- Ideas for collaborating with influencers
- Published 22/05/2023
- 9 min Read
- Written by Anastasia Zaichko
Table of contents
Increasing brand awareness, reach, and engagement, covering wider audiences, attracting high-quality traffic, building trust with target audience – these are the challenges influencer marketing helps with better than other marketing sources. The research by BuzzGuru shows this: 71% of marketing experts value influencer marketing a lot as a source of quality traffic.
Also, 89% of them say ROI from influencer marketing is higher or comparable to other channels.
However, with so many influencers and collaboration options available, it can be challenging for brand owners and marketing specialists to know where to start. In this article, we will provide you with some valuable ideas for collaborating with influencers effectively. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or establish relationships with influencers, the Famesters influencer marketing agency has got you covered.
So, let’s dive in and explore some effective ways to collaborate with influencers and achieve your marketing goals.
IDENTIFYING RELEVANT INFLUENCERS
One of the most critical steps in influencer marketing is identifying relevant influencers to collaborate with. It’s crucial to select influencers who align with your brand values and have a similar target audience to ensure that the collaboration is authentic and relevant to the followers. Here are some tips for identifying relevant influencers.
- Use influencer marketing platforms. There are many influencer marketing platforms available, such as BuzzGuru, that can help you identify and connect with relevant influencers in your niche. These platforms offer advanced search capabilities, allowing you to filter influencers based on their niche, audience demographics, engagement rates, and other criteria.
- Conduct manual searches on social media. You can also identify relevant influencers by manually searching for them on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Look for influencers who are creating content related to your niche, have a significant following, and high engagement rates.
- Analyze your competitors’ collaborations. Keep an eye on your competitors and see who they are collaborating with. This can give you insights into which influencers are resonating with your target audience and potentially identify new influencers to work with.
Remember, when identifying relevant influencers, it’s not just about their follower count. Engagement rate, authenticity, and alignment with your brand values are equally important factors to consider. By identifying relevant influencers, you’ll be more likely to establish a successful and authentic collaboration that resonates with your target audience.
SETTING CLEAR OBJECTIVES
Before reaching out to influencers, it’s essential to set clear objectives for your collaboration. This can help ensure that both parties are on the same page and working towards a common goal. Here are some tips for setting clear objectives.
- When setting objectives, use SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). This can help you create objectives that are clear, focused, and achievable. This will also help you measure the success of your campaign in the future.
- Ensure that your collaboration objectives align with your overall marketing goals. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, your collaboration objective could be to reach a specific number of people or increase your social media following.
- Be transparent with influencers. When pitching your collaboration idea to influencers, be clear about your objectives and what you hope to achieve from the collaboration. This can help them understand the value of the collaboration and whether it aligns with their own goals.
By setting clear objectives, you can ensure that your collaboration is focused, measurable, and effective. This will help you achieve your marketing goals and establish successful long-term relationships with influencers.
COLLABORATION IDEAS
There are many different types of collaborations that you can pursue with influencers, each with its own benefits and potential drawbacks. Here are some ideas for collaborations that you can explore.
SPONSORED POSTS
Sponsored posts involve paying influencers to create content that promotes your brand or product. This can help increase brand awareness and drive sales. For example, you can pay an influencer to create a post showcasing your product or service and providing a discount code for their followers.
Example: Skincare brand Olay collaborated with actress and influencer Busy Philipps to promote their Retinol24 line of products. Busy created a series of sponsored posts on her Instagram showcasing the products and emphasizing the benefits of using retinol in the skincare routine. The posts also included a discount code for Olay’s website. The collaboration helped increase brand awareness and sales for Olay’s Retinol24 line. It also helped Busy Philipps gain exposure to Olay’s audience, furthering her own influence in the beauty and skincare industry.
SOCIAL MEDIA TAKEOVERS
Social media takeovers involve an influencer taking over your brand’s social media account for some period of time. This can help increase engagement and reach a new audience, attracting the influencer’s followers to the brand’s account.
