Before we explore the 8 tips on to help you make a successful influencer marketing campaign, I’d like to preface this by saying that these tips are based off common questions we’ve been asked. If you have any additional questions, please write us directly here or tweet at us here. Now, without further ado, here are the 8 tips, as promised:

1. Find The Right Influencer or Influencers

The example we give often (and forgive us if you’ve heard it before) is the following: You have a bikini company and found a beautiful influencer with great engagement, but a deeper dive reveals that her audience interests are comprised of sports and motorbikes. That means her audience is predominantly male, and would likely not buy your product. It should be enough of a red flag for you to move on to the next.

TIP: In REP, each profile comes with analytics like the above mentioned “audience interests” to help you find the right influencer.

2. Give Creative Freedom

This one comes with a caveat. It’s only a good idea to do so, if you’ve already done Step 1 and found the right influencers. Assuming you have, the persons you’ve hired are reputable and produce great content that’s aligned with your brand or product’s identity. Therefore you’d feel comfortable letting them run free with their post in order to best communicate with their audience. Further to this, giving them “creative freedom” does not mean you shouldn’t spell out certain posting parameters.

TIP: ALWAYS relay suggested captions (include any hashtags or tags you’d like in the post) and make sure you stipulate timing details. Don’t assume anyone will post as soon as they receive the product. You probably have a timeline set for all your marketing efforts and would like everything deployed in tandem so they can work synergistically.

3. Engagement Rate > Follower Count

By now this should be old news to everyone, but in case it isn’t, an influencer’s engagement rate is much more important than their follower count. In fact, in most instances Nano and Micro Influencers yield better engagement than Macro Influencers. Don’t be put under a spell by 1 mm followers. That won’t do you much good, and if it did, it’d cost you an arm and a leg to try.

TIP: You’re better off hiring 10 influencers with 10k followers than 1 with 100k. You should be able to cast a wider net and yield better engagement, for about the same price.

4. Negotiating Payment

One of the questions we get asked most is how to figure out payment. It’s tricky because it’s negotiable. Not all influencers are created the same–and not all jobs are the same. So before you get to negotiating, figure out what you’d like them to do exactly. Is it a post? A story? Adding your link in their bio? All of the above? For how long? Get that down, then have them propose a price. Don’t negotiate with yourself.

TIP: An average price (or formula) we’ve seen for posts it’s: $2 per 1k followers (for a single post). So, hiring someone with 150k followers for a single post (that lives for at least 24hrs) should cost $300.

5. Infuse Personality

This could be an add-on to Tip 2, but it’s so important—we’re giving it it’s own space. The best posts, the ones which actually sway the audience to a point of conversion are the ones that are genuine and organic. Remember, you’re contending with the rules and regulations that enforce hashtags like: #ad, #sponsored, etc. Hiring an influencer who will INFUSE THEIR PERSONALITY into the post is key. Is your fabric really the softest? Do the shoes make you feel like you’re walking on a cloud? Whatever the benefits are, make sure the influencer knows is well-versed in it so that they can relay it (IN THEIR OWN VOICE) to their audience.

TIP: Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer. What are the value points that would sway you to make the purchase? Lead with those!

6. Find Nano and Micro Influencers

We touched on this earlier, when discussing engagement rates. Unlike other platforms, REP is a marketplace that allows influencers of all sizes to join; Nano (1k-10k followers) and Micro (10k-100k) alike. Again, you’ll likely get a better bang for your buck by hiring several “smaller” influencers than one large one, so get on REP and start identifying your potential collaborators.

TIP: You can source them granularly by combing through categories and using our filter tool—or you can post an Offer (essentially a wanted add) and have influencers come to you!

7. Hiring Is Not The Last Step

There’s a few more steps you’ve got to take before you can call it a day. Not many, just three. They are:

  • Track Package
  • Make Sure Post Went Up
  • Track Analytics

TIP: If you’re using the Offers tool, the influencer will have to alert you of the post in order for you to release payment. Before you do, make sure to check the analytics of the post. As we said before, not all influencers are created the same. You’ll want to know who performed the best, as you might want to hire them again in the future!

8. Influencer Marketing Is One Piece Of The Puzzle

While influencer marketing has proven to yield staggering ROIs, it should not be the only prong to your marketing strategies. SEO, Email, Affiliate, Experiential, Event, Partnerships/Collaborations, Social Advertising—there are tons of different things you can do in tandem to create brand awareness, maximize your exposure, and ultimately convert the sales.

TIP: If you’re working with limited resources, try using the FREE option in our OFFERS tool, which enables you to trade products for posts. That way you can take the budget you do have and allocate it elsewhere to spread your reach.

 

RELATED: For more tips on hiring influencers, check out this post.