Over the last few years, influencers have changed the game in social media marketing. Particularly via Instagram, influencer marketing can help you reach an entirely new set of your target audience. But not all influencers are equal. Here are a few tips on working with influencers in social media marketing.
- Know your budget.
Influencers are typically paid for the posts they make about businesses/services/products. When reaching out to an influencer, you’ll need to have in mind what you are willing or what you are able to offer. That may be trade, or it may be actual money, but you’ll need to be prepared for that to be part of the conversation. - Know what you’re looking for in return.
This may turn into negotiations with the influencer, but again, you’ll want to have a starting point in mind. Are you looking for multiple posts on one outlet? Are you looking for one post on multiple outlets? - Know your audience.
Just as with any marketing outlet, it’s key that any influencer you work with equals money well spent. If their audience is a total mismatch from your audience, no matter how big their audience is, your ROI will be abysmal. Any influencer worth their salt knows how to pull demographic information from the analytics section(s) of each outlet. Before signing on, be sure to get that information and make sure you’re on the same page. If your audience is mostly females based in Raleigh, NC, but the influencer’s audience is mostly males based in Los Angeles, you’re unlikely to get much out of that collaboration. - Know what you’re looking for in an influencer.
Beyond audience, influencers you choose to work with should match other key elements of your brand as well. The look, feel, and tone of the influencer’s existing posts need to coordinate well with your branding, too. If you work outside of that, your paid posts will come across as inauthentic and disjointed for you and the influencer, and both of your brands will suffer for it.
You should also consider talking with potential influencers about results of past campaigns they’ve been a part of, as well as the metrics for their non-sponsored posts. Ask them about average reach, typical engagement rates, and how they’ve tracked past campaigns. - Know who else your preferred influencer is working with.
Are most or all of their posts sponsored? (You call tell this because it is required by the FTC that posts folks are paid for be clearly labeled as sponsored or an ad. If they’re promoting products without doing that, you’re opening yourself up to a whole other set of legal issues.) If so, their followers may be hitting a point of sponsorship saturation, and your post may just get lost in the shuffle for them, again creating a low ROI for you.
At SBN Marketing, influencer marketing is not necessarily part of our day-to-day, but we know what to do to make it work. If you’re looking to up your influencer marketing game, use the button below to give us a shout, and let’s chat about whether we’re a good fit to make it happen!
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay