Influencer marketing is everywhere now. 89% of marketers report that the ROI from influencer marketing is better than other marketing channels.
While brands now understand better how powerful influencer marketing can be, most still don’t know how to find, contact, or even work with influencers.
In this article, we will explore everything about influencer marketing agencies and, most importantly, how they can help scale your results and maximize ROI.
What is an influencer marketing agency?
An influencer marketing agency is a company with a team of influencer marketing professionals. They help brands find and contact influencers and manage influencer marketing campaigns tailored to their needs and specific goals.
As experts in influencer marketing, they know everything from the latest trends to the best practices. They can also help brands manage all the tasks and chores involved in running campaigns.
In other words, you can see them as masterminds in the creator economy.
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So, what do influencer marketing agencies actually do?
Influencer marketing agencies offer various services to help brands create successful influencer campaigns. They can help
find, identify, and select influencers who align with the brand’s target audience and goals.
create engaging campaigns with clear objectives
manage influencer relationships
measure campaign effectiveness to make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.
By handling the logistics of influencer campaigns, influencer marketing agencies allow brands to focus on other aspects of their business while still benefiting from the impact of influencer marketing.
Sounds great, right? If this is exactly what you are looking for, why not book a call with us now so we can discuss more about achieving your business goal. (Don’t worry it’s free)
Next, we will go deeper into the services of influencer marketing agencies.
Find, identify and select influencers
One of the primary services that influencer marketing agencies offer is identifying and selecting the right influencers to collaborate with.
This involves analyzing the influencer’s audience, engagement rates, and overall reach to ensure they align with the brand’s target audience and goals.
By working with the right influencers, brands can ensure their campaigns reach the right audience and drive meaningful results.
Create influencer marketing campaigns
Influencer marketing agencies also work with brands to create engaging and effective influencer marketing campaigns. This involvesdeveloping a strategy, communicating with influencers, determining the proper content format, and setting clear objectives for the campaign.
By taking a strategic approach to influencer marketing, these agencies help brands create impactful, memorable campaigns that drive results.
Manage influencer relationships
Once the influencers are selected, the agency manages the communication and relationship between the influencer and the brand.
You may wonder how complicated it can be to negotiate with an influencer. Well, the negotiation usually includes the following tasks such as
negotiating contracts
setting deadlines
ensuring the content aligns with the brand’s messaging.
taking care of the logistics of influencer campaigns
tracking and analyzing the performance
We’ve only listed a few overly simplified ones. Influencer marketing agencies can handle all of these hassles so that brands can focus more on other things.
Measure campaign effectiveness
Finally, influencer marketing agencies track and analyze the performance of influencer campaigns to determine their effectiveness and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.
What are the most common metrics to track? The answer may vary depending on every brand’s business goals. Engagement rates, impressions, and conversions are all possible metrics. If you are not clear about what you should track, don’t worry we are here to help you out.
Plus, agencies can optimize campaigns in real-time to ensure maximum impact by monitoring and analyzing campaign performance.
In the next section, we will discuss why you should consider working with an agency.
Why work with an influencer marketing agency?
Working with an influencer marketing agency can be very beneficial. If brands want to execute successful, high-performing influencer marketing campaigns, agencies can provide access to expertise, efficiently use time and resources, and maximize ROI.
Expertise
Influencer marketing agencies’ experts know the industry well. They are the best players in the game.
They all have extensive experience identifying the right influencers to create effective campaigns and measure their success.
By leveraging their expertise, agencies can tackle specific needs better and more efficiently than inexperienced marketers.
Use time and resources efficiently
Most people don’t know that running an influencer marketing campaign can be very time-consuming. Talk with us today and we will start from there
Increased ROI
Influencer marketing agencies can help brands maximize their ROI by creating effective campaigns. Like, they just can.
The agencies have worked with many influencers before, and they can always identify the most effective strategies for reaching the target audience, negotiating fair rates with influencers, and measuring campaign success to ensure maximum impact.
Simply said, they know what they are doing and they respect your time and money.
Next, we will introduce some factors to consider when choosing the right influencer marketing agency.
How to choose an influencer marketing agency
While partnering with the right influencer marketing agency can make all the difference in the success of your campaigns.
Key factors are also important to consider, such as industry experience, reputation, service offered, and your budget.
Factors to consider
Industry experience
Some influencer marketing agencies specialize in a particular industry, such as gaming, fitness, or fashion. Before working with them, ensure their expertise or specialization aligns with your campaign.
If the agency is not as industry-specific, you can still ask them for previous case studies or works related to your area of interest as a prove of their expertise.
Reputation
A strong reputation is a good indicator of an agency’s ability to deliver results.
So, how do we know if an agency has a good reputation? Look for agencies with a track record of success and positive reviews from past clients. You can ask them directly if they have any, check social media for mentions, or check their websites for case studies that will showcase their results and introduce you to their working method.
Services offered
Some influencer marketing agencies may specialize in different services, from influencer identification and outreach to campaign strategy and measurement. Choosing an agency that offers all the services you need to execute your campaign successfully is crucial.
Budget
Influencer marketing agency fees may vary widely. Mostly depending on the scope of services offered and the agency’s level of expertise. Some agencies even charge consultation fees once you meet with them, even before the first campaigns roll out. (But feel free to talk with us – no base cost)
Choosing an agency that fits your budget while still delivering the quality of work you need is essential. This is why, here are 10 questions you should ask an agency before working with them.
Questions to ask when evaluating agencies
When evaluating influencer marketing agencies, here are some questions to ask:
1. What is your experience working within our industry? 2. Can you provide case studies from past clients? 3. What services do you offer? 4. What is your pricing structure? 5. What is your approach to influencer selection and outreach? 6. How do you measure the success of influencer campaigns? 7. How do you ensure that campaigns align with our brand values and messaging? 8. How do you manage influencer relationships and ensure they meet campaign requirements?
By asking these questions and considering the factors outlined above, you can make an informed decision about which influencer marketing agency is the best fit for your brand’s needs and goals.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing agencies can be the angular stone of a successful influencer marketing campaign, especially for those companies that prefer a more hands-off approach.
Partnering with an agency offers benefits such as access to expertise, efficient use of time and resources, and increased ROI. Choosing the right agency is crucial to the success of your campaigns. Factors worth considering include industry experience, reputation, client references, services offered, and budget.
By asking the right questions, brands can find an agency that meets their needs and delivers results. If brands are looking to connect with their target audience more efficiently, Influencer marketing is valuable in all aspects and should be included in your marketing strategy now.
Not every brand can afford to pay one of the Kardashians six figures for a single social media post.
In the current influencer marketing landscape, if you want to keep the costs down while having better reach and engagement, micro-influencers are here to stay.
In this article, we are going to explore micro-influencers, what they are better than others, why they are effective, how to work with them in a campaign, and the most common mistakes you should avoid based on our own experience. Here we go.
Althoguh…if you want to jump straight into action, feel free to contact us and start your next campaign right away.
Understanding Micro-Influencers
First, we need to define what micro-influencers are and what makes them different from other influencers.
What Are Micro-Influencers?
The most common way to split influencers is based on their follower count.
1 M+: Mega influencers or Celebrities
100K to 1M: Macro influences
10K to 100K: Micro-influencers
1K to 10K: Nano-influencers
Micro-influencers have a pretty sizable following but are still manageable for a more individualized and authentic approach and connection.
Their content is deeply connected to their niche and also reflected in the highly segmented audience.
Why micro-influencers are so important?
Micro-influencers are the lifeblood of influencer marketing. While campaigns that feature large accounts may catch more general attention, micro-influencers carry on most of the work and bring the results home.
With their audience between 10K and 100K, they are in a sweet spot regarding their connection with the audience: their message can reach a large enough pool of people for marketing campaigns, meanwhile it still remains authentic to the viewers.
To put this into data, we pulled out some insight from our influencer database to find out exactly where micro influencers excel and by how much.
What we discovered
The content creators between 10k and 100k subscribers are posting regularly: almost 3 times a week on YouTube, 1 time a week on TikTok, +50% from the 1K to 10K bracket, and 1.2 times per week on Instagram.
This data shows how they are dedicated to keeping their audience aware and engaged.
Their audience is enjoying this dedication and it shows with high engagement rates: on TikTok, a micro-influencer can expect upward of 8.5%, breaking any industry standard that would see a 5% as an excellent result.
YouTubers of the same size only reach a 3.6% engagement rate on average. Although it may seem disappointing but it also is related to how the data are calculated. For both platforms, the number of interactions on each post (like, dislike, share, comments) is divided by the number of views each piece of content receives.
The average micro-TikToker has just a bit more than 130K views, while the average YouTuber in the same subscriber bracket is looking to pass 11 million views. 100 times more views.
This comparison should also highlight how certain platforms can generate much more loyal and dedicated audiences than others.
The Power of Authenticity
Micro-influencers offer a great compromise between authenticity, content quality, and professionalism.
Their content is well curated and not too polished, it make their audience feel their interest and passion authentically, which is hard to see in the ones with bigger influencers.
This middle-ground situation provides the audience with good enjoyable content while still preserving a more authentic and connected experience.
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As a marketer, you may wonder: why not just partner with a larger influencer and get more traffic on the sponsored content? There is a myriad of reasons, here are the five main ones:
Niche Relevance
Many micro-influencers are “stuck” in the tier because the content they make is specialized and aimed towards a few particular interests.
They grow to be experts in their field and are highly regarded by the community around them but in many cases, the particular community they are part of is not large enough to make them grow over the micro-influencer level.
For marketers designing a campaign, this is extremely helpful since it allows them to target very detailed and segmented audiences.
High Engagement
Micro-influencers grow deep and organic connections with their audience. As a result, the audience is very involved and reactive to the influencer’s content.
Similarly, since the content is centered around a specific topic, many audience members keep endorsements and recommendations coming from micro-influencers in high regard.
Cost-Effectiveness
When considering their trusted nature, high engagement rates, and segmented reach micro-influencers offer a much more cost-effective approach to influencer marketing than larger influencers.
Enhanced Credibility
Micro-influencers base their success on being at the forefront of their field and bringing valuable information to their audience.
Therefore, their audience trusts them and feels they are a reliable source of information. Comparatively larger influencers and celebrities’ area of expertise is less defined leading to them being seen as less reliable on specialized issues.
Implementing a Successful Micro-Influencer Campaign
Micro-influencers are amazing and all. But how can they be used in a marketing campaign?
Identifying the Right Influencers
First of all, it is important to find the influencers that match your campaign. Both form a content and values standpoint.
But even more important is to have a good workflow that allows us to identify indicators of a potential partnership and to find creators at scale.
CreatorDB gives you the tools to find the right influencers and easily compare them, understand their strengths, and contact them.
Leverage the tools and expertise of CreatorDB’s influencer database, to streamline influencer identification and campaign creation. Book a free consultation to learn how to boost your ROI with influencers.
Crafting a Compelling Campaign
Once the influencers have been chosen it is important to create a campaign that plays both the brand and the influencers’ strengths.
Follow these three guidelines to ace it:
Establishing Clear Objectives
It’s important to have in mind what is the campaign goal before starting to find influencers and discussing deliverables.
This way it is possible to already have an idea of what kind of qualities are preferable in the influencers to partner with, and which kind of platforms are preferable.
Leveraging Storytelling for Impact
Connect the creator’s story with the brand. This way the campaign will have more chances to resonate with the audience and leave a lasting impression.
Let the creator help in this phase, they are knowledgeable on how to create content for their audience.
Creative Freedom Yields Authenticity
Allow the creators to express themselves, and give their touch to the campaign. This way the campaign will feel more connected with the greater and play along the authenticity bond that the audience is already having with the micro-influencer.
Tracking and Measuring Results
While the campaign is running, make sure to have the goals with measurable metrics and keep track of those.
Tracking the ongoing campaign allows you to know when it needs adjustments or optimization. This way is possible to take action before being fully committed to a suboptimal strategy.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Micro-Influencer Marketing
While there are plenty of upsides to using micro-influencers, there are also some risks that brands should be aware of to prevent them from becoming problems.
Overlooking Authenticity and Audience Relevance
Not all that shines is gold. It’s important to evaluate the sentiment around a creator, while most creators have audiences that truly enjoy their content and are dedicated to them, a few people built a following on what is called hate-watching.
By taking into consideration the sentiment around a creator’s posts, it is possible to understand if the audience is on board or just enjoying a trashcan fire.
Similarly, it is important to look at the audience’s interests and what they like to understand if they are a good fit for the brand.
The audience’s interest in the campaign is paramount to its success.
Lack of Clear Communication and Expectation Setting
Many micro-influencers are not well prepared to deal with brands or may lack the experience of being part of a large marketing campaign. This can lead to difficulties in having clear communication or understanding of what is expected from them.
It’s helpful for creators to establish an approval process and a framework for them to build their content.
Ignoring Guidelines and Disclosure Requirements
Countries are rapidly implementing regulations for influencer marketing, especially around the disclosure of sponsored posts.
Some of these rules may be new and not yet known to the micro-influencers involved in the campaign. Is important to make sure to bring them up to speed.
Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy for businesses looking to reach new audiences and increase brand awareness. But for many, it still is a black and nebulous box in which they don’t see any advantage.
At its core influencer marketing can be seen as an offshoot of celebrity endorsement. Like the former, it piggybacks off the popularity and social proof of public figures by associating a product with them and therefore making it desirable to the audience.
Contrary to celebrity endorsement, influencer marketing does not have to rely on widely known personalities to be effective but can target niche communities to activate very specific audiences.
What can influencers do for you?
So if it relies on little-known people how can it be effective? Well, in the current social media landscape hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have turned themselves into content creators. Content creators, also called influencers, use their online platform to talk about what they enjoy: movies, books, sports, or even 15th-century typography. Thanks to the wide reach of social media platforms creators can reach similarly-minded people and build communities around their persona and passions. In turn, companies can partner with influencers relevant to their product and have access to a highly relevant audience thanks to them. These kinds of partnerships allow companies to focus their marketing efforts on only relevant prospects and deliver out-of-the-ordinary ROI without the need to rely on external data or guessing keywords.
What makes influencers different?
Influencers are like snowflakes: no two are the same. As we saw above they cover many different topics and that’s one of the most evident differences between creators. But, not the only one: different platforms lend themselves to different types of content: Instagram and TikTok promote short-form video content, LinkedIn and Facebook also integrate written content and YouTube is amazing for long-form videos. Different content formats attract slightly different audiences even if the topic of the content is the same. The following size is arguably the most hyped metric when it comes to influencers. And that’s for a reason: is easy to look at and makes a case for large influencers to be highly valuable for a marketing push since they can bring your product in front of a very large audience. It is also important to realize that audiences interface very differently between small influencers and large ones: followers develop a parasocial relationship with the influencers they follow. This means that they start to consider such influencers almost at the same level as close friends, even if they never interacted 1 to 1. These relationships are generally stronger with smaller creators since the interactions are felt more authentic and genuine than with larger influencers.
Reach VS Relevancy
Of course, partnering with smaller influencers also means that fewer people are going to see your message.
Once a content category that is relevant to your product is identified the next step is to do a balancing work between reach, provided by large accounts, and relevancy, provided by smaller accounts. This is a spectrum with most influencers finding themselves somewhere in the middle, therefore many of them provide a good deal.
But certain campaigns are more focused on brand recognition or awareness and they will skew their influencer selection towards a more ample reach. While those marketers who are looking to boost sales are going to prefer smaller creators who are more deeply connected with their audience.
Why is it important to have good-fitting influencers
As we have seen not all influencers are the same. In a sea as vast as social media finding the right ones for your company can be a daunting task.
Concurrently enrolling influencers that fit your company image is one of the most important parts of an influencer marketing campaign.
So how can you make sure to find and enroll the right influencers? It’s all a matter of influencer discovery.
But before that, we need to have a clear understanding of what makes an influencer a good fit.
What makes good-fitting influencers
Influencers can cover different topics, have vastly different following sizes, and use different content formats. But how does this translate to fitting or not a company image? First to consider is the topic the influencer covers: certain companies and products can draw a direct line to specific content niches. For example, a car accessories brand will find good fits by contacting creators who created content about cars and car customization. But other products may not have such direct connections: mobile games and online services often cater to a vast audience not enclosed in a content category. For these cases is important to think about use cases and how they can relate to different content niches. In our experience, Notion is a great example: their software can be used in an infinite number of ways for an infinite number of purposes. To highlight it they didn’t provide a unified ad copy but they required creators to come up with their way of using the software to introduce it to their audience and make it more relatable to their needs. As we saw different following sizes can lead to a different relationship with the audience and that is one factor that is going to have a profound impact on a campaign’s effectiveness. Campaigns that aim to bring a brand name to a large audience but don’t care about immediate conversions will prefer to partner with large influencers in their niche while when conversions are at the center of the attention smaller creators are going to be better suited. Each creator also has its tone and way of presenting themselves that needs to be taken into consideration and assessed if fits the brand image.
How to evaluate influencer performances for any content verticals
While the following size is the most flashy indicator of how successful a content creator is, it’s not the only one. Growth rate, engagement rate, and community sentiment are even more important to take into consideration before signing a collaboration. In the end, you don’t want to risk handing money to someone who bought a lot of fake followers but has no actual viewers. Growth and engagement rates can be calculated manually and the sentiment can be gauged by looking at the comment section. But when it comes to doing it for tens or hundreds of different profiles is a very time-consuming process. This is where software like CreatorDB comes in handy: we provide all the above-mentioned metrics in one place making it easy to filter for the desired qualities and compare different influencers on their performances. You can head over to our SaaS and start a free trial to practice and see how simple is going to be. If you need some help on how to start with our software just scroll down to find a step-by-step guide.
Simplify your evaluation process with CreatorDB
Analyzing influencer metrics is crucial to finding the right influencer for your brand collaboration. It’s essential to look beyond the number of followers an influencer has and consider other key metrics that can help you determine the influencer’s value to your brand.
Learn everything you need to know about all the metrics that matter in our Analytics 101.
One important metric to consider is the engagement rate. An influencer’s engagement rate indicates how active their followers are and how likely they are to engage with your brand.
