Ultimate Guide to Influencer Collaborations - What are Influencer Collaborations?
With the ever-growing online community comes an increase in influencer collaboration. Brands are smart enough to see the sway influencers have over their audience, which makes collaborating with influencers an effective way of marketing products. There are a variety of methods you can use in these collaborations, such as product reviews, skits, discount codes, and more.
Influencers have a personal connection with their audience, which promotes a sense of loyalty and friendship. Brands can receive that same loyalty through influencer collaboration, since an influencer’s fanbase will trust in their judgment. It’s important to find an influencer in your niche, especially as their audience is more likely to react positively to your products. You can use services like Collabstr to discover the right influencers.
What is Influencer Collaboration?
Influencer collaboration refers to when brands work with online creators on marketing campaigns. Influencers are usually paid to post content that revolves around brand products in some way. These promotions often come in the form of videos or posts, such as sponsored content, giveaways, mentions, and more.
You don’t always have to pay for influencer collaboration, but money can guarantee a positive review of your product. Influencers have a loyal following, so people are more likely to listen to their recommendations. Likewise, if you receive a negative review from an influencer, it can poorly impact your sales and reputation.
Why is Influencer Collaboration Important?
Internet users are always bombarded with unwanted ads, so they’re often ignored. You need more creative ways of getting their attention, which is why brands try to appeal to viewers by collaborating with influencers.
Customer Base
Influencers often come with an audience of their own, which brands can then target by collaborating with those influencers. You can expand your customer base and gain new followers.
Appeal
Influencer collaboration is often seen as entertainment, depending on the niche. This makes them more appealing and watchable to viewers. People hate being forcefully sold something, so ads are often skipped. Influencer content is more genuine and usually aligns with the viewers’ interests, which encourages them to keep watching.
Brand Awareness
Influencers, especially those with a very large community, often make the news. They’re written about in blogs or interviewed in videos. This level of fame can increase your brand awareness. Just being associated with the influencer can put your brand in the spotlight.
Brand Loyalty
Influencers usually have a loyal community surrounding them. Their communities regularly view their content and want to support them. If an influencer shows a sense of loyalty to your brand, their audience is more likely to stick with your brand..
Brand Image
An influencer is trusted and appraised by their fans, so their recommendations are usually taken seriously. If you get a positive recommendation from an influencer, their fans will see your brand in a good light. This can help you build or improve your brand image.
How to Collaborate With Influencers
You can collaborate with influencers in many ways, but there are steps you can follow to make the process quick and easy. The most important part of influencer collaboration is choosing the right influencers to work with. This can affect your marketing campaigns and audience engagement.
Step 1: Discover the Right Influencers
Before you can start planning your collaboration strategy, you must first discover the right influencers to work with. There are services that help you quickly find influencers in your niche, such as Collabstr. Influencers are categorized by their social media platform and niche, which makes it easy to find influencers who will be interested in your product.
There are a variety of niches and categories to choose from:
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Lifestyle
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Beauty
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Travel
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Technology
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Music
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Sports
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Healthcare
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Food & Drink
Influencer profiles will display their price and bio, so you can quickly find people who match your budget and view details about their specialties. You can also look at their profile pictures to see if they suit your target demographic.
For example, if you’re selling makeup, it’s best to find an influencer that creates makeup tutorials or palette reviews, such as NikkiTutorials. It will come across as more genuine if the influencer actually uses the product in their day-to-day lives. They will appear more relatable and trustworthy to your target audience. A good review is one supported by first-hand experience.
Step 2: Communicate with the Influencers
Once you’ve found the right influencers, communicate with them and talk about your desire to collaborate. There are many ways to go about this and it all depends on who you’re talking to. Before you write your email or message, do some research into their content and find something that relates to your product.
Use this as a starting point in your conversation. It will spark a connection between you and the influencer and let them know why you’re reaching out. Influencers like it when a brand specifically targets them for a reason. If they’re confused about your reasons for collaborating, they might assume they were randomly chosen from a list of influencers.
