Regardless of product, partnering with an influencer can get your business in front of the right audience. But the first hurdle can be challenging: influencer outreach.

To help you more easily secure the right partnerships, we’ve created a 5-stage influencer outreach strategy. Find out how to define your approach, source the right influencers and nurture long-term relationships so you can continue to succeed.

What is influencer outreach?

Influencer outreach is the process of contacting influencers for brand collaborations, and typically involves research and communicating via direct messages or emails.

While some marketing strategies can be transactional, influencer partnerships are relationship-focused and mutually beneficial. You gain access to their followers, and they get to try your products or services and get paid. And both you and the influencer get fresh content.

Whether you work with a smaller group of reliable influencers or with hundreds at once, depends on the resources you have to manage those relationships.

As of 2024, 38% of brands have partnered with 10 influencers or less, but the remaining 62% of brands have worked with 10 or more different influencers, and 15% of those have worked with over 1,000. Your outreach process is all about finding a few that you’re comfortable with, and then scaling as your budget and bandwidth allows for it. But always remember to focus on the individual relationship your company has with each influencer.

How to create a successful influencer outreach strategy in 5 steps

These five steps will guide you to influencer outreach success, no matter your business size or industry.

1. Define your influencer marketing strategy

Define your overall influencer strategy. List the main goals you want to achieve with your partnerships. Create similar goals for your upcoming campaign, and look at where these goals can be aligned.

Some common examples of influencer marketing goals include:

• Attract more UGC (user-generated content)
• Build trust in your brand
• Raise awareness about a new product or service type
• Generate more leads
• Encourage more user reviews
• Drive sales
• Boost website traffic or follower count

These goals will drive every part of your influencer outreach strategy and your campaigns. They’ll determine the type of influencer to look for, the budget you need and what defines success within your partnership.

2. Identify the right influencers for your campaign

To find the perfect influencers, start by considering their reach.

Influencers are categorized into four key segments depending on their audience size across platforms. These range from mega-influencers and celebrities with 1M+ followers, to nano-influencers with less than 10K.

Having a larger following doesn’t automatically mean an influencer will be a stronger partner. It’s better to work with influencers who share your company’s values and who have a target audience that closely resembles yours. It also depends on your campaign goals; smaller influencers can be better for engagement and conversions, while larger influencers grant you further reach.

It’s not all about size. You should also prioritize diversity during your influencer search, and make sure you work with a wide range of influencers and creators, including black creators and other BIPOC influencers. Partnering with influencers of different backgrounds allows you to create more varied content for multiple audiences.

Search for influencers based on their audience demographics, like:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Preferred social network
• Buying power

Influencers who have strong audience affinity with your brand will lead to more successful campaigns. For example, Biona Organic, a vegetarian food brand, collaborated with Christinasots, a UK-based vegan macro-influencer to create a unique recipe featuring Biona Organic products. This partnership resulted in more than 788,000 impressions for the creator and the brand.

Track the engagement metrics of any influencer you might partner with, particularly for an industry-specific influencer or creator. Sometimes, a smaller, highly engaged community will lead to a better campaign than a larger community that doesn’t engage much.

Some of this research can be done manually through social platforms, but it can be time-consuming. Save time by using a dedicated solution like Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger).

With Sprout, you can filter search results based on brand affinity. This immediately reveals influencers who share the same interests and audience as your brand, through data-driven research. You can also assess audience authenticity, to make sure an influencer’s following is legitimate and engaged.

When identifying influencers, cater your strategy to different social networks. We’ve outlined how your strategy should change for each major network below.

Influencers for an Instagram campaign

The majority of consumers (61%) say that Instagram is their top social media network for product discovery, which is influencers’ bread and butter.

With Instagram influencer marketing, engagement rates are vital. Look for an engagement rate of at least 3%.

Also, pay attention to the type of content an Instagram influencer produces. If you’re planning a campaign that needs video, make sure your chosen influencer specializes in Reels.

Influencers for a TikTok campaign

TikTok influencer marketing can be an entry point into smaller subcultures. TikTok influencers often speak to very niche audiences who have specific content preferences based on their hobbies and interests.

Tracking TikTok subcultures can also be a useful way of determining an influencer’s niche audience. Tapping into these audiences can help your brand access some of the benefits of niche marketing, like having less competition and being able to optimize your marketing spend.

Influencers for a YouTube campaign

Several metrics are important for YouTube influencer marketing success, particularly subscriber counts, engagement rates‌ and watch time.

Track an influencer’s average video length and how often they post. This should give you a better idea of how long it takes them to make a video, and where your ad could fit into their usual video format.

Influencers for a Facebook campaign

Facebook influencers can help brands market to huge audiences; 83% of social users have a Facebook profile, and almost half (44%) of them have interacted with brand content through Facebook at least once a day.

Now that Instagram Stories and Reels are accessible within the Facebook app, it’s also possible to negotiate bundled content packages with your influencers. Your Facebook influencer marketing campaign can then reach more people while being more cost-effective.

Influencers for a LinkedIn campaign

When finding LinkedIn influencers, the most important metric is usually follower count.

Pay particular attention to audience affinity, as well as what an influencer is posting about. It’s also worth looking at whether a LinkedIn influencer has a newsletter on the platform or a substack. These materials can extend their audience, while also showing you the topics they’re known for talking about.

3. Prepare your compensation offer

Once you’ve created a list of influencers, decide how you’ll compensate them. Familiarize yourself with common influencer pricing figures. The amount you’ll offer will depend on factors like the influencer’s reach, the type and volume of content they’ll create and the chosen compensation model.

Common compensation models include pay per post, pay per subscriber‌ or pay per view, among others.  Don’t forget to factor in other payment strategies, like affiliate marketing, complimentary product/software access or long-term package deals across several months.

One example of a unique influencer partnership is SeaVees’s deal with inclusive food influencer Lahbco. SeaVees worked with Lahbco to design an exclusive shoe, based on his values and life experiences, made to appeal to his audience of followers. All the proceeds for the shoe also go towards the Ali Forney Center, who support homeless LGBTQ+ youth in New York City. This is a great example of an alternative compensation model where the company, influencer and the wider community all benefit.

All of this needs to work within your budget. If you haven’t already, download Sprout’s influencer marketing toolkit for a budgeting template that will help you make sense of influencer marketing spend within your overall social media budget. You’ll also get a campaign brief template, where you can further refine your campaign goals.

4. Craft a compelling influencer outreach message

Streamline your influencer outreach strategy by creating DM and email templates that allow you to contact several different influencers at once. However, avoid generic, mass-produced templates that influencers are likely to ignore.

To make your templates feel personal, include a handful of customizable sections where you can mention the influencer’s name, recent work or something specific that resonates with you about their content.

Some examples might be “I loved your recent campaign post with ____, we were hoping to create something similar”, or “It was great to see you raise so much awareness about ____ in your latest Reel.”

The more personalized, the better. You want to create a strong first impression and prove to an influencer that you genuinely appreciate their work.

Here’s a list of the essential information to include in your influencer outreach template:

1. Start with the influencer’s name and a personalized greeting related to their content.
2. Introduce your company and your brand. If possible, connect this to the personalization above.
3. Explain what your campaign is. Personalize further by linking this to a campaign they’ve done for another company if you can.
4. Outline the specifics of how you expect the campaign to work. Include deliverables and a timeline. You can refine these at a later stage, but make sure this information is accurate.
5. Explain your mutual value proposition and your initial offer of compensation.
6. End with a CTA requesting a meeting, or their thoughts on your campaign idea.

This could then look something like this:

Hey [influencer name], I saw your [previous content and thoughts].

I work with [brand] on [your role], and we’re looking to partner with an influencer on a new campaign.

The campaign is [campaign details]. After seeing your [recent content, awareness, work with or other personalization] I thought you’d be a perfect fit.

We’re hoping to offer [compensation and budget].

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or questions and I’d be happy to answer them. Thanks for your time, and I look forward to hopefully working with you,

[your name, title]

[your company]

Use this general template to create more specific messages for agencies or different outreach situations. To find more template examples, check our master list of influencer outreach email templates.

If you’re sending emails, don’t forget to create a subject line. Make this as short and clear as possible, like “Collaboration Opportunity with [Your Brand]”. You can extend this with more personalization, but it’s important that the influencer can see clearly what your email is about when scanning their busy inbox.

Following up on your influencer outreach messages

If you haven’t received a response to your initial outreach, don’t give up! Follow up within a couple of weeks.

Influencers are often busy, so a friendly follow-up can keep the conversation going. Keep this follow-up message short, to the point and polite. Here’s an example:

Hey [influencer name],

I’m just quickly following up on my last message about our upcoming [campaign name]. Would you be interested in partnering or discussing this further?

Thanks,

[your name]

[your company]

5. Nurture a long-term relationship with influencers

Building a long-term relationship with influencers is a win-win. For starters, you won’t have to invest in as much outreach for your next campaign.

Working with an influencer long-term is also perfect for boosting your brand’s credibility. Your audience will see regular campaigns with the same influencer, which proves you’re a company that people enjoy working with. You might also be able to agree on a package deal over a longer period, which usually works out better for your budget and for the influencer you’re working with.

The influencer’s audience will also continue to see your campaigns which will help build their awareness and trust in your brand.

Mega YouTube influencer NakeyJakey has regular channel partnerships with OperaGX and RocketMoney among others. He creates comedic skits which have become a regular part of his gaming videos. These skits have built a huge following and increased awareness around the tech companies he’s agreed to partner with.

To nurture your relationship with an influencer and foster a long-term partnership, focus on genuine connection and mutual support like:

• Sharing your results
• Checking in with them regularly, not just when you have a new campaign idea
• Celebrating your joint successes
• Highlighting where their ideas or content made a real difference
• Engaging with their content on your social accounts
• Treating them as creative partners, not just promotional tools
• Making sure they get paid on time
• Having admin processes in place that make their job (and yours) easier

If you invest your time and energy into your working relationship, that effort will translate into more successful campaigns.

Influencer outreach best practices

Though every influencer outreach strategy is different, these are three best practices that are always relevant.

Do your research

Research is a fundamental part of the vetting process. Without accurate research, you risk dooming your campaign before it even starts.

Make use of solutions like Sprout Social Influencer Marketing to make data-driven decisions on who to work with. Our solution aggregates the data available to help you track relevant metrics like engagement rates and brand affinity.

When you reach the outreach stage, research how each influencer likes to be approached. Some will have an agency that handles collaborations. Others may have a separate email address or might prefer DMs. Find these in their bio. Using an influencer’s chosen communication channel shows a level of respect that starts your relationship on the right footing.

In the example below, fair fashion campaigner and influencer activist Venetia La Manna’s bio states that she doesn’t look at her DMs and refers potential partners to her email address.

Communicate campaign needs clearly

Outline all of your campaign expectations before an influencer starts creating content. A lot of this information should be in your outreach messages.

Also, include your campaign needs in an influencer contract. Remember to outline who is responsible for any costs incurred by creating content, as well as usage rights.

Share your goals and expected KPIs with your influencer before a campaign starts. They’ll then not be surprised when you go through the results of the campaign later.

This is one of the most crucial stages when figuring out how to hire an influencer. Communicating clearly across every stage keeps your campaign on track and more likely to succeed.

Evaluate campaign results and continuously improve

Campaign results can be tracked using several influencer marketing KPIs.

The first of these should be your ROI. Calculate expected ROI while you’re preparing your initial compensation offer. To maximize this ROI, work to continuously improve your campaigns over time.

But the success of a campaign doesn’t depend solely on financial returns. Other KPIs worth tracking can include:

• Reach and impressions
• Earned media value
• Positive brand sentiment increases
• Increased awareness
• Leads generated or conversions made
• Follower or audience growth rate

Set a KPI against each of your campaign goals. This makes it easier to track the success of each objective and shows you where to modify your campaigns to improve in the future.

Evaluating your KPIs can be streamlined by using Sprout Social Influencer Marketing. Sprout’s solution helps you figure out if your influencer campaigns are actually working. We use modular analytics dashboards to help you track ROI and other metrics. This means you can easily see how well your campaigns are doing and prove their value to leadership.

Harnessing the power of influencer outreach

With your refined influencer outreach strategy, you can identify and work with the right influencers for your brand. By continuing to improve your campaigns and nurturing your relationships, you’ll be well on your way to achieving even greater success.

Refine your strategy using Sprout’s influencer marketing plan template. Start a 7-week schedule that streamlines your efforts while boosting your campaign performance.

The post Influencer outreach: The 5-step strategy guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this article, we’ll break down the FTC influencer guidelines, why they matter and the branded content policies for each major social media network. We’ll also share tips on how to fit these guidelines smoothly into your strategy so your content stays compliant, authentic and on-brand.

Please note: The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute formal legal advice. Please review our full disclaimer before reading any further.

FTC guidelines for influencers and content creators

In August 2023, the Federal Trade Commission introduced updated guidelines for online reviews and social media endorsements. These guidelines apply whenever an influencer or content creator has a “material connection” with a brand, defined as a financial, personal, family or employment relationship.

