Summary

Influencer marketing is a major buzzword. Beyond all of the hype about the creator economy, how do you actually begin working with influencers? That’s where we come in.

Influencer marketing is complex so we’ve designed a system that breaks it down into 5 steps: Strategy, research, partnerships, campaigns, and measurement. Each step is crucial to the success of an influencer program so we have a team specializing in each of these key areas.

Strategy

We start off with a high-level account strategy. During this initial phase we do an audit of goals, target audience, ideal creator profile, content ideas, measurement, and so on. At the end of the day, we’re looking to know what you want to achieve with influencer campaigns.

A typical strategy checklist will include:

    • What are we looking to achieve with influencer marketing?

    • What KPIs will we measure performance and what does success look like?

    • Who are we looking to target?

    • What country are they located in?

    • Ideal gender and age targets?

    • What type of creator is the right fit for partnership?

    • How do we find creators that have performed well for similar brands in the past?

    • Which creators have audiences that match the ideal target audience?

    • What type of content are we looking for?

    • What types of influencers are the right fit?

    • What info do we want to include in the talking points / campaign brief?

    • Any types of content that we want to stay away from?

    • How will we measure performance? (eg. coupon code / vanity URL)

    • How will conversions be attributed to influencer campaigns?

    • How will conversions outside of coupon codes / vanity URLs be tracked?

Research

There are millions of content creators. How on Earth do you choose the best ones to work with?

That’s where research comes in. We’ve developed our own proprietary data that we use to research the top creators to work with.

The top 3 things we consistently focus on are:

  • This is pretty simple, so let’s start here. We must make sure that we’re targeting the right audience that fits your brand’s needs. If we are reaching the right audience, they’ll be more likely to convert.

  • If you’re selling fitness equipment, it seems obvious to partner with fitness channels. Our proprietary data is uniquely positioned to find those creators for any content category, keyword search, or anything in between.

  • There will likely come a time when you run out of creators that create content in your niche. When that time comes, you’ll want additional data points to give you conviction that any particular channel will work. Our advice - work with channels that have performed well for other brands in the past. We track hundreds of advertisers who spend millions of dollars each month to learn from their past sponsorships history.

Partnerships

Now we’ve identified the creators or channels that we want to work with, but how do we partner on a campaign?

Finally, it’s time to get in contact with each creator or their managers to see if there is mutual interest.

Partnering with creators requires main steps:

  • First, find the creator’s contact information (or their managers). Creators tend to be extremely busy so be conscious of their time. Build in a process for following up and stay organized!

  • You need to give the creator a reason for promoting your brand (simply offering money isn’t always the answer). Creators have loyal audiences who trust them so they need to know the brand’s they are promoting fit within their personal brand.

  • Once there is mutual interest, it’s time to negotiate. Remember that the offered rate is usually just a starting points and there is wiggle room for negotiation. Also, negotiations don’t end with price. You can also consider multi-video buys, specific content, guaranteed views, and added value.

  • If everything is agreed to, it’s time to get that down in writing. While the vast majority of campaigns tend to run without any issues, it’s good to be protected in those rare situations. Having a clear agreement that lays out the requirements for both parties is essential.

Campaigns

It’s not over yet! Once the agreement is signed, it’s time to bring the actual campaign to life.

That means bringing it from concept to actual live content.

Proper execution of a campaign requires:

  • There are a lot of small details that help ensure a campaign runs smoothly. Checking all tracking links such as vanity URLs, working closely with creators on deadlines and deliverables, sending product if necessary, etc. Make sure your process is buttoned up and checks each and every small detail.

  • Making sure the influencers knows how to promote your brand is critical to campaign success. Your talking points should be succinct and leave room for the creator to put their own spin on the pitch (after all they know their audience best).

  • The video preview will allow you a chance to review the content before it goes live. Ensure the preview has all of the requirements from the brief, then get feedback to the creator as quickly as possible so they can work on finishing the final video.

  • Once your campaign has finally gone live, make sure all of the details are correct and tracking links are working. The worst situation is having live content that is heading to a dead URL. If everything looks good, congratulations you’re all set!

Measurement

Campaign measurement is the final step in the process. Having detailed measurement of campaigns will allow you to adjust your strategy in real time, creating a higher likelihood of success.

The steps to campaign measurement are:

  • Tracking conversions based on your campaign goals is a top priority. The most basic level of campaign measurement will be measuring the number of conversions for each campaign to see if you want to work with that creator again.

  • Now it’s time to group and aggregate the data. Can you track your campaigns based on genre, how may followers the creator has, what the CPM was, which product the creator used? Being able to aggregate data in meaningful ways will help show you what is working (in aggregate).

  • Don’t forget that some campaigns have a longer shelf life than others. While we typically like to look at campaign success after 30 days, some campaigns may take longer to reach our client’s goals. Building in measurement at multiple attribution windows will ensure that you don’t leave out any campaigns that might perform well over a longer period of time.

  • Once all of your analysis is complete, it’s time to adjust your go-forward strategy. Maybe smaller creators tend to outperform bigger creators. Maybe creators that are in the car and auto category outperform those in the TV & film category. Use your data to form a hypothesis and test it with your future campaigns. Now you’re ready to start the process again!