Influencer relations not only affects your campaigns, but also your relationships with the influencers you're partnering with. Here's how to do it right.
The way you interact with your influencers on a day-to-day basis has a massive impact on the outcome of the campaign and your relationship with them. Influencer relations should not be taken lightly. Positive experiences will lead to influencers creating thoughtful content and make them more likely to recommend your brand to their followers and fellow influencers. Having bad blood with influencers in the industry may cause customers and other bloggers to not trust you. Since Statusphere prides itself on creating excellent influencer experiences, we thought we’d round up some tips to keep your influencer relations top of the line.
Influencers typically have three ways available for you to send your pitch: DMs, email and contact forms. Sometimes their bios will let you know which form of contact they are most open to receiving. Find out which time zone your influencer lives in and contact them at an appropriate time of day. Receiving a DM late at night screams creepy, even if you don’t mean to be.
If you need help formulating your pitch click here for some templates.
Make sure you clearly lay out the nature of the campaign and terms for compensation. A contract is always recommended when partnering with social media influencers so everyone is on the same page on the scope of work required.
It’s a good idea to include:
Once you send them your expectations, be ready to answer their questions and possibly negotiate. Even if you believe your outline is straightforward, be aware that each influencer is different and providing clarification now will help ensure a smooth partnership. If you and the influencer do not agree during any part of the negotiation stage, always be respectful and professional. Word travels fast if an influencer is unhappy with their experience working with your brand or platform.
Show support by liking, commenting and reposting any posts about your brand during your influencer campaign. Studies show that 71% of consumers who have a pleasant social media interaction with a brand are likely to recommend it to others, so this is your opportunity to capitalize on that statistic and build brand recognition. Getting your own accounts involved can boost the success of your campaign and drive traffic to your page.
If an influencer hasn’t posted during the agreed-upon timeline, check in with them by sending a polite message to see where they’re at with getting their post up. Always be understanding and hear out the influencer’s situation—maybe their post never got scheduled correctly or they never got the product you sent in the first place.
Be sure your influencers know what the campaign goals are. If you want to increase brand recognition or you want to focus on increasing sales, make sure the posting guidelines you provide your influencer support that. If you aren’t sure what you want out of the campaign you’ll have a hard time structuring your influencer campaign and tracking success.
Keep in mind that influencer marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. You can have tons of influencers posting about you, but a confusing website or check out process will greatly affect your sales. If you do a product seeding campaign with an affiliate link, check how many users checked out with it. This can help determine if the influencer is a fit for your brand or not.
Even if the campaign doesn’t perform the way you hoped, never discount the amount of time, effort and creativity that the influencer you partnered with put in. They are still providing gorgeous content and product feedback for your brand.
As the campaign wraps up, be sure to thank all of them for their work, but keep in close contact with the influencers who stand out for future collaborations. It’s in your best interest to continue engaging with past influencers’ content (even when it’s not about your brand).
Maintaining a positive relationship can lead to other collab opportunities and may even flourish into a brand ambassador relationship. Offering special perks for your ambassadors never hurts—consider offering free product for their work and provide discounts to your customers for using one of your ambassador’s coupon codes on your website.
Successfully interacting with influencers and nurturing those relationships post-campaign can be difficult without a dedicated team. Starting with a great platform, like Statusphere, can help you find the best influencers to work with and set up collaborations with less trial and error. If you are interested in improving your influencer relations game contact one of our team members today and we’d be happy to help.
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