Brands have to establish and nurture the perfect relationship with their employees, customers, and their products. It should come as no surprise that brands have to do the same with the influencers they work with. The following are some things brands can do to improve their relationship with influencers.
Relationship Establishment
The first thing you’ve got to do is get to know this person or the people you’re working with. You probably did the work. You know that this influencer or set of influencers matches your product. It doesn’t end there, especially if you want to build a strong relationship with them.
You want to get to know these individuals. They aren’t just partners; they’re supposed to be friends and people your brand connects with. Welcome them to your company. Offer perks, advice, help, or whatever you can to make them feel welcomed.
Evaluations Matter
If you want to improve your relationship with your influencer or influencers, it’s important to be direct. To do this, you need hard data that you can bring up during a proper evaluation of the provided services. You need to consider digging into the results of this partnership, and for that, you’ll need partner performance metrics.
It might seem strange to bring up this kind of data, like performance or the return on investment, but it’s welcomed. Keep in mind that influencers are business people, just like you. They want to provide the best to their clients. The data you’re providing will help them improve, and that will make them more hirable.
Freedom is Golden
Influencers know how to engage with their audience; that’s the reason you’re hiring them. Don’t start thinking that since you’re paying them you should dictate what they create for you. Sure, you can give them a guideline. You can tell them the goal of your campaign, and you can tell them what your brand stands for, but that’s about it.
You have to stop here, and allow them to create whatever they want. Giving your influencer or influencers freedom to create helps improve your relationship with them. It makes them feel like you trust and respect their craft. If there is an issue at some point, they’ll be willing to listen to you because they know you’re just being constructive.
Suitable Compensation
Many companies think they can get away with not paying influencers anything except for what they get in perks. Yes, many companies offer free products or services to their influencers and nothing more after that. While this may work at the beginning, it won’t work in the long run.
At some point, influencers want something else. If you want to create a stronger relationship with your influencers, offer good compensation. This will tell the influencers that you’re serious about this and that you appreciate their work. The last thing you want is to lose an effective influencer because you won’t compensate them adequately.
Get Formal
While becoming friends is good, that doesn’t mean you should overlook the professional relationship you’re supposed to have with your influencer or influencers. The best way to do this is to write up a formal contract that includes everything that’s expected of them.
You don’t want to hit any snags along the way that’ll hurt the relationship you’ve worked so hard to create. Go beyond the contract though. You need to issue receipts or invoices. Do everything to document all interactions between the two of you. If a discrepancy does spring up, you hold all the documentation needed to get past this discrepancy without damaging your relationship.
Streamline Communications
Establishing a good relationship with your influencer or influencers is good, but don’t go overboard. Influencers communicate with a lot of folks, so try to keep your communications down to the bare minimum. Be personable and always remember details about the influencers you work with, but don’t chat them up all the time.
It’s vital to also work on streamlining your communications, especially one that explains the next project. Work on creating one email that has all the steps and requirements you need for your next project. The last thing you want is for your influencer to have to sift through their emails to read different emails explaining different aspects of the project. You might create confusion, and no one wants that.
Now, you have things that you can do to improve the relationship between your brand and influencers. This isn’t going to be easy. It’ll take time, but it’ll be worth it in the end.