Look for influencers with high engagement rates, as they are more likely to drive engagement and conversions for your brand.
Another key metric to consider is audience demographics. It’s crucial to ensure that an influencer’s followers match your target audience, as this will increase the likelihood of them being interested in your product or service.
Look for influencers whose followers align with your target audience regarding age, gender, location, and interests.
Finally, consider the influencer’s overall brand fit and whether their values and messaging align with your brand. By reviewing their content, previous collaborations, and general online presence, you can evaluate how good of a fit they are.
By using CreatorDB you can easily find each creator’s metrics and compare them in the blink of an eye. CreatorDB’s profiles are structured to give you all you need:
First, you will see the creator’s overview with information about the content creator’s YouTube channel.
Along with this first introduction, you can find an overview of the main analytics for the content creator and other social media.
Further down, you can see performance metrics, audience demographics, related channels, and a detailed overview of the YouTube channel including the expected CPM.
Further down can be found all the recent videos, with a detailed breakdown of their achievement and the most recent sponsors of the channel. A complete analysis of the other creator’s social media can be also found showing engagement rates, growth, and much more. Lastly, all the analytics are combined in charts to give an overview of how the influencer has performed in the past and what’s the current trajectory.
How to find influencers for free
Now you know what makes influencers different, and how these differences can help your campaign achieve its goals. It’s time to go over the most important part: finding influencers that fit your criteria.
Social media platforms offer search functions that can be leveraged to find influencers for free. All you need is just create an account and a lot of patience.
Since each platform is different there are advantages and disadvantages to using each native tool. In the next section, we will go over how to get the best results out of Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok search capabilities.
Influencer discovery on Instagram (2 Ways)
1st way, native search
One of the best ways to discover profiles on Instagram is to go to the search tab and type in a hashtag related to the type of content you are interested in. We recommend using the mobile app otherwise Instagram will limit your results to 28. Then you can manually check each post and the profile who posted it, write down the handle following count, and other relevant information. Create a spreadsheet with all this data and use it to evaluate each profile to find the best fitting for you.
2nd way, Google search
If you don’t want to use the mobile client, your best option is to leverage Google search to find content posted on Instagram. By starting your search with the operator “site:instagram.com” you are going to limit the results to only pages coming from Instagram. You can follow it with hashtags related to your topic of interest and then manually note down the profiles and the information relevant to your campaign to find good-fitting influencers.
Influencer discovery on YouTube
Even if is not evident, YouTube uses hashtags and allows users to search content by them. So to find content creators relevant to your campaign you can head over to the search tab on YouTube and type in any relevant hashtag to obtain a list of videos that include the hashtags in their description. Once again, you can manually take notes of the channels and the important information about them to more easily compare and evaluate them. N.B. YouTube is heavily pushing Shorts and they will be heavily featured in every search.
Influencer discovery on TikTok
Unlike the previous services, TikTok does not offer a search based on hashtags. Clicking on a hashtag will lead you to a page showing all content tagged with that hashtag, but searching for a hashtag will not and results that have the term only in the caption or that the system considers relevant will still be present in your results.
You can get rid of this problem by finding one reel featuring your desired hashtag and clicking on it.
Once you see content relevant to your campaign, you can start taking notes about the creators and their analytics to evaluate their performances and discover the best-fitting ones.
Discover influencers on other platforms
Researching niche platforms and organic communities is another effective way to find influencers for your brand. Niche platforms and communities focus on specific interests, hobbies, or topics. These communities can be valuable for finding influencers with a dedicated following within a particular niche.
For example, if you’re looking for influencers in the fitness industry, research fitness communities outside social media like BodyBuilding.com. These communities have members passionate about fitness and follow influencers who share their interests.
Within these communities, you can find users that have grown their reputation over the years and may be happy to sponsor your products.
While not influencers in the strict sense of the word, prominent forum members are, to some extent, the grandfathers of modern influencers and can help your marketing campaign, especially if you are targeting a more insular and less mainstream community.
Best tools for influencer discovery
As we just saw there are free ways to perform influencer discovery effectively and collect all the information relevant to plan which influencer to enroll in a campaign but they can be very time-consuming.
In this case, many companies have opted for influencer discovery tools to make easier the whole process and save an incredible amount of time.
Find the most fitting influencers with CreatorDB (tutorial)
Once you have your account open the app and click on advanced search:
On the left of the screen, you will find the search console with all the filters you can apply.
Our database covers YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Let’s say we need to find YouTube channels that talk about baking, in the United States, and have more than 10.000 subscribers.
Under Channel Overview we can find all the filters we need:
Then hit search, and you will have a list of all the YouTube channels fitting the criteria.
But how this is going the help us compare them? We can see some metrics already like average views and engagement rate but to really dig deep into any of these metrics we want to hit “Sheet View” in the right up corner.
Doing so is going to allow us to decide which to include and sort the list by those metrics making it easier to highlight the creators that fit our search.
Hovering over the profile picture will allow you to add the creator to a list and keep track of who is promising for your campaign.
How to get in contact with influencers with CreatorDB
Once you identified the content creators you are interested in, it can be complicated to get in contact with them: their DMs can be already flooded and they can not easily figure out their email address. On CreatorDB, we provide contact information for many of the influencers listed in our database.
Once you established the creators you want to contact, open their profile and look just under the introduction on the left, you can find a button to view the creator’s email.
N.B. not all creators have an available email address.
When pitching the partnership, grab their attention and clarify that you know who they are and value their work. Personalized emails are highly recommended. Introduce your product and make clear why they are a good fit for it.
Contextualize it in the campaign they will be part of.
If you want to improve your game when contacting influencers, read our 5-step guide.
The mistakes to avoid when you are looking for influencers
1. Solely focus on the number of followers
When searching for influencers, one common mistake is solely focusing on the influencer’s number of followers. While it may seem like a high follower count equates to a high level of influence, this isn’t always the case.
It’s important to remember that, tactics such as buying followers or growing followers’ numbers with bots, and are cheaper than growing other metrics calculated over time.
Instead of solely focusing on follower count, it’s important to consider other metrics more indicative of an influencer’s value to your brand. Engagement rate, for example, is a more accurate measure of an influencer’s ability to drive engagement and conversions.
Additionally, it’s essential to consider the influencer’s overall brand fit and whether their values and messaging align with your brand.
Focusing solely on follower count can lead to collaborations with influencers who may not be the best fit for your brand, resulting in a disconnect between your brand and the influencer’s audience.
By considering a range of metrics and evaluating the influencer’s overall brand fit, you can ensure that your collaborations are more effective and meaningful for both your brand and the influencer.
2. Ignore engagement rates
When evaluating an influencer, it’s important to consider their engagement rate. Engagement rate refers to the percentage of an influencer’s followers actively engaging with their content through likes, comments, shares, and other interactions.
High engagement rates indicate an influencer’s ability to connect with and influence their audience. Low engagement rates indicate that an influencer’s audience is disengaged or not highly interested in their content.
Engagement rates are a more accurate measure of an influencer’s value to your brand when compared to follower count. An influencer with a smaller but highly engaged following may be more valuable to your brand than an influencer with a large but disengaged following. High engagement rates can lead to increased visibility for your brand, as well as higher levels of engagement and conversions.
It’s essential to keep in mind that engagement rates can vary widely depending on the influencer’s niche, industry, and audience demographics.
For example, an influencer with a highly engaged audience of niche enthusiasts may have a lower overall engagement rate than an influencer with a larger but less engaged audience in a more general niche.
By analyzing engagement rates alongside other metrics, such as audience demographics and brand fit, you can ensure that you find the right influencer for your brand’s specific needs and goals.
3. Forget about authenticity
Authenticity is a crucial factor to consider when evaluating potential influencers for your brand. Consumers are becoming more and more savvy regarding influencer marketing and can quickly spot when an influencer’s content is inauthentic or insincere. By working with authentic influencers who genuinely believe in and support your brand, you can create a more genuine and meaningful connection with your target audience.
For example, suppose your brand is committed to sustainability and environmentalism. Working with influencers who share those values can help reinforce your brand’s message and create a more authentic connection with your audience. In addition to sharing your values, look for influencers who have a genuine interest in and affinity for your brand and products.
Another way to ensure authenticity is to watch out for fake influencers.
Unfortunately, influencer marketing has also led to fake influencers who use fake followers, likes, and comments to appear more influential than they actually are. To avoid being duped by counterfeit influencers, look for red flags such as sudden spikes in followers or engagement, a lack of engagement from their followers, or a mismatch between their engagement and follower count.
By prioritizing authenticity in your search for influencers, you can create a more genuine and effective influencer marketing campaign that resonates with your target audience.
Social media are the main tool todiscover and research new products and services. And influencer marketing is necessary for brands that want to establish themselves. While crafting and executing influencer marketing campaigns is quite simple contacting and partnering with influencers can be hard and complicated, at least the first few times.
In this article, we will present 7 tips for you to partner with influencers confidently and with a valuable offer for both parties.
Influencer marketing campaign workflow
Campaign Ideation
Influencer marketing campaigns are born out of the drawing table of a brand or an agency. Starting by individuating an area that would need improvements, often sales or brand awareness. The team will come up with a strategy to tackle the issue that involves collaborating with influencers. The strategy should also outline what are the KPIs that mark its success.
