💬 Recruiting influencers/creators is one thing, but it's only one of the main components that contributes to the overall initiative performance.
To really turn this initiative into a growth machine, from my experience, it comes down to ensuring that you can properly activate and engage influencers and creators that you work with to better perform.
And that's where this checklist comes in - if you're an eCommerce growth marketer, founder, or perhaps someone who looks after influencer and creator relationships, and you're not seeing optimal performance from those relationships in terms of content output, distribution, and of course, sales/revenue metrics being hit, it comes down to working out ways to engage/activate, as well as motivate, key personnel to go that 'extra step' for your brand.
💬 The good news is that many of the tactical optimisations I talk about below are not costly (nor really time consuming) to implement - just small tweaks and feedback can lead to better performance gains (it's all about testing in the end). :)
To effectively manage a type of marketing program like this, you do need to invest in the right software - and the good news is that there are plenty of awesome vendors out there. Make sure to assess and look out for key features such as campaign management (how emails are tracked), analytics/tracking, content workflows (approvals, etc), scheduling and integrations with your primary CMS/CRM.
To really engage target content creators/influencers you want to work with (and those you work and who perform well, and you want to keep them around), you've got to have a sensible/reasonable incentive structure in place to really spur motivation.
For instance, you can still do the 'pay per post' model for engagement, but then you should work out ways to help incentivise based on the performance of posts - you can reward performance based on sales, reach, likes/comments, etc (whatever the goal is).
I've seen this work well and totally worth the ROI - and worth paying a bit more as a bonus to encourage even more ideal results.
It's worth having some sort of structure in place to motivate and 'retain' those who do work well to work out a longer engagement.
If you use an influencer marketing platform (which I've touched on above), many of them should have some sort of tracking capabilities in place (on top of the usual analytics).
Sometimes, links may not be available, but coupon codes are a good alternative instead (especially as it depends on the medium/placement on where things are shared).
Naturally, if it's a sales campaign, incentivise those based on their performance to receive a small clip of the sales (just like affiliates).
From my experience working with content creators/influencers, the key is finding a balance between setting a brief and providing and outline of what you're looking for, but also giving enough freedom for them to work their magic (since, they are an expert themselves and know their audience better than anyone).
The goal should be here when working with them for more than 1 post (especially for linger engagements), is to work on creating 'templated' content assets to scale on channels (and then across others) - because as we know, volume on certain channels is certainly a factor.
UGC competitions are awesome on socials, and can be really effective for driving sales and massive follower upticks.
Collabs with creators can really help with making the most out of a competition - as it really does come down to maximising distribution efforts from the get-go.
The goal for top performers and influencers/content creators you like working with, you should be working out ways to genuinely help each other grow and provide/create value-added content - and one of the best ways to achieve this is through co-creating a series together on a relevant topic.
Then, it's all about sharing and repurposing as much as possible across key channels.
As part of social proof and highlighting authority, interview key thought-leaders and promote the content through your newsletter (on top of other channels).
Something to consider is creating 'exclusive' content, with the goal of collecting some sort of data point - primarily email acquisition.
That could be the likes of an eBook or some sort of resource that's valuable for target audiences.
Strategise and brainstorm ways to get feedback about your brand/products through creator channels and their audiences - for example, collab on polls or Q&A style posts/stories to get feedback.
This is a great way to help develop a video/image content strategy that respective audiences will engage with.
As a quick thought based on recruiting great personnel, sometimes the best to get other awesome creators is simply by just asking who in their network would be interested.
This is particularly great for finding micro-influencers, and finding micro creators can be challenge sometimes.
Then in exchange to say thanks if you manage to recruit a creator successfully, reward them with some sort of gift or kickback.
Now having a dedicated landing page for creators/influencers to read/signup to is a recommendation I certainly say is worth considering.
This is where you have the opportunity to share/scale outreach, and highlight why people should collab with your brand.
It doesn't have to be publicly facing (or at least not as obvious), but it can help get creators understand key info faster - plus, it makes your brand and program a bit more established.
