When it comes to what shape your influencer activities take, it’s easy to fall back on simple shout-outs, blog posts or videos where the influencer reviews your product or service – these work, but why limit yourself?
Influencers are creators, and they present a great opportunity to tap into their creativity and communication skills. You can of course work some amount of creative control into your agreement, but it needs to mature the influencer’s typical content. For example, the McElroy brothers have a history of creating off-the -wall ad spots on their many, many podcasting projects that are completely absurd, and sometimes even misrepresent that actual nature of the sponsor’s business, such as suggesting that buying bouquets online from a sponsor company can help a listener’s long-con attempts to regain control of a family fortune. It’s nonsensical and nothing that copywriter would ever dream of sending over – but that’s what fans love about it.
Beginning with basics
Of course, starting off a new relationship with an influencer by expecting them to do all the legwork may not give you the returns you want to justify the spend. The following are a few of the most common types of influencer activities that brands will support.
- Product or service review posts – The easiest way to get an influencer to tell the world about your brand is to let them try your product or service for themselves. Of course, you’re always at risk of a less-than-positive review – or one that draws the ire of the influencer’s fans if their experience is markedly different.
- Contests – Influencers can support activities on your own channels by sharing them to their audience, and contests or giveaways are a great way to draw in a crowd who may not be familiar with your brand.
- Episode sponsors – many vloggers and podcast hosts will have sponsors of episodes, with one or more shout outs (or longer ad spots) written into the episode.
As part of the marketing comms strategy, we have launched the voice app for 1001 Carpet Care via influencer @Jottiesjournal. Jottie also had the same video demo deployed via her own Instagram Stories with a Reach of 123,604 accounts and an average Engagement Rate (ER) of 22%.
As a cleaning and home décor ‘micro-influencer,’ working with her proved useful not only in terms of raising awareness of the app, but also in terms of showing how convenient and easy to use the app is for the average person.
When influencer knows best
Influencers will know their audience much better than you, so always ensure you keep an open mind and seek to work in partnership with your influencer network. Mass generic communications pushed out through influencers will be seen as just that, as mass broadcast. Look at working with influencers as a partnership; they have more to offer you than just access to their audience, that is, their first-hand knowledge of them.
The above suggestions may seem basic, however they’re an excellent jumping off point as your relationship with the influencer develops. Once you’ve worked with each other well, you can look toward riskier high-originality or high-cost activities. Though, of course there’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple if you’re seeing the results you want.
When it comes to measuring your results – and judging if paid amplification is required, check out Part 5 of our Influencer Essentials Series.