6 Tips for Effective Collaborations with Influencers
Reading Time: ~5 Mins | Written By: Sydney Vardja
A recent study by The Drum found that 90% of American consumers no longer trust influencers. And while I am not a statistic denier, I do believe that despite that study, influencer partnerships remain an essential component of successful marketing strategies.
Partnering with influencers is an incredible way to help brands reach larger audiences, boost awareness and visibility, and drive customer engagement. So in a time where some are skeptical of the art of influencing, it’s crucial to approach your own campaigns with careful planning and execution. It is this vigilance that ensures your collaboration yields worthwhile results.
In this blog post, we will explore six tips for effective collaborations with influencers that can help maximize your brand's impact.
Define your goals
Before diving into an influencer collaboration, it’s essential to clearly define your goals and objectives. Are you aiming to enhance brand awareness, drive sales, or create engaging content? Identifying your goals will help you select suitable influencers whose audience aligns with your target market.
For instance, if you are marketing yoga apparel exclusively available in Canada and your objective is to reach Canadian yogis, you may encounter a situation where you find the best influencer who perfectly represents your brand. However, the majority of their followers are based in the United States. In such cases, you need to find the next best creator who can help you reach your target audience effectively. By establishing precise objectives, such as targeting a specific demographic, generating leads, or increasing online traffic, you will lay a solid foundation for a successful collaboration.
Drawing on my own experience in PR, I've noticed that clients—like all of us—can feel a strong attraction to particular influencers due to their captivating feed, aesthetic, and overall vibe. However, it becomes tricky when the creator's audience doesn't align with the brand's target demographic. In such cases, it's essential to remind ourselves that successful influencer partnerships go beyond personal preferences. Prioritizing audience alignment and relevance is crucial to ensure a meaningful collaboration that achieves your goals.
Be authentic
We shouldn’t have to tell you that authenticity is paramount in the land of influencer collaborations—but we will! Today's consumers value genuine experiences and transparency more than anything. When selecting influencers to partner with, ensure they actually resonate with your brand values and that their content aligns with your key messages. Pro tip: look beyond follower counts and prioritize influencers who have built a strong rapport with their audience based on trust and credibility.
In my own experience working in PR, I can confidently say that I may not be an influencer but I can certainly gauge when someone isn’t truly passionate about the product or service they are vouching for. There’s a difference between a creator whose eyes light up when talking about something and a creator who is clearly being paid to read a script. When it comes to which creator to work with, PR professionals like me will pick the former every single time.
Cultivate relationships
Successful influencer collaborations are built on strong relationships. Take the time to understand the influencers you want to collaborate with by researching their content, engagement rates, and audience demographics. Engage with their social media posts, leave meaningful comments, and build a genuine connection. By investing in building relationships with influencers, you increase the likelihood of creating mutually beneficial partnerships, rather than one-off campaigns.
My favourite influencers to work with are the ones I'm on a first-name basis with – the ones I can easily hop on a phone call with and ask about their recent trip to Cancun. Building genuine relationships with influencers makes our partnerships so much more effective and rewarding. When you establish a real connection with the creators you're working with, it not only enhances collaboration but also fosters trust and authenticity in the content they produce for a brand. Talk about a win-win!
Establish clear communication and guidelines
To ensure your collaboration is successful, establish clear lines of communication and provide detailed guidelines. Clearly communicate your expectations, campaign objectives, and any key messages you want the creator to convey. There is no such thing as too many details! In my experience, this is where your creative brief comes in the most handy. From payment details to content specifics and posting dates—this brief should have everything you need to establish clear communication and guidelines.
From a creative direction perspective, ensure that you allow room for the influencer’s creativity, but always remember the importance of maintaining a consistent brand voice and aesthetic. Open and honest communication from the onset will prevent misunderstandings and help achieve desired outcomes.
Provide value
Influencers are bombarded with collaboration requests on the daily, which makes it essential that your outreach demonstrates mutual value. Compensation is a given, and while it can take various forms (monetary compensation, gifting, or exclusive experiences), it should always align with the influencer's worth and effort. More value can be provided by offering creators exclusive content, early access to products, or opportunities to engage with your brand in unique ways.
My favourite approach to providing value is by clearly outlining why the partnership makes sense for the influencer to accept right from the start. For instance, a line like “Given your audience's passion for hiking, partnering with Salomon presents the perfect opportunity to offer your followers valuable insights into the industry's best hiking boots” carries significant weight when the creator evaluates the potential partnership!
Track KPIs
To measure the effectiveness of your influencer collaborations, you’ll want to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and track relevant metrics. It’s important to monitor the impact of your brand's online presence, engagement rates, website traffic, conversions, and/or sales. The best part? This tracking doesn’t have to be done manually. With so many tracking and analytics tools to choose from, gaining insights into the success of collaborations and optimizing them for the future has never been easier. I, among many others, would not be able to provide brands with the media monitoring insights I can without the help of my mighty tools like Meltwater, Critical Mention, and Muckrack.
It’s undeniable that influencer collaborations have become an invaluable marketing tool for businesses seeking to expand their reach and engage with new audiences. But considering the oversaturation of the space and the growing skepticism of consumers, it’s vital that your brand navigates influencer marketing effectively. To do this, follow these six tips and enjoy the benefits of one of the most powerful tools in marketing.
