In the age of digital marketing, influencers reign king because with an engaged audience, the rate of return on an influencer post versus a traditional ad can be night and day. Yet many are under the belief that they can’t afford influencer marketing.
But is that really true?
We asked fashion influencers Molly Hogan @trendychickadee, Stephanie Arant @shhtephs, and Kristine Agabaian @krischerie at the WWD Social House at MAGIC for their top tips for working with influencers and getting the best return on your investment.
Here are their top 4 tips for working with influencers —no matter your marketing budget.
Make sure your influencer’s engagement is at least 3-5%. As any savvy social media user knows, followers aren’t everything. If you find the rate of likes and comments to followers doesn’t add up, keep looking.
Find a micro-influencer. Working with influencers with audiences in the ten to ten thousand range is a great way to save money and still sell a lot of product. They may not have the numbers, but they have the engagement and often their rates are much cheaper. Just make sure to find a content creator that fits your audience and aesthetic.
Create a travel campaign. If you can provide an experience, it’s a great way to get great content on a smaller budget. Many times influencers end up posting far more than agreed to because they’re having such a great time, and the content is so beautiful.
Be honest about what you’re willing to do. It’s common for brands with no budget to make promises they can’t keep like asking for free content and offering to pay the next time but of course, the next time never comes. To build strong relationships, it’s better to just be honest about what you can and cannot do. If you have no budget say so, that way you may be able to find a solution that works for both parties. At the very least, you’ll have built trust and kept your integrity intact which is the foundation of any healthy relationship.