After having shortlisted a few potential influencers to collaborate with comes the outreach phase. The campaign idea is pitched to them and it can develop into a negotiation around compensation and objectives.
Campaign execution
Once an agreement has been reached is time for the content creators to prepare the deliverables for the campaign. This moment generally includes a series of revisions of the content from the brand or agency in order to make sure the content fits with the brand image.
When the content is satisfying for all the parties it gets published and comes the time to track the campaign.
Goal tracking
Monitoring results and engagement in order to evaluate KPIs accomplishment.
Based on the content performances many brands will start considering certain influencers for long-term collaborations.
How to create a killer influencer marketing campaign?
In a sense influencer marketing campaigns truly embody McLuhan’s famous phrase “The medium is the message”. Because they connect customers, and brands through influencers these campaigns need to take into account the specificities of each influencer.
Differently from every other advertising medium-influencer have their own preferences and style. And they should all be taken into account when deciding about the collaboration.
The unique style of a creator should never be seen as a detriment to the campaign but as a strength to empower the message.
If a brand understands the unicity and potential of the creators they are partnering with they can easily incorporate it into their influencer marketing campaign. Creating a more engaging and captivating experience for potential customers.
Why partnering with influencers can be difficult
Influencers per se are not difficult to find, just looking at the discovery page of Instagram you may see tens of them. But finding the right ones for a brand is a more complicated task. Following numbers are not enough, there is a need for a convergence of values, fields of expertise, and much more.
And after having found the right ones, many influencers may be reluctant to partner with a brand that they are not sure they can trust. They are going to present it to their audience and one wrong collaboration can break the trust that is established between them.
1 – Find common values and interests
When partnering with influencers, the first aspect to look at is shared values.
Before considering partnering with any influencer a brand should do its due diligence. Look at the content the influencer has created. Have an idea of their style and tone, and evaluate how it fits with the brand image.
By getting familiar with the creator’s content is also possible to individuate common values and interests. Having overlapping interests is a great starter for collaboration.
Once the common points are found be mindful to include them in the pitch and explain how they are important for the campaign, this is going to make the partnership feel the fruit of a common vision.
Example
Gabi DeMartino is a beauty influencer with 4.4 million followers on Instagram and 3+ million on YouTube. She is outspoken about her passion for self-care, plastic surgery, and luxurious items. Her vlog after her third nose job was the perfect occasion for Gabi to bring up her love for Fraîcheur Ice Globes. The collaboration not only felt natural because of the situation she was in, with her discomfort mitigated by the Ice Globes, but also because the product fitted perfectly with her style.
2 – Collaborate with experts
Prominent members of an industry or experts on a specific matter are often also influencers who have created a following around themselves. By partnering with them, it is possible to foster a deep relationship between thought leadership and the brand.
Sponsoring industry-related events, papers, and research is a long-established practice that can help to bring a brand’s name to the forefront.
Similarly, this can be done on social media through partnerships with industry leaders and experts.
Organizing virtual panels and roundtables is a great way to offer not only brand exposure but also influencers the possibility to present their expertise and network.
While unconventional, it offers the possibility to present the brand as dedicated to the furthering of the industry and wanting to engage in serious discussions.
Example
When Yakult wanted to highlight the value of its products, it partnered with doctor and YouTuber Ricky’s Time. Ricky is an officially certified nutritionist and clinical scientist. Through his YouTube channel, Ricky helps people stay informed about health and well-being. A doctor’s approval is a powerful endorsement for a product like Yakult which is targeting a health-conscious audience.
3 – Include social value
Leaving a positive impact is always a great incentive. Connecting a campaign to a tangible and positive impact in the real world is going to provide ulterior incentives to the content creators to participate.
Showing interest and support for causes a creator sides with is going to create a more favorable image in the minds of the creator and its audience.
Example
Arts and crafts content creator DIY Danie has a history of scoliosis and knows the danger of bad sleeping posture. Thanks to her background, she was a great choice for Derila and their optimized sleep pillow line. By connecting the product to her condition, she could transfer credibility and trust in the brand and its pillows.
4 – Make a compelling offer
Content creators and influencers, as many others don’t want to work for free. Be sure to be respectful of their time and craft by offering fair compensation for their job.
Many expect content creators to work in exchange for free products or services, and while this is true in some cases it is not the norm.
Compensation for influencers can follow a few different models:
Flat rate, where the total price is established beforehand and performances are not going to affect it.
Results-based, which can use indicators like views and likes multiplied for a flat rate to price the content the base of its achievement.
Commission-based, the creator is going to receive a percentage for each sale that is directly traceable to them.
A mixed rate is generally configured as a flat rate plus a results bonus for reaching of certain levels on the likes, views, or conversions.
Monetary incentives are the most direct and obvious but in certain cases focusing on other perks can also be powerful motivators.
Exclusive access to products, custom modifications, and other similar approaches can be very enticing for creators in your industry.
Here is why you should not use an affiliate program when it comes to influencers.
Example
Sometimes, after the creators know a certain brand is interested in sponsoring them, they will develop ambitious content ideas. This is the case for Jbao and World of Tanks: being an engineer in his previous career he proposed to put together a homemade tank for promoting the game. The project was more costly than a simple playthrough video, but it also reached a much higher level of notoriety and views.
5 – Creative Content Synergy
Don’t limit yourself to integrations or standard content formats. Each creator has their own voice and a way to express themselves and integrate them into your marketing campaign.
By proposing ideas that fit the influencer content style is going to be more likely to be accepted and to have delivered a campaign that is truly effective.
Combining the influencer’s style with the brand goals is going to deliver a campaign that resonates authentic and genuine.
Example
Artisans de demain is a traveling duo always on the move that creates extremely high-quality content from their travels around the world. When Acer wanted to promote its newest compact line of PCs there was no better matchup than with Artisans de demain. Both their situation and history and their artistic quality were perfect to highlight the value and characteristics of the new laptop line.
6 – Long-Term Relationship Building
The possibility of long-term collaboration is going to show dedication and support to the influencers involved
While many companies prefer one-off collaboration, the real value of influencers is in the long game. Showing true interest in partnering with them, not just for brief access to their audience, is going to be a great signal about your brand’s commitment.
Developing long-lasting relationships is not only cheaper but is also a strong signal to the audience of those influencers. It shows commitment to the collaboration beyond immediate sales and support for the creator’s values.
Not every influencer a brand partners with should become a brand ambassador, but there should be a clear idea of what would constitute a good candidate.
Example
Benefitbug is a Korean Maplestory streamer with over 250K subscribers. Many may expect that a VPN sponsorship would be almost a mandatory step in such a streamer career. Benefitbug was able to include advantages specifics for its audience in the ad read making it very successful and pushing NordVPN to extend the collaboration to other 8 integrations and obtain extra exposure and conversions at a lower cost.
7 – Staying open about expectations and deliverables.
Content creators may have ideas about how to deliver your message in the best possible way.
They know their audience better than anyone else and their whole career is based on creating content that resonates with them.
By discussing expectations and deliverables details is possible to obtain concepts that better fit the specifics of a creator’s audience.
It can also be a very important part of how KPIs are identified and calculated.
Example
Softcore erotic ASMR video may not be the first medium that a marketer would think of for promoting a videogame but in the case of Arrukai and Erolabs, it was a match made in heaven. The content creator specializes in ASMR roleplay that revolves around male figures being flirty. By adding a twist about distraction were able to create a seamless ad for NU: Carnival.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool that can help most brands to establish themselves. To do it correctly is important to consider the influencers themselves for what they are: people passionate about certain topics and able to gain attention around them.
Finding influencers with common values, including a social value in the campaign, and establishing a content strategy that is mindful of their unique characteristics are great steps to make it easier for an influencer to accept a partnership and see the value for themselves in it.
Fair remuneration, the possibility of long-term relationships, and openness to inputs on the campaign results and contents are all aspects that will help to have good and healthy connections that not only promote sales but also boost the brand image.
Analytics will fuel any of your marketing campaigns, and this is especially true regarding influencer marketing over Instagram, TikTok, or any social media.
Influencer marketing shares many analytics with other forms of marketing but it also developed its own influencer analytics that especially captures the nuanced nature of influencer marketing.
Oftentimes people who have limited knowledge of influencer marketing see it as an area where the data are scarce and difficult to track.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Social media log any action and give the possibility to quantify almost every interaction with posts and content.
Why do Analytics Matter in Influencer Marketing?
Analytics are the backbone of any marketing campaign.
When it comes to influencer marketing there are a myriad of analytics that become involved. Some are useful before the campaign, some are to be looked at during it, and others gain more importance afterward.
Different analytics can help different stages of the campaign process and is important to be able to master them all.
Key Metrics in Influencer Analytics
Three main areas should be clear when discussing influencer analytics: engagement, demographics, and conversions.
While many other analytics can be used at different points to gauge the viability and effectiveness of a campaign, these three should always be kept in consideration.
Engagement Rates: The Heartbeat of Influence
Engagement rate combines the interaction to a post(or a series of posts) received and puts it in proportion to the influencer’s following. This way is possible to gauge how committed and passionate is the influencer’s audience.
