Julie Solomon is public relations lead at Subsequent PR.
Influencer campaigns are an effective way to inform your consumer’s story by means of an genuine voice to an already-trusting audience. When manufacturers and influencers collaborate successfully, you’re capable of foster a mutually useful partnership that delivers tangible outcomes.
However when a marketing campaign goes off monitor, your group can unexpectedly discover itself in disaster mode. Right here’s a better have a look at some methods you should use to make sure influencer campaigns run easily – and a few suggestions that can assist you handle any points that come up when issues don’t go in line with plan.
Perceive the contract particulars and align on objectives
As a PR professional, writing authorized contracts isn’t (often) in your job playbook, however you have to be sure the contract aligns together with your PR technique and is executed correctly. I can’t stress sufficient the significance of familiarizing your self with the contract particulars. The PR group is commonly the liaison between the consumer and influencer as contract phrases are ironed out, which presents a chance to develop clean working relationships with the consumer’s authorized group and the influencer’s representatives.
After the contract is finalized, arrange a kickoff assembly with all events to jumpstart the collaboration. Use this assembly to assessment deliverables and schedules, guaranteeing everyone seems to be on the identical web page about goals and the way the groups will work collectively.
Maintain the traces of communication open
It’s vital to construct belief with the influencer and their rep by speaking commonly and being clear about your expectations. A profitable partnership advantages each events, so open communication is a should for a clean collaboration.
I like to recommend setting reminders for your self to verify the posting schedule outlined within the contract stays on monitor. Contact base with the influencer a couple of days earlier than a submit is supposed to go dwell to substantiate they’ve all the things they want and are on schedule with content material growth.
Make a acutely aware effort to develop a pleasant relationship with the influencer’s rep, one the place you each really feel snug texting or calling one another to get clarification or share concepts. If one thing goes sideways, you’ll recognize having the ability to attain them rapidly to resolve.
Maybe the influencer was set to attend a dwell occasion then bailed on the final minute. You’ll want to know as quickly as attainable that they gained’t be in attendance, and also you additionally want to speak to their rep about methods to finest reply questions that may come up from their absence. Electronic mail is just too gradual to deal with a state of affairs creating in actual time, so a fast name is finest.
Collaborate on content material creation
Aligning on content material that helps each events’ objectives is a key part of a profitable influencer partnership.
On the similar time, the content material ought to replicate the influencer’s genuine voice – and putting the proper steadiness may be tough. The perfect strategy is to determine a framework with model tips and particular do’s and don’ts: phrases and messages to make use of or keep away from, voice and tone tips, and many others. From there, encourage the influencer to be themselves as they convey inside that framework, like sharing a private story that ties into the consumer’s general message.
It’s additionally necessary to assessment all content material previous to posting. When your group is included within the closing spherical of assessment and approval, you may make sure the message aligns together with your technique, the right profiles are tagged and the influencer is utilizing trackable UTM hyperlinks to measure marketing campaign affect.
For interviews or dwell occasions, present questions prematurely every time attainable so the influencer just isn’t caught off guard. Ensure that the influencer is properly ready previous to the occasion, speaking them by means of how their story ties again to the consumer’s message and providing inspiration or tips about the topic, if wanted.
Be prepared to handle points rapidly
Even essentially the most well-planned collaborative technique can go awry, so be ready to handle any issues instantly by reviewing content material as quickly because it goes dwell. You may arrange notifications and monitor social feeds in case one thing goes mistaken – just like the influencer tagging the mistaken account or including typos to the content material. You’ll be on it instantly to assist resolve.
Shoppers might also be monitoring the influencer’s feed actively, so that you’ll wish to catch any misfires rapidly and proactively replace the consumer to allow them to know you may have it dealt with.
Keep in mind, influencers are people, too, and errors occur. However with shared consensus on objectives upfront, frequent communication, strong teamwork and a plan for addressing any points that come up, the reward to your consumer’s model outweighs the chance. With these parameters in place, you may preserve your influencer partnerships on monitor and faucet into their genuine voice to achieve your consumer’s audience.
What about this to focus extra on collaborating to profit each events?
