Digital influencers can help brands get a much higher return on investment compared to others forms of marketing and advertising. Some reports show the ROI of influencer marketing is 11 times higher than the ROI of traditional marketing methods. But how do brands find the right digital influencers to work with? And once your brand does find influencers, how does it go about putting together a campaign? What about developing a strategy for influencer marketing success? One option is to hire a digital influencer agency.
Learn how a digital influencer agency can help your brand find influencers to work with, and much more.
What Is a Digital Influencer Agency?
You can consider a digital influencer agency your one-stop shop when it comes to influencer marketing. Many agencies have a roster or network of digital influencers. They also work with your brand to help it put together an influencer marketing strategy.
Often, digital influencer agencies feature a team that has been in the influencer marketing sphere for many years. The people who work for digital influencer agencies typically have plenty of experience launching and managing successful influencer campaigns. Some agencies focus on specific niches or subjects, while others will work with companies and brands in any field.
The Pros of Working With a Digital Influencer Agency
Finding influencers and putting together a strategy seems simple enough. So why would you need to hire an agency to help you out? For one thing, you get the benefit of working with a team of experienced experts in influencer marketing.
There are other benefits of working with a digital influencer agency, too. One benefit is that an agency can help to simplify the process of finding the right influencer.
Digital Influencer Agency Functionality
Search
When choosing a digital influencer, there are a lot of things to keep an eye out for. First, you want to find someone who has an interest in (or who regularly posts about) your niche. If you’re a fashion company, it makes sense to work with a fashion influencer, for example.
Data
Beyond subject matter, there are a few other things to pay attention to when choosing an influencer. Another thing to look out for is the influencer’s actual influence. Doing research on your own can take some digging. It’s often difficult to determine how much people actually engage with a particular influencer.
UX
But an agency puts that information right at your fingertips. It’s likely to show you how a typical post from an influencer performs, including how many likes, shares, and comments it receives.
When you’re looking for influencers, it is easy to get blinded by follower counts. Working with a digital influencer agency helps you go deeper than that, and allows you to really see the full influence of a chosen influencer.
Support
Another “pro” of working with a digital influencer agency is that you get to take advantage of the insight and expertise offered by the people at the agency. Instead of having to stumble blindly through your first campaign, you get the benefit of working with people who have an understanding of strategy, and of what needs to be accomplished to help your brand reach its goals.
What to Look for in a Digital Influencer Agency
A search for a digital influencer agency is likely going to turn up numerous results. So how can you separate the good from the bad and make an informed decision when it comes to partnering with an agency? There are a few things to look for.
Depth of Influence
One thing that’s particularly important is who the agency’s influencers are. Some companies claim to have a “roster” or network of influencers, but what they’ve really done is put together a spreadsheet with the names and social media information of popular influencers. The influencers of some companies’ “rosters” might not even know that they are included on that list.
So it’s a good idea to verify that the influencers an agency claims to work with actually know that they are part of that network.
Industry Experience
Another thing to pay attention to is the experience and history of the agency itself. Some digital influencer agencies have been around for at least 10 years. Others have seemingly sprung up overnight, out of nowhere.
Research the people behind the company to see how much experience they have with influencer marketing. While you’re likely to find a more experienced team at an agency that’s been around for a while, on occasion, people with years of experience in the field go on to found their own new agencies.
Breadth of Service
It’s also worthwhile to pay attention to the services offered by a digital influencer agency. Some companies are little more than databases or spreadsheets, designed to put the names and contact information of influencers at your fingertips.
Others go beyond that and offer a suite of services, as well as software to help your brand through every step of an influencer marketing campaign. It’s also occasionally the case that an agency will offer different service levels, which allow a company to choose features and products based on its current needs.
Questions to Ask to Help You Find the Right Agency
Once you’ve gotten a short list of digital influencer agencies to work with, asking a few questions can help you narrow things down even further until you’ve found the company that’s a good fit for your needs.
Who are your influencers?
Being able to find the right influencer makes all the difference when it comes to the ultimate success of your brand’s campaign.
How will my brand connect with or interact with influencers?
Will the agency always serve as the go-between, or will you be able to interact directly with influencers, negotiating rates and other terms with them?
Do you offer software?
Some agencies also provide influencer marketing software, as well as hands-on, personalized service.
Will your agency be able to grow and scale with us as our needs change?
As your brand gets bigger, or as you discover the benefits of influencer marketing, your specific needs are likely to change. It’s often easiest to work with an agency that will adapt and adjust to you, rather than having to find a new agency.
What social platforms do you work with, and what type of campaigns do you work on?
It’s often better to find an agency that works across various platforms, and that works on a variety of content types (blog posts, social media posts, video) rather than an agency that focuses on just one platform or content channel.
Your brand isn’t on its own when it comes to putting together a successful influencer marketing campaign. When you work with a digital influencer agency, you get to work with a team of experts who can help your brand thrive when it comes to working with influencers.
