TIPS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS WHEN WORKING WITH INFLUENCERS

Working with influencers is an amazing way to grow brand awareness and source great content for your own channels. In order to see results though, you need to ensure you’re working with the right people and have a strong strategy. Here are our top tips from our Social Content Expert Sienna who is an influencer herself…

Don’t just pick anyone

You may be tempted to collaborate with anyone with a large number of followers but this may not be a great fit for your brand. You need to make sure their content, niche and values align with your own. Take some time to scroll through their feed, read their captions and what other people comment, and even get chatting (casually) by replying to a story or two. This way, you can find out if they are truly a good representative of your brand.

Engagement rate is more important than follower count

Whilst influencers are beneficial to your brand because they have a large audience, the quality of their followers is far more important than the number. You can check to see how engaged (or involved/interested) their audience is by seeing how many likes and comments their posts get. If their likes are hidden on the Instagram app, you can check by hovering over their posts on a desktop. 

You can also officially calculate someone’s engagement rate. The easiest way is to enter their username into an online tool such as Not Just Analytics and it will give you a percentage that represents their average number of post interactions divided by their follower count. The industry baseline differs based on account size but you can use the guide below to determine if their rate is normal or even above average.

Make sure it is a mutually beneficial arrangement

Influencers should be treated with the same respect and professionalism as anyone else in business such as models, photographers and graphic designers. They are dedicating their time, resources and skills to creating content for your business and should be compensated accordingly. Some influencers are happy to create in exchange for free product but some have monetary rates. It is more than okay to only want to work on a gifting basis but make sure you have a clear budget in mind before you get started and communicate this when reaching out to creators. 

To make sure you’re both benefiting from the collaboration, there are different types of partnerships you may wish to engage influencers in:

PR collaboration – you send influencers some free product (often an attractive looking package) with no obligation for them to post. By taking away the expectation for them to work for free, influencers are actually more likely to be excited about receiving your package and trying your products, which they will then share, most likely in the form of unboxing stories. This is a great way to get your brand out there and build a relationship with the influencer. They may even create some in feed content for free!

Gifted collaboration – This is great for small businesses with very tight budgets. You can negotiate with the influencer for them to receive free products from you and in return create content. This may range from stories to posts and Reels or simply content for you to use on your own channels without them posting to their own. 

Paid collaboration – Having a budget when you work with influencers will result in extremely high-quality content and higher reliability. As an exchange of funds for services, you can have more control over the type of content you would like the influencer to create as well as arranging pre-posting approvals so you can ask for edits to be made. 

Sign a contract

Whilst this isn’t completely necessary, it gives both parties reassurance that the other will deliver on what they have promised. No need for a full 20 page legal document, simply write down what is expected from the brand and the influencer and both sign it before you get collaborating. Try to include deliverables (what the influencer needs to create/post), timeframe, compensation and any brand guidelines they need to stick to. This is great to refer to down the track in case there is a misunderstanding with deliverables or payments.

Have fun!

Influencer collaborations are a chance for someone else to get creative with your brand. You live and breathe your brand everyday so it’s amazing to have a fresh pair of eyes look at your products and brainstorm ideas. You may have brand guidelines you want them to follow which is great and very helpful when formulating a collaboration concept but take a moment to ask for their ideas and try something a little different! They know what their audience will respond best to. 

Got more questions about working with influencers? Want someone to source high-quality, reliable influencers for your next campaign? Get in touch with Toucan!