5 Reasons Why Your Influencers Need to Love Your Brand The best way to make the most of this kind of marketing spend is to build a strong and striking relationship.
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If you are new to influencer marketing, on its face it could seem like a purely transactional relationship: A company pays someone with a social media following, and in return they promote it to their audience and generate brand awareness, site traffic and ultimately sales. In the end, both parties presumably benefit. However, when it comes to influencer marketing, some nuances make the relationship a bit more complicated.
Those new to this approach sometimes miss the differences that set the influencer variety apart from other social media marketing approaches, such as affiliate marketing, in which brands pay third-party affiliates to drive business (often in the form of "affiliate links"), and which often doesn't require as much relationship building.
Affiliate marketing strategies also tend to be lower risk, because you only pay an affiliate partner once a sale has been made. However, they also have less potential for boosting sales in the long run, because they don't foster long-term partnerships with powerful influencers in your industry.
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Why build strong influencer relationships?
Influencer marketing strategies, by contrast, are notably different, in part because they offer benefits beyond strictly generating sales. Strong influencer marketing campaigns can boost engagement and site traffic, generate new customers and improve brand recognition, and building strong influencer relationships with the right people is key to achieving all these important goals.
At the outset, it's vital to grasp that, unlike other social media marketing strategies, you should aim to avoid a purely transactional relationship with influencer partners. Building relationships with them and making sure they genuinely love your brand will pay bigger dividends and returns on investment.
Here's why:
1. They'll work harder for you
Influencers have labored to build trust between themselves and their followers. Ultimately, they want to promote products they truly believe in. If they market something that turns out to be a flop, it could hurt them even more than the brand being pushed. For an influencer, the stakes are high, and they want to be sure that what they're selling is worthwhile. Put simply, when they believe in a product or service, they will push it harder.
With that in mind, give an influencer some creative freedom when it comes to your partnership, as they will know the most about how to promote content best suited to their platform(s).
Related: 9 Tips To Grow Your Small Business With Social Media Marketing
2. You can reap unexpected benefits
If an influencer partner genuinely loves a product, benefits can arrive in often unexpected ways. While you will probably have a contract with them mandating a certain number of posts or videos, the partnership could extend far beyond if an influencer is a believer.
Their recommendations might trickle down, for example, to other micro-influencers who look to them for guidance, extending the reach beyond what you had originally envisioned. They might also mention your company to the press, or on a podcast. It's hard to predict how far word could go if a partner influencer is a genuine fan, so it's more than worth your time to find those already excited about your company or to take the time to convert new influencers to true fans.
3. They'll offer broader suggestions
A beneficial influencer partnership may end up looking a little like an advisor or consultant relationship. Ideally, we're talking about someone who has worked hard to cultivate and grow an audience, as well as someone who has sway and authority in your company's space.
They might, for example, offer advice on other marketing strategies. Such suggestions can be invaluable, as the influencer may have spent years developing and fine-tuning an understanding and relationship with an audience and producing native content on their page.
Related: 5 Things You Should Know Before Collaborating With An Influencer
4. Your brand will stand out
Generally, loyal followers are strongly attuned to influencers' true feelings and emotions about products advertised on their pages. If they speak more enthusiastically about your company — if it is something they are passionate about — their followers will pick up on those cues, and so help your company stand out.
5. What they say off the record goes a long way
If a company has a poor working relationship with an influencer, or if they're only working for the money, they could say damaging things off the record, and in very important circles. This negativity can extend far beyond their social media following and can have far-reaching consequences.
