Now you’ve created your short list of influencers that you’d like to collaborate with (click here for Part 1 to find out how to find the right ones for your brand), it’s time to put a roadmap together. By roadmap we mean a plan suited to your product or service – it could be week by week or month by month depending on how much time you have (or need) to allocate to your campaign.
However, it’s really important to realise that a good influencer campaign takes time. It’s not something you can knock together overnight. Well, it is if you have mega bucks to pay a PR agency of course – but even then we wouldn’t advise rushing in to it without due diligence.
IT ALL STARTS WITH A BUDGET
If your product or service produces immediate results, then your campaign is going to be shorter than that of a product that needs to be used over a period of time to see the results. For example, an anti-ageing face cream needs to be tested out by the influencer over a period of months whereas a rug can be styled almost instantly.
But before you start your roadmap planning, you’ll need to work out/decide on your budget for the campaign. Do you have a budget or are you simply sending out the products or offering the experience of your service? If you’re going to send items or offer them an experience, you need to be clear whether they’re ‘gifted’ or part of an ‘ad’. Gifted means the influencer is under no obligation to post about them whereas an ad means that you’re expecting coverage in return for the product or service.
It’s worth noting that content produced by influencers is likely to be of better quality if you pay them (even a small amount) than if you simply send products out/offer complimentary experiences to influencers. They will spend more time on it and make a lot more effort.
That said if you have built up a genuine organic relationship with the influencer you might just get it all; great content in exchange for a product/experience with no payment needed.
So now you’ve worked out your budget it’s time to start planning your campaign.
BUILD ORGANIC RELATIONSHIPS
Begin to slowly engage with potential influencers through genuine and well thought out engagement on their social media profiles or blogs. Think comments, DM’s (non-salesy), likes and sharing. Just be genuinely interested in what they’re saying or posting.
ASSESS INTEREST IN POTENTIAL COLLABORATIONS
Begin to DM/Email potential influencers to assess their interest in working with your brand, explaining why you think your product/service would be best marketed in their hands. Ask them IF they work with brands and HOW they work with brands. Look at ALL their social media platforms. There’s a tendency to think that it’s all about Instagram but some influencers have HUGE audiences on other channels. And if they’re creating content for one channel, it’s very easy for them to tweak that content to apply to all.
AGREE TERMS
Agree individual scheduling plan (for example, 1 blog post, 1 Insta grid post + 3 stories) and payment terms (if you have budget) with each chosen influencer. If money is being exchanged, make sure you either create a contract with the influencer or at least agree it clearly in writing. It will make things more transparent for both parties. Remember that presentation is important so when send out products think about a branded or themed gift box that would look fantastic in an unboxing video.
PROMOTION & FEEDBACK
Then it’s time for influencers start doing what they do best! Promoting your product in an authentic way to their audiences. If your product or service needs time to be tested, promotion may not start immediately so be mindful of that.
FINALLY
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Remember to allow the influencer the freedom to be creative in telling your story in their own words. Each influencer has their own individual style which resonates with their trusted audience.
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Don’t be afraid to ask your chosen influencers for their advice. Influencers know how their audiences behave and what type of content has the most impact. They want the campaign to be as successful as you do so explaining your brand objectives/messaging early on will help them achieve this.
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Assess the results of your campaign by asking for the stats of posts and stories. This will also help you establish whether you might want to work with that influencer again in the future.
At Aster & Fern, we have worked on influencer campaigns from both a brand and influencer perspective and offer a Campaign Management package. For more information please send us an email on team@asterandfern.com.
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