When reaching out to an influencer, you should choose your method of communication wisely. Look through their content to see if they’ve mentioned ways to contact them. Some influencers have business emails, while others prefer social media DMs. This information is usually shown in bios, posts, or videos.
It’s best to be casual when starting your conversation:
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Hi [name], I saw your video on [relevant subject]
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Hey [name], I’ve been watching your content for [time]
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Greetings [name], I’m a big fan of your blog
Step 3: Discuss Details & Form a Contract with the Influencers
If an influencer responds to your message and expresses an interest in collaborating with you, discuss further details with them to make sure you’re on the same page. Talk about the type of content you want to create, how much content you want to produce, the amount you’ll pay for their services, and important details surrounding your product.
You should clearly define your objectives and company values to make sure they align with the influencer’s. For example, discuss your aims, methods of achieving your goals, and how you’ll determine success.
Make sure the pay you’re offering is reasonable as this collaboration should be beneficial to both parties. Leave room for negotiation to show your flexibility and friendly attitude. This is still a discussion and everyone’s opinion should be taken into account.
There is no official amount you should be paying so it’s ultimately up to your budget, their experience, the size of their following, and the collaboration projects. Once you’ve decided on all the important details, form a contract with the influencer.
Step 4: Plan Collaboration Projects & Carry Them Out
Now that you’ve formed a contract with an influencer, it’s time to begin planning your collaboration projects. Depending on the platform you’re using, there are many different projects you can do. It’s best to choose campaigns that are well-suited to your product. For example, if you're marketing fashion, you should opt for more visual mediums like videos or instagram posts.
You should also consider the type of content an influencer already makes and match it. It will be better received by their audience since they’re used to that type of content. For example, if you’re collaborating with a blogger, you should focus more on blog posts or other written content.
There are many different collaboration projects you can do:
Sponsored Content
The most popular type of influencer collaboration is sponsored content. Influencers will create content that promotes your product. This can be a brief mention in a post, a short ad in the middle of a video, or a product review.
You can elevate your campaigns with fun content ideas, such as making a video that revolves around testing the quality of your product.. For example, Evan and Katelyn test how well TotalBoat’s resin can preserve an object’s appearance. They coat a pumpkin in resin and monitor how fast it spoils compared to an ordinary pumpkin.
Giveaways
A great way of increasing brand awareness is by doing giveaways. Influencers will give their followers a chance to win one of your products. Conditions to enter usually include following the influencer, liking the video or post, and clicking a link. Winners are announced at a later date. Allow followers a good amount of time to enter the giveaway.
For example, MKBHD partnered with Dbrand to give away 50 smartphones. To enter, you had to follow MKBHD and dbrand on Twitter or Instagram.
Gifting
You can send an influencer a free sample of your product. It will allow them to personally use your product and review it. They can make a video or post reviewing your product. This method of collaborating doesn’t always involve payment. If you discussed this collaboration beforehand, payment would have been included.
However, you can also decide to surprise an influencer with a gift of your product in hopes they’ll make content on it. Just keep in mind that without payment, the influencer will have no obligation to give a positive review. They may also ignore the gift if they’re not interested in reviewing it.
For example, Sour Patch Kids sent a personalized box of their products to Markiplier, who then made a video reviewing the products.
Conclusion
Influencer collaboration is now an essential part of brand marketing. Ads aren’t usually well-received, so brands have adapted to using influencers to promote products instead. It’s a more fun and creative method of marketing, which targets an influencer’s audience. They are loyal to influencers and more likely to trust brands they recommend.
Finding the right influencers is key to a successful collaboration. They should share your niche and have a genuine interest in your product. We at Collabstr specialize in connecting brands with the influencers in their niche. We filter influencers by category and price, making it easy to find the right influencers regardless of your budget.
Take a look at our library of influencers. Or, if you’d rather influencers come to you, take a look at our pricing plans and post your own influencer marketing campaign today!
