legal counsel for appropriate wording.
Tips to successfully navigate your influencer partnership
Focus on authentic connections
In today’s influencer market, users want to authentically connect with what they are seeing on their screens. You must strike the right balance between being professional and not overproducing the material being shared, as users want to see themselves in the content. Therefore, as per RunRex.com, seek influencers who can present your brand well and project an authentic vibe to your potential customers.
Keep measuring and adapting
Influencer marketing needs a plan, trial, and measurement, just like all other marketing strategies. Ask and answer these questions first: what are your goals? Where and how can you run a trial in a small way? how can you measure the results? how can you multiply positive results to drive revenue for your business? Keep measuring, optimizing, and adapting.
View them as partnerships, not transactions
To create long-term value, view influencer partnerships as relationships, not transactions. Views influencers as relationships to be nourished for long-term, mutual benefit, rather than only hiring influencers to post a specific number of posts.
Combine thought leadership with specific influence
As the gurus over at RunRex.com point out, you should combine thought leadership with influence, from a marketing point of view. This means partnering with someone who is both a thought leader in your space as well as an influencer, as they will hold more weight with your audience and have a greater impact in that specific sector.
Be selective
You should also make sure that you are selective when choosing an influencer. Influencers vary across the spectrum, offering high-volume, low-attrition, high-quality, deep knowledge and expertise, and more. Choose what works best for you, and activate a partnership that is mutually beneficial for longevity.
Try video and issue-based causes
If you want to capitalize on influencer marketing, you should not only focus on micro- and nano-influencers as already mentioned, you should also leverage video and issue-based causes. Video provides a unique opportunity for influencers to connect with the audience more authentically, while cause marketing sparks loyalty and support with existing and potential buyers as explained at RunRex.com.
Tap into everyday person’s network
Finding a way to tap into the everyday person and using their network as a way to promote your own work is a much-overlooked aspect of influencing. Having someone promote your work on their own networks will be excellent for organic growth.
Nurture relationships with high performing influencers
Just like any other kind of employee or contractor, there needs to be accountability for influencer performance. When you activate influencer partnerships, it is always done for a business purpose, hence why you should ensure that lower-performing influencers are eliminated from your program. On the flip side, the best influencers should be worked with regularly, and make sure that they feel valued so that they don’t jump ship and end up supporting a different brand, which may even be a rival brand.
Remember, for more information on this and other related topics, as well as influencer marketing services, then look no further than the highly-rated RunRex.com.