Example: To promote its brand to Broadway fans, Broadway Plus invited Kimberly Marable, a prominent Broadway performer from the Hadestown tour, to take over their Instagram account for a day. During the takeover, Marable shared behind-the-scenes footage of the current production, provided insights into the life of a Broadway performer, and interacted with the followers of the account. This gave Broadway Plus access to exclusive content and the opportunity to reach a new audience of Broadway fans, while Kimberly Marable had a platform to promote her current tour and engage with her own followers. Overall, this social media takeover created valuable and engaging content for both the brand and the influencer, while also expanding their reach and engagement on social media.
GUEST BLOGGING
Guest blogging involves inviting an influencer to write a post for your brand’s blog. This can help increase website traffic and establish your brand as an authority in your niche.
Example: Neil Patel is an influencer who participates in guest blogging himself and also encourages experts and writers to do so: he even has an entire guide for that. Both the blogger and brands benefit from such collaborations, as Neil has quite a large audience. He attracts his readers to the companies’ sites and the companies’ customers to his own blog.
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Product reviews involve sending an influencer a product to review and share their experience with their followers. This can help establish trust and credibility with the influencer’s audience.
Example: Rachel runs the YouTube channel “Rachel Reviews”. She frequently shares unboxing videos of fashion packages, such as the one from the clothing curating brand Fashom. Rachel provides her honest feedback on the products and offers her viewers a special discount code through a referral link. By leveraging the power of unboxing videos, Rachel has built a loyal following and established herself as a trusted authority in the fashion industry – and brands that collaborate with her benefit from it, too.
GIVEAWAYS AND CONTESTS
Giveaways and contests involve collaborating with influencers to host a giveaway that promotes your brand – often brands give their products as prizes in such contests. You may collaborate with an influencer to host a giveaway on Instagram and ask their followers to follow your brand’s account and tag a friend in the comments to enter.
Example: Loungefly collaborated with a celebrity influencer Rosalie Chiang. This promotional campaign garnered over 14,000 likes on Instagram, demonstrating its success for both parties – the brand and the influencer. Furthermore, it showcases the potential for an Instagram giveaway to align with a time-sensitive promotion, such as a product launch. Note that this giveaway was connected with the Turning Red movie, where Rosalie Chiang was one of the leading voice actresses.
INFLUENCER EVENTS
Influencer events involve inviting influencers to participate in an event hosted by your brand. This can help establish relationships and increase brand awareness. For example, you could host an exclusive event for influencers in your industry and provide them with a sneak peek of your latest product or service.
Example: Häagen-Dazs teamed up with NYC influencers to promote ice cream as an essential part of summer, make ice cream a symbol of it. The campaign featured BOGO (buy one get one) deals and sampling events at local stores. The theme was “Häagen-Dazs Open Container”, using #HDOpenContainer in social posts to playfully reference NYC’s open container laws. The campaign reminded consumers that Häagen-Dazs makes summer activities sweeter and more fun, and influencer Kendall Kremer hosted a rooftop ice cream party showcasing the BOGO offer.
JOINT WEBINARS
Collaborating with an influencer to create a joint webinar on a topic related to your niche can help establish your authority and provide value to your followers. For example, a business coach could collaborate with a social media influencer to create a webinar on how to grow your business using Instagram.
Example: Intercom’s webinar strategy involves featuring conversations with niche influencers. For instance, Intercom has hosted webinars with representatives from Slack and UserOnboard, as well as a New York Times bestselling author. By leveraging this approach, Intercom is able to offer customers and prospects a wider range of industry insights while also reaching potential users who may not have heard of Intercom. Additionally, the company puts its panelists on camera to increase engagement and create a personal connection with their audience.
CO-BRANDED PRODUCTS
Collaborating with an influencer to create a co-branded product can help promote both brands and increase sales. For example, a clothing brand could collaborate with a fashion influencer to create a limited edition clothing line.
Example: ColourPop’s collaboration with beauty influencer KathleenLights for the KathleenLights x ColourPop collection is a prime example of a successful co-branded product. KathleenLights’ loyal following and beauty expertise combined with ColourPop’s affordable and high-quality cosmetics to create a highly sought-after line. The collaboration generated significant buzz, increased brand awareness, and drove sales for both parties involved.
