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How to get influencers to post about your brand, without paying $ upfront

Marketing, social media, advertising

ycee

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
137%
Sep 22, 2019
38
52
When you start doing influencer marketing, it's important to avoid the trap of pay-per-post. You will most likely end up losing money.

It fosters transactional relationships and makes your influencer program perform poorly.

The key is to get to know influencers, send them free product, and see if they're interested in promoting you in the first place, then do affiliate deals with them to incentivize.

This can be tough to crack, so here are some principles that'll help.

Start Small
It's tempting to go after popular influencers with >250K followers, but start lower... way lower.
Influence has nothing to do with the number of followers. Larger influencers are also more likely to ask for payments upfront, which means you’ll see more rejections right out the gate.
I recommend anything below 50-100K followers depending on how mature your niche is.

How to structure the engagement
➡️ Ball Rolls: Get some nano-influencers to post about you on a commission-only basis (or for free product). These are your true fans and will get your program rolling. Their posts also help you estimate the sales someone of their size can drive.
➡️ Flat Fee: Once you have these estimates of how much traffic a creator with X audience size drives, you can start considering paying upfront if it makes sense ROI wise, sometimes you have to take the leap. I still don't recommend it - only do this for creators with a high degree of alignment with your brand.
➡️ Fee + Commission: You'd be surprised how many creators who quote a flat fee change their minds when you negotiate the upfront fee down to a comfortable amount and pay commissions on top. It gives unbounded upside to their income and gives you profitability.

Sweeten the deal
Offer milestone based boosts: Increase commissions on driving more than a certain benchmark of sales per month.
Give away free products: Surprise them by shipping free products, make the packaging great :)
Create special discounts: 10% off just for their audience. It'll make them feel special and help you drive more sales.

---
Hope this helps, let me know what you think and if you've had success doing something similar for your brand.
 
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fastlane_dad

8 Figure Fastlane Graduate
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Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
636%
Jun 20, 2017
413
2,626
41
Scottsdale, AZ
When you start doing influencer marketing, it's important to avoid the trap of pay-per-post. You will most likely end up losing money.

It fosters transactional relationships and makes your influencer program perform poorly.

The key is to get to know influencers, send them free product, and see if they're interested in promoting you in the first place, then do affiliate deals with them to incentivize.

This can be tough to crack, so here are some principles that'll help.

Start Small
It's tempting to go after popular influencers with >250K followers, but start lower... way lower.
Influence has nothing to do with the number of followers. Larger influencers are also more likely to ask for payments upfront, which means you’ll see more rejections right out the gate.
I recommend anything below 50-100K followers depending on how mature your niche is.

How to structure the engagement
➡️ Ball Rolls: Get some nano-influencers to post about you on a commission-only basis (or for free product). These are your true fans and will get your program rolling. Their posts also help you estimate the sales someone of their size can drive.
➡️ Flat Fee: Once you have these estimates of how much traffic a creator with X audience size drives, you can start considering paying upfront if it makes sense ROI wise, sometimes you have to take the leap. I still don't recommend it - only do this for creators with a high degree of alignment with your brand.
➡️ Fee + Commission: You'd be surprised how many creators who quote a flat fee change their minds when you negotiate the upfront fee down to a comfortable amount and pay commissions on top. It gives unbounded upside to their income and gives you profitability.

Sweeten the deal
Offer milestone based boosts: Increase commissions on driving more than a certain benchmark of sales per month.
Give away free products: Surprise them by shipping free products, make the packaging great :)
Create special discounts: 10% off just for their audience. It'll make them feel special and help you drive more sales.

---
Hope this helps, let me know what you think and if you've had success doing something similar for your brand.
Thanks for the tips. Have you had success yourself using any/all of these methods? What industry have you applied this to?
 

ycee

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
137%
Sep 22, 2019
38
52
Thanks for the tips. Have you had success yourself using any/all of these methods? What industry have you applied this to?
Hey,

Yes I have. I've scaled influencer programs from 0 to 350+ creators for some brands (which generated $10k-$30k recurring monthly). Industries: EdTech, B2C SaaS, DTC ecommerce.

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions, I do this all day.
 

Spartan1978

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
100%
Jun 29, 2014
1
1
Palma de Mallorca
Hey,

Yes I have. I've scaled influencer programs from 0 to 350+ creators for some brands (which generated $10k-$30k recurring monthly). Industries: EdTech, B2C SaaS, DTC ecommerce.

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions, I do this all day.
Hi. I am since more than 10 years in internet marketing(affiliate marketing), but I've never tried influencer marketing so far. I've used other traffic sources like (PPC, Native, Display, Pop etc). I think your approach it is great but you need to spend a lot of time to find the right influencers.

What do you think about using Influencer Marketing Platforms to find the right influencers?

Also I think YouTube influencers are an option too. You can target better certain niches with youtube traffic.
 
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ycee

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
137%
Sep 22, 2019
38
52
Hi. I am since more than 10 years in internet marketing(affiliate marketing), but I've never tried influencer marketing so far. I've used other traffic sources like (PPC, Native, Display, Pop etc). I think your approach it is great but you need to spend a lot of time to find the right influencers.

What do you think about using Influencer Marketing Platforms to find the right influencers?

Also I think YouTube influencers are an option too. You can target better certain niches with youtube traffic.
Yeah absolutely, I never be specific to just one platform.

IM platforms are cool to scale but I think in the early days it's the manual effort and in-the-weeds work that counts. Really get to know the first 100 influencers you onboard and then look for scale later.

Are you building an influencer program for a brand? Feel free to DM me with any specific questions! I do this all day.
 

MrE

Be. Create. Repeat.
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
129%
Jul 26, 2021
49
63
Colorado
When you start doing influencer marketing, it's important to avoid the trap of pay-per-post. You will most likely end up losing money.

It fosters transactional relationships and makes your influencer program perform poorly.

The key is to get to know influencers, send them free product, and see if they're interested in promoting you in the first place, then do affiliate deals with them to incentivize.

This can be tough to crack, so here are some principles that'll help.

Start Small
It's tempting to go after popular influencers with >250K followers, but start lower... way lower.
Influence has nothing to do with the number of followers. Larger influencers are also more likely to ask for payments upfront, which means you’ll see more rejections right out the gate.
I recommend anything below 50-100K followers depending on how mature your niche is.

How to structure the engagement
➡️ Ball Rolls: Get some nano-influencers to post about you on a commission-only basis (or for free product). These are your true fans and will get your program rolling. Their posts also help you estimate the sales someone of their size can drive.
➡️ Flat Fee: Once you have these estimates of how much traffic a creator with X audience size drives, you can start considering paying upfront if it makes sense ROI wise, sometimes you have to take the leap. I still don't recommend it - only do this for creators with a high degree of alignment with your brand.
➡️ Fee + Commission: You'd be surprised how many creators who quote a flat fee change their minds when you negotiate the upfront fee down to a comfortable amount and pay commissions on top. It gives unbounded upside to their income and gives you profitability.

Sweeten the deal
Offer milestone based boosts: Increase commissions on driving more than a certain benchmark of sales per month.
Give away free products: Surprise them by shipping free products, make the packaging great :)
Create special discounts: 10% off just for their audience. It'll make them feel special and help you drive more sales.

---
Hope this helps, let me know what you think and if you've had success doing something similar for your brand.
Are influencers a good choice for a niche product?
 

ycee

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
137%
Sep 22, 2019
38
52
Are influencers a good choice for a niche product?
100%, go with micro and nanoinfluencers. What's your product/niche? Feel free to DM me and I'm happy to share specific advice!
 
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