Engagement rate is a more in-depth measure compared to followers count since it also takes into account the level of interaction the followers have with the creator.
Is also a more difficult measure to fake leading to an easier time to weed out malicious actors.
One of the most advantageous things in influencer marketing is the possibility of really knowing the audience that is being reached.
Social media platforms in many cases provide influencers with a breakdown of their following based on three main components: Gender, Location, and Age Groups.
Gender
Very simply, which percentage of the audience is male, and which ratio is female. Since in many online communities, males are the significant majority, gender can be expressed as % of females. If your products are explicitly targeting one gender, this is a critical metric to keep in mind.
Location
Where the audience is located. If your product requires shipping or localized versions, this is very important to keep in mind.
Age Groups
Age groups are often presented as a bar graph and show the distribution of an influencer audience by age. Generally, age groups are 13-18, 19-24, 25-30, 31-40, 41-50, 50-65, and 65+. Age data are particularly beneficial to evaluate the interests and income levels of an audience, but also combined with location and gender can be used to better understand if a creator audience fits your desired customer persona.
Conversion Tracking: From Awareness to Action
Conversions are the most direct way to track ROI in influencer marketing.
It represents the number of people who bought your product directly from a given influencer or clicked on the link promoted. Conversions can be easily tracked by providing each influencer with personalized trackable links.
Choosing the Right Influencers: A Data-Driven Approach
Many of the metrics to look at in this phase are what make each influencer unique and are going to shape the results of the campaign.
Not all the analytics you want to look at in this phase are purely numeric: the kind of content and area of relevance is something of prime importance that needs to be evaluated qualitatively.
Other important factors in choosing influencers to partner with are: reach, the kind of engagement that the influencer is getting, and its various growth rates.
Relevance
To strike the right cords with the audience is not enough to craft a good influencer campaign, it’s especially important to pick the right content creators to partner with.
Their content and values need to align with the brand and the collaboration should be enhancing both parts.
To grasp the relevance of an influencer is important to look at the themes of its content and compare them with the interests of the target audience.
Reach
Reach indicates two things:
the actual reach: the number of unique users that see a post from an influencer
the potential reach: more like the expected number of people that would see a post.
In the first case, social media provides influencers with reach data telling them how many people have seen or interacted with a post. Higher numbers generally translate into higher engagement.
The second interpretation of reach is, crudely, just the number of followers an influencer has since you can expect that number of users to see their post.
Quality of Engagement
The engagement rate can be calculated in a few different ways depending on what matters for the campaign.
Commonly it uses the aggregated number of interactions divided by the followers to grasp the level of the response to an influencer post.
But certain campaigns may prefer one metric (for example comments) over another (for example shares). Tweaking the formula by weighting one interaction more than the other, or just excluding the markers that are not relevant is possible to obtain derivation of the engagement rate that reflects what are the campaign goals.
Growth Rate
The growth rate captures the pace at which an influencer’s following is growing and is generally calculated monthly but could also be done yearly or any other time frame.
A high growth rate can be highly beneficial to a marketing campaign since it means that even while partnering with the same influencer, the people seeing your sponsored content grow over time.
Measuring Campaign Effectiveness
Many of the influencers’ analytics can be used to predict or measure the effectiveness of a campaign.
Different metrics can be used to understand the impact of the campaign at different points.
Before the Campaign
It’s important to predict the effectiveness of a campaign even before it is launched.
While it will never be a 100% accurate prediction, it will give a ballpark about how the campaign will perform.
Metrics like reach, engagement, and impressions can be estimated by looking at historical data from the same influencer for similar pieces of content.
If the creators are compensated with a performance-based type of deal this is a viable way to estimate the expense.
How to calculate CPM
CPM-based payments are a common solution especially when it comes to YouTube integrations since views can be easily obtained and allow one to grasp the reach of the ad.
Calculating CPM is simple: is only needed the campaign cost and the number of impressions received. Dividing the cost of the campaign by the number of impressions will lead to knowing the cost of each single impression, which should be very low. Multiplying that result by 1000 will give the CPM or the cost for a thousand impressions.
Social media’s fast-paced data turnover allows marketers to keep a constant eye on how a campaign is performing.
Calculating the engagement rate and keeping track of the conversions identifies different content performances and how they impact the campaign.
Brand mentions are also an important part of the in-campaign monitoring that every brand should be doing.
They can be calculated as how often a company is directly tagged in posts and comments on social media.
But it’s often important to also keep track of reviews and articles on other platforms. By periodically checking for brand mentions, it’s easy to keep in touch with how the public perceives the company. It allows one to break through the bubble that may have been built around your accounts by the sponsored content.
After the Campaign
Once the campaign has wrapped up, there are many useful analytics that can be collected and used to understand the impact.
Earned Media Value (EMV) estimates the word of mouth generated by any influencer post. It starts from engagement and quantifies the value of the content created in your brand community.
The adjustable variable is going to be what you are tracking: Impressions, Likes, Comments, and so on.
Similarly, the Click Through Rate is a simple way to understand how effective a sponsored post is to bring a viewer to go further than the post and click the link.
Finally, a well-thought-out campaign is going to bring interest to the brand-owned channels.
Growing a following on the accounts directly controlled by the brand is going to bring more people within their reach and help with further marketing efforts.
Therefore, comparing following and engagement with the brand account before and after the influencer campaign is an extra analytic to keep in consideration.
Conclusion
Keeping track of the right analytics at the right time is going to make a huge difference for any influencer campaign.
While originally influencer marketing was seen as a shady and difficult-to-track approach to marketing in the current state of social media is very easy to keep in check all the parameters that matter.
To pull off the best influencer marketing campaign you are going to need the right tools. Read along to discover what influencer marketing tools are and how they can make your life easier.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing consists of partnering with online personalities in order to target specific groups and demographics with advertisements they will find relatable and coming from a familiar source.
Social media are extremely vast and often don’t offer effective ways to browse them. In many cases, the platforms are strict about the data that are provided and in which format they are provided.
Influencer marketing tools are going to fill this gap allowing for a smoother experience throughout your whole marketing journey
What you can expect from this list?
This list of influencer marketing tools is going to cover all your essential needs from the inception of a campaign to carry it out. It will cover influencer discovery, contacting, content creation, and campaign tracking.
Influencer discovery tools
Influencer discovery tools are a must-have in most influencer marketing campaigns and allow for rapid individuation of creators that align with your brand.
What is influencer discovery?
Influencer discovery is the process of finding influencers that are good fits for your brand and your campaign. This involves identifying influencers that
have a following in your target market and niche.
are actively engaged and trusted by their audience.
create high-quality content.
For example, if you are a lifestyle brand and you are looking for an influencer to partner with you may browse some popular hashtags in your niche. But it would only bring up the most trending content at the moment, also weighted on what the algorithm understands to be your taste.
Influencer discovery tools allow a more neutral look at content and creators. Making it easier to see the trends in their performances and identify the best fitting for your goals.
To find the perfect fitting influencer, you want to look at the following metrics:
following’s size
Demographics
engagement rate
content niche
tone of the content
An influencer should not only be someone with expertise in the field of your brand but also someone whose values and vision align with your brand.
Influencer discovery can be done organically by combing through social media and looking for popular hashtags or by using professional influencer discovery tools. Finding enough information to make an informed decision using organic searches can be very time-consuming and requires a deep understanding of the market you are targeting to be done effectively.
Why do you need an influencer discovery tool?
An influencer discovery tool can be a true game changer for setting up an influencer marketing campaign the right way. By collecting large amounts of data on influencers across various platforms influencer discovery tools enable one to compare different influencers on many different metrics.
Influencer discovery tools not only show things such as followers count, posts likes, and amount of comments but tools, like CreatorDB, can provide trends over time, growth rate, and sentiment of the audience.
By relying on one your influencer marketing will have a strong data-backed foundation without the burden of collecting and analyzing the data of each creator yourself.
Influencer discovery tools are a necessity for any brand that is looking to establish a strong and result-oriented influencer marketing campaign. Thanks to such tools a brand can quickly discover solid candidates to partner with and roll out campaigns effectively.
Influencer marketplace platform
What is an influencer marketplace?
An influencer marketplace is a platform that connects brands with influencers. They often allow brands to search influencers by criteria such as follower count, engagement rate, or audience demographics.
They provide deeper analytics about the influencer but a much smaller pool of creators to choose from.
Many influencer marketplaces allow also for brands to post collaboration opportunities and for influences to apply. This can be a great choice if your brand is looking to collaborate with many small influencers at the same time and doesn’t want to look for each of them individually.
Why do brands need an influencer marketplace?
Influencer marketplaces are easy to use since their primary function is to connect brands and influencers. Often they allow for searching for an influencer and messaging it without leaving the platform.
The use of an influencer marketplace is typically going to give access to a direct channel with influencers saving time on cold-emailing. While also giving a price to a collaboration right away and preventing spending time to pursue deals out of the budget range.
Content creation tools
While we suggest that you leave most of the creative process to the content creators and trust their expertise on what their audience enjoys, we also think there are some situations where you should get your hands dirty.
Why content creation tools in influencer marketing?
