5 Tips on How to Engage Influencers for Beginners

So you’re ready to kick your social media marketing up a notch and partner with an influencer. But what exactly is influencer marketing and how can businesses leverage it?

Influencer marketing is a type of advertising where companies work with people who have a sizable following on social media platforms to advertise their goods or services. Because of the trust they have established with their followers, it is believed that these people, sometimes referred to as influencers, can have a major influence on their purchasing decisions.

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                                                                          Photo courtesy of Mizuno K

Campaigns using influencers, or content creators, as they prefer to be called, can take a variety of shapes, including sponsored postings, product reviews, and social media takeovers. Influencers and brands typically work together in ways that complement one other's personal brands and the interests of their respective fan bases. Influencers sometimes get paid, get free stuff, or other rewards for their work.

By utilizing the impact of social media influencers, influencer marketing aims to increase engagement and conversions. Brands may reach new audiences, raise brand awareness, and gain the confidence of potential customers by collaborating with the right influencer.

For businesses that are ready to expand their reach, influencer marketing is a great option to get in front of untapped audiences. There are a few ways you can go about engaging with an influencer to create a mutually beneficial partnership. Influencers, for the most part, are operating on Instagram and in the coming years it is expected that TikTok will outpace Instagram in influencer marketing.

                                                                        Photo courtesy of Liza Summer

Tip #1: Find creators who are relevant to your sector and have a following that matches your target market.

There are a ton of different kinds of influencers with a range of followings and reach. We’ve outlined them before for you with a list of pros and cons for partnering with them.

Nano or Micro Influencers with 1,000-100,000 followers

Pros:

• Closer connections with their audience – better engagement
• More approachable and have more credibility
• More cost-effective

Cons:

• Restricted reach
• May be difficult to find the right niche

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Macro Influencers with 100,000-1M followers

Pros:

• Able to leverage their notoriety or celebrity
• Larger reach and increased shopability

Cons:

• Lower engagement numbers than Nano/Micro Influencers
• May have spambots following them
• Could be tougher to work with

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Mega Influencers with 1M+ followers

Pros:

• Diverse followership
• Greatest marketing reach
• Well-practiced in working with brands on optimizing campaigns and increasing sales

Cons:

• Has the most distant relationship with followers
• Expensive and usually expect to work with larger brands

                                                                         Photo courtesy of Blue Bird

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Tip #2: Consider how your relationship with an influencer can be mutually beneficial.

Influencers want to be paid for their work and there are a few ways compensation can be structured. Many brands attempt to reach out with freebies, trips or discounts to incentivize or compensate influencers. We recommend you set aside a budget to ensure you’re paying your influencer partners fairly.

Smaller influencers will likely be okay with less traditional compensation, but there are materials available online that can help you craft a compensation plan that works for both you and your influencer partners.

One way to approach creating a mutually beneficial relationship with influencers is to lean into their style of content creation. Pair their creative flair for content or style of messaging with your branding. A great aspect of influencer marketing is you don’t have to be over the top, and product placement and usage can be done in a myriad of ways to reach a sizable audience with great engagement.

                                                                   Photo courtesy of Shvets Production

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Tip #3: Make sure you understand the rules of influencer marketing.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates disclosure guidelines for influencer marketing. Understanding the ins and outs of these guidelines will help you in crafting agreements and ultimately the content others will see.

To put it plainly, your influencer marketing must be clear in identifying when a post is sponsored and it must even be tagged as sponsored on some platforms. Tagging should be done in plain sight for the utmost transparency.

In addition to this, when an influencer is representing your product or service, be sure that they are doing so with an honest review. There are ways to make your advertisement pop, but the last thing you want to do is make your brand look bad with an obviously dishonest review (mascara gate, anyone?). Unless you have a huge legal budget, it’s wise to stick to content that is an honest representation of whatever it is you are trying to sell.

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Here’s an example of a candid sponsored partnership:

                                                                       Photo courtesy of George Martin

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Tip #4: Craft a partnership pitch that is eye-catching.

Working with influencers isn’t like engaging other business entities. Sure, there are some who work through agencies, but you should get to know the influencers you wish to engage by following them, liking their posts and engaging with their content.

Creator partnership messaging shouldn’t be canned or a template. You should craft your message to an influencer with a deep understanding of their content and how it could complement your product or service with a partnership. 

Go in with a plan, telling them the goals of the partnership, providing ample information on your product or service, and the outcomes you think you both will see.

                                                                              Photo courtesy of Pixabay

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Tip #5: Make posting content partnership posts easy using a social media management tool.

A great way to ensure you resonate with potential content creator partners is to use a social media tool to streamline your social media presence and ensure posting is consistent. 

Maintaining social media profiles can be a time commitment. We know there are a ton of tools out there to choose from, too, and the importance of picking the right one. We even added a tool to our product suite just for this very reason, called Synup Social.

If you are going to approach influencers with paid partnerships, make sure your social media profiles are managed properly and invest in a content management tool.

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Ready to start social media marketing for your business? Synup is offering a free trial today to help your company reach more customers by uniting your social profiles on one platform. Start a conversation with us to find out how we’re making this process stress-free with maximized results.

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