In other words, if a content creator is paid to talk about a product, receives a free item or gets a discount, they must make it clear in their posts. These guidelines ensure endorsements are honest and transparent, so it’s obvious when an influencer has a brand connection.

If an influencer wants to share about something they bought and liked, they can do so if there is no relationship with the brand. But whenever there is a material connection, these rules apply, and it’s both the brand and influencers’ responsibility to make sure their followers know.

FTC influencer guidelines do’s and don’ts

Here are some quick FTC compliance do’s and don’ts for influencer brand partnerships.

DO:

• Be crystal-clear. If an influencer received a free product, discount or any other benefit, they must disclose it—even if their review is genuine and unbiased.
• Place the disclosure up front, with the endorsement message, where followers will immediately see it.
• Match the disclosure to the media format. Consider how consumers view the content and match the disclosure accordingly– for example, if the endorsement is in a live stream, the disclosure should be repeated periodically so that even viewers who only pop in for a portion of the stream will view or hear the disclosure.
• Keep it simple. Use direct language like “Thanks to [brand] for the free product,” “Gifted by [Brand],” or “In partnership with [Brand] or hashtags like #ad or #sponsored.
• Use the same language as the endorsement and avoid jargon like “comped” or “ambassador” that might confuse followers.

DON’T:

• Assume an influencer’s followers already know about their brand relationships.
• Hide disclosures by putting them in a spot that requires extra clicks, like in a profile, in an “about me” section or at the end of the post.
• Mix with other hashtags (e.g., #beauty #ad #faveproducts”) or links where your audience might miss it.
• Use vague terms or unclear abbreviations like “sp,” “spon” or “collab.” Stick to terms like “ad” or “sponsored.”
• Publish endorsements from influencers who haven’t tried, disliked or can’t verify the product or service. Only share genuine experiences.
• Publish endorsements that claim results for which you don’t have evidence. Claims of health benefits or results need to be supported by proof.
• Incorporate influencer endorsements into any consumer review average ratings or lists without adequate disclosure.

Following these simple do’s and don’ts will help brands and influencers maintain transparency, build trust with their audiences and stay on the right side of the FTC rules.

Why the FTC influencer guidelines are important

The FTC guidelines for influencers aren’t just a legal formality. They keep branded content truthful and free from hidden motives so followers get the whole picture and can properly weigh the value of an influencer endorsement. Here’s why following them matters:

Building trust with your audience

Imagine a friend recommends a restaurant, and later, you find out they received a free meal to talk it up. It would likely make you second-guess their glowing review, right? This is the premise behind the FTC guidelines. By revealing brand connections upfront, consumers can make more educated choices, and influencers and brands can maintain credibility with their audiences.

According to our Q4 Pulse Survey, 59% of social media users say that the #ad label doesn’t affect their decision to purchase a featured product. But it makes a difference among specific demographics. A third (33%) of Gen Z respondents said it makes them more likely to buy, while about a quarter (26%) of Baby Boomers are less likely to purchase after seeing the #ad label.

These insights show that, for most social media users, adding disclosures doesn’t negatively impact their content-viewing experience or buying behavior. Many younger consumers appreciate disclosed partnerships and see them as credible endorsements.

Keeping up with evolving influencer trends

Influencer marketing is constantly evolving, so the rules around influencer relationships must keep pace. For example, virtual influencers complicate FTC guidelines since they aren’t real people. Human influencers can have a personal experience with a product or service, but virtual influencers can’t.

FTC guidelines protect consumers by mandating that any paid relationship is clearly disclosed regardless of who or what is endorsing a product. This way, consumers are always in-the-know, no matter how influencer marketing shifts.

Consequences of non-compliance

Both influencers and brands face serious consequences—like fines, legal fees and other penalties—if they don’t properly disclose partnerships. For example, in 2020, a tea company agreed to pay a $1 million settlement after the FTC found it had misled consumers by not disclosing payments to influencers promoting its products.

There is also the risk of consumer backlash. In 2023, the FTC issued warning letters to TikTok and Instagram health influencers who failed to disclose paid endorsements for artificial sweeteners and sugary foods. The resulting scandal eroded trust with followers, leading to negative comments and press.

Influencer marketing regulations by network

Each social network has its own approach to disclosure requirements, and brands and influencers need to understand the nuances of each one. Remember, however, that using a platform’s built-in disclosure tools doesn’t guarantee compliance with the FTC’s rules. Here’s a quick guide to keeping content compliant across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and more.

Instagram

According to their branded content policies, Instagram creators can only post branded content using the branded content tool, which applies a “Paid Partnership” label on posts, Stories, Reels and live content. This label indicates when a brand or business has influenced the content in exchange for payment or gifts. Creators must use this tool for sponsored content to maintain transparency with their followers.

For Instagram posts, disclosures should be placed near the start of the caption, above the “more” button, so they’re visible without additional clicks. Avoid burying the disclosure among hashtags or in a lengthy caption. For Instagram Stories, overlay the disclosure directly onto the image or video and keep it on screen long enough for viewers to read. These practices make the brand partnership instantly evident to the influencer’s audience.

TikTok

On TikTok, creators must use the platform’s “commercial content disclosure” toggle for any branded content, which automatically adds a “paid partnership” label to videos or LIVEs. This label immediately identifies the content as sponsored or part of a brand collaboration. TikTok also requires creators to obviously mention the promoted product or service in the content so viewers don’t have to check the creator’s profile or click links to understand the endorsement.

FTC guidelines recommend that video disclosures be audible, visible and placed at the start of the content. For livestreams like TikTok LIVE, it’s also best to repeat the disclosure periodically to tell any viewers who join late about the brand partnership.

Facebook

Since Meta owns Instagram and Facebook, they follow the same branded content policy. This requires creators on both networks to use the branded content tool for sponsored posts, even if the product or service they endorse was gifted.

When disclosing a partnership in a Facebook post or caption, use plain language like “Thank you [Brand] for the free service” or hashtags like #ad or #sponsored near the beginning of the caption. Avoid vague terms or hashtags like #ambassador or #partner, as these don’t meet FTC standards.

YouTube

Putting #ad in the video description isn’t enough. On YouTube, creators must disclose paid promotions, endorsements or product placements directly within their videos. To comply, they must check the “paid promotion” box in YouTube Studio’s video editing settings, which adds a disclosure message to the first 10 seconds of the video.

Disclosures should be audible and visible for video content and included at the beginning of the video. For longer videos, creators should consider adding another disclosure before the product endorsement so the brand affiliation is clear throughout.

X (formerly Twitter)

According to X’s paid partnerships policy, creators need to disclose when a post is sponsored. The simplest way to do this is by adding #ad directly to the post so followers immediately know it’s branded content. With X’s character limits, disclosures should be kept short, but confusing abbreviations or acronyms should be avoided.

The post should also directly mention the product, service or call-to-action without requiring viewers to click on links for additional information. If there’s room, consider adding terms like “[Brand] Partner” or “[Brand] Ambassador” to make the brand connection extra clear.

How to implement FTC influencer guidelines in your social strategy

Keeping your influencer strategy FTC-compliant is more straightforward than it sounds. Setting clear expectations and using the right tools will protect your brand and build trust with your audience. Here’s how to make it happen.

Thoroughly research and vet potential influencers

Before engaging influencers, ensure their values and style align with your brand’s voice and audience. Review past content for consistency and check for any red flags (like a lack of brand partnership disclosures).

Sprout Social Influencer Marketing streamlines this process by providing insights into influencer metrics, audience demographics and engagement rates, helping marketers make data-backed decisions.

Set clear expectations around compliance

The FTC holds brands accountable for influencer compliance, so set explicit guidelines from the start. Include FTC compliance clauses in contracts and provide influencers with guidelines on disclosure requirements and acceptable content practices, like the FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers.

Sprout Social Influencer Marketing’s Creator and Collaborator portals make organizing communication, feedback and approvals in real-time easy, to ensure all of your influencer marketing campaigns are both compliant and on brand.

Use pre-approval processes for time-sensitive content

With fast-moving content like Instagram Stories and TikTok LIVEs, a pre-approval process can keep everything legally compliant and brand safe without slowing down content production.

For example, you could have your influencers submit a draft of each Instagram Story slide with the disclosure (#ad or “Sponsored by [Brand]”) in advance. Hosting a live stream? You might have influencers share a brief outline of talking points, noting where they’ll make brand disclosures (e.g., “This is a paid partnership” at the start and every five minutes).

Follow best practices for different content types

Regardless of the social media network, keep the following content guidelines in mind:

• Photos and Static Posts: Make disclosures clear and upfront. Don’t bury them in a sea of hashtags. Use simple terms like #ad at the start of the caption so viewers see it immediately. Also, consider using a text overlay on the image itself in addition to the caption disclosure, especially on platforms where the image grabs attention first.
• Videos: Include audio and on-screen disclosures within the video, not just in the description. This way, all viewers can easily spot the brand partnership—even if they’re watching with the sound off. Repeating disclosures before brand mentions in longer videos helps all viewers understand the content is sponsored. Even if they skip around or don’t watch the entire thing.
• Livestreams: During live broadcasts, repeat the disclosure periodically to notify new viewers. This is especially important for longer streams where audiences may join and leave throughout. For sessions with multiple product demos, mention the disclosure at the start and end of each demo so everyone tuning in gets the context.

Streamline your workflow with an influencer marketing platform

Managing multiple influencers can get complicated, especially when coordinating disclosures and approvals. Sprout Social Influencer Marketing simplifies the process. The platform allows you to track campaign performance, coordinate schedules and monitor compliance across all stakeholders—all in one place. With features like invite links for labeling TikTok branded content and centralized content feedback, Sprout makes maintaining FTC compliance seamless.

The future of influencer compliance starts here

What does the future of influencer marketing look like? Only time will tell. But as the field evolves, so must consumer protections. The FTC’s goal is simple: to maintain honesty and transparency in advertising. For brands and marketers, this means staying adaptable and proactive. Having the right processes will help you manage compliance as guidelines shift.

That’s why using a dedicated influencer marketing platform like Sprout Social Influencer Marketing makes all the difference. With Sprout, you get the tools to track disclosures, manage campaigns and communicate directly with influencers in one streamlined platform.

Schedule a demo of our influencer marketing platform and see how easy managing compliant, successful influencer campaigns can be.

Disclaimer

The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute formal legal advice; all information, content, and materials are for general informational purposes and are subject to change. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. Incorporation of any guidelines provided in this article does not guarantee compliance or that your legal risk is reduced. You should contact your legal team or attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular matter including how to comply with FTC guidelines and should refrain from acting on the basis of information in this article without first seeking independent legal advice. Use of, and access to, this article or any of the links or resources contained within the site does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Sprout Social or any contributors to www.sproutsocial.com. Links to any third-party sites are for general informational purposes only. Such third-party websites are beyond our control, and we are not responsible for any content or links found within. Sprout Social does not endorse or otherwise opine on the compliance or legality of any content or examples on this article. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this article are hereby expressly disclaimed. More information about social media disclosures can be found at ftc.gov.

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Who should you partner with? What kind of content should you create with influencers? How can you make sure your influencer marketing methods are going to pay off? It all comes down to influencer authenticity.

In this article, we get into the nitty gritty of what influencer authenticity is, why it matters and how you can use it to drive revenue and make a business impact.

What is authenticity in influencer marketing?

Authenticity may sound like social media jargon, but it’s a concept that’s essential to connecting with your brand’s social media followers. The definition of what is authentic in marketing is a moving target, as it varies across generations and demographics. In the context of social media marketing, influencer authenticity refers to influencers that are true to their values and mission. In authentic influencer marketing, brands work with influencers whose values and mission align with their own.

Authenticity in social media is something users want more of—whether it’s from influencers or others. According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, authentic, non-promotional content is the number one thing users don’t see enough of on social media. It’s what they crave.

Influencer authenticity makes your brand look more believable to consumers simply by association. How can you spot an authentic social media influencer? Look for these traits:

Transparency and honesty

Examine how the influencer communicates with their audience, especially about their brand partnerships and brand deals. The FTC now requires influencers to disclose brand partnerships, so influencers must note which posts are sponsored by their partners or that they’re doing a brand deal with a specific company who’s paid them to create content.

Disclosing a brand partnership is just one way to be transparent. As we’ve seen in our research, social media users are looking for authenticity and transparency about business practices and values. Look at how the influencer talks about the brand in their posts. For example, do they share that they loved the brand even before they started working with them? Do they talk about certain aspects of the brand that align with their personal values and interests? This type of transparency and honesty helps to create trust with followers.

@SpiceSpoon is a social media influencer that focuses on modern Pakistani, Afghan‌ and Persian Cuisine. In the post below, she specifies that she has a partnership with a sponsor so her audience is aware that it’s a paid post. In the caption, she notes specific aspects she loves about the product, such as their sustainable farming methods—something she’s passionate about.

Genuine passion and interest

Does the social media influencer really care about the topics they post about? Are those topics an important part of their life? Unless the social media influencer is a talented performer, most users and brands can see right through faked passion and interest.

