Amplify Experiential Events with Creators & Influencers

Partnering with influencers and creators — the people who create and distribute content, services, and products online — can be a powerful way to find and build your brand’s audience. Here’s how to build these collaborations into your marketing strategy and leverage content creators’ reach, credibility, and creative talent to amplify your brand message.

Why Collaborate with Influencers and Content Creators?

Bottom line: Brands that partner with creators gain access to those creators’ audiences to grow sales, increase brand awareness, and gain credible authenticity with consumers.

Creators and influencers can be a strong asset not only on social media but also in your brand’s experiential events. “Influencers already know exactly what kind of experience their followers are looking for,” says an article by grin.co, a creator management platform. Depending on the influencer’s skillset and experience, collaborating with these creatives for your activation or pop-up can give you “an event planner, host, and salesperson all wrapped into one.”

The collaboration can benefit the influencer, too. Influencers and creators collaborate with brands they can believe in, whose presence in their content will enhance their own stature, and this in turn builds their following and helps them support themselves. The authenticity of their content builds trust with followers, and that means they have the power to impact their followers’ decisions.

Define Your Goals and Audience

To a large extent, which content creators you choose and how you work with them will be determined by your goals for the specific campaign — and defining goals starts with defining your audience. “Arm yourself with your brand’s current social media analytics,” says Khalipha Ntloko in a blog post for Meltwater, an online media monitoring agency. That information will help you determine who you already reach, on which channel/s that audience can be found, and their interests and online behavior. Find out who is already talking about your brand online by monitoring hashtag use and conversations. Understanding your ideal customer’s demographics, interests, and the platforms they frequent will help you find creators who resonate with them.

Ask yourself and your team what you want to achieve through this collaboration. Your goals might include spreading brand awareness, increasing social media (or website) traffic, driving sales, launching a new product, creating content supporting your brand or products, or producing user-generated content. Having clear goals will help you select the right creators, because you’ll be able to align creators’ style and expertise with the objectives you hope to achieve.

Find the Right Creators

Choose Your Channels

Once you’ve identified the goals for your campaign, choose which social media channels you want to focus on. “For example, if your goal is to draw more customers to your Shopify store, you may try to find Instagram influencers to take advantage of the platform integrations,” says Ntloko. If you’ve identified a need for instructional videos or how-to’s explaining your product, look on YouTube, where creators can produce long-form content like tutorials.

“Consider all the different platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, newsletters, books, and even a streaming service like Twitch,” as well as podcasters in your field, advises a recent Hubspot article.

Build a List

View content across the channels you’re interested in to find influencers in your industry. Because influencers use hashtags to reach potential followers, you can use those hashtags to find influencers that are relevant to your brand. Identify a list of influencers to investigate more closely to determine whether they might be a good fit for your brand. At this stage, keep your list long, with plenty of room to narrow down — 5 to 10 creators is a good range to start with, according to Hubspot.

Research Those Creators

As you look at each creator’s number of followers, level of engagement, and other metrics, consider a mix of creator sizes: Micro-influencers (1k-100k followers) often have high engagement rates, while macro-influencers (100k-1 million followers) typically have much broader reach. “Micro-influencers may have more frequent and genuine interactions with their audiences,” according to online tech community Built-In. They may also be less expensive, depending on content type. Regardless of the numbers, look for engagement: number and nature of comments, interaction between creator and commenters, and the like can tell you a great deal about the creator and their audience.

Look for creators whose subject matter, persona, audience, authenticity, and content style align closely with your brand’s values and target demographic. Pay attention to the quality of their work, too — part of working with content creators is giving them freedom to produce content for your brand in their own way. That’s where the authenticity comes from, and what the influencer’s followers trust is the creator’s authentic voice and style.

Review Prior Collaborations

Research your top 5 to 10 creators more deeply by looking at their past collaborations to see if their style aligns with your brand image and the goals you hope to accomplish. Remember, Hubspot advises, that “when you partner with a creator, you get the entire package, good or bad. So vet your list to only the creators that make sense.”

Pitch Your Brand

When you’ve identified a few creators that seem to be a great fit for your brand and goals, craft a personalized pitch. Don’t send generic emails — remember that the creators, too, hope to benefit from this partnership, so a good first impression is crucial. Briefly introduce yourself and your brand, highlight what you admire about the creator’s work, and explain how the collaboration could be mutually beneficial.

Work Together on a Small Project

The best way to sort out whether your brand and a creator are right for each other is to work together — so choose a relatively low-stakes project you can complete with the influencer. “It makes sense to start simply by sponsoring a creator project or running an advertisement in one of their offerings,” Hubspot says.

