Partnering with a social media influencer for a collaboration post, aka an “influencer marketing collaboration” can be a creative, credibility-packed way to build buzz, gain followers, and attract new customers for your business.
Companies use influencers for just that; their influence on their audience. These influencers’ followers trust their opinion and can convert their audience into yours.
The crucial first step in influencer marketing is finding the right influencer(s) for your brand.
You want to find someone who aligns with your brand, beliefs and core values so it is authentic.
(I.E. If your company sells dog collars, you may want to find a popular dog account to partner with vs. hiring a lifestyle influencer who has a dog but doesn’t feature him/her very often.)
Let’s take a look at the different types of influencer marketing:
Sponsored Social Media Content
This type of influencer marketing includes partnering with influencers in exchange for a sponsored social media post. They will receive your product and you will compensate them for a sponsored post. This could be a blog post, Facebook post, TikTok, Instagram post or a package.
Gifting
Gifting your product to an influencer in exchange for a post is another option, but can be tricky. You will gift your product to influencers in *hopes* that they’ll post your product because they love it so much, no compensation required. They are not obligated to post your product. Sometimes gifting is combined with the sponsored social media content to ensure a post will happen.
Influencer Takeover
This type of influencer marketing involves an influencer taking over your brand’s account to come up with creative content. This can be for an hour, a day, a week, anything!
Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are a very popular type of influencer marketing. The influencers promote your brand’s product often and have a continuous agreement with your company. They can also be involved in in-person events, and have discount codes for your products. Think of brand ambassadors like the promotional face of your company.
Here are a few tips to start integrating influencers into your marketing plan:
- Have email pitches ready.
- Develop guidelines.
- Understand that this is their job, and they need to be adequately compensated.
- Communication is key.
- Give them creative freedom.
- Align core values and beliefs with your influencers.
- Establish a real connection.
- Create a collaboration agreement/contract to outline expectations.
Influencer marketing can benefit your company greatly. Marketing is all about maximizing relationships; this can be a great way to expedite getting your products exposed to a loyal audience!