Working with influencers is a great way to boost your business’s brand recognition, trust, and revenue. But what are the best strategies for attracting, retaining, and turning them from one-time partners to long-term affiliates? We’ve got the answers covered. Let’s dive in.
Sometimes, influencer marketing is about throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Unfortunately, some things just never stick like al dente spaghetti. These outreach strategies have been tested over and over and have repeatedly been proven ineffective.
“Hello, [X]. Tired of spinning your wheels and getting nowhere with audience engagement? Try…”
We get it. You feel like you need to make every message count, so you jam all of the marketing jargon you can into one efficient auto-DM. While you may think it’s efficient, the lack of personalization is a total turn-off for your influencer. It doesn’t show you care about them, it shows that you’re only interested in cutting corners.
Using an email template is handy. It takes the mental load off you, it’s professional, and you don’t have to hunt down typos. The template starts with a neutral greeting, then goes into an “I noticed you [X]” type statement, and maybe you link back to your website.
But like the robot-sounding auto-DM, plain templated emails also read as inauthentic. By failing to craft a personal message, any influencer might write you off as disingenuous or, worse, a scammer.
If you tease or clickbait in your influencer outreach strategies, it will pique an influencer’s interest, right?
It’s not likely. If you email or DM, asking them to message you about “an exciting opportunity” or “an offer they might enjoy,” it reads like a scam or a phishing message. It also reads as templated and inauthentic, and the influencer will likely send the message or email right to the trash bin.
Instead of cutting corners and risking being inauthentic, try these updated strategies for attracting, retaining, and building relationships with your influencers.
Yes, influencers are creative. Producing new content is second nature to them, but don’t keep them in the dark about your brand.
Offer a new influencer a media or branding kit in a public-facing document. Any videos, one-pagers, guidelines, or anything else about your mission, objectives, audience, and partnership opportunities are a huge plus. This will show any influencer you’re transparent, ethical, and will help them determine if you’re the right fit to partner with.
An influencer who feels personally valued and taken care of will take more pride in the relationship and will likely produce better, more authentic content for you.
If you want a strong way to start a relationship with an influencer, offer a sponsorship. It could be for a YouTube video, a few Instagram posts, a blog, or another main content output type.
Direct sponsorships are standard and not as expensive as you’d think. Especially compared to traditional media ads. Once a relationship is established, you can keep the door open for an affiliate partnership and keep the ties long-term.
An unfiltered testimonial from an influencer is a powerful way to build customer trust and show that you care about improving your product. These unscripted endorsements provide a real-life window into your product and tend to resonate more deeply with customers.
Quick tips for unfiltered testimonials:
Creating a feedback loop for your influencers is important for maintaining the relationship. By encouraging open communication and making adjustments as the feedback comes in, brands can continuously refine their strategies and continue to make new connections down the road.
Creating an effective feedback loop includes scheduling check-ins, fostering open dialogue, sharing performance metrics, and collaborating closely when your influencer needs help promoting your brand.
A collaboration between your brand and an influencer is a cornerstone of a robust influencer marketing strategy. Collaboration could mean anything from complementary or matching posts from both accounts, to a crossover product you sell in tandem.
The most effective collaborations between influencers and brands include:
Once you secure a partnership with the right influencer, the next step is to open the door for a long-term affiliate marketing partnership. Maybe you started with a one-time collaboration or sponsorship. Whatever it was that kicked things off could be the start of something long-term and more lucrative for both of you.
When you get there and it comes time to start your affiliate marketing program, reach out to us at Simple Affiliate. We’re a user-friendly, comprehensive affiliate marketing software that can help teams of any size build and scale their businesses.
