How to collaborate with influencers to boost your brand

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Influencer Marketing is BIG business. As of 2020, 86% of marketers have introduced Influencer Marketing into their marketing strategies. It’s a £2B industry. Read on to learn how to choose and collaborate with the right influencer for your business…

Simply put, an influencer is someone who has influence on an audience. They have the power to affect people’s purchasing decisions because of their knowledge and authority in niche areas they actively engage in.

You can collaborate with influencers to get your products promoted and your name known to precisely the audiences you want to reach.

A social media influencer can have 1,000 followers or 50,000 followers – but it’s not all about quantity – it’s mainly about quality. More important than the number of followers is what an influencer represents to those people.

How Influencer Marketing works

  • You work with an influencer whose audience is in your business niche. For example, if you’re a sustainable beauty brand, you’ll choose an influencer who’s focused on sustainable beauty (not cake making or premium travel).
  • The influencer’s role will be to increase awareness for your brand and drive your sales.

If you decide Influencer Marketing is right for your business, you’ll need to consider a number of factors: not just in the niche an influencer works in but also their follower size, engagement rate and how much they’ll charge you. Finding the right influencer for your brand is important and needs some careful thought.

What are the different types of influencers?

  • Nano influencer – 1K followers (typically just starting out)
  • Micro influencers – 5K to 100K followers
  • Mid-tier influencers – 100K to 500K followers
  • Mega influencers – 500K to 2M followers
  • All-star influencers – 2M + followers

How much does an influencer typically charge?

Influencer rates will vary but here’s a general guide for one post and a couple of stories:

  • 1K to 5K followers – £100 to £250
  • 5K to 10K followers – £250 to £350
  • 10K to 20K – £350 to £600
  • 20K to 30K – £600 to £1500
  • 30K plus – £1500 +

The above prices are just a rough indication – influencers may charge less or more than this. An influencer who’s a real expert in their field may charge significantly more as you’re not just paying for their time and content creation but their much sought-after ‘consultancy’ expertise. Another factor that might influence their pricing is the influencer’s engagement rates…

What do influencer engagement rates mean?

A good way to select a quality influencer is to examine their engagement rate metrics (which will give you an accurate indication of their audience activity). Engagement rates can be calculated by adding together the number of likes, comments and shares on a post, dividing the total by the number of followers – then multiplying that figure by 100 to get a percentage. In other words:

(LIKES AND COMMENTS ÷ FOLLOWERS) x 100 = ENGAGEMENT RATE

So what’s a good engagement rate?

  • 2% is the lowest you’d want from an influencer
  • 4% is good
  • 7% is brilliant
  • Higher than 7% is rare and amazing

Getting started with Influencer Marketing

  • Put a budget aside.
  • Do your research – are they the right fit for your brand? Do they have the numbers you’re looking for? Are you happy with their engagement rate?
  • Take time to build a relationship with the influencers you want to work with, open a dialogue and get to know each other.
  • Understand that influencers do this to make a living – they expect to get paid. But if you have no money to pay them, offer something else to compensate them for their time – like free samples of your products.

Pitfalls – a few common traps to dodge

  • Don’t assume that well-known influencers with huge followings will bring you guaranteed success. They may have a big audience but is it the right audience for you?
  • Avoid working with an influencer who has a ‘fake’ following. Yes, ‘fake’ followers exist and sometimes people are deceived into paying for them.
  • Don’t work with an influencer who isn’t the right fit for your brand (e.g. if you’re a beauty brand, working with a food industry influencer won’t get you the best results).
  • There’s a natural conflict between reimbursement and authenticity – so creating authentic content is a real skill. That’s why it’s important to work with the right influencer: if they’re the right fit for your brand, authenticity will come naturally.


 
This how-to guide was inspired by one of our Zoom Dives with Marketing Consultant and Founder of SevenSix Agency, Charlotte Williams.

Zoom Dives are deep-delving discussions between our founder, Carolyn Dailey and hand-picked business experts from the creative world. You can listen to Carolyn and Charlotte’s full discussion here.

Fancy catching our next Zoom Dive, live? See our Events calendar and sign up for free. Meanwhile, feel free to plunder our Knowledge bank for more advice on marketing and promoting your business.