Authentic influencers live and breathe their area of expertise—it’s not only how they make money, it brings true joy and value to their lives.

Engagement with followers

Look at how the influencer interacts and engages with their followers. Do they passionately talk about common interests or do they brush off comments and DMs from followers?

Showing authenticity with social followers involves engaging with them, whether that’s by liking comments, replying to comments or even using user-generated content (UGC) in posts.

If an influencer isn’t building an emotional connection with their followers, they likely aren’t putting their authentic selves out into the world—and a partnership with them could harm your brand.

Why authentic influencers matter

Why should your brand prioritize influencer authenticity? Appealing directly to consumers is a major reason, one that helps increase influencer marketing return on investment (ROI).

Authentic marketing with influencers not only captures your target audience’s attention and gives them what they want, but it also has several other benefits like enhancing your credibility, increasing engagement with followers and creating meaningful relationships with consumers. Who can say no to that?

Here are other reasons influencer authenticity matters:

Builds trust and credibility

Brand trust—you can never have too much of it, but you can certainly have too little. If your consumers trust your brand, they know they can rely on you to fulfill your promises to them. This makes them much more likely to purchase from you again or refer you to their family and friends.

The same is true for authentic influencers. They build trust with their audience by showing how true they are to their values and mission. This increases credibility with their followers, encouraging them to engage online and consider making a purchase based on the influencer’s recommendations. People are much more likely to buy a product or service from someone they trust, after all.

The Pasinis’ social media presence revolves around their connection to Italy—it’s the area of their expertise. As a result, when they share travel tips for Italy (that include brand partnerships like the one below), their followers trust their recommendations.

Drives engagements and conversions

Authentic influencers tend to engage with their followers by liking and responding to comments, especially when discussing matters that align with their own values. Meaningful interactions like these increase the likelihood of their followers taking action—such as going to your brand’s social media profile or clicking through to your website from a sponsored post.

Never underestimate the value of social media engagement. It helps social media users feel connected with influencers and the brands they promote, creating a sense of loyalty and community.

@Maymah is an influencer whose content focuses on fitness training and modest gym outfits. She responds to her followers’ comments in almost every post, driving further engagement.

Create long-term relationships

Speaking of loyalty and community, authentic influencer marketing is a great way for brands to create long-term relationships online—both with influencers and their followers, benefiting everyone involved. How does this work?

Influencer authenticity, by association, builds brand authenticity. When the influencer’s followers feel aligned with the influencer’s values and see them as being authentic online, they feel more inclined to trust what they say. And if the influencer vouches for your brand, their followers will want to create a relationship with you as well, all based on the influencer’s word.

Be sure to live up to expectations by engaging with your influencer’s audience online when and where it feels appropriate to do so.

Enhances brand reputation

Influencer marketing and authenticity in content creation go hand in hand. You can’t have authentic social content without an authentic influencer and vice versa. Partnering with the right influencers can positively impact your brand’s image and reputation, especially if your brand values align with the influencer’s values. This kind of alignment will help both the brand and the influencer create content that feels meaningful

For example, if you work with an influencer who values sustainability just as much as your brand, you’ll be able to enhance your brand reputation with their followers through a strategic partnership. If your brand doesn’t feel the same way about sustainability, however, your partnership won’t resonate with followers.

@GreenGirlLeah is an influencer whose content revolves around sustainability and environmentalism. Naturally, her content features brands with similar values, like in the example below, where she partnered with brand Brilliant Earth.

How to identify authentic influencers

There’s no shortage of social media influencers online, so how do you find the best partnership for your brand? Our blog on how to find the right influencers is a great start to getting a shortlist of candidates, but you’ve also got to consider influencer authenticity.

Follow these tips to find the right influencer for your brand.

Conduct a content analysis

When it comes to influencer marketing and authenticity in content creation, the best way to find what your brand needs is to do a deep dive into the influencer’s content. This is a key step, so be sure not to rush it—you want to take time to watch or read posts in detail.

Look for consistency in the influencer’s message: Do they talk about their values in the same way across their posts? Also consider how genuine their content feels. Is the influencer enthusiastic in how they talk to their followers? Do they show passion and interest in the topics that matter to your brand?

Originality can’t be understated. It’s ranked as one of the top factors that make a brand memorable on social, with 38% of consumers remembering brands who share original and creative content. Consumers don’t want to see the same trends over and over again. If the influencer shares new and interesting content on a regular basis, they might be a winner.

Identify values alignment

Influencer-brand partnerships are successful when the influencer’s values align with the brand’s values. If there’s a major disconnect, the authenticity of the relationship fades—and consumers can tell.

When reviewing the influencer’s content, pay special attention to what drives them and compare them to your brand’s values. While the influencer may not share 100% of your values, there needs to be considerable alignment on the things that matter most.

For example, if a luxury home decor brand values high-quality manufacturing and doesn’t like to cut corners—and the influencer’s whole platform is about cheap and quick home decor “hacks”—there’s a disconnect in values here. Even if the brand and the influencer agree on other values, this type of misalignment can tank a partnership and create a brand crisis.

Evaluate audience engagement metrics

Analyze the quality of interactions between the influencer and their followers. Look at engagement metrics such as likes, shares and comments to evaluate the level of engagement the influencer has with their audience. Around three-quarters of marketers focus on engagement metrics when tracking social performance.

Other important metrics to track include click-through rates, reach and impressions, which are also directly impacted by audience engagement. If you note upward trends, it’s typically a good sign. Downward trends should be investigated—because it may mean the influencer is struggling to connect with their followers.

Consider follower count—but not too much

On a related note, the influencer’s engagement may depend on how many followers they have. In some cases, the more followers an influencer has may mean they have more engagement as well—but that’s not always the case.

Often, micro and nano-influencers have high levels of engagement because they have a highly targeted, engaged follower base. So, while follower count is important, it’s not as important as the level of engagement or authenticity.

Authenticity in influencer marketing isn’t impacted by follower count. While it can be beneficial for your brand to work with mega influencers, the ROI only pans out if those influencers align with your brand and have loyal followings

If you want to connect with your target audience through strategic partnerships, check out this worksheet to help you create a social strategy that blends data and values.

Review past partnerships

Do your due diligence by looking at the influencer’s history of collaboration to gauge their authenticity and alignment with your brand. How many brands have they worked with before? What kinds of brands do they typically work with? How do those brands compare to your brand? The answers to these questions can help you evaluate if the influencer is right for your needs.

Consider influencer marketing benchmarks, like those found in The 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report, to see how well the influencer’s partnerships have performed. If the influencer hasn’t met past brand expectations, there could be something amiss with their partnerships, messaging or engagement.

DermDoctor is a board-certified dermatologist. His brand partnerships are typically with skincare brands, like in the example below, showing consistency and authenticity.

Use an influencer marketing platform

An influencer marketing platform is a great way to speed up the identification and vetting process. Whether you’re interested in virtual influencers or human influencers, you can use influencer marketing platforms to connect with top creators in your industry, narrow down your search and identify influencers that align with your brand.

Once you’ve found your partner, you can use influencer marketing platforms to manage contracts, content and analytics.

Finding authentic influencers with Sprout Social Influencer Marketing

In order to harness authenticity in influencer marketing, you need the right tools. Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands find and connect with influencers that align with their brand values. Brands can maximize their influencer marketing ROI and create lasting business impact.

Check out these key capabilities:

Advanced search and filtering

Sprout’s Influencer Marketing enables users to filter influencers based on criteria such as audience demographics, engagement rates and content categories. Use the 50+ search filters to find influencers that not only align with your brand values and mission, but serve the same target audience as you.

Brands can create data-driven influencer-marketing strategies for effective collaboration. By partnering with social influencers who have the power to introduce your brand to their loyal audience, you can reach more people who may be interested in what you have to offer.

Authenticity and brand affinity analysis

Sprout’s Influencer Marketing helps you assess an influencer’s authenticity by analyzing their content, audience engagement and past brand partnerships, so you can be sure they’re the right fit for your campaign.

Influencer Marketing’s proprietary algorithm uses machine learning and audience psychographics to match brands with creators who have a strong affinity for one another. The platform also has a content health capability that compares crucial performance metrics among influencers so you can make data-driven decisions that result in business impact.

Streamlined workflow and collaboration

Once you’ve found the influencers you want to work with, managing the partnership is made easy with Sprout’s Influencer Marketing. It simplifies the process of overseeing influencer campaigns with its end-to-end campaign workflow. You can optimize every aspect of the campaign, from planning to approval and posting.

Foster collaboration between your team and the influencer with collaboration portals, which make onboarding and communication easy. Organize feedback and approvals for the influencer and track performance all from one interface.

Build long-term relationships with authentic influencers

Nurturing long-term relationships with authentic influencers isn’t a one-and-done job. It requires strategy, planning and continued collaboration, but it’s worth it for the level of brand advocacy you get in return.

The key? Mutual respect.

Brands and influencers need to see eye to eye and be on the same page about the goals of their collaboration. Through candid communication and clear expectations, you can be on your way to establishing a partnership that lasts years.

Consider giving influencers creative freedom to create content for your brand, avoiding overstepping your role as a partner. Provide guidance when needed to protect your brand, but keep in mind that the influencer has built a following for a reason and they know what kind of content appeals to their audience.

Champion authenticity in your next campaign

Whether you’re new to influencer campaigns or have already partnered with several influencers, it’s time to put authenticity front and center. It’s what social media users want and they’re in charge of your brand’s success on social.

Use this influencer marketing toolkit which will set you up with the resources to begin, budget and build an influencer strategy optimized for ROI. Establish strong relationships on social for the long term with influencers, followers and customers.

The post Authenticity in influencer marketing: How to find authentic influencers appeared first on Sprout Social.

The answer, as with many marketing questions, is a bit more complex than a simple yes or no. While EMV is a great tool for understanding your brand’s social presence, it’s just that—a tool.

This blog post will explain in detail, explaining its benefits and its limits. It will also help you understand why a complete approach to measurement is important for showing social media ROI.

What is earned media value?

Earned media is any content that mentions your brand that your business didn’t paid for. In simple terms: Earned media means earned engagement by your “digital word of mouth,” not engagement from your own media channel or bought through paid promotions or advertising of content.

Earned media value, or EMV, is a way to value the different actions people take when they interact with different social media content. These engagement actions include comments, likes, shares and mentions. These actions are then projected to be worth a numerical dollar value to your business.

So, for example, if a creator receives 1,000 likes on an Instagram post, using a customized EMV benchmark of $0.10 per like, that post would provide an estimated value of $100.

Is it worth measuring EMV for your brand?

The answer to that question depends on your specific social media marketing goals and objectives.

While earned media value can provide valuable insights into the impact of your social media efforts, it isn’t the only metric that should be considered. It’s important to also track other key performance indicators, such as reach, engagement rate and conversion rate. This will help you to get a more comprehensive understanding of your social media success.

Ultimately, using EMV as a tool together with other metrics can still help guide you in guaging the effectiveness of your social media strategy.

Earned media value can be a useful metric for:

• Benchmarking: Track your brand’s performance over time and compare it to competitors.
• Identifying trends: Spot spikes in EMV that might indicate successful campaigns or viral content.
• Reporting to stakeholders: Provide a high-level overview of your social media impact.

However, keep in mind that EMV has its limitations. It doesn’t directly correlate to business outcomes like sales or leads, and it can be influenced by factors outside your control (like changes in platform algorithms).

What to look out for when earned media value is calculated

When reporting to stakeholders about your social media impact, it’s valuable to include a high-level overview of your earned media value.

While earned media value can be a useful measure for evaluating the success of your social media efforts, it’s important to keep in mind common challenges around earned media value formulas.

Here are a few key things to watch out for around how earned media value is calculated:

• Common calculation inconsistencies: The challenge with EMV calculations is that there is no standard way to assign a monetary value to social media engagements. Some methods rely on advertising equivalents, like cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-engagement (CPE), while others use arbitrary multipliers based on perceived value. Not to mention, the calculation of earned media value can vary significantly between different social media platforms and partners. This can lead to inconsistencies and make it difficult to compare results across platforms.
• Lack of transparency: Be wary of partners who are vague about their approach to calculating EMV. Some may claim their calculations are based on a “proprietary algorithm” or a “trade secret.” This lack of transparency makes it difficult to determine the accuracy and reliability of their results.
• Misaligned KPIs: Ensure the EMV calculation aligns with your specific goals. Misalignment can lead to skewed earned media value figures and make it challenging to accurately measure the success of a campaign. It’s crucial for companies to carefully choose and align their KPIs with their EMV calculations to get a more accurate understanding of their campaign’s effectiveness.
• Over-reliance on EMV: Don’t fall into the trap of relying solely on earned media value. In today’s sophisticated marketing landscape, we have access to far more granular data and attribution models that can paint a bigger picture on ROI than this one calculation.

Looking for the best way to capture your social media data across various social platforms accurately for calculating your social ROI and overall EMV?

Enter: Sprout Social, the all-in-one social media management platform.

