Influencer marketing is about letting go.

Lots of brands are embracing influencer marketing. It can be very valuable to get cut through with consumers who will trust a person they follow, rather than a brand. Of course there’s a range of ways to use this type of marketing wisely. Here’s some top tips to get the most out of it.

Let (it) go vs. control.
When you have identified your key influencer and they write something about your brand – either because you have paid them or because they intrinsically love your brand – don’t try to control and secure everything you can. To get the most the most out of your influencers you should be able to let the influencing take its course. Of course I am not saying you shouldn’t do something about it when you don’t get anything out of them. But just sit back and watch what happens first before you start throwing paid media at it.

Discovery increases organic exposure.
The chance other real unpaid influencers will pick up after your (paid) core influencers have written something about your brand/product, is bigger if the mass crowd hasn’t seen it before. Consequently: if the mass has seen it, the chance other non paid influencers will pick it up is very small. None of these powerful online influencers want to come up with something that the mass has seen already. It’s all about discovery. Lots of companies still want the guarantee the influencing will start right away and becomes viral overnight. They still just want views, likes and shares. But that’s not how this type of marketing works; or at least works at its best.

6 Steps to influential success.
So what are the steps to take:

1. Find the right, relevant influencers. Ideally ones that already mentioned you in a positive way, combined with having a number of followers. Alternatively influencers that fit your brand and the target audience you’re aiming at.
2. Make sure they write about your brand, either naturally or by paying them (the first is quite rare nowadays, but still happens occasionally).
3. Let things happen – let other influencers, or followers pick things up themselves, don’t interfere too soon. Make sure you’re close on the ball, or have a team doing so.
4. Don’t be too afraid for negative comments. Usually if you have done Step 1 well, the amount of negative vs. positive is very limited and it makes your brand more believable. Think of it this way: when it comes to people, nobody is loved by everyone.
5. Once there is influential exposure, wait until it has reached the mainstream crowd; then put paid media behind it to get additional scale and increased contact frequency. In case nothing happens after a while, put paid media behind it at some point anyway, unless you don’t feel it was the right message in the first place.
6. If you’re happy with the way things went, continue the relationship with those influencers. The longer the relationship lasts, the more believable it comes across to your consumer (check my earlier blog for more on this).
7. Keep on building your relationship with the influencer to mutually make the most out of brand & influencer exposure.

To close off with Eddie Vedder Let it Go! (or was it Demi Lovato?)