If you are carrying out a campaign that involves multiple influencers or a specific message you may want to be able to have a certain level of control over the style and aesthetic of the campaign.
You may want to provide the creators of your campaign with custom-created assets that are shared across the campaign. These may include virtual backdrops, banners, and personalized packaging.
What are the basic needs for a content creation tool?
When it comes to content creation tools, you may want to consider the one that allows you to do as much as possible in the same environment. You should be looking at:
Visual creation/editing
Video creation/editing
Exporting in different formats
Creation of templates
Royalty-free assets
Screen recording
Each campaign is going to be different and the needs in regard to content creation will be different as well. These are just the most common needs you will have to face while managing an influencer marketing campaign.
Campaign tracking & analytics tool
What is a campaign tracking and analytics tool?
An influencer campaign tracking and analytics tool helps brands track and measure the performances of their marketing campaigns. Tracking metrics like engagement, and sentiment, and correlating them with other content in similar categories allows brands to understand if the influencers are performing well or not.
Similarly to influencer discovery tools, they allow brands to understand if an influencer is a good fit for them and if their product is resonating with their audience. By monitoring how various metrics move in relation to different creators and types of content they can highlight better-performing strategies and allow for the improvement of the campaign during its course.
Why do you need to track your influencer marketing campaign?
Not tracking your influencer marketing campaign would be equal to learning to drive and then do it blindfolded. While in theory, all the concepts required to do it are clear in your mind you are relying that nothing unexpected happens.
Social media are a fast-paced environment where what works today may not work tomorrow, it probably will but better be sure. Keeping an eye on your campaign while it runs would allow you to adapt to rapid changes and turns.
Being able to change course or embrace new trends is the card up your sleeve you need to adapt your influencer marketing campaign to the social media environment.
Furthermore, tracking results and understanding how different creators perform will give you an understanding of who are the influencers you want to extend the partnership with, and maybe turn them into brand ambassadors and who are the ones that are not such a good fit.
Influencer marketing has exploded to an estimated over 20 billion in 2023 and is one of the most reliable ways to reach your target audience, with 83% of marketing agencies, brands, and PR firms deeming it effective and 63% of them looking to expand their influencer marketing budget this year confirming it to be a field that still holds a lot of potentials.
But with those potentials come also an amount of uncertainty and confusion. Most countries and legislative bodies have yet to catch up on influencer marketing and this can lead to some sticky situation when dealing with a campaign that goes sour.
With forward thinking and some preparation most of the issues can be prevented and avoided but can be difficult to figure out exactly how. This is why we put together this article going through all that you need to know and look out for.
Why sign a contract when working with influencers
A contract is an agreement between two or more parties that holds legal value and is enforceable in a court of law. While you may think that having some kind of trace in your email or DMs is enough to provide a legal backbone to the partnership this can often not be enough, or can be found out to be enough only after long and costly legal battles.
The best way to avoid all of these possible problems and costs is to have a signed contract that puts in black and white what is expected, and how things are going to be carried out.
You can find some examples of contracts with influencers online but they often lack some important parts or the level of specificity your case may require.
Common issues between influencers and brand
Non-delivery
Very straightforward, the influencer does not post the content that was paid for or posts only a part of it. Alternatively, the content is not in line with the guidelines of your brand or is not what you agreed upon.
Example
Studio71, a digital-first media company, flew Bethany Mota to Hawaii to film content related to a skincare product campaign to be integrated into one of her YouTube videos. They were horrified when two days before the launch of the campaign they finally received the video. In the video, none of the Hawaii footage was used, instead, the skincare company was given a shoutout. They filed suit against the influencer for breach of contract.
Content takedown
Content life on social media is not very long, but that doesn’t mean you want your sponsored, content to disappear especially now that social search is a growing phenomenon. That’s exactly another important issue your agreement should take into consideration.
Example
In 2019 a Melbourne cafe and the influencer Chloe Roberts had a breakthrough due to the influencer archiving sponsored posts she made for the cafe, therefore rendering them unavailable to the public. The court recognized the potential damage that archiving content prematurely could have caused but also noted how difficult would be to establish when is to be considered premature.
Content ownership
Repurposing influencer content is pivotal to many marketing campaigns but any content which have been made free and creative choices is automatically owned by the content creator. You can freely use the tools of the platform it was originally posted on but nothing other than that.
Disclosure
Many countries require influencers to disclose which content is sponsored content. Some countries may even hold the sponsor accountable for non disclosing the sponsored content along with the influencer. Be sure to make clear that your paid content needs to be labeled as such.
What to include in the contract
You can find contract examples by a simple Google search but in most cases, they only cover the most prominent situations, which is fine as long as all goes well. But we want to help you craft a contract that is going to be bulletproof. This is why we put together this list of thighs you should consider introducing in the contract, not all may be necessary in every case, but you can pick and choose the ones that will cover your needs.
Timeline of the partnership
Be sure that your contract features a timeline of the partnership, this can be a tight timeline with exact dates, even hours if necessary, in which you want the content to be posted or just a general timeline of by when you want the content to be ready. Will provide the agreement with a time dimension and create a period after which you can consider the influencer in breach of the agreement.
Service provided
In the case of specifying the service provided you want to be as specific as possible, so you may want to include:
Type of content
If they should be photos, videos, Instagram Stories, Ad reads, or integrations in other content. Being clear on what type of content you are expecting from the collaboration is going to avoid possible misunderstandings.
Platform
Specify which platform you are expecting the content to be shared on. In cases of platforms that allow more types of content, be specific about it. For example, just saying a photo on Instagram can open the possibility of it being interpreted as a photo in a story or a photo in a dedicated post. Specify exactly what you are expecting.
Content availability
Some content creators may delete or archive a part of their older content to keep a streamlined profile, to prevent your sponsored content from being prematurely hidden establish how long it has to be available to the audience. This is especially important when the content is internally dedicated to the sponsorship but less relevant if you are planning integration in a larger content format.
Content guidelines
Is important to be clear on how you want your brand to be mentioned and presented, this may include which links need to be included or accounts tagged, the tone, supporting imaging, color scheme, background music, or any other details of the sponsored content that you deem necessary to comply with your brand image. If you provide the influencer with assets include the link to the asset in the contract.
Regulation compliance
As we saw above responsibility for regulatory compliance in some cases may fall on the brand as well as on the influencer. Even if the country you operate in doesn’t have such clauses including a chapter on regulatory compliance and how it should be carried out is going to position you above any possible accusation of questionable, or straight-up illegal, practices.
Exclusivity
Having a creator sponsor your brand and a similar brand in a short amount of time is going to tarnish the image of your brand, may lead to confusion in the customers, and lose most of the genuine feeling that influencers can generate. Therefore is important to introduce a clause that clearly states a period of exclusivity in which the content creator cannot sponsor similar products.
Content revision
Since the content is going to present your brand to an audience you want to have a look at it before it goes live. Be sure that you want to be able to review the content in its integrity: photos, videos, captions, and eventually pinned comments from the creator. You can also state how many times the content can be up for modification before the contract expires, consider introducing a Mutual Rescission and Release Agreement if that is the case.
Penalties
You may want to write down which kind of infractions are going to translate into withholding a part, or the whole, of the payment. This can be connected to not following the previous points or to other factors like publishing content deemed inappropriate by your brand or public scandal making the collaboration with the influencer undesirable.
Content ownership
If you plan to use the content created by the influencer on your website or other owned channels be sure to include a clause that allows you to do so. Even if the content is paid for by you by default the content creator is the sole owner of that content copyrights. You may structure this part in a separate Copyright License Agreement.
Payment
Comes as no surprise that payment can be one of the main causes of contention and turn into nasty lawsuits. This is why you should be extremely clear and upfront about the payment model and how is going to be carried out.
Payment models
CPM based
With this model, the total retribution is based on the number of views/impressions. You will also have to require the influencer to share their analytics dashboard to verify the results yourself. In the contract need to be clearly stated the CPM you are going to pay for and the time frame at which the total will be calculated. For example, you may agree on a CPM of $30 and the total to be counted a month after publication. If at the established date the content has 1M views you the content creator will be entitled to $30.000.
Flat
In this case, you agree on a price for a piece of content independent of the number of views or impressions it is going to receive. In this format is only needed to be specified the amount that is going to be paid.
Most campaigns provide influencers with personalized links or promotional codes from which is possible to track how many conversions are directly traceable to them making it possible to connect the payment to the conversions as a percentage of the revenue obtained from that specific content or a flat rate for each client they brought in.
Performance-guaranteed
You may want to shield yourself from poorly performing content, especially if is the first time you work with a creator or you are unsure of their results. To do so you can include a clause that requires a certain amount of views/impressions for the payment to be made. Similarly with the CPM model is necessary to provide a time frame after which is going to be established if the goal has been reached. In case of failure, you may want also to establish what the consequence will be: generally required an extra piece of content or no payment.
Fees
Many payment methods, especially if international, require fees to be paid, be sure to clearly state who is going to be liable for such fees.
Timeline for the payment
As we saw above sometimes is necessary for the kind of payment to have a timeline stating exactly how much in the future compensation will be provided. But even when it comes to flat rate deals is good practice to withhold the payment until after the content has been published or even after when the Content Availability established period has passed. Otherwise, especially if the content you are requiring is expensive to produce you may structure a deal in which a part of the payment is done before and a part is done afterward. A third option may be to use an escrow account that will release the money only after the contract requirements have been fulfilled.
