This template was created in partnership with Brianna Doe, founder of the full-service marketing agency Verbatim.

Introduction

Understanding Influencer Marketing

At our company, we integrate influencer marketing as a core component of our broader marketing strategy, leveraging influencers to enhance brand visibility and credibility. This approach helps us connect authentically with targeted audiences through trusted voices in their respective communities.

If you're active online, you're likely familiar with the term "influencers." The digital landscape is buzzing with various related terms like affiliate marketing, the creator economy, and distinctions such as content creators versus influencers. With all these concepts circulating, it can sometimes be challenging to grasp precisely what influencer marketing encompasses and what it does not. Here are a few key terms you need to understand:

Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing is a form of performance-based marketing where individuals or entities earn a commission for promoting products/services and driving sales or leads through unique tracking links or codes.

How This Typically Works: Affiliates typically include bloggers, social media influencers, content creators, or websites that have an audience interested in the products or services being promoted. They leverage their platform or audience to drive traffic and conversions for brands in exchange for a commission.

Creator Economy:

The creator economy refers to the ecosystem of content creators who create and distribute digital content, monetize their creativity, and build communities around their content. This can include bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, social media influencers, etc.

Content Creator:

A content creator is someone that produces and shares digital content across various online platforms. A content creator is not always an influencer, and they may not be monetizing their platform.

‍Influencer:

An influencer is someone who has the ability to influence the opinions, behaviors, and purchasing decisions of others within their community. Influencers typically have a dedicated following on social media platforms and are seen as experts or thought/industry leaders in their respective niche and industry.

What It Is, What It Isn’t

What Influencer Marketing Isn’t:

• One-Way Promotion: Influencer marketing isn't solely about brands paying influencers to promote products or services. It involves building authentic relationships between influencers and brands, where both parties collaborate to create valuable content for the audience.
• Mass Advertising: Influencer marketing isn't about broadcasting generic advertising messages to a wide audience. Instead, it's about leveraging the trust and authenticity of influencers to deliver targeted and personalized content to niche audiences.

When Executed Properly, Influencer Marketing Is: 

• Authentic Advocacy: Where influencers genuinely believe in and endorse products or services they promote. This is why influencer marketing can build trust and credibility for a brand.
• Relationship Building: Building long-term relationships between brands and influencers.
• Audience-Centric Approach: Influencer marketing prioritizes the audience's interests, preferences, and needs, aiming to deliver valuable and relevant content that resonates with their pain points, needs, and goals.

Research shows that 82% of consumers rely on social media to guide their purchasing decisions - and that includes influencers. That means that when we incorporate influencer marketing into our holistic marketing strategy, we can reach our target audience through a trusted voice and authority in our industry. 

Our Influencer Marketing Strategy

Crafting A Realistic Budget

When building each influencer marketing campaign, it’s crucial to develop a realistic budget that aligns with our company's financial guidelines and marketing goals. Here are the key factors we considered:

• Goals and Objectives: What the campaign aims to achieve, whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or boosting sales. Each goal will influence the budget in different ways.
• Audience and Influencer Reach: The size and demographics of our target audience alongside the reach and engagement levels of potential influencers. Remember, influencers with larger followings and higher engagement typically require bigger budgets.
• Type of Content: Different content forms, such as sponsored posts, product reviews, stories, or videos, come with varying production costs. When estimating the budget, we need to ensure all content aligns with both impact expectations and financial constraints.
• Influencer Fees: These can vary widely depending on the influencer’s follower count, engagement rate, their niche, and the complexity of the content they are creating. We need to establish a clear understanding of these fees to manage expectations and budget allocations.
• Additional Costs: Ancillary expenses such as product samples, shipping costs, potential discounts for subscriptions, tracking tools, and agency fees if utilizing a third-party service.
• Measurement and Analytics: Tools and resources necessary to track the effectiveness of the influencer campaigns. This is vital to understanding the return on investment (ROI) and guiding future marketing strategies.