Under Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics, Sprout seamlessly integrates reporting across various social media platforms for you. This integration ensures that you have a comprehensive view of your social media engagements for your various accounts across multiple social media networks. It enables you to analyze accurate data for seamless EMV calculations. Additionally, with Sprout Social’s reporting, you will find a repertoire of invaluable data tracking and visualization to present your social media ROI to stakeholders.

Curious to explore Sprout Social? Get started with a 30-day free trial today.

Sign up for a free trial

How to calculate earned media value

As previously mentioned, calculating earned media value does not look the same for everyone. A common approach we can easily recommend, however, is as follows:

1. Determining your average cost-per-engagement (CPE) for paid social media. This provides a baseline for valuing organic engagement.
2. Assigning weights to different types of engagement. For example, a share might be weighted more heavily than a like.
3. Multiplying the number of engagements by their respective weights and your CPE.

Let’s give you an example. We’ve decided that our average CPE is $0.50.

You receive 100 likes, 50 comments and 20 shares on a post.

You assign weights of 1 to likes, 2 to comments and 3 to shares.

• Likes: 100 likes x 1 x $0.50 = $50
• Comments: 50 comments x 2 x $0.50 = $50
• Shares: 20 shares x 3 x $0.50 = $30

Total EMV for the post: $50 + $50 + $30 = $130

Important Note: This is a simplified example. More complex calculations might factor in reach, content type and other variables.

Leverage powerful social media analytics to prove ROI

To sum up, earned media value is a useful metric for benchmarking, identifying trends and reporting to stakeholders. However, it isn’t the be-all and end-all of social media measurement. To truly maximize your social media strategy, it’s essential to integrate EMV with other metrics that provide a more complete picture of your efforts. By understanding the nuances of EMV calculations and leveraging tools like Sprout Social’s reporting tool, you can ensure that your social media strategy is data-driven and aligned with your business goals.

The post Earned media value: How to calculate it and what to look out for in the calculating process appeared first on Sprout Social.

But that’s only if marketers understand how to hire an influencer in the first place. The process of sourcing, contracting and managing influencer contracts plays a key role in the eventual success of any influencer campaign.

Read on to find out how to hire an influencer the right way, so you have a better chance of assuring success for your social marketing efforts.

Understand the process of hiring influencers

Marketers rarely stumble on the perfect influencer for their brand by chance. The hiring process needs to be treated as a dedicated strategy in its own right to establish strong working relationships with the right influencers from the get-go.

When you’re learning how to hire an influencer, consider the process as a type of recruitment, except you’re looking for independent contractors/freelancers instead of new employees. The typical influencer hiring process is made up of five key steps:

• Creating a shortlist of influencers
• Engaging in influencer outreach
• Negotiating and signing contracts
• Sharing a campaign brief, alongside objectives and expectations, and then managing the influencer campaign performance
• Maintaining a continued relationship with your freelancers

Influencer marketing tools, like Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger), can help streamline this process. Below, we’ll go into detail on how to optimize each step.

Create an influencer shortlist to partner with

Learning how to hire an influencer successfully isn’t as simple as partnering with the biggest account you can find. A far more effective strategy is making sure you source influencers with the same target audience as your brand. Check out their profiles, posts and engagement rates.

Once you start finding an influencer make sure some, if not all, of the below metrics match with your business needs. When creating your influencer shortlist, consider using a data-driven solution like Sprout Influencer Marketing so you can easily track each influencer’s account performance. A dedicated platform like Sprout’s allows you to vet influencers, assess their alignment with your brand values and understand their audience demographics–without a bunch of manual research.

As you think about what influencers are right for your brand, watch our video on how to build the best influencer partnerships. These insights will provide a solid understanding that’ll also support you through the later stages of influencer marketing.

Tracking metrics is a smart, data-driven way to create an influencer shortlist of people who match well with your brand. To find your ideal influencer partner, make sure you’re tracking the following metrics:

Content health and performance benchmarks

Content health refers to how well an influencer’s content is performing compared to similar creators. This metric looks at specific content updates like individual reels to see how effective an influencer’s work is.

Performance benchmarks are similar, but they look specifically at an influencer’s standing among other influencers. Instead of honing in on individual content, these benchmarks show how an influencer’s overall account is performing.

These benchmarks are useful because they put a greater focus on an influencer’s tier or size. Several influencer marketing benchmarks are used to figure out an influencer’s content health and overall performance, though the most important is usually engagement rates.

Combining content health and performance benchmarks gives you a clear idea of how well an influencer’s overall account is doing.

Track these metrics across an influencer’s social media platforms because success on YouTube can look very different from success on TikTok, or X (formerly Twitter).

By tracking influencer performance benchmarks and content health on your platforms of choice, you’ll also get specific insight into their popularity across particular platforms. This will help you partner on more targeted and effective campaigns.

Brand and audience affinity

If you’re marketing a health product, it’d be counter-productive to partner with an influencer known for reviewing fast food. Tracking affinities makes sure you avoid situations like this and hire influencers within the same niche as your brand.

Brand affinity and audience affinity work slightly differently, but it’s worth factoring both into your influencer sourcing strategy.

Brand affinity refers to how much an influencer’s values and beliefs overlap with your brand. For example, if you’re an athleisure company, a fitness influencer will likely have a strong brand affinity with you.

Audience affinity refers to how much an influencer’s audience qualities and interests overlap with those of your brand’s audience. For example, if you’re in the gaming industry, a Twitch streamer should have a strong audience affinity with your brand’s audience.

Paying attention to both of these qualitative metrics will help you find the right influencers for your brand’s niche.

Audience demographics

Audience demographics help you identify an influencer’s audience. This demographic data can be diverse, but usually includes information like:

• Location
• Gender
• Language
• Age

Make sure an influencer’s audience demographics are similar to your brand’s target audience, so your campaign reaches the right people.

For example, Cadbury partnered with Xiensscran, a London-based food influencer with an audience of millennials and Gen Z. Because of these audience demographics, Cadbury knew what to expect when partnering with her and could create a campaign tailored to the target audience they wanted to reach–younger consumers.

Much like with performance metrics, audience demographics will also differ based on social platforms. As a general rule, TikTok audiences skew younger, while Facebook audiences are older. It’s worth tracking the different audience demographics for each influencer across all of their platforms.

Influencer authenticity

Authenticity on social media is a hot topic. According to our 2024 Influencer Marketing Report, 35% of Gen Z consumers rank authenticity as a top trait they care about when following influencers. So if it’s your first time learning how to hire an influencer, make sure the influencer you’re looking for is legitimate.

This means determining that their follower count and engagement rates are genuine. Otherwise, you risk working with an influencer who doesn’t have as active of an audience as it first appears.

In the below example, M&S Food partners with UK footballing legend Ian Wright. He’s a legitimate celebrity with his own influencer following, and they use his sporting background to help promote their healthy product range.

Ensuring authenticity also means reviewing parts of an influencer’s profile that are harder to track. For example, figuring out whether they’re genuinely passionate and knowledgeable in the topics they’re discussing, and understanding their audience’s overall sentiment toward them.

Reaching out to influencers

To create an influencer outreach strategy, find out how each of your shortlisted influencers prefers to be contacted. Do they want inquiries to go through their agent, or prefer an email over a DM. Using an influencer’s chosen communication channel is the first positive step toward a longer working relationship. You can usually find this information on their profile page.

In the example below, Nadir Nadhi shows that he prefers inquiries to go through a specific email address.

Then, create influencer outreach templates for your DMs and emails. Focus on making these templates clear, concise and respectful.

Personalize each outreach message based on the individual influencer you’re contacting. Let them know you’re familiar with their work, as this personalization can go a long way toward establishing a good first impression.

Finally, remember that working with an influencer is always a two-way street. Define a clear value proposition in your messages that shows how you’ll both benefit from the campaign.

Negotiating contracts before hiring an influencer

After your outreach messages are successful, you’ll enter the negotiation phase. Influencer compensation can work differently depending on who you’re working with.

Knowing what kind of influencer campaign you plan to create before you enter negotiations is helpful. A single sponsored post will cost far less than a week-long influencer takeover, for example.

Familiarize yourself with typical influencer pricing expectations for your chosen content type, so you know what kind of price to expect initially. Make sure to also factor in the size of the influencer you’re contacting and your industry, as these will also impact rates.

Before you start to negotiate, figure out any perks or alternative payment methods you can offer, like free products or affiliate commissions.

Once you have all this information, read up on how to negotiate influencer rates with your chosen influencer. Go into any negotiation with consideration and respect for the other person, and aim for a solution that benefits both of you. Whatever you decide, everything needs to be written into your influencer contract.

Your influencer contract should include the payment terms you’ve agreed to and influencer deliverables. It should also include further information like who owns any content produced, content usage rights and who’s responsible for content production costs.

An ideal influencer contract should fulfill two clear roles. It should first serve as a legally binding contract that protects your brand. It should also serve as an outline of expectations that an influencer can refer back to throughout your working relationship.

Campaign management and performance

After a contract has been signed, provide your influencer with a further campaign brief.

This document should clarify the goals of your campaign in more detail, including your expectations from your chosen influencer and any content guidelines. Send a few influencer marketing examples along with your guidelines, so the creator knows your expectations. The more detailed you can make this document, the more likely an influencer will create content you’re happy with.

Your onboarding might be more substantial than this one document, particularly if this is your first time working with a new influencer. Get further contact details from your influencer at this stage if you haven’t already, as you’ll need their address to ship any product samples.

In the example below, Airalo Global eSim partnered with the travel influencer Omar Nok. As part of their agreement, they provided him with one of their eSim products, which he used throughout his travel content journey.

To define expectations and deliverables that will support a campaign, hold a kickoff call. A kickoff call, where the influencer can ask you any questions before creating content, will help clarify your campaign goals with them directly.

Your goals should be aligned with influencer marketing KPIs. Some important KPIs include engagement rates, click-through rates and conversion rates. This will make it far easier to track a campaign’s performance against your expectations and change tactics accordingly if it’s a long-term campaign.

Tracking success can also be streamlined by using a campaign management tool like Sprout Social Influencer Marketing. A campaign management tool can centralize your campaign data and provide clear visualizations of how your campaign is doing against your KPIs.

You can also track financial data like the number of influencers you’ve partnered with and their rates against your chosen budget. Tracking this data regularly helps you avoid overspending on your influencer campaigns.

Maintaining long-term relationships with influencers

Influencer marketing is rarely, if ever, a one-and-done strategy. Even when you’re confident you know how to hire an influencer, you need to learn how to retain influencers. You may want to work with them again on new content, or an entirely different campaign.

This recurring part of influencer marketing pairs well with the importance of authenticity. If you continue to work with the same influencer on multiple campaigns, they’ll build further trust in your products with their audience.

Long-term relationships can also lead to a natural increase in brand advocacy. When combined with the right kind of content, it can also increase conversions and bring a stronger ROI.

If you’re really happy with a particular working relationship, you could further your influencer brand partnership by making them a brand ambassador.

Even if you’re not prepared to go this far, it’s worth nurturing your working relationship with your influencers. Keep in contact with them regularly, and make sure they’re kept in the loop on your wider marketing strategy.

The more you work together, the more familiar they’ll become with your brand. This can often lead to better content, which results in superior campaign results. As long as you continue to treat influencers with respect, you’ll both be able to reap the benefits of your continued work together.

Drive measurable results with influencer partnerships

We hope these tips and best practices have helped you understand how to hire an influencer who matches your brand and your upcoming campaign.

Treating your influencer outreach like its own strategy can lay the foundations for great influencer partnerships and multiple successful social campaigns. Especially because partnering with the right people enables you to create significant, measurable results for your brand that boost your growth.

If you’re looking for a tool that makes influencer marketing easier, consider Sprout Social. Reach out to get a personalized demo today.

The post How to hire an influencer: A guide for successful partnerships appeared first on Sprout Social.

Influencer marketing helps brands tap into niche audiences, more so than traditional media and advertising. Plus, they can reach highly segmented markets based on influencer demographics and interests. It’s also ideal for brands who can’t afford celebrities to endorse their products but can partner with micro-influencers with a close-knit audience that trusts them.

Successful influencer campaigns need intensive planning and strategy. Influencer analytics tools help you do this by giving you insightful data, and the means, to execute your influencer marketing efforts to get the best results. These tools help you refine your strategy for better results by discovering the right influencers and monitoring and managing campaign performance.

Let’s dive into 12 top influencer analytics tools that can help supercharge your campaigns and grow your business in 2025 and beyond.

What is an influencer analytics tool?

Influencer analytics tools are a type of influencer marketing tool designed to measure the performance and impact of influencer marketing campaigns. These tools help brands find influencers with the right target audience, and then track and evaluate how each sponsored post contributes to the overall campaign.

Consolidating audience demographics, content performance metrics and profile stats for each influencer helps marketers measure and optimize their influencer partnerships according to overall business objectives.

Top 12 influencer analytics tools to boost your influencer marketing

An influencer analytics tool makes your influencer marketing workflow more efficient so you can focus on strategy and building strong, creative partnerships. Here are 12 of our favorite influencer analytics tools.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform with powerful influencer analysis capabilities. Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) helps you discover niche influencers, analyze content performance and create influencer campaigns that resonate with your audience (and inspire conversions).