Confidentiality
Include a confidentiality clause to prevent the terms of the contract to be made public and allow competitors to take advantage of it.
Indemnification
An indemnification clause can prevent having to go through expensive legal ways to figure out who is responsible for potential harm or losses that emerged from the partnership.
No assignment
A no assignment clause is going to prevent both parties from transferring rights and obligations derived from the contract to other entities. If included may be important to outline what will happen in case the brand is acquired by another entity.
Force majeure
Introducing a Force Majeure clause is going to shelter both parties in case their obligations are not met because of unforeseeable events that bring severe disruption.
Arbitration
To avoid having to go through a court in case of litigation you may want to introduce an arbitration clause delining an arbitration process to be followed to resolve eventual disputes. Be careful since some jurisdictions do not allow arbitration clauses or limit their scope.
In today’s digital landscape, influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for brands to connect with their target audience. However, the content influencers create and share lives on their social media pages and soon get buried by new posts.
That’s where the idea of repurposing influencer content comes into play.
In this article, we explore the art of repurposing influencer content and how it can revolutionize your marketing strategy.
What is influencer content?
Influencer content is any content that an influencer shares or posts online, such as photos, videos, podcasts, etc. By repackaging and reusing existing influencer content, brands can maximize their investment, boost their reach, and engage their audience in creative ways.
These are sponsored content and include mentions of your brand and products. While repurposing content is a fairly common practice, it is important to be clear with the influencers you work with that you plan to repurpose the content when pitching the collaboration to them.
Why repurposing influencer content
Reminder: When considering repurposing influencer content, we only consider the content created for a collaboration with your brand.
Repurposing influencer content allows your brand to bring a multichannel approach to influencer marketing, enhance your brand’s social proof, and simplify your marketing content creation process.
Influencer content mainly lives in social media. Because of the nature of social media, the life cycle of content is quite short. While it is more than enough to generate results, such as brand awareness, sales, and trust-building efforts, it also means that in order to keep the campaign going, there always be new content coming out.
But this may not be true for other marketing channels: testimonials on your websites, paid advertising and case studies can be created out of influencer-generated content, they will allow you to expand the reach of the influencer content out of social media and into your channels.
Repurposing influencer content should be a part of your marketing plan before starting an influencer marketing campaign, you would be able to best decide which kind of content fits your need the most and how to allocate properly your budget.
To find the best fit for your campaign, consider using an influencer marketing platform like CreatorDB. It would make the whole process smoother and quicker to identify potential influencers and evaluate their content.
5 Points to consider when repurposing influencer content
Repurposing influencer content requires an understanding of the unique characteristics of each social media platform. Customizing content for specific channels allows you to maximize engagement and expand your reach among your target audience.
Here we present you a few strategies when it comes to repurposing content:
Understanding Platform Nuances
Each platform has distinct features. Instagram is visually rich, emphasizing striking images and concise videos, whereas Twitter thrives on short, impactful messages.
Grasping these variances ensures that you mold influencer content to meet the expectations of each platform’s users.
Video Repurposing Strategies
To optimize influencer videos, extract concise clips perfect for Instagram or TikTok, which favor short, captivating content. Accompany visuals with transcribed key points or brief captions to enhance engagement and accessibility.
Image Repurposing Techniques
Adapting images for diverse platforms can extend their appeal. An influencer’s high-resolution photo, while ideal for Instagram, can also be reformatted into a visual quote or meme suitable for Twitter or Pinterest. This approach allows you to tap into new audiences and prolong the content’s relevance.
Maximizing the Value of Captions
Influencer captions often encapsulate valuable insights. Transform these into blog posts, LinkedIn articles, or microblogs on platforms like Tumblr or Medium. This not only broadens the influencer’s message reach but also diversifies content across platforms.
Real-World Application
Consider an influencer’s YouTube video tutorial on a novel makeup technique. By extracting short clips of key steps for an Instagram montage and turning the detailed explanation into a blog post with added tips, you cater to the strengths of each platform and engage diverse audiences.
How to properly repurpose influencer content
There are no limits on how to repurpose influencer content but most commonly it gets used to post on the brand’s own channels, create paid ads, and graphics for your website, starting point for case studies, and reviews.
Reposting in owned channels
You can share the content influencers created around your brand and products on your channel. This way, you will obtain double promotion and help drive interest and attention to your platforms. You could post it as it is or combine various pieces of content to create something new.
Use it for paid ads
Repurposing influencer content for paid ads can be an excellent strategy to grab your potential customer’s attention and stand out of the crowd.
Also if your influencer marketing campaign involves multiple creators it will allow you to have multiple creatives at the same time and not tire your audience with always the same ad.
Use it as graphics for your website
Influencers are experts in crafting astonishing pictures or video visuals so it makes perfect sense to recycle them to populate your own website.
Once again the larger your influencer marketing campaign the more content you will have for your website and the more often you can change the look accordingly to themed campaigns you may be running
Case studies
You can use especially interesting pieces of influencer content to create case studies that highlight specific aspects of your marketing or your products. While it distances a bit from the traditional way of marketing consumer products it can be very beneficial to grab the attention of more dedicated customers a further build trust and brand loyalty.
Reviews
Influencer content is a great source of reviews and testimonials for your brand and products, you may want to start embedding posts and videos that are particularly flattering of your products on your website homepage.
Best practices
To be sure to not run into any conflict with the influencers that created the content, always remember, that the long-term value of an influencer is much higher than the short-term one. Use the content in a manner that is relevant you should always follow these three simple directions:
Get permission from the influencer before you repurpose their content
This is especially important if you plan to use the content in a way that is different from how it was originally created.
Make sure the content is relevant to your brand and target audience
Don’t just repurpose content for the sake of it
Give credit to the influencer
Give credit to the original creator when you repurpose the content. This is important to show your appreciation for their work and start connecting and building relationships with them.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing alone, with its ability to specifically target selected niches and establish brand trust and recognition, already brings numerous benefits to anyone who adds it to their marketing basket.
But without repurposing the influencers’ content, it is almost as if half the benefits are left at the table: while you gained direct exposure to the influencers’ audience, you have passed on improving your marketing channels.
This is why it’s important to discuss influencer content repurposing when establishing relationships with the influencers. Have a plan to use the content created by reposting it on your social media or to strengthen social proof on your website.
In today’s digital world, influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for businesses to reach and engage with their target audience. By collaborating with influential individuals who have a solid following on social media platforms, brands can effectively promote their products or services and increase their brand awareness.
However, identifying the right influencers and managing influencer campaigns can take time for businesses, especially those who need experience in this field. Influencer marketing platforms offer companies a streamlined way to manage their campaigns and connect with relevant influencers.
In this article, we will explore the benefits of using influencer marketing platforms, popular platforms available, tips for choosing the right platform for your business, and how to run a successful influencer marketing campaign with a platform. Whether new to influencer marketing or looking to improve your current strategy, this article will provide valuable insights and practical advice to help you boost your influencer marketing campaigns and achieve your business goals.
Why choose an influencer marketing platform
Influencer marketing platforms offer several benefits to businesses looking to implement influencer marketing campaigns. These platforms provide businesses access to an extensive, structured network of influencers on various social media platforms.
The benefit of having access to an extensive network of influencers is that businesses can streamline and simplify their discovery and evaluation process since they get access to advanced search tools to discern better which creators align best with the brand’s values and the campaign goals. Effectively evaluating and selecting influencers ensures that the influencer’s audience will likely be interested in the brand’s products or services, resulting in higher engagement rates and conversions. Influencer marketing platforms typically can be filtered based on criteria such as niche, location, engagement rate, and audience demographics.
Furthermore, influencer marketing platforms offer tools for measuring campaign performance. These tools enable businesses to track metrics such as engagement rates, reach, and conversions, providing companies with valuable insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns. Tracking campaign performances in an influencer marketing campaign for a business is as important as targeting the right audience or choosing a matching influencer.
By understanding how the campaign is processed, brands can adapt their strategy in real-time and increase its effectiveness. This flexibility and adaptability will allow a company to improve its ROI and exploit emerging opportunities.
One of the main advantages of influencer marketing is its ability to generate a higher ROI compared to traditional advertising methods. Influencer marketing campaigns typically have a higher engagement rate than traditional advertising campaigns since influencers have built trust and credibility with their audience. Additionally, since influencer marketing campaigns often target a specific audience, they have a higher chance of converting into sales.
Influencer marketing platforms offer businesses a streamlined way to connect with influencers and manage influencer campaigns. With access to many influencers, tools for measuring campaign performance, and highly effective search tools, influencer marketing platforms are valuable for businesses looking to leverage the power of influencer marketing to reach their target audience.
How to choose the right influencer marketing platform
When choosing which influencer marketing platform to use is important to consider business needs and budget, campaign objectives, and influencer discovery tools that are offered, metrics tracked, and analytics collected. Is also important to check the vastity of their database and the freshness of the data that you can access.
