Last month marked the launch of SevenSix, a boutique agency specialising in modern marketing. Founded by marketer Charlotte Williams – who has previously worked with brands such as Hello Kitty & WAH Nails – the agency is named for the 1976 Race Relations Act, and championing diversity & equality is at its core.
SevenSix works intimately with brands to deliver purpose-led campaigns, and attending the launch – which convened an array of high-profile influencers from the fashion & beauty space – we were inspired by the agency’s ethos and vision for the future of marketing.
Sitting down with Charlotte earlier this week, we discovered her 7 tips for businesses thinking about working with influencers.
1. Decide how to reach out to them
Influencer marketing is a fairly new type of marketing and a lot of brands are still yet to crack it! The first place to start is to decide if you’re planning on reaching out to the influencers yourself or will you be using an agency to do it on your behalf?
2. Work out which influencers are right for you
Finding the right influencers to work with your brand is not always easy, especially if you’re a niche product. There are so many digital influencers online in 2019 so finding the right people to join your tribe can be a bit daunting.
A large following is great, but it’s the micro-influencers (5k-100k followings) who tend to have an engaged audience far more trusting of their opinions. Look for those who are either customers already, or fit with one of your buyer personas.
3. Understand how their followers interact with them
When it comes to influencers, it’s not all about Instagram followers, and there are multiple ways to understand how effective a person is at ‘influencing’.
If they have a blog be sure to check their Domain Authority (DA). If “established bloggers” have a DA lower than 30, it suggests people aren’t actually reading the content.
On social media platforms, followers aren’t everything. In an era of bought followers, likes and comments, it’s important to be discerning about what’s real & fake. Check how many likes and comments the influencer gets on each post and most importantly, who is commenting. If it’s a load of obvious bot comments*, then their audience is not engaged.
Most influencers have a platform that works best for them and it’s important you understand what that is. Some are massive on YouTube, but don’t have a correspondingly big following on other accounts – this should tell you where you’re most likely to see results.
Be sure to do a full stalk of who you’re working with!
* Although bot comments are the result of hashtags, not the influencer
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4. Choose the right channels
Instagram is one of the most popular channels for influencer marketing but again it’s important to know your consumer and the platforms they are using – where does your target customer spend most of their time online?
If you’re a beauty brand targeting an 18-35 consumer then an Instagram influencer will be your best bet, but there are multiple platforms with influential content creators (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest…) you should consider before deciding which one is best for you.
5. Know what you want to achieve
It’s important to understand what exactly you want from working with influencers. Is it brand awareness? Is it direct sales?
Different goals mean different considerations. If the influencer isn’t verified (blue tick) and has less than 10k followers on Instagram they don’t have access to the swipe up function in Instagram, which means there’s more friction when telling followers to click on a link. However, as mentioned in point #2, these smaller influencers still have a valuable role to play in your marketing plan.
6. Cultivate a genuine relationship with the influencers you want to work with
Brands big and small have awoken to the power of influencer marketing, which means influencers are often inundated with offers, gifts and paid opportunities. If you choose to send your products as a gift, there’s no obligation for promotion (regardless of how incredible they may be) and paying brands will always take priority.
However one way to compete against bigger marketing budgets is to invest time and effort into building a long-term relationship with those you want to work with. Build a community and keep in regular contact – show them the same love you’d like to get from them.
This also helps with the authenticity of posts when they do occur – genuine appreciation for your company and product will shine through!
7. Run those numbers
Once you’ve finished your campaign, it’s really important to go through the results. If you are using affiliate links, it’s easy to track the content that does the best for your brand but if not there are other ways of measuring success. If you are paying an influencer you have every right to ask to see their insights for the content they worked on with you; if you’re not, you can ask politely… this is where relationship building is important.
It’s essential to find who’s working well for you and who’s not so you can spend your money efficiently.