In the age of social media, influencers are working with brands everyday. However, those brands might not consider how the influencers feel on certain elements of the partnership. On Friday, May 26, Find Your Influence hosted the webinar “5 Things Influencers Want Marketers to Know.”
Joined by influencers Tomeka Cherry, Lauren Nolan, and Lorelco Mulzac along with FYI’s own Senior Vice President of Communications, Tami Nealy, the panel discusses certain things that brands may not consider when partnering with influencers.
Influencers don’t always love a kick-off call
Tomeka: “I have found value in the kickoff calls when I’ve worked with pharmaceutical companies. The kickoff calls are everything because there’s so much that goes on, there’s so many changes and so many legalities that without that kickoff call, I would be lost. I’m okay without the kickoff call when a (campaign) brief would suffice.”
Lorelco: “There’s pros and cons to both having a kickoff call and not having one. For me, I think it’s good to nurture those relationships with who you’re working with but also to provide clear guidelines on what they are needing and what we can provide to the brand.”
Influencers respect brand deadlines and ask for the same in return
Lorelco: “What works best for me is I set up an expectation up front, letting them know what my shoot days are and when I work with my photographer and videographer. I give that expectation that if you’re looking for content for a specific day, make sure it’s after this specific day for me, and usually they respect that.”
Lauren: “I prefer to have some time before a concept is due, and it varies depending on the product and collaboration, but especially when it comes to recipes, I love to have time to test without the parameters of ‘this is my defined concept that they want’ just because sometimes you test something and you don’t love it”
Influencers want to understand campaign goals in order to drive results
Tomeka: “When a brand reaches out to me, if it’s a new brand, I want to make sure that it will resonate with my audience and I want it to be who I am. I know my followers are following me because they like what it is I bring. So for me it’s just a quick call, understanding what the brand wants, what it is I can deliver, and what it is my followers are looking for.”
Lorelco: “It’s the same for me as it is for Tomeka. It’s different for every brand deal, but most times that’s usually how it works. For me, it’s having those campaign goals, making sure we’re all aligned and on the same page because if we’re not on the same page they’ll ask for revisions.”
Lauren: “Sometimes someone will send the blanket pitch and I’ll think this could work if I can highlight certain things or if we can adjust it a little bit so that I can come from another perspective, and if they get back to me and agree to it, then we can move on to the next steps because we’re on the same page.”
Influencers cannot guarantee performance of their content
Lauren: “I think the biggest thing that I wished brands knew is that if it (content) doesn’t perform well, I am also devastated. If you are hiring me, I want to give you the best content, and reach the most people, and I want people to be excited. Understanding that we only have so much control is important.”
Tomeka: “I had an influencer friend tell me they’re going back to the blog because that’s another way to reach your audience and you can have more control over that, whereas on other platforms you don’t have much control once it’s published.”
Lorelco: “I think it’s important for creators to know what will convert. I noticed that my audience loves specifically when I do the dad thing, so I think ‘Let me create something to show what I do everyday’ so I can play off of what I know my audience loves and what will convert well.”
Influencers love partnering with brands over the long term
Tomeka: “For me, long term partnerships almost feel like a friendship and I know the people and I can just text and I feel like when you get to that point, it just makes the content creation easier because you know each other and what the brand wants and they know what you can deliver on.”
Lauren: “I think that ultimately it helps to have the different touch points and the consistency because people start to associate the brand with you and it almost becomes an ambassadorship. I like that it allows you to be more creative because there’s more opportunities instead of fitting everything into three stories on Instagram.”
Lorelco: “Having that communication with long-term partnerships is so beneficial because you can just text and say ‘this did super well this time, let’s try this’ and having that ongoing relationship and communication and just looking at what the audience responded to and looking as what they didn’t respond to is so beneficial for future projects.”
The webinar did an excellent job in revealing influencers’ opinions that might not otherwise be shared. With the three influencers representing different verticals, the conversation highlighted what is true among many influencers.
Contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Sarah Newman.