Believe it or not, effective influencer management can make or break your influencer marketing.
As marketers, we tend to be very people-oriented. After all, creating buyer personas and marketing materials to support them requires a lot of people skills. If you get this wrong, your marketing campaign will suffer from poor performance.
Marketing, on the other hand, is frequently, if not always, about the statistics. Our managers or clients want us to demonstrate the effectiveness of our efforts. As more of our work is delegated to third parties, it becomes more difficult to demonstrate the effectiveness and verify that things are done correctly.
For many of us, this entails managing influencers. I'll give you some pointers on how to execute this work properly in this article. In the process, I'll also share some advice on how to establish positive relationships with influencers.
What is the significance of influencer management?
Let's be honest: influencers are people you hire to execute a job. In that regard, they are no different from any other form of independent contractor or supplier. However, the work that influencers do has a higher impact on your brand than on many of your outsourced efforts. In reality, there must be a connection between influencers and your brand of it to function. That being said, why is influencer management so critical? There's more to it than meets the eye.
You must demonstrate the effectiveness of their efforts.
If the recent Coronavirus problem has taught us anything, it is that the bean counters are watching. When customers don't buy, budgets are trimmed, and sometimes heads roll. Marketers are increasingly asked to demonstrate that a specific campaign delivered satisfactory results. If an influencer isn't performing well, they must be removed from the team. Similarly, brands are increasingly compensating influencers based on their performance. This enhances their motivation to perform well.
It is critical to safeguard your brand.
While the great majority of influencers do not create image issues, a few do. For example, Kim Kardashian was fined by the FDA for failing to follow regulations in a sponsored post for medication. This would have been humiliating on two levels. First, Kardashian did careless work by failing to examine the regulations. Second, having an influencer in trouble reflected poorly on the pharmaceutical industry.
Influencers are critical to your efforts.
Under typical circumstances, influencers are considered team members even if they are not on your staff. They are, after all, one of the few ways to achieve authenticity in your marketing activities. You and your team can create long-term relationships with these people through proper influencer management. Long-term influencer partnerships can be quite beneficial because the influencer gets to know your company and its message better over time.
How to Build and Manage Influencer Relationships Correctly
Some ways of influencer management are superior to others, as are many other aspects of business. While it goes without saying that influencers enjoy being compensated, the skill of establishing relationships extends beyond monetary rewards. Furthermore, when partnerships must alter or terminate, it can be a difficult thing to navigate.
1. Don’t bark up the wrong tree
Before approaching an influencer about prospective partnerships, be sure their audience is a good fit for your buyer persona. For example, asking a swimming influencer to throw soccer equipment would be inappropriate. Despite the fact that most swimmers participate in another activity, they seek to the swimming influencer for advise on swimming suits or goggles. However, if the same brand also sells gear bags and towels, the influencer may be intrigued. They would, however, just assist you in selling the swimming equipment lines. Any benefit to other product lines from such a collaboration would be incidental.
Here's the deal. If you're a popular influencer, you're likely to receive a slew of sponsorship opportunities. This is especially true in highly competitive and successful market areas, but it applies to everyone. Successful influencer marketing requires presenting the appropriate products to the right people, which influencers cannot do if they pitch anything. Nobody would listen to them. What would you think if Tiger Woods began promoting Alaska adventure tours? Because the majority of his audience is golf-oriented, only famous golf venues would be important in terms of tourism. Influencers will only accept opportunities that are relevant to their audiences. They're wasting everyone's time otherwise.
2. Look for a long-term partnership.
Building long-term relationships is an important part of good influencer management. In most circumstances, like with hiring an employee, you want to seek for someone who isn't just looking for a temporary job. One reason for this is that it can be difficult to discover the correct influencers. Another requirement is that you stand out from the crowd of pitches that we are all too familiar with. To accomplish this, demonstrate your genuine interest in them as people and as artists. Finding and collaborating with an influencer is a long-term investment in them that also benefits your organization.
3. Treat them with respect.
People are easy to view of as line items on a budget in today's performance-driven environment. Unfortunately, that doesn't work with influencers, especially since they frequently have other options. Treating influencers properly is a key aspect of influencer management, and it can take several forms.
Giving out stuff is another method to show influencers how much you value them. This can be free merchandise or goods with your logo on them. Remember that you may already be giving out product samples and freebies at industry events or career fairs, among other locations. By adding influencers on your gift list, you demonstrate your appreciation.
4. They should be compensated fairly.
Compensation is a key part of influencer management. As we all know, influencer marketing has a very high ROI, so there's no reason to be stingy. At the same time, you don't want to overpay them for their services. Consider the value they provide to establish a balance between these elements.
5. . Communicate
One of paid content providers' pet peeves is when a customer fails to communicate and then complains when expectations aren't met. The simplest approach to prevent this influencer management stumbling block is to communicate with your influencer before, during, and after the campaign. When planning the campaign with them, you must assure both creative freedom and correct brand representation. At the same time, you want to be available to assist if your campaign encounters a snag. Finally, you'll want to make sure that influencers understand how effectively they've performed, especially if you want to work with them again. Everyone benefits from effective communication.
A Tool for Influencer Management
Is this all too much for you?
It doesn't have to be that way. Like so many other aspects of marketing, there are specific influencer management solutions that may assist you in doing it correctly. Some are little more than influencer databases, while others assist you in reaching out or tracking the outcomes of your cooperation.
If you’re looking for an influencer marketing platform that simplifies the processes for you, then I suggest you check out CreatorPilot.
CreatorPilot helps global brands, marketers and agencies save time and simplify influencer campaign management workflow to boost ROI. Say goodbye to spreadsheets, multiple apps and endless integrations.