Three Keys To Effective Influencer Marketing Partnerships
PSA: the efficiency of your influencer marketing partnerships boils down to the influencers you choose and the agreements you make with them! 👏 We know just how important it is to partner with influencers in order to build trust and broaden your reach. However, picking unfit partnerships and not clearly communicating your agreement can lead to you getting ghosted or unmet expectations. Crafting influencer marketing campaigns with the following keys will ensure your marketing partnerships return you and your clients' maximum value. Let’s dive in!
KEY #1 TO EFFECTIVE INFLUENCER MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS: KNOW YOUR BRAND & YOUR AUDIENCE
Unlike the constant cycle of most social media best practices, strategies within influencer marketing partnerships stick around — which makes our lives MUCH easier. 😌One thing that will always reign in importance when developing influencer marketing campaigns: picking influencers that resonate with your audience.
The number one question you should ask yourself before seeking out influencers is “WHO is my audience?” You should know what they like, who they keep up with, which social media channels they live on, and what entices them. Once you have a profile developed, you can start looking for influencers that actually align. Similarly, the influencer should correspond with your brand, so it is equally as important for your brand to have a distinct brand identity in order to find marketing partnerships that resonate.
Once you’ve picked influencer marketing partnerships that align with your audience, you can begin filling in with other trending strategies for your influencer marketing campaigns.
Some strategies that create engaging and effective influencer marketing partnerships include:
🤝 Using light-hearted, relatable voices: While it’s great to give guidelines of what you’re looking for with deliverables, the best campaigns come from a place of authenticity. The best content truly comes from partnerships that allow influencers to put their own creative touch on the campaign. We’ve raved about this strategy before — take a look at Marc Jacobs, and you’ll see how they’ve fully embraced Gen Z icons like Charli XCX & Gabbriette and Enya Umanzor & Drew Phillips. The content feels genuine and is more engaging because of the creative expression in these partnerships.
🤝 Creating limited-edition products in partnership with influencers: At the end of the day, scarcity marketing tactics work. You can take this up a notch by collaborating with influencers to release limited-edition products, like Alanu Nu! They frequently roll out energy drinks in collaboration with influencers or celebs, like Kim Kardashian or Emily Ratajkowski. (p.s…. we miss u Kimade 💔), that only stick around for a limited time. These influencer marketing partnerships are especially effective because they use scarcity marketing tactics to create a sense of urgency among customers.
KEY #2 TO EFFECTIVE INFLUENCER MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS: CONTRACTS AND COMMUNICATION
Having solid and clear communication in your influencer marketing partnerships sets both parties up for success! It’s a must to be transparent in what you can offer the influencer, and what you expect in return.
In typical influencer marketing partnerships, the brand offers the influencer monetary compensation, product/service, or both! This can change depending on the product promoted, but this must be communicated at the forefront of your partnerships.
Deliverables can vary depending on the platform, as well — but it’s always going to be ✨content. ✨ Whether it’s an IG story, a few posts on IG or TikTok, or a one-time YouTube video, you should be clear about what you are expecting in return, as this can change the value and price of your agreement.
Our key to clear communication is our lawyer-approved Influencer Contract! This contract has saved us countless hours of back and forth and ensured that our influencer marketing campaigns actually benefit our clients. It clearly communicates compensation, deliverable requirements, expectations, and other necessary partnership details to influencers.
Strengthen your relationship with these influencers further by maintaining communication and providing them value beyond the product or monetary compensation you’ll offer them. To do this, we like to keep a spreadsheet of all of the influencers we’ve worked with, along with their contact information. To make our communication efforts stronger, we use our contract to ensure all expectations are clearly relayed to our influencers. This makes re-connecting with successful partnerships a breeze! Additionally, repurpose the content on your own page to further the influencer’s reach, and it will benefit them as well!
KEY #3 TO EFFECTIVE INFLUENCER MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS: NURTURE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH INFLUENCERS
Long-term influencer marketing partnerships are a jackpot for marketers and unlock a deeper level of loyalty within the influencer’s audience. These get you maximum ROI by making their audience familiar with your brand or product, and it shows that your partners genuinely like the product/service if they promote it more than once!
Think about it — we will never get sick of seeing Emilie Kiser and Dae! This influencer marketing partnership is a great example of a long-term relationship that has been nurtured well. Because Dae has already seen ROI from partnering with Emilie, they feel confident coming back to her time and time again for new launches. Plus, she genuinely likes the brand, so she consistently posts Dae products without being prompted (or paid) to!
There are a couple of ways to go about long-term partnerships. First, we like to keep a spreadsheet of all of the influencers we’ve worked with, along with their contact information, so it’s easy for us to get back in touch. Second, use your contract to ensure they are long-term. This option allows you to be specific in how many posts the influencer will share and the cadence in which they’ll be posted. For example, you can space out deliverables, like 1 post per month, for three months. This elongated partnership builds a solid brand-to-influencer relationship that opens opportunities for reconnection in future influencer marketing campaigns.
We hope this blog post gave you some guidance on how to effectively execute your influencer marketing partnerships! To strengthen and secure your future influencer marketing campaigns, snag our Influencer Contract Template!
Chat soon!
xx,
The Homies