Social media is the place to be for brands of all sizes. Whether you’re just starting out or a giant of the advertising world, everyone’s using social media as the highly effective marketing tool it can be. But, if you’re unfamiliar with this area of marketing, it might be daunting to jump into it alone.
We’ve heralded influencer marketing as an effective, tailorable and modern way to get your brand seen on social media. It allows you to market to an already-established audience – your partnered influencer’s – without having to build up such an audience yourself.
However, partnering with an influencer involves just that – a partnership. In order to forge and maintain as good a partnership with your chosen influencer/s as possible, there’s things you’d be advised to avoid.
Following on from our last article on the don’ts of creating sponsored content, here we cover how to communicate successfully with your influencer/s.
Here are some things to avoid when corresponding with partnered influencers.
Don’t Micromanage!
Before your influencer creates any sponsored content for your campaign, you need to deliver a brief to them.
Your brief should clearly cover the campaign’s goals and message. It might include prompts and suggestions as to the visual elements of the content, especially if your campaign has an already-established look. It may even include examples of the influencer’s previous work as an example of how you’d like your content to look. However, your briefing of your influencer/s should never be too strict or rigid.
Influencers know their platforms. They know their audience and they’ve learnt what type of content is best received by that audience. Ultimately, in this area, they know more than you about what will be successful. It’s vital, then, that you give your influencer/s room for flexibility within your brief.
Micromanaging everything about your influencer’s created content will likely lead to stilted, unnatural content that their audience will immediately be wary of. Alienating their audience in this way will lose their trust and interest in your brand – precisely the opposite result you set out to achieve.
Not only will micromanaging lose the audience’s trust and interest, but your influencer’s too. If they feel they have no creative freedom while working with you, it’s unlikely they’ll want to work with you again.
Don’t Skip the Legal Stuff
A legally vital element of influencer marketing is writing a clear contract or agreement with the influencer. Having this contract or agreement with the influencer will protect both sides from misunderstandings regarding the use of the created content and what you expect from each other.
Not having this contract or agreement in place can lead to legal disagreements, potential violations and, ultimately, a failed partnership – possibly with bigger repercussions, should the disagreements become serious.
In your contract/agreement, make sure to cover:
- Rules on the use of content
- Rules on recycling content
- Rules on republishing/re-sharing content
- Expected deliverables on both sides
- Violations to avoid
As well as the legalities between you and your influencer/s, it’s also imperative for you to comply with marketing laws. Ignoring such laws could bring severe consequences upon your brand. For advertising within the UK, read up on the ASA and CAP’s guidance launched for social influencers here.
Being aware and on top of your legal responsibilities will save excesses of stress in the future.
Don’t Lose Contact!
So, you’ve successfully briefed; your influencer has produced some effective content; you’ve both stayed in accordance with your contract; and the campaign has come to an end. Why leave it there?
If your partnership has been successful, enjoyable and issue-free, you should consider working again with them in future campaigns! It saves having to re-introduce yourself to new influencers, and since you already have established a working relationship, you’ll be familiar with each other’s working process. If your chosen influencer/s have been successful in bringing traffic and sales to your brand, it makes sense to return to them in the future to repeat this success.
An extended brand/influencer relationship will also incentivize their audience to engage with your brand further. If an Influencer were to partner just once with a brand, it may suggest to the influencer’s audience that the brand did something wrong, are untrustworthy or are unengaging. However, if the relationship between brand and influencer is extended or revisited frequently, it can persuade the audience of the brand’s reliability, trustworthiness and value.
Maintaining a relationship with your previously partnered influencers can only further help encourage their audience that your brand is one worthy of engagement.
To Conclude
While it’s important to brief your influencer about the content you want them to create, you should leave them creative room to breathe. Make sure to fully comply with marketing laws, and draw up a contract with your influencer to avoid legal disagreement.
Doing both of these will allow you to forge a great relationship with your influencer – one that you could and should continue into the future!
For more help and advice regarding your content marketing strategy, visit Floodmaker.
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- What Not to do When Hiring Influencers for Your Marketing Campaign
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- Influencer Sponsored Content: What Not to Do!
- Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy