Influencer marketing is creating a name for itself as a way of connecting with highly engaged audiences through the creation of unique and shareable content. It relies on creativity and, unlike most digital media channels, people, rather than data, to achieve campaign success. Eline van der Velden (pictured below), UK MD, Makers Channel and an award winning online influencer, gives ExchangeWire her advice and insight into how a small shift in the way a brand approaches influencer marketing can have a huge effect. 

Just a quick look at Google Trends for the term ‘influencer marketing’ shows how new this concept is.

Source: Google Trends

Five years ago, budgets to work with ‘real people’ of influence – bloggers, in those days – were thin, but today there is serious money changing hands to feature on the channel of an influential content maker.

Standing at the precipice of this brand-new industry, one can see specialist agencies springing up dedicated to working with influencers, new jobs like ‘Head of Influence’ in the market, and money being pumped in left right and centre to reach influencers’ fanbases.

This year almost 60% of marketers will increase their spend on influencer marketing with the aim of tapping into the advocacy and sales benefits of this extreme word-of-mouth approval. But, unlike traditional marketing, which more or less has a blueprint for best practice that has been established over time, working with influencers is too new and, as everyone wades in at a pace, there’s little time to figure it out. Brands want a slice of the (PewDie) pie and they want it now.

There are brands and entities that are having great success in this space already and they all have something in common: they’re adapting the way they approach influencer marketing to put the influencer and fans first. This is key throughout the process.

As an online influencer, and someone who both works closely with the UK’s best influencers at Makers Channel and helps brands to advertise, sponsor and co-create content with them, I understand the process from both sides.

A simple tweak in how brands and marketers think and execute their influencer activity will make a real difference to the level of engagement and overall performance.

1) The fans have to care – segment your target audience further by having an honest discussion

Read any article about working with influencers and the buzzword will always be ‘engagement’ – whether that’s picking an influencer with high levels of engagement or making content together that engages their fans.

The thing is, you can’t predict engagement based on the interactions an influencer’s past content has had. Fans aren’t fools; even when they are highly engaged usually, if the next piece of content isn’t relevant for them, it will fall flat.

Influencer marketing requires a mindset shift from “find the audience I want to reach and target content at them” to “find the audience I want to reach, that is also going to get real value from the content”.

Eline van der Velden,, UK MD, Makers Channel

It may seem like a subtle nuance, but many make the mistake of approaching influencers based on either their reach or because they are ‘cool’ and they want their brand to be associated with that.

Spend a little extra time segmenting an audience down a stage or two further and be brutally honest about whether they will actually get any value from the content. This is key, and will make all the difference.

When working with a new brief, always have very frank conversations about whether the content is going to fly with fans, feedback that we relay back to the brands. It means we can have a much more collaborative approach, eventually producing high-quality content and the results everyone is looking for.

In the Netherlands, we recently created a branded content channel for L'Oreal working with influencer Monica Geuze, complete with an e-commerce store to sell product directly to engaged viewers. The content worked well because we chose an influencer whose fans already cared about hair dye. 

2) Love their content and appreciate their artistry – influencers are more than just their reach

When something is hot, like influencer marketing, often brands want to get involved before really thinking it through; but, as with many things, the more thought that is put in at the start, the better the results and the ROI. A lot of cash can be burned just targeting influencers without proper planning.

Say you’ve selected an influencer based on their audience and believe that your content is going to be relevant for that audience. The next question you need to ask is: “Do I really love their current content ideas, creative flair, production style and tone of voice?”

It’s vital to watch all their content and appreciate them for the artists that they are before considering them. If you don’t love their content, it’s probably not a good idea to make content with them. By making sure you’re happy with their style, tone of voice, and concepts it will be far easier to collaborate later or, ideally, hand over the creative control that most content makers want to retain when working with brands.

That said, being selective is not the same as being risk averse. The more ‘on the edge’ an influencer is, the less that brands will be approaching them, meaning they will be a lot more open (and cost effective) and their audiences less tired by continuous co-branded posts.

3) Money talks, but it isn’t the entire conversation

Yes, you can chuck a wad of cash at an influencer and eventually you’ll hit a threshold where they’ll probably promote something even though their heart’s not in it. But, remember that ‘engagement’ is what everyone is after. Getting it on their channel and in front of their viewers is worthless if they are just doing it for the cash and it’s not going to add value to their fans. Their followers will just skip past, or even unfollow.

Like most celebrities, influencers are that interesting mix of real person and brand – because they are a brand too, with objectives just like you. In fact, nine times out of ten they care far more about their own brand than marketers do theirs – it’s a marketer’s job, it’s an influencer’s life.

Of course, pay them for their time, but in order to snag that influencer whose content you love and whose audience you are sure will truly benefit from what you have to say, the next step is to think “how can I add value for their brand” and “how can I add value for them as a person”.

For their brand, support influencers on their career journey. They too want to reach more people with their content, but they probably don’t have a large budget to put spend behind their posts. Letting them know your plans for ad spend and promoting the content you co-create is an attractive offer and demonstrates how the project will help them reach more people and add value to their brand, not just their bank balance.

Secondly, it’s worth remembering that content makers are passionate people with interests and opinions – it’s why they have influence, after all – so tapping into this could help you get their attention. Scour their feeds and do your homework to find their sweet spot. It could be a donation to a charity close to their heart, or your brand’s time or product donated to a community they care about. It doesn’t need to be public, but it will certainly start a more interesting and engaged conversation from the get go.

4) Help them to create a piece of content they truly love and everything else will look after itself

So, you’ve created a beautiful piece of content, your brand looks great, and you’d be proud to push it out through your channels. But that’s not really the point. Does your influencer feel the same? If not, it’s a waste of time and money.

You could have as many #spon post clauses as you like in your contract, but lacklustre is lacklustre and there’s no denying when an influencer really loves a piece of content they've created – you can’t shut them up about it.

At this point, if you’ve picked the right influencer, you should be ready to hand over the creative control to them as you already love their creative style and know their audience is going to love what you’re telling them. They will appreciate this, you will end up with a piece of content they love, they love to share, their fans love to watch and that will deliver far more than a perfectly polished ‘advert’ broadcast out through their channels.

As with the L’Oréal campaign, actively choose to let the influencers tell the audience that the brand has asked them to make these videos: there is an immediate truth to the project. Interestingly, with L’Oréal, 20% of the traffic to the campaign page came from the Makers Channel home page, from people just browsing for good online content.

It can feel scary, but give influencers the space to tell your brand story in their own way. After all, they are the experts in creating content for the audience you want your brand to reach and they know what their fans want to see.