INFLUENCER COLLABORATION
In just a few years Influencer Marketing has gone from marketing buzz word to the backbone of many brands marketing strategy, swayed by considerations such as authenticity and impartiality of voice, increased engagement and often cheaper production values.
A core part of the Spinnaker offering, our Head of Social Media, Joe Orton, gives his top tips on how to make the most out of your influencer activations by collaborating effectively.
Step1 - Influencer selection
“We’ll launch the campaign with Cristiano Ronaldo, and then follow-on next quarter with a Kardashian or maybe just a Jenner if the budget won’t stretch”. While you can’t deny that would be a hell of a brief, the budget would be enough to sustain some smaller European countries for the next decade. And that’s forgetting that it’s not all about follower size. In fact micro influencers generally have a higher engagement rate in comparison to macro.
And all of this is actually forgetting the impact of influencer marketing, which is reaching your target audience through influencers they already have a relationship with, delivering the desired impact.
So, before we get into collaborating effectively with your influencer, my top tip would be to start with a defined target audience for your campaign, then look to align talent with them. But don’t stop there – it’s great having the same age and location with your influencer, but if they only post make up tutorials, maybe your campaign on Rugby isn’t the correct thematic fit.
Oh, and of course check the quality of content and ER% (the Influencer Searcher Google Chrome plug-in is a handy, rough and ready quick tool to do this). While it is less frequent than it used to be, you do still occasionally see inflated follower counts via bots/bought followers, so looking to ER% or using a tool to check for fake followers is a sensible move.
Step 2 - Collaboration
Once you have found your influencer, the very first thing to do is to develop a contract. There’s a load of free templates out there online, but the key thing is to ensure that it covers all core elements you need. Do consider:
How long will the content need to live on the influencers feed? Some prefer to delete after a set period.
Will you add media spend to the post? This will often incur an additional cost
Do you want the post to simply tag your brand in the copy, or is this to go live as a collab post?
Do you want a round of amends on the asset? Do you want two rounds of amends?
This may seem unnecessarily pedantic, but it is there for the protection of agency, client and influencer, outlining the needs and expectations of all involved. Basically, you’re avoiding any misunderstanding or disagreements further down the line and keeping everyone happy.
Briefing
This is where collaboration really comes to the forefront. The brand will have a clear perspective of what they want the content to convey in terms of messaging, however the content cannot be too heavily branded, as it will lose the authenticity of message that influencer marketing is so strong at delivering.
Our suggestion would be to create a document that includes the following core info:
Campaign objective
Campaign overview
Creative idea (not too prescriptive though)
Key messaging – IE the one or two lines the content has to include
Any key things to avoid saying or doing
While this may sound like a lot, these should be viewed as guiderails, handholding the influencer in the right direction, while still giving them enough space and freedom to create something in line with their channels.
Once this doc has been completed, have a call with the talent and run through things together. Again, you may be rolling your eyes, but this not only ensures every point is understood but also adds a personal level of communication, improving the relationship before the next step.
Amends
Feedback, reaction, opinion, critique, assessment, review, criticism. If you’re not careful, even those of us with the thickest skin (not me) can find requested amends a criticism of our work. So, there’s a few top tips of how best to go about this:
Discuss in detail with all client partners, ensuring that feedback is consolidated, minimising rounds of amends and keeping time streamlined.
With this feedback, remember that the content is not being made for your client channels, but instead needs to be true and fitting with the influencers own content – this is what makes it effective marketing.
Be open to discussing feedback with the influencer and hearing their input, as they know their audience. Look to find middle ground compromises that keep both agency and influencer happy, while most importantly ensuring the content remains as strong as it can be.
Don’t forget to share your positive feedback too. This a.) softens the blow of any negative content and b.) is a nice thing to do and brightens everyone’s day.
Step 3:
Of course, no campaign would be complete with reporting. While data and learnings are obviously hugely important, do not overlook the ways of working insight with influencers to see how these can be improved for future activations.
Don’t forget to calculate your earned media value. I feel there might be a blog on this subject upcoming!
For more examples of our influencer work here at Spinnaker, have a look at our case studies here: