How Brands Can Successfully Create, Develop and Sustain Influencer Relationships

A strong bond based on trust with an influencer is certainly an invaluable asset for brands. Their engaging content is an essential tool to reach out to potential customers in an effective manner. As a brand, you can yield maximum benefit from influencer marketing if you spend time and effort on building and sustaining strong influencer relationships. We'll guide you through how you can successfully achieve this and lead your brand to new heights of growth. 

When deciding on which influencer to select, it is important to ensure that your product aligns well with an influencer's interests and their content. Choosing an influencer in the wrong category or one with a different area of interest will prevent your campaigns from reaching the right target audience. Observe the style of an influencer’s posts to see whether they fit well with your brand identity as well as the characteristics of your product. 

One thing you want to ensure when connecting with an influencer, is authenticity, as it is a crucial element in any influencer's content. You should look for influencers that have a strong passion for the work they do. Look through their content to see if their work reflects a passion for what they do. This should automatically ensure that the influencer's content is authentic.

Looking at how an influencer interacts with their audience is key. An active, engaging and truly influential influencer will make an effort to establish a two way communication with their audience. Wherever possible, they would reply to comments on their posts and have an engaging tone in their content. An interactive influencer is always a plus point for brands since they will be most effective in carrying your brand's message across to potential customers.

While it is important to evaluate an influencer, an often overlooked aspect of influencer selection is analysis of their audience. Studying data on behaviors, preferences, household incomes, brand loyalties etc. can enable you to make a much more informed decision about the kind of influencer you should choose.

To build effective relationships with influencers, try not to look at it as a strictly business transaction. Communicate openly with them and allow them room to be creative and execute their ideas according to their style. You should, of course, lay out guidelines for your brand's expectations and the style of content you expect, but don't set too many constraints that could stifle the influencer's creativity. Effective communication is key. Both the brand and influencer must be open from the outset about their do's and don'ts. Think of influencers as brand ambassadors who are truly passionate about making your product and brand successful.

Sustaining influencer relationships is perhaps the most challenging part of the process. Again, it is effective communication that lays the foundations of sustaining influencer relationships in the long-run. Have an influencer relationship manager to ensure that there is always a point of contact for the influencers to raise their concerns and share their experiences.

Once you have associated your brand with an influencer in the long-run and experienced several successful campaigns with them, you can consider offering these influencers more than just a paycheck. You can invite them to networking events and even sponsor trips for them based on their interests. Going this extra mile will ensure that you are able to sustain your relationships with committed influencers in the longer term.

While all of the above does seem to require a lot of effort, an influencer marketing agency like Influencer Hub can make the entire process much simpler for you. Our competitive criteria for selecting influencers on our platform ensures that you can choose from the best talent. Our platform has profiles of micro influencers with high engagement rates and affordable fees. It will allow your brand to publish campaigns and track influencer performance, making influencer management incredibly convenient. So what are you waiting for? Register your brand for free at Influencer Hub to take your brand to new heights of success!