Influencer marketing and creator partnerships are currently hot topics. Still, marketers may be held back by assumptions about how these partnerships have historically operated: Brand-controlled, organic-first, and limited to one-time campaigns.
Getting the most out of the assets and campaigns you’re creating with influencers requires you to look at them as true creative partners, leverage paid media to unlock the full potential of the movements, and have ongoing relationships beyond a single ad set.
People prefer content from human beings vs. brands, especially when it comes to video. According to eMarketer, US users watched twenty billion hours of YouTube videos in Q4 2021 that were influenced by influencers.
In addition to offering social proof to potential customers, influencer marketing helps brands and creators establish credibility with audiences around product recommendations and increases their ability to monetize their platforms. It also helps build the creator’s credibility with audiences around product recommendations.
Creating content that feels true to the creator’s audience, the platform, and your brand would be best. Prepare a campaign brief that gives the creator relevant brand messaging and content guidelines but lets them be creative.
Bring that creative juice to your paid social media campaigns instead of settling for organic influencer marketing.
Organic partnerships with influencers usually push the brand and featured products to their direct followers. However, by using the discovery section of the platforms, other audiences can find them as well.
In other words, when you restrict influencer marketing to organic partnerships, your reach and content are limited. So instead, use influencer safelists to promote your brand and drive additional performance using organic, user-generated content (UGC).
Also, you can target lookalike audiences by using influencer-produced creatives with appropriate permissions and influencers’ followers.
Be sure to measure the results, not just cross your fingers.
Social media content, including influencers, is gaining savvier consumer interest. However, they will turn off your brand if they feel pandered to or the influencer isn’t genuine.
The branded search lift or keyword trends on Google during and after the campaign are extraordinary measures to see whether your influencer marketing investment is paying off.
Your influencer content should be refreshed monthly and highlight the products you promote across other media channels during a quarter.
You can also analyze quarterly performance to identify common trends among the top and bottom-performing content.
