Chapter 10: Influencers
When it comes to actually creating content for your influencer promotions, your involvement can be as variable as you want it to be. Some companies like to be hyper involved in the creative and copy of their influencer promotions, while others prefer to be completely hands off. This is something you will discuss with the agent throughout the negotiation process, as they want to make sure the promotion will satisfy all of your needs. Any guidelines or suggestions you can provide an agency from a content perspective are usually welcome, however, it’s generally in your best interest to let the influencer and their agency drive the ship.
The main advantage of letting an influencer’s team handle the brunt of the content creation is their relationship to their audience. Influencers know what type of content resonates best with their audience, and what will get the most engagement. Remember, agencies want to make sure your promotion is successful to increase the chance of you becoming a recurring customer. A collaborative effort between the company, agency, and influencer is generally the best approach when creating branded content.
If you want to take a more involved approach, say, writing specific ad reads or post captions, keep your influencer’s audience in mind! Look back at the influencer’s best performing posts and previous brand deals, and try to emulate the tonality, word choice, and flow of writing or ad read in your promotion. As we always say, let the data do the talking. So take a look at what works, and mirror your writing off that. There’s nothing worse than a corporate sounding ad read from a chill influencer - their audience will NOT resonate with something that feels off-brand from their typical relationship with the influencer.
We often talk about creating ads, offers, or pitches that are targeting a specific audience. Influencer promotions are no different! Craft your promotion for the influencer’s audience specifically. This may mean completely different styles or sales pitches from influencer to influencer depending on what their audience is most likely to respond to.