After the test project is complete, determine whether the project reached your audience and how well it was received. Did you get good results? If so, you may be ready to put together a bigger promotional effort. If it didn’t, be glad you did a test run and start again with a different creator.

Working with Creators & Influencers

Once you’ve found a content creator who’s a great fit for your brand, you’ll want to draft a clear agreement — a contract — that details the expectations and responsibilities of both parties.

It may be tempting to work out an informal agreement over text, chat, or email, but producing a legal document, signed by both parties, that outlines the scope of work, compensation, and timeline is always recommended when entering any type of business partnership, according to Ironclad, a contract management platform: “A contract between an influencer and brand is to protect both parties and ensure obligations are met.” For this reason, make sure your contract includes a good “out” for both parties should the partnership fall apart or circumstances intervene.

Hubspot’s advice for formalizing agreements with content creators is to “Plan for the effort NOT to work. Make sure you put an easy out (for both sides) into the agreement if things go south. If it works, fantastic, but best to plan for the worst.”

Working with an attorney is recommended, but sample or DIY contracts are available online on sites like rocketlawyer.com, many of them for free. As you talk through the project with the influencer and establish the terms of your partnership, be prepared to discuss these elements and include them in the agreement:

Scope of Work

The scope of work for a creative collaboration includes details such as both parties’ expectations for who will contribute what and on what schedule; the amount and form of compensation; the number, timing, and frequency of posts or other content; a timeline for the overall project with deadlines for specific pieces; and who has final decision-making power over creative matters. If the influencer’s work depends on products, services, or anything else provided in advance by your brand, make sure that’s clearly laid out in the agreement too.

Finally: Define what “success” looks like for this collaboration. If you can, describe it quantitatively. The goal here is to build some metrics into the project so you have something to measure at the end.

Content Guidelines

Develop a set of guidelines that are clear about the brand message, key talking points for the campaign, hashtags to be used in the campaign, and any creative requirements or ‘tools’ such as photography, props, or products.

Remember: you’re partnering with the content creator because of their expertise in connecting with their audience — so allow them considerable creative freedom to maintain their authentic style, even as you maintain control over what’s said about your brand and its products.

Don’t forget about the call to action — the “do this next” statement included in the campaign content that tells users where to go or what steps to take to make a purchase. This can be as simple as “go to yourwebsite.com and use the code ‘influencername’ to get a discount.”

Compensation

This will vary depending on the creator’s reach, the type of content, and the level of effort involved. Barter arrangements or product gifting can be options for smaller creators.

Content Promotion

Specify who may distribute and promote the content and via which channels or websites. After the content is created, actively promote it on your own social media channels and website. Encourage the creator to do the same according to the agreement, and follow up to make sure both of you are holding up your end of the promotion agreement.

Legal Details

Defining roles and expectations isn’t just about getting the project completed, it’s also about meeting legal requirements of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the government agency that protects consumers from unfair business practices and deceptive or false advertising. “To adhere to FTC regulations,” Ironclad notes, “influencer marketing campaigns should be clearly labeled as branded content and sponsored content by the influencer.”

After the Project

Measure Performance

Maintain open communication with the creator throughout the collaboration process. Address any questions or concerns promptly to ensure the best outcome for the overall project. If the content doesn’t meet expectations immediately, talk to your influencer and brainstorm ways to course-correct.

Monitor the performance of the campaign and track metrics like engagement, reach, and website traffic. This will help you measure the success of the collaboration and inform future strategies.
As you organize the project, build in measurables. For example if your call to action included a special code for discounts on your website, for example, track the use of that code — how many purchases used it, how much did they purchase, how many were new customers.

Review analytics on hashtags used in the campaign. Find out how many people are using your hashtags, what kind of content they’re associating with them, and the overall reach and engagement they are generating.

If your campaign was successful according to the metrics you and the influencer established in your agreement, great! Consider developing a long-term partnership with that creator, as long as their work consistently delivers good results. The cumulative effect of an ongoing partnership can be more effective than one-off collaborations.

When you find the right creator partnerships, “it’s all about giving them the space and the autonomy to create something close to their authentic style,” says Dept. “Remember that you’re no longer competing with other brands on social media; you’re competing against everything in your audience’s feeds.” Content creators and influencers know how to connect with users — how to stand out in their feeds. When you find a creator who can achieve that magic for your brand, cultivate that relationship. By following these steps and carefully selecting the right content creators, you can establish successful collaborations that effectively promote your brand and reach your target audience.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.