With Sprout, streamline end-to-end campaign management and deliver fast, tangible business impact. You can:

• Grow your audience organically by collaborating with vetted influencers whose audiences align with your brand.
• Connect with millions of brand and influencer profiles with billions of social data points. Use 50+ filters in thousands of combinations to identify influencers with the perfect alignment to your brand and campaign goals.
• Build data-driven influencer marketing campaigns and improve your social strategy with tailored insights into your target audience’s behavior across social media networks.
• Maximize influencer marketing ROI by monitoring real-time campaign performance and identifying optimization opportunities. Integrate with your favorite tools, from Google Analytics to Facebook Ads Manager, to further measure campaign performance.
• Manage influencer payments in one place with our payment dashboard. See payments made directly to influencers or through integrations like PayPal.

Key features:

• Vetted influencer database across multiple platforms including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), with audience demographics and smart filters.
• Brand affinity engine that uses machine learning and audience psychographics to suggest influencers based on interests, audience demographics and more.
• Centralized platform to manage content approvals, schedule posts and track campaign progress.
• Customized views for collaborators to review content, contribute feedback and access campaign performance summaries.
• Real-time content and campaign performance metrics including conversion rate and ROI.
• Historical data tracking to analyze an influencer’s past content history, quality and brand alignment. Also, see Follower verification and engagement rate analysis.
• Social listening ability to monitor brand mentions and sentiment related to influencer content.
• Competitor analysis insights to benchmark influencer campaigns against competitors for better market insights.
• Industry trend analysis to compare performance benchmarks to similar influencers.

Most importantly, our influencer analytics tool is part of our larger suite of social media solutions. We integrate influencer marketing with social media management, aligning all the components of your larger social media strategy.

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2. Upfluence

Upfluence is an influencer analytics tool that helps you find creators and measure campaign performance. It’s influencer database uses machine learning to choose the best influencers for your brand. You can find influencers, measure engagement rates and content performance and integrate influencer marketing into your broader marketing strategy.

Key features:

• Search and filter influencers based on industry, demographics, engagement metrics and other criteria.
• Access a large database of influencers across multiple platforms.
• Analyze follower authenticity, engagement rates and reach to make informed decisions.
• Manage communications, contracts and collaborations in a unified dashboard.
• Connect with influencers directly via your e-commerce platform.
• Find relevant insights in a custom campaign results dashboard.

3. HypeAuditor

HypeAuditor helps with influencer discovery, audience analysis and campaign tracking. It uses AI to track audience demographics, engagement rates and follower authenticity. The tool’s influencer database is 81 million strong and uses more than 35 metrics for vetting and fraud detection.

Key features:

• Get detailed reports on influencer performance, audience demographics and follower authenticity.
• Find influencers across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X.
• Assess audience quality score to check the legitimacy of an influencer’s audience to avoid fake followers.
• Benchmark influencer performance against competitors through competitive analysis.
• Identify suspicious activity or fraudulent engagement in influencer profiles.

4. Emplifi

Emplifi helps users boost reach, engagement and conversions. AI-powered content grades take the guesswork out of understanding individual influencer performance, engagement and brand health. Use this tool to discover top influencers and measure campaign performance.

Key features:

• Combine social media management with influencer marketing.
• Find and evaluate influencers across various platforms through in-built discovery and vetting.
• Monitor campaigns in real-time and get reports on influencer performance.
• Get insights into audience demographics and behaviors.
• Track social conversations and trends through social listening.

5. Grin

Grin has a free Influencer analytics tool designed to help you identify potential influencers for your next campaign. Paste an influencer’s URL in the search bar or use the Chrome extension to check critical performance metrics, including engagement rates, likes, comments, shares and views.

Key features: 

• Streamline end-to-end campaign management, including discovery, execution and reporting.
• Connect with e-commerce platforms like Shopify to track sales and conversions directly tied to influencer campaigns.
• Use the built-in influencer relationship management (IRM) tool to manage influencer communications and collaborations.
• Get centralized content creation and approval processes.
• Access detailed insights into campaign ROI and performance, including an engagement rate calculator.

6. Creator.co

Creator.co is dedicated to challenger brands and micro-influencers. Find influencers that align with your target audience using this influencer analytics tool’s detailed demographic data and database of 200M+ profiles. Analyze performance with comprehensive reporting for campaign reach, engagement and ROI.

Key features: 

• Access numerous creators, categorized by niche and audience.
• Automate influencer outreach, negotiations and content approvals.
• Manage campaigns with micro-influencers for more authentic engagement.
• Manage gifting or product sampling campaigns.
• Monitor and track influencer campaign success with real-time analytics.

7. Promoty

Promoty is an influencer analytics tool that helps you discover influencers with strong brand affinity and analyze campaign performance. Use it to get a detailed profile report for influencers worldwide with data on their follower count, engagement rate, credibility scores, audience demographics, most-used hashtags, brand affinity and interests.

Key features: 

• Search influencers by content, location, interests and audience demographics.
• Manage influencer relationships through the in-built tool.
• Organize influencer collaborations, including content approvals and communication.
• Get insights into influencer audience demographics and engagement quality, including credibility scores.
• Get a custom-branded marketplace for influencers to connect with your brand.

8. Keyhole

Keyhole is an influencer analysis tool that helps users measure and improve influencer campaigns with trustworthy analytics data. Use this influencer analytics tool to track influencer activities and campaign performance, and aggregate this data into a comprehensive report.

Key features: 

• Monitor influencer engagement and region, including audience demographics.
• Track campaigns, branded hashtags and keywords in real time.
• Get detailed influencer reports on engagement, reach, audience insights and other metrics.
• Measure your brand’s performance against competitors in real time.
• Track the overall sentiment of conversations around your brand and influencers.

9. Traackr

Traackr helps brands find, manage and measure influencer relationships. It offers advanced analytics and insights to optimize campaign performance and build long-term partnerships. You can also collaborate with partner agencies with transparent workflows.

Key features:

• Use advanced search and filtering options to find the right influencers.
• Manage and nurture long-term relationships with influencers through their relationship management tool.
• Manage campaigns seamlessly for streamlined workflows.
• Get insights from performance metrics and ROI tracking.
• Use influencer audience insights to ensure relevance.

10. Aspire

Aspire is an influencer analytics tool that helps you find influencers, manage campaigns and track performance. Brands can collaborate with influencers and measure the impact of their campaigns to optimize them accordingly.

Key features:

• Apply AI-powered search to identify relevant influencers.
• Use the campaign management tool for brief creation and communication.
• Get performance analytics reports to monitor campaign success.
• Use the centralized content library for all campaign content.
• Facilitate teamwork between brands and influencers with collaboration tools.

11. Meltwater

Meltwater provides data-driven influencer insights through advanced analytics. It helps brands spot the right influencers, keep tabs on their campaign performance and make informed decisions based on real-time data.

Key features:

• Find influencers based on various criteria.
• Get insights into influencer audience demographics.
• Track campaigns to monitor performance and engagement.
• Obtain competitor analysis insights into competitors’ influencer strategies.
• Use customizable reports to analyze campaign effectiveness.

12. Influencity

Influencity is an influencer analytics tool that provides detailed influencer analytics and insights. It helps brands discover and analyze influencers, manage campaigns and track the effectiveness of their influencer marketing efforts.

Key features:

• Use the Influencer database with influencers across different social platforms to find the right partner.
• Get insights into influencer audiences.
• Plan, operate and track influencer campaigns.
• Assess performance metrics to measure campaign success.
• Monitor competitor’s influencer marketing activities with deep insights.

What to look for in influencer analytics tools

Influencer data analytics isn’t just about a creator’s engagement rate. To find the right influencers and optimize future campaigns, you’ll need access to audience demographics, brand affinity, competitor analysis, industry trends and so much more. Here are the most important features to look for in an influencer analytics platform to get just that.

Influencer discovery

The influencer you choose can make or break your campaign. Big audiences and high engagement rates don’t guarantee success—it’s all about finding an engaging audience that fits your ideal customer profile (ICP). That’s why influencer discovery features are so important.

Your influencer analytics tool should have a database of vetted influencers you can filter and search through. It should also have analytics profiles with historic content performance and audience demographics for each influencer.

With Sprout, find the best influencers for your campaign with our social intelligence engine, Signals. It monitors trends, influencer data and competitor strategies so you can spot your industry’s key creators and trends and take strategic action before the competition.

Campaign tracking and monitoring

Reviewing influencer campaign performance can be a headache, especially when you have to request performance data directly from each influencer and hope you get accurate results. Influencer analytics tools should get rid of that burden and streamline the campaign performance reporting process.

Look for a tool that consolidates accurate, relevant analytics for all your influencer marketing campaigns into a single dashboard, so you can dissect campaign performance on a per-influencer and per-post basis. You’ll need access to advanced metrics like reach, impressions, engagement, clicks, conversions and audience insights. Plus, TikTok-specific metrics like average watch time and views for each influencer’s sponsored and organic content.

Another essential: enhanced link tracking. This is how you’ll measure the concrete impact of your influencer campaigns. Like how Sprout links campaign performance with Google Analytics so you can analyze link clicks, total new users and other conversion metrics at the post level.

Influencer marketing trend analysis

Social media users expect brands to read the room. Industry conversations, social media trends, current events and even brand sentiment can impact the success of your campaign.

Your influencer analytics tool should help you stay in-the-know so you can make informed decisions about your campaign messaging and brand positioning.

For example, Sprout’s Social Listening tools provide insight into critical use cases, including industry trends, product share of voice and event discovery.

Competitor analysis

Studying your competitor’s influencer marketing strategy is a bit like observing your older sibling. You learn to do what they did, but better. You also learn what to avoid at all costs. The best influencer analytics tools recognize the value of social media competitive analysis.

Look for a tool with competitor metrics so you can study your competitors’ influencer marketing strategy and optimize your campaigns accordingly.

Maximizing influencer ROI

Influencer marketing wouldn’t be a $7.14 billion industry without high ROI, but reaching that point takes strategy.

Influencer analytics tools help you strategically maximize influencer ROI. They use precise audience targeting, influencer insights and performance metrics to help you pick influencers that align with your brand and campaign objective.

They also provide creative content insights that show what type of content will perform best for your target audience. When you know what creative direction will work best, you set your influencers up for success.

Create winning campaigns with the right influencer analytics tools

Using data through influencer analytics tools is key to maximizing the impact of your campaigns. These tools offer valuable insights that help you identify the right influencers for your brand, and use data to make informed decisions and achieve sustainable growth.

As influencer marketing evolves, having advanced tools like Sprout helps you stay ahead of trends, connect with your target audience and get measurable outcomes. You can source niche influencers, create engaging content and seamlessly integrate influencer marketing into your overall social strategy. Plus, you’re able to prove your social ROI and the impact on your brand to leadership teams for greater executive buy-in.

Ready to take your influencer strategy to the next level? Schedule a demo to see how Sprout Social Influencer Marketing can help you.

The post 12 top influencer analytics tools to boost your campaign ROI appeared first on Sprout Social.

With so many concerns, where do you go from here? To help you identify your most strategic focus areas, we’ve curated a list of the six most pressing marketing priorities you should have on your radar in 2025.

Optimize tools to create an AI-driven culture

Marketing teams who aren’t getting serious about AI are lagging behind. It’s no longer enough to just have tools. Organizations need wide-scale AI integration to anticipate customer needs and become best-in-class.

Sprout’s CMO Scott Morris put it this way, “Fostering a culture of AI within marketing (and beyond) isn’t just about adopting the latest tools—it’s about embedding AI into the way we operate day to day. With the help of AI, marketers can redefine their industries, create new markets and drive economic growth. At Sprout, we’re committed to ensuring our team not only understands AI’s potential, but is equipped to use it responsibly and ethically.”

The opportunity costs of not championing AI are extensive. According to Sprout’s 2024 Social Media Productivity Report, 63% of social marketers report manual tasks prevent them from doing high impact work. Almost one-third attribute their efficiency struggles to not having tools—or having the wrong ones.

Just because something is “AI powered,” doesn’t mean it’s right for your martech stack. Resist the urge to add AI tools for the sake of it. While AI can save your team time, endless training, navigating poorly integrated tools and rebuilding workflows can be a full-time job—especially for teams already at max capacity. It’s critical to equip your team with the right tools, ones that are compatible with the platforms you already rely on.

Considerations: Selecting the right technology is essential, but an AI strategy that doesn’t address people, culture and processes will collapse. You need low-lift, ongoing trainings and built-in rituals to encourage employee experimentation (with the right guardrails in place). Consider creating an AI steering committee to ensure you pursue AI solutions that support your most critical marketing opportunities, while avoiding overbuying technology or overcomplicating your tech stack.

Amplify your brand by unifying your message

Social media platforms are reaching max saturation. Email marketing has dwindling click-through rates. Even the ROI of performance marketing is getting harder to justify.

