Planning an influencer campaign? A well-crafted influencer campaign can drive engagement, boost brand awareness, and increase sales. To be successful, you need to cultivate a good relationship with an influencer or a team of influencers. Incentivizing influencers can play a role in that relationship.
In addition to compensation, there are little things you can do to encourage influencers to do their best work. These incentives aren’t meant to replace compensation. Instead, they’re an addition meant to strengthen your partnership.
What should you pay an influencer?
Before talking about incentives, you might have questions about influencer compensation.
When influencer marketing started, it wasn’t uncommon for influencers and brands to have a “post for a product” deal. The influencer received a free product from the company, and in return the influencer created and shared a favorable post.
Today’s influencers expect compensation in addition to the free product. What kind of compensation? Here’s a look at the average cost of an influencer post by platform.
The report shows Twitter posts are the most affordable type of content, with a price tag of $284. YouTube videos are the most expensive and typically cost around $4,491 per video.
Incentives to try when you’re working with one or two influencers
In addition to compensation, here are some incentives to try If you’re doing a campaign with an influencer or two:
Send a pre-launch kit with product samples
Before the campaign launches, consider creating a branded box of goodies for your influencer. Put together a few freebies, package them up nicely, and send it out as a little pre-campaign note.
If you need to send the influencer a product to review or promote, you can add that to the box too.
Send a gift card and a handwritten note
Take a minute to write a note to your influencers. Tell them you’re excited for the launch and looking forward to working with each of them. In the note, include a company gift card so they can indulge in a few free products.
Share some social love
Create and share a post on your brand’s social channels that showcases the influencer that you’re working with. It gives a nod to the influencer and gets your audience excited for the content to come.
Invite them out for a tour
If you’re working with influencers who are in your city or neighborhood, consider meeting up with them. Ask them to come to the office for a tour and lunch. Walk them around the building, explain more about your brand, and chat about potential collaborations in the future.
Give them access to an exclusive event
Does your company host a conference or have box seats to a sporting event? If so, consider inviting an influencer to the event; for free, of course. This is the kind of incentive you’d provide an influencer that you’d like to work with regularly.
Incentives for influencer teams or brand ambassador programs
If your brand is working with influencers consistently, the incentives you use might look a little different. Consider these ideas:
Create a rewards system
Consider incentivizing influencers with tiered rewards. The more they sell, the more rewards they can earn. Showcase the rewards they can earn before the campaign starts, so they can set goals. The rewards could be a gift card, a basket of free products, and a big prize like an invitation to a celebrity-event or a high-priced product.
Consider a VIP program
Brand ambassadors will work with your brand for an extended period of time, so you should invest in that relationship. To do so, consider creating a VIP program just for influencers. The perks of the program will vary based on your brand, but it could include early-access to sale items, a free subscription to your platform or software, or regularly delivered swag bags.
Host a giveaway
Create a bundle of products to giveaway at the end of the campaign. Tell influencers about the giveaway ahead of time and explain how they’re entered to win.
If you want to keep it simple, influencers can be entered to win as soon as they post their content. You could also set an engagement milestone for entry or a sales minimum.
All of these incentives won’t just spark creativity, but should also help build a relationship with influencers. If you’re using influencer marketing software like IZEA Flex, you can manage your campaign in one place.
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