Influencer marketing has grown from a small niche into an industry with a projected value of $17,440 Million by 2028 (from a little over $6,501 in 2021). But what exactly is influencer marketing, and how can your brand leverage it to grow your business? In this blog post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of influencer partnerships.
There are many ways to partner with influencers, but we’ll review the strategies that are the most effective for growing your brand. Keep reading to learn more!
Key Takeaway:
Influencer marketing has been one of the fastest-growing marketing trends of the past few years, and it can now be considered a key advertising strategy. According to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, more than 90% of companies today have used influencer programs or brand partnerships for their marketing campaigns.
Influencers are individuals who have built their brand and audience on social platforms. They have authority within their niche, and often have thousands or even millions of followers on their social media channels.
These micro-celebrities can help you grow your brand by partnering with them directly or through an intermediary company that specializes in finding the best influencers for brands.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a strategy or marketing tactics to engage customers through promotional marketing strategies using social media influencers. The idea is to find relevant, credible people who post regularly on social platforms (and have sizable followings) and encourage them to promote your product or service via social media posts, blog articles, videos, and other online content creation.
Marketers create campaigns by partnering with social media stars who have large followings. These social media stars may receive cash, services, or products from brands in exchange for their posts about them.
The goal is to have social media stars reach out to their audiences and turn them into new customers for your website or product.
Why Build Influencer Partnerships?
Influencer marketing has proven benefits for businesses. The ROI for influencer marketing is significantly higher than for other forms of marketing (like email marketing or SEO). Influencer marketing has the highest click-through rate, conversion rate, and average order value of any marketing channel (including paid ads).
It’s also an extremely cost-effective way to generate leads and sales with minimal investment. Depending on the type of influencer partnership you choose, you could spend as little as $100 to attract thousands of new customers to your brand.
How to Find Influencers for Partnering and Sponsoring
First, you’ll want to create a list of potential influencers who would be a good fit for your brand. There are many ways to find influencers, including:
- Analyzing your own top-performing social media accounts
- Finding potential influencers through social listening
- Running a contest to find influencers
- Using an influencer marketing platform
Once you’ve identified a few potential influencers, there are a few ways to approach them to discuss partnering:
1. Send an email to the target influencer
Once you’ve identified one or two influencers you’d like to work with, reach out to them directly. Be personal, and don’t be afraid to reach out to multiple influencers.
2. Ask an influencer to partner
If you’re unsure whether a specific influencer would be a good fit for your brand, it’s worth just asking them if they would be interested in partnering.
3. Ask an influencer to sponsor you
If you’re interested in working with an influencer but they don’t seem to be interested in working with your brand, you can still ask them to sponsor one of your social media posts.
5 Steps to Establish Influencer Partnerships
1. Clearly Define your Goals and KPIs
Before you start reaching out to potential influencers, you’ll want to consider your goals and KPIs carefully. What do you hope to accomplish with influencer marketing? What KPIs do you want to hit? As always, you want to ensure your goals align with your brand values.
You’ll be setting yourself up for success if you can direct your efforts toward one clear goal at a time. If you try too many things at once, you’ll be less likely to see results.
For example, if your main goal is to increase revenue, you may want to consider collaborative revenue-based campaigns rather than giveaways or sponsored posts. And if one of your goals is to increase conversions on your website, you might want to work with influencers who can help drive visitors to your site. Another goal might be to increase brand awareness.
Once you’ve identified your goals and KPIs, you can easily identify the right influencers to target.
2. Reach out to influencers
Make a list of the top five influencers you’d like to work with and then reach out to them. Make sure your outreach is personalized and thoughtful. You don’t want to come across as spammy or desperate.
3. Collaborate with influencers
If an influencer accepts your offer, start collaborating! You might want to consider setting up a private Slack channel or Discord server to help organize your campaigns.
4. Track KPIs and results
It’s important to track your results throughout the campaign to ensure you’re getting the most out of your investment.
5. Close your partnerships
After the campaign, make sure to thank your influencers for their work and give them a heads-up about when you’ll send them their compensation.
Top 4 Strategies for Building Influencer Partnerships
1. Exclusive Co-Marketing Opportunities
Many brands are reluctant to give away too much while partnering with influencers. The terms should be clear if you’re offering an exclusive co-marketing partnership.
Co-marketing partnerships can mutually benefit both parties, but you don’t want to give away all your profits. If you offer to split profits, make sure the split is fair. Co-marketing is a great way to boost your campaign’s reach and results.
2. Paid Sponsorships
Sponsorships are a straightforward way for influencers to monetize their posts. This also allows brands to collaborate with influencers without giving away any profit.
When you offer to pay an influencer to post about your brand, you should negotiate how much you’re willing to pay. You may want to pay a different amount for each influencer.
For example, you may want to offer $500 to a popular Instagram celebrity while only offering $100 to a lesser-known influencer with a smaller but equally valuable audience.
3. Free Giveaways
One of the best ways to partner with influencers is to host a giveaway. A giveaway is a contest in which one or more prizes are given away to attract attention. You can choose almost anything as a giveaway, but for influencer marketing, you may want to consider a prize that promotes your brand.
For example, you could offer a free printable planner with your logo. You could also offer a free one-year subscription to a service that benefits your brand.
4. Organizational Collaborations
If you want to partner with an organization but don’t have any specific campaigns in mind, consider hosting a collaboration with an organization.
Organizational collaborations are best when you work with multiple brands with similar audiences. For instance, if you work in the hair care industry, you may want to partner with makeup and beauty brands that are popular among your customers.
Bottom Line:
Influencer marketing is an excellent way to promote your brand and engage new customers. By partnering with influencers and leveraging their audiences you can expect to see a significant increase in engagement, leads, and sales!
To make the most of your influencer partnerships, you’ll want to clearly define your goals, reach out to targeted influencers, collaborate with them, and track your results. Finally, you’ll want to ensure you’re investing your time and money in the right partners.
Once you’ve found the right influencer partnerships for your brand, you can expect to see significant ROI from your investment.