As digital channels become more overwhelming, there’s less opportunity to reach consumers. Successful brand amplification requires streamlining your strategy. This can be achieved by doing fewer, bigger things, and integrating key messages across channels. It’s one thing for each team to be firing on all cylinders, but they need to be in sync and telling the same story to really allow your message to break through.

Morris adds, “Marketing teams everywhere are doing incredibly creative, innovative work, but they’re operating in silos that prevent them from maximizing results. When we all work together to get louder and prouder, we multiply the impact of everything we’re doing tenfold, reach prospects more effectively, create a better customer experience and ultimately drive more revenue.”

Though it might seem counterintuitive, effective brand amplification requires taking things off your team’s plate. For example, according to The 2024 Content Benchmarks Report, brands published 10 posts a day across networks in 2023. Brands in consumer-facing industries—like media, leisure, sports, recreation and retail—far surpassed this threshold. But consumers’ feeds are already brimming with posts from their friends and family, influencers and brands alike. And you’re competing with all of them for attention. It’s time to cut back on your cadence and publish significantly less content.

Considerations: The key to brand amplification is prioritizing quality over quantity, and efforts that ladder-up to key initiatives over one-off activations. What can you do to remove silos between teams within the marketing org? How can you adopt an org-wide campaign mindset? What can you stop doing that will afford your team more time to focus on the right things?

Take influencer marketing beyond social media

Consumers trust influencers, and their trust is growing steady in some pockets. According to The 2024 Influencer Marketing Report, nearly half of consumers trust influencers as much as they did in 2023, and another 30% trust them more. This is especially true for Gen Z and Millennials.

Sprout’s VP of Brand and Social, Layla Revis, describes, “People trust people, and they want to be entertained and educated. Whether it’s humor, fashion, fitness or sports, people are more likely to seek out influencers than brands or celebrities. This is a sign the media has become democratized.”

The potential of influencer marketing exceeds social media. Almost all (80%) of consumers agree they are more likely to buy from brands who partner with influencers beyond social content—from in-person events and brand trips to multichannel ad campaigns.

Social media is where culture is born, so it makes sense that successful influencer marketing campaigns permeate other channels, too. The more well-orchestrated influencer activations are, the more they boost brand awareness and the bottom line.

Considerations: As what it means to be a spokesperson and celebrity changes, influencers will slide into roles formerly held by actors, athletes and other pop culture icons. What will it take to make an influencer the face of your brand campaign off social? In what ways will that change how your team works? What new roles will you need to hire for? What steps will you take to ensure brand safety in these partnerships?

Use audience insights to inform your content strategy

In 2023, most business leaders (96%) said their company needed to continue to invest in social marketing to be successful. But how can leaders make the most of limited budgets and bandwidth? Especially when social users are everywhere.

The 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report found that most consumers are just as engaged or interact with brand content more on social compared to six months ago. When asked which platforms brands should stay away from, consumers said (somewhat surprisingly) “none.”

Consumers have never been so plugged into social, or eager to see brand content. But, as mentioned before, brands compete in an attention economy, and teams are on the brink of burnout (if they aren’t already there). It’s imperative to use audience insights to determine how to craft the right content for the right channels. Senior marketing leaders at enterprise companies agree content strategy is their top priority in 2025.

While there is a place for everyone and every brand on social, that doesn’t mean you need to be everywhere. Real-time audience insights make it clear where your team should concentrate—rather than expecting teams to balance content across every available network.

Considerations: As algorithms evolve, networks diversify and the battle for attention intensifies, your team needs actionable learnings to stay ahead of the competition and exceed consumer expectations. Do you know with certainty which networks your audience turns to for entertainment and discovery? How about for customer care? What data is your social team missing that could help make more informed choices about content and network prioritization?

Deliver personalized customer journeys

Social media is consumers’ preferred customer care channel of choice, and responding to them on social isn’t optional. In Sprout’s Q4 2024 Pulse Survey of over 2,000 consumers, respondents agreed brands should make personalized customer service on social a top priority in 2025.

This means collaboration between social and care teams should be more than a handoff. They need to truly work in tandem to provide a seamless customer experience—finding processes and tools that increase productivity and surface strategic insights. If you’re not hyper-focused on customer care, you’re setting your brand up to fail long-term.

Morris sums it up like this: “Why do so many marketing leaders continue to think of customer care as something that is ‘another department’s problem?’ Marketing and care are two halves of the same whole. Do you care about your brand image? Do you care about overall customer sentiment about your company? Dive deep into your company’s NPS score, and the drivers behind it, and you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.”

Considerations: Customer service and marketing teams must be more aligned than ever before. Are incompatible tech stacks and departmental silos getting in the way of that? What new processes and resources are needed to unite the teams?

Put social media at the center of your marketing strategy

Brands today exist in the context of online culture, and social media is the epicenter of that culture. Social’s influence on consumers (and businesses’ long-term health by proxy) is undeniable. From Chili’s TikTok presence being responsible for 40% of their quarterly growth to Duolingo’s CEO mentioning how the brand’s social media presence helped them blow past projected gains on an earnings call, the results are tangible. The greatest business risk in 2025 is not investing in your brand’s presence and tapping into social data.

Social data is a source of truth that will help your company refine product development, strengthen your employer brand and recruit top talent, and directly drive revenue gains. Used correctly, social insights make it easy to prove organization-wide value, facilitate cross-collaboration and ensure customer care, sales, HR and R&D buy-in on your initiatives.

Sprout’s CEO Ryan Barretto said it best: “Executives who prioritize a social-first approach not only mitigate risks effectively but also empower their teams to innovate and connect with customers in meaningful ways. If I had to share some motivation with fellow leaders, it would be this: Take inventory of where your current and future customers are. There are few companies that can say this isn’t on social. If that’s true for your business, how do you plan to show up for them?”

Considerations: If you want to build a marketing strategy that prioritizes your customers and future customers, you need to put social insights at the center of it. Does your current tech stack make social data accessible? What information or examples do you need to make the case for more investment in social? How can you quantify the risk of not being proactive?

Focus on the marketing priorities that matters most

In 2025, marketing leaders must focus on a few strategic imperatives to drive sustainable growth in a complex landscape. Building an AI-driven culture, unifying brand messaging, expanding influencer marketing and centering social data are no longer optional but essential.

With resources stretched thin and consumer expectations high, concentrating on these core priorities will empower your team to deliver impact, foster stronger customer connections and stay ahead of rapidly changing demands. By ruthlessly prioritizing what matters most, you can create a resilient strategy that resonates and drives results.

Looking for more guidance on staffing needs, team processes and marketing tech stack optimizations you need in 2025? Read our CMO 2025 content strategy pre-mortem cheat sheet.

The post 6 marketing priorities leaders will obsess over in 2025 appeared first on Sprout Social.

The ad’s virality wasn’t a complete surprise. As Swehl co-founder Elizabeth Myer puts it, “We joke that a women’s health brand can only dream of having their ad pulled. We worked with Baz to devise a visual that felt true to both our brand and hers, while pushing the envelope and the cheeky visual narrative. Prior to launching the campaign, we pitched a reporter at The New York Times who wrote a piece that spread like wildfire when the ad was eventually taken down. From there, we lined up morning shows, brought on a PR team to help field opportunities and quickly transitioned the message from lactation cookies (which we don’t even sell!) to our core mission.”

Swehl’s Just Add Milk campaign is a potent reminder of the opportunity influencer marketing offers for skyrocketing brand awareness when done well. It’s a sign PR and influencer marketing efforts are blurring, which begs the question: Is influencer marketing the new PR?

To find the answer and what the evolving state of media means for brands, we interviewed Myer and two of Sprout’s influencer marketing and PR experts, Greg Scavuzzo, Director of Product Marketing, and Layla Revis, Vice President of Brand and Social.

How influencer marketing is transforming media and PR

Like with the Swehl example, brand and influencer collaborations are increasingly generating earned press. As consumer-influencer relationships evolve, influencer activations are becoming more newsworthy—garnering the kind of attention reserved for celebrity campaigns of yore. What makes these influencer campaigns even more powerful is the trust consumers bestow upon influencers, and how that impacts their online behavior. The 2024 Influencer Marketing Report found that trust in influencers is holding steady, and growing in some pockets.

As Revis describes, “People trust people, and they want to be entertained and educated. Whether it’s humor, fashion, fitness or sports, people are more likely to seek out influencers than brands or celebrities. This is a sign the media has become democratized. When I started in this industry, influencers didn’t have teams. Now, they have become like actors with legal representation, managers, licensing deals and agents.”

Despite similarities with Hollywood, influencer brand content stands out from studio-created brand content. Influencers know how to speak to their audiences and refine their content to each channel.

Scavuzzo explains what that can teach brands: “While brand-created ads distributed across paid channels can be an effective way to create brand awareness, influencer content compels consumers to learn more about a brand’s products and introduces them to a diverse range of product use cases. Which makes them more likely to engage and buy when an influencer they trust and relate to endorses a brand or product. Well executed, authentic and engaging influencer campaigns prompt the algorithm to act in the brand’s favor by sending ads wider (organically)—to more of a creator’s followers and into Discover and For You pages.”

Social media is where culture is born, so it makes sense that successful influencer marketing campaigns permeate other traditional media channels, too. Tried-and-true PR tactics like developing relationships with journalists and hosting events take these campaigns to the next level. The more well-orchestrated influencer-brand activations are, the more benefits they offer.

The benefits of integrating influencer marketing and PR efforts

While it’s unlikely that influencer marketing will completely replace PR efforts, the two go hand-in-hand. A splashy event without influencer promo is less likely to generate interest. An influencer campaign that’s misaligned with other PR efforts will leave your audience confused and make it harder to break through. Here are all the ways your brand wins when you integrate your influencer marketing and PR strategies.

Amplify brand reach and credibility

Influencer marketing and PR efforts have a shared goal: brand awareness. While PR traditionally focuses on building trust through media coverage and reputation management, influencers offer personal authenticity and direct connection with their followers. When these two approaches work in tandem, brand storytelling is more effective and credible.

Myer describes how aligning Swehl’s partnership with Baz with other PR efforts extended their reach. “The campaign launched around our first anniversary, and was a follow-up to some big wins we’d had in our first year. The week everything went down, we already planned to be in New York accepting our award for making Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list. Like any big media moment, there’s a halo effect of brand awareness that for us, manifested in throngs of new visitors, a boost in sales and new partnership opportunities (retail and otherwise).”

Influencers can also help ensure campaign messages reach the most relevant audiences. Think of it this way: While PR efforts cast a wide net, influencer marketing reels in your most ideal customers. Pairing them increases awareness among all audiences.

Craft consistent messages across channels

When influencers and PR teams work together, the result is brand cohesion. Influencers can adapt messaging to their style, but the core theme remains the same, reinforcing your overall narrative across different platforms.

According to Scavuzzo, this harmony leads to campaigns that perform. “Marketing initiatives that break free of silos, and deliver a consistent experience and message across all channels are the ones that succeed. Always work with creators to amplify the most important brand messages.”

Myer recalls how keeping Swehl’s brand mission front and center helped turn their viral moment into a lasting win. “We love our mantras at Swehl, and one of them is ‘Don’t chase shiny toys.’ In other words, we always evaluate our efforts through the lens of the same questions, like: What problem are we trying to solve? Is this true to our brand? How does this move the needle? The experience with the Times Square billboard was absolutely net positive, and we believe that’s because it was a super authentic expression of the mission-driven work we’d already been putting out into the world.”

By integrating PR and influencer marketing work, brands can synchronize the timing of key announcements, product launches and campaigns across media. This creates a unified rollout of information, ensuring that no conflicting or outdated messages get shared. To achieve this coordination, brands that turn to agencies for influencer marketing and PR may have an opportunity to consolidate vendors, streamlining the collaboration required.

Boost your event profile

By partnering with influencers for events you’re attending or throwing, you add a layer of anticipation and extend the life of your activations. Traditional PR coverage of events may be limited to specific media outlets and articles. Whereas influencers build hype beforehand by sharing exclusive event previews and behind-the-scenes content with their followers, and recap their event experiences by sharing highlights over several days or weeks, prolonging the event’s visibility.

Scavuzzo sums it up like this: “Events are typically a large part of a brand’s earned media strategy. Inviting influencers is an easy way to create real-time buzz on social for your brand.”

Influencer event content is often rich in photos, videos and live interactions, offering diverse and engaging perspectives. Their experiences, reactions and insights can also shape the public’s perception, giving more credibility to the event’s success and generating positive word-of-mouth.

Humanize your storytelling

Influencers excel at relating to their audience in a personal way. Merging human-led storytelling with your PR activations can make your brand message more memorable and approachable. Influencers often tell stories that connect emotionally, which complements more formal tactics like press releases and executive interviews.

But this only works if the influencer’s endorsement of your brand and products feels genuine. “Prior to Baz, Swehl had never actually invested in influencer marketing! We’ve of course worked with a range of influencers and celebrities—all of which have been so passionate about Swehl and our mission that they’re excited to be aligned with us,” says Myer.

