If you’ve decided to use influencer marketing for your business, you’re probably well aware of the benefits you can reap. There’s increased brand awareness, educating leads in search of the solution you offer about why you’re the best to purchase from, and direct links to your business that can lead to increased revenue.
One influencer can quickly become one of your most notable sources of income, depending on how well the campaign is executed. When you avoid common influencer marketing mistakes and put in thoughtful strategy into a campaign, you can gain qualified leads and sales for years to come.
Once you’ve identified influencers who provide value to your brand, sustaining a meaningful relationship with them provides benefits like:
- More successful campaigns in the future
- Referrals to your business from the influencer’s network of other meaningful influencers
- Continuing coverage of your brands, as well as leads and sales
Avoid one-and-done influencer marketing campaigns. Use these five techniques to build more meaningful relationships with influencers.
1. Send Personalized Communications
No one likes a spam email, and that includes influencers. You may have cultivated a list of influencers who have worked with you on past campaigns and who might be open to future opportunities with your brand. Make your partnership with each influencer more meaningful by taking the time to get to know them and genuinely invest in your work together.
This means crafting every communication you have with the influencer from scratch, so each message is truly unique and only meant for them. Influencers may run in similar circles and will know when a business is sending out an open casting call. Influencers want to provide value to their followings. If what you’re offering is the same type of campaign to a slew of influencers, savvy ones will avoid participating.
2. Ask About What’s Going on in the Influencer’s World
Don’t just focus on what’s in it for your business when working with an influencer. Show an authentic interest in what the influencer is working on. You might get inspired by new ideas for campaigns based on what they have in their pipeline. This helps your influencer marketing strategy, instead of just pitching them what you think will work.
When you can offer help in promoting them regularly, you reinforce your relationship. Make sure any influencer you work with is followed by your brand on social media. Just like engaging with a potential influencer on Twitter can get their attention and make them want to work with you, you’ll want to keep engaging even when there is no active campaign. This keeps your brand in front of their eyes and reminds them why you’re great to work with.
3. Provide Highly Relevant Content to the Influencer
Hand-in-hand with personal communications with each influencer, any future campaign you pitch should perfectly match their objectives and audience. This is why getting to know the influencer and their goals can make your influencer marketing campaigns more successful. The influencer will be more likely to show enthusiasm for what they’re promoting.
Pay attention to the influencer’s content. Subscribe to their blog, peruse their socials, and sign up for their email newsletter. When they share something that aligns with your business, you can create a unique campaign that is a win-win for you both.
4. Reward the Influencer
It’s likely that your competitors may be contacting the same influencers you work with to work for them, too. Regularly rewarding the influencers you’ve formed relationships with helps you to stay golden in the influencer’s eyes. Some ways to do this include:
- Offer exclusive, unreleased news or tidbits about things to look forward to from your business to pique influencer interest
- Send free samples of new products, just because
- Invite an influencer to a live demonstration or office tour whenever they’re in town
Showing the influencer you’re grateful for them through tokens of your appreciation isn’t just a great way to ensure they keep loving your brand. They may be interested in featuring your gift in some type of coverage, which means you gain content without even having to ask for it.
5. Spread the Wealth
Like most business matters, who you know can provide substantial dividends for growth. The influencer you’re working with is a passionate professional with goals of their own. When you can foster a human connection by helping an influencer in other aspects of their career, then you’re really taking steps to creating a long-lasting relationship.
Some ideas you can use that won’t negatively affect your business efforts include:
- Refer the influencer to non-competing brands they might be able to work with
- Introduce the influencer to editors of publications or blogs they might be interested in contributing to
- Ask what help they need in their career efforts, and offer to make LinkedIn introductions where you can
Influencer marketing may begin online, but there are still living and breathing people behind these campaigns. You can even offer to connect via Skype to enhance a relationship through a face-to-face connection between an influencer and your business. Like providing value to your customers can increase loyalty over a lifetime, the value you provide to your influencers can increase revenue for your business.
Want to learn how influencer marketing can help your business succeed? Contact us for a free consultation.
