Influencer Marketing: The magic happens when you let content creators create

By Candace Huntly

Letting go is hard. We’ve been talking about control – or lack thereof – when it comes to your brand and overall marketing strategy. Sometimes losing control can have negative effect, but if you have the right foundations in place, losing control can mean that your brand takes on a life of its own in the best ways. The same can be said about influencer marketing. Working with influencers (AKA content creators) can lead to incredible things if you let them do what they do best – create content.

For brands, that means giving up control over your brand story and letting someone else tell it. Scary? Maybe. Great for your marketing strategy? Definitely.

So how do you give up control just enough to hit that sweet spot but still maintain your brand identity and guidelines? Let’s look at 6 ways to do it and do it right the first time.

RELATIONSHIPS SHOULD COME BEFORE THE PITCH

I always talk about how influencer marketing shouldn’t ever be transactional. It is all based on relationships and you need to remember that a content creator isn’t just there to produce content for you. They are real people with ideas, personality, and feelings. They have bad days and good days. They are also just trying to find the magic in loving what they do. So, don’t treat them as a marketing tool.

Any work you do with influencers should always start with building a great relationship with them. Over the years, I can honestly say that I genuinely like the people I work with on different influencer campaigns. I even hang out with some of them and chat regularly outside of working with them! If you don’t know an influencer well enough to say if you like them on a personal level, you are not setting yourself up for success.

UNDERSTAND THEIR CONTENT STYLE

Not all influencers are the right influencers for you to work with. Beyond a personal connection, you also need to make sure that their content is the right style for your brand. Aesthetically, would it match what you portray visually? Do they use similar language to yours? Does their content match your ethics and values?

You need to really do your homework to make sure it’s a good fit for your brand.

TIE YOUR PITCH INTO WHAT THEY’RE ALL ABOUT

There is nothing worse than pitching a partnership when it doesn’t make sense. So many influencers change over time (remember it’s highly personal for them so they grow as people too!) and what they focused on a year ago may not be what they are focusing on now. Maybe they were pregnant a year ago and talking about their pregnancy journey and preparing for baby, but now that they have had their baby they are more focused on juggling life with a baby and running a business. If you try to pitch a product that would be great for expecting parents, it wouldn’t be a good fit anymore.

So, before hitting send on your next pitch email or private message, make sure you take a peek at their latest posts and even reference them to show the tie in.

Otherwise, you’ll waste both your time and theirs!

MAKE SURE THEIR AUDIENCE IS A GOOD MATCH

An influencer marketing strategy is really meant to amplify your message to a broader section of your target audience. If you’re trying to work with influencers whose audiences don’t match yours, you’re wasting your time. And, honestly, I would question an influencer’s motives if they willingly work with brands who don’t seem to fit their audience.

GIVE THEM A GOOD INFORMATIONAL FOUNDATION

In order for someone to tell your brand story, they need to know what it is. That doesn’t mean sending through pages and pages of information. That means distilling it down to a simple email or printed materials that focus on only the key points you want everyone to know. If an influencer has to sift through mounds of information and you leave the interpretation of said information up to them, then they are going to pull things that they think are important. Or they may even read something differently than you intended.

Depending on what kind of package I am sending out (sometimes there are great printed materials and sometimes not), I will send along a brief email outlining around 3 key messages (not overly salesy!), relevant social media profile links, the branded hashtag to use, and any relevant website links.

DON’T TELL THEM WHAT TO DO

Now that they have a great foundation of knowledge of your business, LET THEM CREATE. Telling a creator how you want them to create something really defeats the purpose of working with an influencer. You may as well just hire someone new to your marketing team then.

What you can do is provide a framework that you agree on – this will look very different depending on the type of campaign you are running. For example, if it is a paid partnership and you’re working within their regular rates, then you can dictate more clearly things like content types, approval dates (if you like that sort of thing), timeline for posting, how many posts, etc. If an influencer has agreed to post in exchange for product, you need to give your influencer a little more leeway. For example, you may not be able to dictate how many posts or the type of content they create. You may not be able to approve the final product as it is usually more spontaneous.

It's always best to let them tell the story in a way that makes sense for their audience. They know them pretty well and you may even discover somethings about your brand that you hadn’t thought of!

A note on content approval: I have never been a fan of it. Unless you’re a medical brand or other company where there are strict legal guidelines that must be followed in the industry, requiring approval before posting kind of negates the beauty of influencer marketing. More often than not, you can eliminate this process altogether by ensuring you give them a great knowledge base of your brand and product/service.

Letting go can be tough, but in the end when you give someone the space they need to do what they do best, it ends better for everyone! Still have questions about your influencer marketing because you are afraid to take the leap? Set up a free 20-minute chat with me and we’ll walk through it together.