Before going all-in on an influencer campaign, take steps to find influencers who are true enthusiasts for your brand. Keep reading for more tips for vetting influencers and how to forge the right partnerships.

Proactively preventing an influencer PR crisis

As brands invest more in influencer marketing, PR teams also need to be better equipped to prevent influencer-induced crises. Which starts with vetting influencers thoroughly.

Revis advises, “Before you reach out or agree to partner with an influencer, research where they stand on critical issues, look at their previous partnerships and use these as a guide to determine whether that influencer is aligned with the values of your organization.”

Scavuzzo adds, “While influencers may appear to align with your brand based on a surface-level scan of their profile, past comments or brand partnerships should disqualify a partner if the risk level is too high. While there is always a level of risk when working with new partners, influencer crises are just as preventable as other brand crises.” He adds that it’s never a bad idea to have a crisis communications playbook ready, even if you never need to use it.

While thorough research with the help of influencer management tools can help zero-in on partners, it’s also critical to forge partnerships built on understanding and empowerment.

As Myer suggests, “Any great union should be mutually beneficial. When we decide to work with anyone, we make sure we understand their ambitions as a person and a creative. From there, we devise activations that build upon what we’re each already putting out into the world. Our relationship with Baz unfolded over the course of a year, and we’re so glad that we waited until the timing was right (and until we really got to know her and understood what made her tick).”

Working closely with (the right) influencers is the best way to ensure your PR and influencer activations don’t spin out of control. If you take big swings with your influencer marketing efforts, make sure all parties are informed of the potential pitfalls and have a safety net in place. If your Times Square ad gets flagged (insert your adjacent influencer play here), be ready to capitalize on your moment. All press is good press if you have a strategic plan.

The pitch: Influencer marketing should be a pillar of your PR strategy

To get back to the question that started it all: No, influencer marketing isn’t exactly the new PR. But it is a cornerstone of a well-developed PR plan. Brands need influencers (now more than ever) to ensure their PR efforts soar to their fullest potential.

As Swehl’s Just Add Milk campaign demonstrates, influencer-led activations generate earned press, build brand awareness and create meaningful connections that can’t be achieved through traditional PR avenues alone. By integrating influencer marketing and PR strategies, brands can amplify their reach, strengthen credibility and craft human-first stories that resonate. Influencer marketing has the power to be a game-changer in the world of modern PR.

Looking for more on how to execute influencer marketing strategies? Download the The 2024 Influencer Marketing Report to create effective influencer marketing content, and dive into the evolving expectations of consumers and influencers themselves.

The post Is influencer marketing the new PR? appeared first on Sprout Social.

With less competition on Facebook, you can score better deals with influencers and gain more visibility for your brand. Also, research shows US adults are more likely to make a purchase directly on Facebook than on any other social media platform.

In this post, you’ll learn all about Facebook influencer marketing and how to create successful influencer campaigns that deliver great results for your business.

What is Facebook influencer marketing?

Facebook influencer marketing is when brands collaborate with influencers who have a strong following and engagement on Facebook.

These influencers create valuable, authentic content that resonates with their audience through posts, videos, live streams and other formats. Brands can partner with influencers in their niche and use their credibility to build trust and drive brand awareness and sales.

In 2024, influencer marketing on Facebook has shifted toward smaller influencers (nano and micro-influencers) who often have higher engagement rates than larger influencers. This makes them an attractive option for targeted campaigns, especially for niche brands.

Is Facebook right for your influencer marketing campaign?

With other social networks stealing the spotlight, you might be wondering if Facebook is still worth your time. The short answer is:

It depends on your target audience, industry and marketing goals.

Facebook is most effective for brands targeting a wide, diverse audience.

The platform has over 3.065 billion monthly active users, with the largest chunk in the US being adults between 25-34 years old. This makes Facebook especially useful for businesses in lifestyle, fitness and family-oriented niches​.

Source

Also, Facebook Groups are great tools for niche targeting and building community around your brand. They provide a space for influencers to engage with people who are deeply invested in certain topics, products or services, and potentially convert them into customers for your brand.

Another important consideration here is your budget. Facebook offers less organic engagement than other platforms, and paying for ads can quickly get expensive.

Working with micro and nano-influencers is a better alternative as these creators offer higher engagement at a fraction of the cost. In fact, some influencers might even accept freebies or mentions as payment for sponsored posts.

That said, Facebook might not be as effective for companies targeting younger demographics who are more active on platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

To determine if Facebook influencer marketing fits your brand’s strategy, explore more about your industry’s influencer landscape by visiting Sprout Social’s Influencer Directory. Access up-to-date, industry-level data to estimate costs, results, competitiveness and more.

How to execute a Facebook influencer marketing campaign

Launching a successful campaign on any platform (including Facebook) requires careful planning. If you’re new to Facebook influencer marketing, this step-by-step guide will walk you through the entire process.

1. Define your goals

Your social media goals dictate the type of influencers you work with, the kind of content you create and how you measure success.

For example, if your goal is brand awareness, your focus should be on reaching a large audience with your content. If driving conversions is your primary objective, you’ll want to track metrics like click-through rates and sales.

Setting clear, specific and realistic goals gives direction to your campaign and ensures both parties are working to achieve the same end results.

A fitness brand might set a goal to increase product visibility by 30% over a three-month campaign. They could partner with influencers who specialize in health and wellness, and ask them to showcase the brand in their daily workout routines via Facebook Live or Reels.

2. Understand your audience

Before you start pitching to influencers, you want to be sure your target audience is actually present on the platform and are interested in influencer content.

You also need to know what type of content they’re interested in, which creators or brands they engage with and what problems they’re looking to solve.

Start by digging up data on your existing customers.

• Use your CRM platform to uncover insights like demographics, purchase history and sales conversations.
• Talk to customer-facing teams like sales reps and customer service agents to identify common questions or pain points.
• Gather first-hand information by interviewing or surveying customers, especially about their online habits and interests.

Then, head to your Facebook audience insights. Look at demographics like age, gender, location and active times. You can also analyze your existing content and understand what type of posts and videos work best.

Also, understand your audiences’ habits on the platform. Do they like to engage in Facebook Groups? Do they share posts on their feeds? Do they actively comment or simply lurk?

Sprout Social’s Listening tool is also excellent for spotting trending conversations and topics among your target audience. You can also study your competitors to see what type of content they’re posting on Facebook and how your audience is reacting to or engaging with it.

Once you have all of this data, create detailed audience personas to share with potential influencers later on. Add information like demographics, interests, habits, frustrations, and favorite content types and best times to post.

Organizing everything in one place will help you pick the right influencers, get them on the same page, tailor visuals and messaging, and choose the right formats for max engagement.

3. Choose the right influencers

Selecting influencers might seem straightforward, but there are lots of moving parts involved. You have to look beyond large followings to partner with influencers that truly align with your brand values and target audience.

Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) can help you discover top influencers in your niche. Use smart filters to sort through vetted influencers with relevant audiences. Analyze their following, content, engagement rates, authenticity and influence across various platforms, including Facebook.

It’s tempting to target big influencers with millions (or even hundreds of thousands) of followers. But small businesses often benefit from working with smaller, engaged, loyal influencers who have smaller but very active and loyal followings.

Smaller influencers typically cost less (some are even willing to accept non-monetary payments) and are likely to dedicate more time and effort toward your partnership. On top of this, the targeted engagement they bring to the table gives your brand a higher ROI overall.

4. Develop a creative strategy

When you’ve decided on the influencers you want to work with, it’s time to brainstorm the creative aspects of your campaign. Here, you can either work with the creators during the planning stage or hand them briefs you’ve already created internally.

Both ways have their perks. Remember to give influencers enough creative freedom so they can do what they do best and craft content their audience loves. Sponsored content shouldn’t feel forced; it should naturally integrate into the influencer’s daily posts.

At the same time, ensure you’ve provided guidelines on campaign goals, brand voice, values, aesthetics and other specifics that are important to your business.

Here are some other details you might want to mention in your creative plan:

• Content types (e.g. Facebook Live, Reels, Stories, image and text posts etc.)
• Topics and themes
• Posting frequency
• KPIs and metrics

Work closely with your influencers to brainstorm creative concepts that’ll engage their audience while promoting your brand in an authentic way. You can also co-create content with your company’s creative team instead of relying solely on the influencers’ resources.

Use a mix of formats, like videos, Group posts and live sessions, to keep your influencer campaign interesting and dynamic.

For example, if you’re collaborating with influencers to create a series of “unboxing” videos, you could pair them with live Q&A sessions so followers can ask questions and get feedback from someone they trust.

5. Negotiate payment and terms

Once you have a creative strategy in place, you can go over the terms and conditions of the partnership with the influencer and finalize a contract.

To establish transparent, mutually beneficial and long-term relationships with influencers, you have to be clear about things like:

• Compensation
• Content deliverables
• Creative control
• Exclusivity
• Performance expectations
• Duration of the agreement
• Ownership and usage rights
• Termination clauses

Payment, for example, is an important consideration. According to Sprout Social’s 2024 Influencer Marketing Report, 59% of influencers say they want to work with companies that have clear budgets and payment structures.

Your payment structure will vary depending on your budget as well as the influencer’s size and engagement rate. Here are some payment structures for Facebook influencer marketing:

• Flat fees for the entire campaign
• Commission-based model
• Pay per post (or per Reel, Story etc.)
• Product gifting or discounts

You could also go for a hybrid model and mix multiple compensation models for an ideal fit that works for both your brand and the influencer.

For example, combine discounted products with a flat fee per post. Or, combine flat fees for the entire campaign with commissions based on engagement or leads generated.

As for influencer pricing, our report shows that most influencers charge between $250 and $1,000 per post.

6. Launch the campaign

Finally, it’s time to execute your campaign.

Provide detailed briefs to influencers that outline campaign objectives, creative guidelines and any other information you finalized during the planning stage.

Then, let your campaign unfold. Your part here will mostly be focused on management and monitoring. You can also set up an approval process to review influencer content before it goes live on Facebook. Influencer Marketing by Sprout Social (formerly Tagger) can help you do that easily.

Make sure influencers are posting on schedule, sticking to brand guidelines and responding to comments. This is also a good time for your brand to jump in and engage with the influencer’s audience by liking and replying to comments.

7. Monitor and optimize performance

As the campaign is rolling out, one of your responsibilities as a brand is to continuously keep an eye on its performance.

Monitoring your campaign helps you ensure it’s meeting your KPIs. If certain posts or content formats perform better than others, for example, you can easily adjust your strategy in real time.

Here are some Facebook metrics to track during (and after) your campaign:

• Engagement rate
• Follower growth
• Conversions

Sprout lets you monitor the progress of your influencer campaigns in real-time. You can even see the results alongside your organic metrics to assess how your sponsored campaigns fit into your bigger Facebook marketing strategy.

8. Analyze campaign results

At the end of the campaign, your job is far from done. This is where you measure the overall performance against the initial goals. Did you achieve your desired outcomes?

Create detailed reports that break down this data. Look at metrics like:

• Reach
• Page visits
• Follows
• Engagement

Use Sprout’s influencer management platform to generate custom reports and access detailed Facebook analytics that give you an accurate picture of your campaign’s performance.

You can also dive deeper and understand how your target audience reacted to your campaign. Use sentiment analysis to uncover the emotions behind comments.

Also, analyze your campaign’s impact on your company’s bottom line. Check out metrics like website traffic (traffic source), conversions, downloads, sales, popular product categories or pages and other specific data to understand the ROI.

Take note of your wins as well as any learnings for future campaigns. What could you have done better? Discuss these findings with the influencer if you plan to work together again in the future.

9. Maintain relationships

It’s okay to do one-off collabs with influencers. But those are rarely high-impact. Building long-term relationships with influencers can bring you better results over time because it creates consistency in messaging and builds trust with the audience.

It can also turn influencers into true brand advocates, which automatically boosts the authenticity and impact of their endorsements.

After the campaign, thank your influencers and express interest in future collaborations. You could also send them personalized thank-you gifts, or offer perks like discounts and early access to new products to keep them engaged with your brand.

Also, keep in touch with your partners on social media, even when you don’t have an active campaign. This helps build loyalty and makes them feel more inclined to work with you again.

Tips for successful Facebook influencer marketing campaigns

Want to take your Facebook influencer campaigns from average to amazing? Follow the tips below to boost your chances of success on the platform.

• Run Facebook ads to boost your campaigns: Combine organic influencer posts with paid advertising to squeeze more out of your campaigns. Pairing sponsored content with Facebook’s powerful ad targeting tools can help you reach a wider audience and amplify campaign results.
• Use Facebook Live to interact directly with followers: Co-host or ask influencers to host Facebook Live sessions where they review or use your product, answer questions and get feedback from followers in real time.
• Optimize your content for mobile: Use mobile-friendly formats like Stories and short-form video (i.e. Facebook Reels) to reach audiences scrolling through Facebook on their phones.
• Encourage user-generated content (UGC): Have influencers inspire their followers to create their own content using your product. People tend to value authentic feedback from real users more than traditional promotional posts from brands.
• Cross-promote on other platforms: Expand your reach by encouraging influencers to share campaign content on multiple platforms like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. Make sure to optimize and tailor the content to perform well on each network.
• Use an influencer marketing platform: Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) lets you automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks like finding the right influencers, managing contracts and payments, and measuring campaign success so you can focus on strategy.

