Authentic partnerships between brand creators are crucial in the evolving consumer landscape as more and more people buy from who they watch. Audiences look to creators who are ambitious or feel like them, and absorb their recommendations the same way they would a friend. By working with creators who can address the problem their product solves, brands can tell their stories in compelling, engaging ways.
We talked about how to find these creators in our first post of this series. As a brand, once you’ve identified a creator who ticks all the boxes, how can you connect with them and build that beneficial relationship? At Acceleration Partners we have a number of strategies that we have seen work for us influencer customers all over the world.
Be open to the creator’s unique approach. We love working with creators who share their personal experiences with products because those stories resonate much better with audiences compared to overly branded content. For that reason, we keep our communication with creators as open as possible and limit being overly prescriptive. Instead, we share themes and thought starters with creators as a starting point for their own stories and reviews. With this freedom, they can share the brand’s story with genuine excitement.
Set expectations. Given our broad experience in the influencer space, we have a good feel for the market when it comes to conditions and results. We share this with our customers; Once they sign up, we negotiate with the creators. In those negotiations, we balance a fair deal for the creator’s time, the value of their audience, and the creation of the content itself with the best value for the brand’s needs around content use in advertising, specific language or disclaimers, and other factors. We’ve recently had success with existing accounts by contacting creators and their agencies with an offer to set the stage for negotiations. This step helps reduce the discrepancy between a creator’s rate and a brand’s budget.
Build a foundation for long-term cooperation. This is essentially the combination of the first two strategies, and brands should commit to this throughout their relationship with the creator. I can’t say it enough: the most important step to ensure seamless collaboration is recognizing and making room for the creator’s creativity in the content. When they have the freedom to be authentic with their content and audience and are compensated fairly, this opens the door to long-term success in the partnership as they feel valued and excited to bring your campaign vision to life.
At Acceleration Partners, our Performance influencer program offers a full funnel strategy for this type of growth. Our three-tiered suite of influencer services provides scalable, measurable, multi-touch, full-funnel influencer solutions for brands of all sizes, evolving to avoid fatigue through diverse creator partnerships. We’re not afraid to reach new creators the hard way, and we have existing relationships with creators and agencies we work with often. This general approach translates into a smooth process that can be scaled: people trust our working style and we always have an idea of how the market is changing.
We also have specialized ways to measure the success of influencer campaigns and then iterate and improve future campaigns based on performance data. Tune in for that information in our next post. In the meantime, if you have questions about how AP can help you develop your influencer strategy and improve performance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
#practices #authentic #influencer #partnerships