CHARITY COLLABORATIONS
Collaborating with an influencer to support a charity or cause that aligns with your brand values can help increase brand awareness and establish your brand as socially responsible. For example, a beauty brand could collaborate with a charity that supports mental health awareness and donate a portion of their sales to the cause.
Example: Nike partnered with basketball superstar LeBron James for the “LeBron James x Nike Equality” campaign. The collaboration aimed to raise awareness about social justice issues and promote equality. Limited edition sneakers and apparel were released, with a portion of the proceeds donated to organizations working towards social equality. The partnership amplified the message, increased brand visibility, and positioned both Nike and LeBron James as advocates for equality.
These are just a few examples of the many types of collaborations you can pursue with influencers. When selecting a collaboration idea, it’s essential to consider your marketing goals and the type of content that resonates with your target audience.
By exploring different types of collaborations and selecting the ones that align with your marketing goals and target audience, you can establish successful collaborations with influencers and achieve your marketing objectives.
BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
One of the most critical aspects of influencer marketing is building strong relationships with influencers. By establishing trust and rapport with influencers, you can increase opportunities for collaboration and achieve better results in your campaigns. Here are some tips on how to build strong relationships with influencers.
- Engage with influencers on social media. Follow influencers on social media platforms and engage with their content by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts. This can help build familiarity and establish a connection with the influencer.
- Provide value to the influencer by sharing their content with your audience, promoting their personal brand, or offering them exclusive access to your products or services. This can help establish a sense of reciprocity and demonstrate your interest in building a long-term relationship with the influencer.
- Be respectful of their time. Influencers are often busy and receive many collaboration requests. Be respectful of their time and make it easy for them to work with you by providing clear instructions, being transparent about your expectations, and responding promptly to their questions and concerns.
- Collaborate on projects outside of sponsored content. Building a relationship with an influencer doesn’t always have to be centered on sponsored posts. Try collaborating on other projects such as sharing resources, knowledge, or contacts.
By building strong relationships with influencers, you can establish trust and credibility, which can lead to more successful collaborations in the future. Remember that influencer marketing is not just a transactional relationship. It is essential to approach influencers as individuals and build a genuine connection with them.
MEASURING SUCCESS
Measuring the success of your influencer collaborations is crucial to determine your return on investment (ROI) and identify areas for improvement. By tracking the right metrics, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions for future collaborations. Here are some tips on how to measure the success of your influencer collaborations.
- Track engagement rates. Engagement rates are a crucial metric to track when measuring the success of influencer collaborations. By monitoring the number of likes, comments, shares, and saves on an influencer’s post, you can determine how well the content resonated with their audience.
- Monitor website traffic. Collaborations with influencers can drive significant traffic to your website. By tracking website traffic before and after the collaboration, you can determine how effective the collaboration was in driving traffic to your site.
- Measure sales. Tracking sales is a crucial metric to determine the ROI of your influencer collaborations. By using unique discount codes or affiliate links, you can track the number of sales generated from the collaboration.
- Monitor brand sentiment. Collaborations with influencers can impact brand sentiment positively or negatively. Monitor social media mentions and reviews to determine whether the collaboration had a positive or negative impact on your brand’s reputation.
Remember to set clear objectives before starting your collaboration and regularly monitor your progress towards achieving those objectives.
SO, HOW TO COLLABORATE WITH INFLUENCERS TO PROMOTE YOUR BRAND ON SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTIVELY?
Influencer collaborations can be a highly effective marketing strategy for brands looking to increase brand awareness, drive sales, and reach new audiences. By experimenting with different types of collaborations and building strong relationships with influencers, brands can achieve their marketing goals and establish long-term success.
Now you have learned about various collaboration ideas and examples of brands using them for their influencer marketing campaigns. You are ready to select the best ones for your own brand, product, or service. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of setting clear objectives, building strong relationships with influencers, and measuring success to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Overall, influencer collaborations can be an excellent addition to your marketing strategy if done correctly. Experiment with different types of collaborations, track your progress, and continue to build strong relationships with influencers to achieve your marketing goals.
You are ready to leverage the power of social media influencers but still not sure where to start? Contact the Famesters influencer marketing agency: we are always ready to help, consult, give some advice, or simply manage the entire campaign for you from start to finish.
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