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.
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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