Firstly, identify your business needs and budget. Determine your campaign objectives, target audience, and the features you require from an influencer marketing platform. Consider factors such as campaign management, analytics, influencer discovery, and content collaboration. Assess your budget and determine how much you’re willing to invest in the platform’s services.
Once you know your needs is time to understand how you can fulfill them. Round up as many platforms as possible and start going through their website to learn their features. Most influencer marketing platforms offer search filters, but not all search filters are the same. Using the metrics that matter to you can make the difference between a smooth experience and a rough time. Also, consider if the platform will provide the creators’ contact information to let you start collaborating immediately.
What metrics the platform tracks will also be an essential part of the decision process: some platforms provide more extensive coverage of creator analytics. In some cases, they can also put it in context by grouping creators into categories and evaluating them with their content category. After assessing each platform offering, you should prioritize those platforms that provide features that align with your campaign objectives.
Reach out and ask for a demo. Once you select a few viable candidates that fill most of your boxes about features and pricing is time to see in action how they perform. Sometimes, you can apply for a trial on the platform website or ask their salesperson for a demonstration. They will be able to explain to you how best their platform can fit your needs and how to use it effectively.
Lastly, consider scalability and future growth. As your business grows, your influencer marketing needs may evolve. Choose a platform that can accommodate your future requirements, such as more extensive influencer networks, advanced analytics, or particular metrics searchable. Selecting a platform that can scale your business and support your long-term influencer marketing strategies is essential.
By carefully considering these factors and conducting thorough research, you can choose the right influencer marketing platform that aligns with your business goals, budget, and target audience. Remember, the platform you select will play a significant role in the success of your influencer marketing campaigns, so take the time to make an informed decision.
Tips for a successful influencer marketing campaign using a platform
Define your goals and targets, choose the influencers that fit your brand, craft a compelling campaign message, and monitor the campaign performances.
Firstly, it is crucial to define your campaign goals and target audience. I know we talked about it already, but is that important. Clearly outline the objectives you want to achieve through your influencer marketing campaign, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating sales. And not only the objective but also the metrics to evaluate to objective is accomplished.
Understanding your target audience is equally important. Identify their demographics, interests, and preferences to find influencers who can effectively reach and engage with this audience.
Choosing the right influencers for your brand is another critical aspect. Look for influencers whose values, content style, and audience align with your brand. Consider their engagement rates, audience demographics, and authenticity.
Many influencer marketing platforms offer search filters that allow you to narrow down your options based on specific criteria. Take the time to research and vet potential influencers to ensure they are a good fit for your campaign.
Crafting a compelling campaign message and content is essential for capturing the attention and interest of your target audience.
Collaborate with influencers to develop content seamlessly integrating your brand message while aligning with their unique voice and style. Encourage creativity and authenticity to make the content relatable and engaging.
Additionally, consider the platform’s guidelines and restrictions to ensure compliance and maximize the impact of your campaign.
Monitoring campaign performance and making necessary adjustments are crucial to optimize your influencer marketing campaign. Leverage the platform’s analytics and reporting tools to track key metrics such as reach, engagement, and conversions.
Analyze the data to gain insights into what’s working and what can be improved. Adjust your campaign strategy, whether tweaking the messaging, targeting different influencers, or exploring new content formats. Monitoring and adapting your campaign based on performance data is vital for maximizing its effectiveness.
In addition to these tips, fostering good communication and collaboration with influencers is essential. Maintain clear and open lines of communication, providing timely feedback and addressing any questions or concerns they may have. Building solid relationships with influencers can lead to more authentic and impactful content that resonates with their audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, influencer marketing platforms offer myriad benefits for businesses seeking to leverage the power of influencers in their marketing campaigns. These platforms provide access to a vast network of influencers, streamline communication and campaign management, offer tools for measuring campaign performance, and often result in increased return on investment (ROI) compared to traditional advertising methods.
By utilizing influencer marketing platforms, businesses can tap into a pool of influencers who align with their brand values and have a relevant and engaged audience. These platforms simplify discovering and connecting with influencers and tracking campaign progress. The tools for measuring campaign performance enable businesses to gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions to optimize their influencer marketing strategies.
Looking ahead, the future of influencer marketing is promising. As social media continues to evolve and influencers become increasingly influential, the role of influencer marketing platforms is likely to expand. These platforms will continue to provide innovative tools and features to enhance the effectiveness of influencer marketing campaigns.
Businesses that stay abreast of emerging trends and leverage the capabilities of influencer marketing platforms will be well-positioned to maximize their impact and reach their marketing goals.
In summary, influencer marketing platforms have revolutionized how businesses engage with influencers and run influencer marketing campaigns. The benefits they offer are undeniable. By choosing the right platform and implementing effective strategies, companies can harness the power of influencers to connect with their target audience, boost brand awareness, and drive meaningful results in the digital landscape.
Influencer marketing is here to stay; if you haven’t started using it yet, you may miss out on many potential clients. But starting can be very difficult, especially if you have to design the campaign, establish connections and build relations with many influencers. For these reasons, you may be looking to ask for the help of an influencer marketing agency.
Using the services of an influencer marketing agency would lean on people with a long history of expertise and experience in the field. They would streamline your individuation, acquisition, and tracking time while delivering content that aligns with your requirements and standards.
How to choose an influencer marketing agency
To pick the right agency for your needs is important to keep in mind Localization, Areas of Expertise, and evaluate their Track Record, Previous Campaigns, Communication Methods, Creativity Inputs, Goal and Timeline Setting, Quality Controls, and Reporting mechanisms they have in place.
1. Localization
Many marketing agencies specialize in the area they are located in. In contrast, others prefer to go international, like CreatorDB, and have teams able to deliver campaigns across the globe.
While English is typically enough to go by in a business setting, many influencers may not be comfortable with it or would prefer to communicate in their native language. Accommodating them will translate into much less friction and misunderstandings when briefing them about the campaign goals.
Therefore is essential to identify marketing agencies that can operate in the market you are targeting.
2. Area of expertise
Some agencies only work with fashion and beauty brands; others specialize in gaming or luxury branding. But don’t get too set on finding an agency that works only in your field: sometimes a narrow focus is dangerous and leads to delivering “standard” campaigns that may lack personalization and authenticity in favor of the standard way to do things.
3. Track record
Check with who they worked previouslyand how they are doing now. At this point, consider contacting the agency and asking for examples of previous campaigns if you include an idea of what you want so that they can provide you with something relevant and not just a campaign that was successful for them but irrelevant for you.
4. Previous campaigns
As they say in finance: “Past records are not indicative of future performances,” but they can help to understand how things will go. If you contacted the agency and obtained some examples of their previous works, now is the time to compare it to your original idea.
Here you should keep an open mind and not look for a copy of what you are looking for but just a hint at the agency’s capabilities and results.
5. Communication
At this point, you must contact the agency and get a feeling of how to interact with them: do they reply fast? Do they understand what you are looking for? Are they interested in the case?
These are all things you should consider when choosing since you don’t want to pick a sloppy agency set in its way and with no interest in what you want.
Starting a direct communication will give you the feeling of how they manage their clients, what care they put into their interactions, and if they are passionate about your project.
6. Creativity
Once you start communicating with the agency and explain your idea and what you expect from the partnership, you will likely get a reply containing their side of the story. While only part of the campaign, this should already give you an idea of what they can do and how they would tackle your case.
Here you can start noticing if they are just going along with what you say or bringing their weight into it. It is important to remember that you are not using them to find a series of “yes men,” but you want to access their knowledge and expertise.
So be open to their suggestions and evaluate them without being dogmatic.
7. Goal setting
Marketing campaigns need to have goals.
Possibly SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals.
When communicating with an agency, start considering how they will achieve the results: do they have a clear idea of what you want? Are they establishing metrics to go by to reach your final goal? Are these goals realistic considering budget and time?
8. Timeline
While already a part of goal setting, establishing a timeline of operation is one of the most important steps when dealing with an agency. Especially if your influencer marketing campaign is time-sensitive, like, in connection to a holiday or a product launch, you want to have a clear view of how the agency team is going to manage the time.
9. Quality control
Influencers and content creators are human beings, and all humans are prone to bring their interpretation to their tasks.
Creativity can be highly beneficial if the creator truly understands and shares your campaign vision, but the case of a misunderstanding or different ideas can translate into a disaster.
That’s why it is crucial to have in place a failsafe mechanism: generally, it translates into a final check on the content from the agency and your company before it goes live.
10. Reporting
While the agency will be doing all the heavy lifting concerning contacting and managing influencers, you should still be able to keep an eye on what is happening. Therefore, ask for periodic updates on the campaign. While it would not require you to micromanage the campaign itself would let you know if all the steps taken are going in the direction you wanted.
To make your life easier and ace your next influencer marketing campaign we prepared an easy cheatsheet you can download here
If you are interested in hiring an influencer marketing agency to run your campaign why not take a look at what CreatorDB has to offer?
We provide services in 10 of the most spoken languages in the world.
Our people are experts in a wide variety of fields from gaming to fashion and much more.
We worked with many know brands all over the globe.
Our campaigns are always tailored to the client’s needs and we pride ourselves on offering top-of-the-line customer care.
Talk with us and we will provide you with a custom solution for all your influencer marketing needs.