Kickstart your Facebook influencer marketing campaigns

Facebook might not be the first platform you think of for influencer marketing, but it offers some great opportunities for brands in specific niches or those targeting a large, diverse audience.

Execute successful influencer campaigns that drive results by carefully selecting influencers, aligning creative strategies and combining organic efforts with Facebook ads.

Ready to launch your Facebook influencer marketing campaign? Learn more about how Sprout Social’s influencer marketing platform can help you find the perfect partners and manage your influencer campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and more from start to finish.

The post Facebook influencer marketing fundamentals: What you need to know appeared first on Sprout Social.

That’s where this flexible seven-week influencer marketing plan comes in. It provides a framework with clear milestones and walks you through a process that covers everything from defining your goals to measuring your campaign’s success.

While we’ve structured this influencer marketing plan template into weeks, the actual timing may vary depending on factors like influencer availability and contract negotiations. Use these milestones as a guide and adjust as needed to fit your specific circumstances.

What is an influencer marketing strategy template?

An influencer marketing strategy template guides brands through planning, executing and evaluating influencer collaborations.

It’s a roadmap that helps brands identify their goals, target audience and ideal influencers. Plus, templates offer guidance on creating engaging content, tracking performance metrics and managing relationships with influencers.

Why is a roadmap important? Our 2024 Influencer Marketing report shows 80% of consumers prefer buying from brands with long-term influencer partnerships.

Longer partnerships matter—they build trust through repeated engagement, leading to deeper audience loyalty and more sustained sales growth than one-off posts.

Week 1: Setting a foundation

These initial steps set the stage for a campaign that’s tightly aligned with your goals and primed to deliver measurable results that match your broader marketing objectives.

Identify your goals and objectives

Focusing on clear, strategic objectives yields more impactful results.

Establish both high-level goals and specific, measurable objectives that support those goals. High-level goals represent the broader outcomes you aim for, while specific objectives are the quantifiable steps that help you reach them.

This approach lets you track progress, make adjustments and ensure you’re investing in the right tactics. Examples of high-level goals include:

• Reduce customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Increase share of voice in your industry
• Get product feedback
• Build brand advocates
• Become a thought leader

While these are common, tailor your goals to your specific challenges. Start by analyzing customer feedback and pinpoint the stages where drop-off or dissatisfaction occurs. Prioritize the goals that target these weak spots.

For each high-level goal, define specific, measurable objectives. For example, if your goal is to reduce CAC, your objective would be to decrease it by 15% over the next quarter through influencer partnerships. Long sales cycle? Use influencers to explain benefits and build trust. Poor retention? Partner with creators to show advanced use cases and boost loyalty.

The most effective influencer strategies address multiple objectives and ensure your marketing efforts hit several targets at once. Start by identifying two key goals and outline the measurable objectives that’ll support them. Ensure your influencer strategy aligns with these priorities.

Define your target audience

The next step is to understand who you’re targeting. Understanding audience nuances informs the influencer tier you should target.

Knowing whether your audience prefers Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts or TikTok videos, for example, directs you to influencers whose content will resonate.

Defining your target audience goes beyond basic demographics—explore their psychographics: their interests, values, pain points and aspirations.

Once you’ve defined your audience, align them with the right influencer tier:

• Mega-influencers (1 M+)
• Macro-influencers (100K-1M)
• Micro-influencers (10K-100K)
• Nano-influencers (<10K)

Consider the trade-offs between reach and relevance. Mega and macro-influencers offer wide exposure but may lack niche credibility. Micro and nano-influencers boast higher engagement rates and authenticity within specific communities.

For example, a fitness app targeting niche health enthusiasts might partner with micro-influencers to create authentic reviews and tutorial videos, while a national shoe retailer could use macro-influencers for campaigns targeting broader fashion fans.

Create a shortlist of potential collaborators

Building a strong shortlist of influencers requires a multi-pronged approach.

Start with a hashtag search on platforms like Instagram. For example, a search for #HealthyFood on Instagram brings up nutrition experts, food bloggers and wellness advocates already creating content that aligns with your brand.

Don’t shy away from competitive research either. Examine who your rivals collaborate with to understand the landscape and how you can differentiate.

Also, use tools designed for influencer discovery. For instance, Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger), has a profile discovery tool that offers over 50 search filters to pinpoint creators matching your exact criteria. Precise searches save hours of manual searching and reveal hidden gems.

Other methods to expand your search:

• Use social listening tools to identify emerging voices in your niche
• Employ search engines with specific queries like “top [your industry] bloggers”
• Find out where thought leaders gather on industry-specific platforms
• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for B2B influencer discovery

The goal isn’t just to find influencers, but to identify those whose values and audience align with your brand’s vision and goals.

Week 2: Developing your strategy

Week two is about making key decisions to shape your influencer marketing plan and aligning them with overall marketing goals.

Determine your budget

Match your budget to platforms where your audience spends time to ensure smart spending before you partner with influencers. Budget clarity also attracts expert influencers while enabling them to plan content and manage expectations. The 2024 Influencer Marketing Report reveals that 59% of influencers consider a clear budget and payment structure the most important criteria when choosing a brand partner.

Consider factors like audience demographics and engagement levels on each platform. Here’s a breakdown of average influencer pricing across key platforms by per post and followers:

Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok cost about $10 per post per 1,000 followers, while Facebook and YouTube are more expensive at about $20 per 1,000 followers. X (formerly Twitter) is the cheapest on average at $2 per post per 1,000 followers.

If your audience spends most of their time on YouTube, allocate a larger budget for video content production, which is often more expensive than static posts on Instagram.

Once you know where your audience is most active, begin listing potential costs and prioritizing high-engagement platforms to maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Consider these often-overlooked budget factors:

• Content ownership rights: Extended usage significantly impacts costs
• Exclusivity clauses: Preventing influencers from working with competitors comes at a premium
• Creative control: More brand oversight typically means higher fees
• Campaign timeline: Expedited deadlines often incur premium rates
• Campaign length: Long-term partnerships may offer better value
• Number of channels: Cross-platform campaigns increase costs but expand reach
• Influencer tier: Mega-influencers command higher fees than nano-influencers
• Content type: Video content typically costs more than static posts

These factors directly influence your overall costs and ROI. By addressing them early, you ensure your budget aligns with campaign goals and prevents potential obstacles.

Choose influencers based on campaign-fit

Successful partnerships today prioritize authenticity, engagement and alignment with brand values. Prioritize those who embody your brand’s ethos, show creative synergy and have the storytelling ability to weave your message into their content ecosystem.

Consider these factors to find the right influencers:

• Content fit: Does their style match your brand’s look and voice? Look for creators who naturally incorporate your message without disrupting their established style.
• Audience overlap: Focus on psychographic data. An influencer with 70% audience alignment is far more valuable than one with 100% reach but only 30% relevance.
• Partnership history: Choose influencers who’ve improved past brand campaigns with creative ideas.
• Crisis resilience: In an era of cancel culture, pick influencers who can handle negative feedback well and stay true to themselves.

The perfect influencer on paper may not always translate to real-world success. Start with micro-tests or small-scale campaigns to evaluate performance before scaling up. An iterative approach allows you to refine your selection criteria based on actual performance data.

Weeks 3–4: Planning and content development

In weeks three and four, you’ll move from big-picture planning to nailing down the specifics. Finalize timelines, solidify partnerships and co-create content that reflects both your brand voice and the influencer’s unique style.

Create a campaign brief

A campaign brief provides clarity and direction for everyone involved. It aligns expectations and ensures that your internal team and the influencer work towards the same objectives.

To make this step easier, we’ve created an influencer marketing brief template. It covers the essential elements and you can customize it to fit your campaign needs. Download our template to simplify your campaign management and get everyone on the same page from the start.

Make initial outreach

Initial outreach is a crucial step in establishing a relationship with potential influencer partners. It shapes their first impression of your brand and sets expectations for the partnership.

Engage with their content by liking, commenting or sharing to show genuine interest and build rapport. Research their past collaborations and content style to tailor your approach, showing that you’ve done your homework and that you value thoughtful partnerships. Tailoring your approach increases your chances of securing a positive response.

Use influencer outreach email templates or templates for DMs to streamline outbound messages without sacrificing personalization. Scale outreach while creating a thoughtful and customized message.

When discussing compensation, approach influencer rate negotiations skillfully. Offer context about your budget while emphasizing the long-term value of the collaboration.

Aim for a fair partnership that respects their work and matches industry standards. A respectful approach fosters trust and opens doors to a sustainable, mutually beneficial long-term relationship.

Coordinate content creation

Influencers know their audience well. And 65% even want early involvement in creative and product discussions since they’re aware of their audience’s interests, preferences and pain points.

Early collaboration allows them to contribute strategic insights from their deep understanding of internet culture and audience behavior, helping you build campaigns that align naturally with their unique community.

Outline your key messages, brand values and goals—then step back and let influencers, who excel at content creation, transform the brief into engaging content. Giving them the freedom to interpret your brief will more likely result in content that resonates with their audience and drives better engagement. Protect your brand while embracing influencers’ creative expertise by implementing content reviews and production meetings or kickoffs.

Week 5: Launching your first campaign

Focus on final checks and launching the campaign. As you prepare for launch, timing can vary based on your content calendar, influencer schedules and content approval processes. Use this week as a guideline and adjust as needed to ensure all elements are in place before going live.

Provide final approvals

Now’s the time for a final check before your campaign goes live. Review your planned post schedule to ensure each post aligns with your campaign goals. Double-check your contracts to confirm all parties are clear on their roles and responsibilities.

Don’t forget the technical details. Make sure all links work, tracking codes are in place and landing pages are ready to welcome potential customers.

Confirm all stakeholders—from legal to product teams—have approved the plan. Confirming stakeholder approval ensures compliance and prevents issues that could derail the campaign.

Finally, brief your customer service team so they’re ready to address any questions, concerns or feedback directly related to the campaign.

Be ready to pivot if needed. The social media landscape shifts quickly, whether it’s due to algorithm changes or trending topics. Adaptability is ‌often the key to campaign success.

Launch your campaign

Prepare your social media channels: update profiles, pin relevant posts and set up campaign hashtags and landing pages. Coordinate with your influencers to confirm their posting schedules align with your launch timeline. Launching all posts at once creates excitement on all platforms. As the campaign goes live, stay in regular contact with your influencer partners. Be available to address any last-minute questions or provide support if needed.

Engage with influencer content

Engage directly with influencer content to amplify your campaign’s reach and build authentic connections. Jump into the discussions happening on your influencers’ posts by answering questions, acknowledging fan shout-outs and highlighting campaign messages. Respond to social media comments, share user-generated content and spark dialogue around your brand. When responding to comments, focus on thoughtful replies that address specific points or questions.

Monitor any potential issues. If an issue or PR crisis arises, follow social channels closely and prepare a templated response that your team can adapt to specific issues. Respond promptly and with empathetic communication, offering both public reassurances and direct customer support.

Swift, professional problem-solving turns negative situations into opportunities to show your brand’s commitment. Fostering deeper brand loyalty drives retention, advocacy and long-term relationships with your audience.

Weeks 6–7: Reporting on your efforts

In the final weeks, measure impact and extract insights to lay groundwork for future strategies.

Monitor results using an influencer marketing tool

Tracking your campaign’s performance shows how it influences your audience and contributes to business goals.

Some key influencer marketing metrics to monitor include:

• Reach
• Engagement rates
• Conversions
• ROI
• Audience growth
• Sentiment analysis
• Content performance across platforms

Simplify campaign tracking and performance analysis with an influencer marketing tool like Sprout. Sprout offers real-time dashboards and in-depth analytics, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), demographics and predicting trends. Streamlined monitoring saves time and helps refine future collaborations by revealing top-performing influencers and content styles.

Share learnings with your team

Sharing campaign insights is pivotal for organizational growth and strategy refinement.

Distill engagement trends, conversion rates and influencer performance into actionable intelligence. For example:

• Find out how micro, macro and nano-influencers sway audience engagement and whether video, image or text-based content drives the most impact.
• Identify performance discrepancies to refine forecasting and planning.
• Evaluate influencer selection criteria against outcomes and adjust priorities as needed.
• Assess how influencer campaigns interact with your broader marketing efforts and look for synergies and conflicts.

Looking deeper into an influencer’s audience engagement gives you insight into the most effective strategies.

Launch an influencer marketing plan that amplifies engagement

Your brand and your influencer campaigns need to go together like bread and butter. Done right, influencer marketing can significantly boost your brand’s visibility and engagement.

As you execute your strategy, stay flexible. The most successful brands are those that pivot based on campaign performance and emerging trends.

If you’re ready to elevate your influencer marketing, check out our comprehensive influencer marketing toolkit, featuring expert insights, a masterclass and ready-to-use templates to streamline your campaigns.

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