We allocate about 10-20% of our overall marketing budget to influencer marketing, adjusting as necessary based on specific campaign goals and organizational capacity. This structured approach ensures that our influencer marketing efforts are both strategic and financially sound.

Defining and Measuring Success

Depending on the specifics of the program, along with our goals for each campaign, there are multiple ways that we track and measure success for our influencer marketing:

Potential Areas of Impact:

• Direct Revenue.
• Conversions.
• Web Traffic.
• Brand Awareness.
• Follower/Audience Growth.
• Company Page Traffic (LinkedIn).
• Positive Brand Mentions/Chatter.
• Increased Interest.
• Increased Trust / Credibility.

How We Can Measure Success:

• Trackable/UTM links.
• Discount Codes.
• Affiliate Links.
• Individual Post Impressions.
• Total Campaign Impressions.
• Individual Post Shares / Reposts.
• Total Campaign Shares / Reposts.
• Individual Post Engagement Rate.
• Total Campaign Engagement.
• Campaign/Branded Hashtag Usage.

And outside of the standard metrics of success, we’re also able to build trust and credibility faster through a trusted messenger.

Building Long-term Brand Partnerships

As part of our influencer marketing strategy, we aim to build long-term partnerships with influencers. These are ideal for a few reasons:

• Building Authenticity and Trust: When an influencer can develop a deeper understanding of our brand, this enables them to integrate our products or services into their content more seamlessly. And this authenticity fosters trust and credibility among their audience.
• Consistency and Brand Cohesion: By collaborating with the same influencers over an extended period, we can maintain consistency in messaging, tone, and brand values across our marketing campaigns. 
• Audience Engagement and Loyalty: Repeated exposure to our brand through trusted influencers can reinforce positive perceptions and encourage audience action.
• Cost Efficiency and ROI: While short-term campaigns may provide quick wins, long-term partnerships offer greater potential for sustained ROI and cost efficiency. As influencers become more familiar with our brand and audience, their content tends to yield higher conversion rates and long-term value.
• Strategic Collaboration Opportunities: Over time, long-term partnerships allow for more strategic collaboration opportunities, such as co-creating new products, launching exclusive campaigns, or participating in brand events. Which can further enhance brand visibility and differentiation in the market.

Here’s everything to consider and keep in mind to build mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships with influencers:

• Clear Expectations and Definitions of Success. Establish clear expectations, goals, and deliverables from the outset. Make it clear how we plan on defining success for the partnership (whether it’s direct conversions/revenue, brand awareness, etc). If we don’t have success clearly defined for our brand, do not engage with influencers until we do. 
• Open, Consistent Communication. Prioritize open, transparent, and consistent communication! Follow up and follow through. When it comes to brand partnerships, we want to keep the lines of communication clear if we want to build trust.
• Mutually Beneficial Partnerships. Any and all partnerships should offer value to both parties involved. This can manifest in different ways: competitive compensation, exclusive perks, or increased opportunities for collaboration. Think outside the box, and don’t be afraid to get feedback from our influencer community on how we can best support & include them in our marketing strategy!
• Consistency and Follow-Up. Aim for ongoing, consistent collaborations with influencers rather than one-off campaigns. This allows us to build rapport, loyalty, and a deeper understanding of each other's brand and audience over time.
• Creative Freedom. When we hire an influencer, it’s not the same as running an ad. With an ad, we have total control over the copy, creative, etc. With an influencer, remember that we’re working with a living, breathing human being that has built trust with our target audience. They know how to speak to their audience and create content that resonates with them. some text
  • The best way to give them creative freedom while maintaining brand continuity/cohesiveness is by producing a creative brief. A great creative brief outlines the following:some text
    • Brand voice.
    • Target audience.
    • Any Do’s and Don’ts for tone of voice, type of creative, etc.
    • Campaign goals.
    • Any trackable links that should be included in the content.
    • FAQs.

Incorporating Influencers into Our Holistic Marketing Strategy

As part of our broader marketing strategy, incorporating influencers is crucial for enhancing our brand's reach and resonance with our target audience. As we begin collaborations with influencers, it's important to understand how their distinct voice, expertise, and follower base can align with and amplify our brand messaging and objectives.

Some content formats we use:

• Sponsored Posts: These are paid posts crafted by influencers to promote our products or services directly.
• Product Reviews: Influencers provide honest reviews of our products, offering their audience a trustworthy perspective.
• Co-Created Content: This includes joint efforts like events, webinars, blog posts, and video content that combine our insights with the influencers' creativity.
• Takeovers: Influencers take over our social media accounts for a set period to engage directly with our audience.
• User-Generated Content: We encourage content created by users, guided by influencers, to increase community involvement and content authenticity.

Expanding our reach across various platforms and channels is also vital. By understanding where our target audience spends their time online, we can strategically partner with influencers on those platforms to maximize our visibility and engagement. This approach not only diversifies our marketing efforts but also enhances the effectiveness of our campaigns in reaching and engaging our ideal customer profile (ICP) across different digital landscapes.

Our Partners

How To Find New Influencer Partners

Looking to incorporate new partnerships into our influencer marketing strategy, but not sure where to start? Here’s a step-by-step guide on finding new partners:

1. Define Our Objectives and Audience:some text
   • Begin by clarifying what we hope to achieve through influencer partnerships (e.g., increasing brand awareness, driving sales, expanding into new markets). Simultaneously, pinpoint the demographics and interests of our target audience to ensure alignment with potential influencers.
2. Research and Identify Potential Influencers:some text
   • Utilize social media platforms, influencer databases, and tools like BuzzSumo or Upfluence to search for influencers who align with our company’s values and have access to our target audience. Look for influencers across varying levels, from micro to macro.
3. Evaluate Influencer Engagement and Relevance:some text
   • Analyze the engagement rate of potential influencers by looking at likes, comments, and shares relative to their follower count. Assess the relevance of their content with our brand and how authentic their interactions feel with their audience.
4. Outreach and Communication:some text
   • Craft personalized outreach messages that introduce our company and express interest in collaboration. Be clear about what you admire in their work and how a partnership could be mutually beneficial.
5. Negotiate and Formalize Partnership:some text
   • Once an influencer shows interest, discuss the specifics such as the type of content, timelines, expectations, and compensation. Formalize the agreement with a clear contract that outlines each party’s responsibilities.
6. Onboard and Collaborate:some text
   • Guide influencers through our company’s mission, vision, and expectations. Foster a good working relationship by maintaining open lines of communication, providing necessary resources, and being receptive to creative input.

By following these steps, you can systematically identify and secure new influencer partners who can effectively convey our brand’s message and engage our target audience.

Email Template: Sample Outreach Message to Influencer

Here’s an example of the type of message we would send to potential influencer partners:

Subject: Collaboration Opportunity with [Your Company Name]

Hi [Influencer's Name],

I hope this message finds you well! My name is [Your Name], and I'm reaching out on behalf of [Your Company Name]. We've been following your journey on [Platform] and are really impressed by your authentic engagement with your audience, especially your recent posts on [mention any specific content or topic that aligns with your brand].

We believe that your passion for [related topic] perfectly aligns with our mission to [briefly describe your company’s mission or goals]. We’re excited about the possibility of partnering with you to [briefly state the campaign goal - e.g., launch a new product, reach a new audience segment].

We would love to explore how we can work together on a campaign that not only resonates with your followers but also supports our brand in [specific goal]. 

Could we schedule a call next week to discuss this opportunity in more detail? We’re eager to share more about what we have in mind and hear your thoughts as well.

Thank you for considering this opportunity. Looking forward to the possibility of working together!

Best regards,

[Your Name]
[Your Job Title]
[Your Company Name]
[Contact Information]
[Company Website URL]

Past Partnerships

Influencer Profile: Emily Johnson

General Information:

• Name: Emily Johnson
• Platform: Instagram
• Username: @emilylifestyle
• Followers: 150,000
• Demographic: Primarily females aged 25-34, interested in lifestyle, wellness, and sustainable living.
• Region: Based in San Francisco, CA, USA

Collaboration Overview:

• Duration of Partnership: January 2021 - December 2021
• Type of Content Created:some text
  • Sponsored Instagram posts (12 posts)
  • Instagram Stories (30 stories across the year)
  • One co-hosted webinar on "Sustainable Living at Home"
• Campaigns Involved:some text
  • "Green Home" Campaign, promoting our eco-friendly home products.
  • "Wellness for All" Campaign, focusing on mental health awareness month with our wellness product line.

Objectives and Goals:

• Increase brand awareness among environmentally conscious consumers.
• Drive targeted traffic to our new line of eco-friendly products.
• Enhance community engagement through interactive content and discussions on sustainability.

Results and Performance Metrics:

• Reached over 500,000 people with a 4.5% engagement rate across all posts.
• Generated 20,000 direct clicks to product pages with a 2% conversion rate.
• Webinar had 5,000 attendees with positive feedback and increased follow-up interest in products.

Testimonials/Quotes:

• Emily on the partnership: "Working with [Your Company Name] has been a rewarding experience as we share the same vision for a healthier, more sustainable world. I've loved engaging with my audience in meaningful ways through this collaboration."

Lessons Learned and Future Considerations:

• Greater engagement was observed in posts that included interactive elements such as Q&A sessions.
• Stories had higher engagement when they were posted in the evening hours.
• For future collaborations, incorporating more real-time interactions and leveraging video content could enhance engagement further.

Contact Information:

• Influencer’s Agent: John Doe
• Agent’s Email: john.doe@agency.com

This write-up serves not only to document the successful elements of the collaboration but also helps inform and inspire future influencer marketing strategies within the company.

Current Partnerships

Influencer Profile: Michael Chen

General Information:

• Name: Michael Chen
• Platform: YouTube
• Username: @TechWithMichael
• Followers: 500,000
• Demographic: Predominantly males aged 18-45, interested in technology, gadgets, and software reviews.
• Region: Based in Austin, TX, USA

Collaboration Overview:

• Duration of Partnership: Ongoing since July 2022
• Type of Content Created:some text
  • Monthly sponsored YouTube videos (6 videos to date)
  • Bi-weekly live streams discussing tech trends and product features
• Campaigns Involved:some text
  • "Tech Forward" Campaign, introducing our latest software solutions.
  • "Gadget Geeks" Campaign, focusing on our new line of smart home devices.

Objectives and Goals:

• Strengthen brand presence within the tech enthusiast community.
• Drive engagement and direct traffic to our latest tech releases.
• Foster deeper community interaction through live discussions and feedback sessions.

Current Results and Performance Metrics:

• Videos have averaged an engagement rate of 6.8%, exceeding industry norms.
• Live streams consistently reach over 50,000 viewers with high interaction rates.
• Notable increase in subscriptions and user registrations linked directly from content.

Testimonials/Quotes:

• Michael on the partnership: "Partnering with [Your Company Name] has enabled me to deliver rich content that resonates well with my tech-savvy audience, making each live session an exciting event to look forward to."

Current Challenges and Opportunities:

• Challenges with live stream timings affecting viewership from European regions.
• Opportunity to expand content into emerging tech topics like AI and machine learning.

Contact Information:

• Influencer’s Manager: Sarah Lee
• Manager’s Email: sarah.lee@techinfluencers.com

Conclusion

Have Questions?

This Influencer Marketing Strategy Guide outlines the essential components and strategic considerations for effectively leveraging influencer partnerships. By integrating influencers into our broader marketing efforts, we enhance brand visibility, deepen consumer engagement, and drive strategic goals forward. 

If you have any questions about this guide or need further clarification on implementing or optimizing influencer collaborations, please contact the Marketing Department.