3 Ways to Turn Influencers You Pay Into True Fans of Your Brand

In order for your relationship with influencers to work, you've got to find the right ones and do more than simply give them campaigns to work on.

in 2022, more than 75% of brands had a dedicated budget for influencer marketing, and 68% of companies surveyed said they planned to increase their influencer marketing spend going forward. Influencer marketing is on the rise, and it's more likely than not that your company will soon engage in this kind of marketing strategy if it hasn't started already.

Influencer marketing refers to any collaboration between an online influencer and a company to market their product or service. These collaborations can be very fruitful if done correctly, but if done wrong can be a complete waste of money. At their best, influencer-based marketing strategies can boost brand awareness, bump up sales and generate buzz and free publicity for your company. However, if the collaboration isn't genuine, the audience can pick up on that, and your influencer marketing strategy could quickly wind up a complete flop.

To ensure you get the most out of your influencer marketing spend, you must take the time to turn these Instagram influencers (or whatever kind of influencer you're looking for) into bonafide brand fans rather than fostering a purely transactional relationship with them. If the content creators you're partnering with are genuine fans of your product or service, it'll come through in their representation of your company. Ideally, their enthusiasm should rub off on their audience, and you would grow a network of loyal brand fans who spread the word about your company and generate further brand awareness and sales.

With the right approach, this dream situation is within reach. However, it takes time, effort and consistency to build a genuine relationship with your influencer partners and turn them into actual brand fans. Do these three things to help make it happen.

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1. Identify the right type of influencer

In order to make the most out of your brand's influencer collaboration, it's vital to find real-world influencers who truly align with your brand's mission, image and audience. If you miss the mark here, your entire partnership could come off as insincere and do damage to both your brand and the influencers' image.

True influencers have worked hard to curate their content, organically build an audience base, and maintain a genuine relationship with their followers. You can see it in their content or on their preferred social media platform if you look closely. You should like their online persona. They should be protective over their image and perhaps even unwilling to work with your company unless they genuinely believe in your product.

Doing your research about the personal brand they've created for themselves improves the likelihood your collaboration is successful. Hopefully, they should appreciate the time and effort you've carved out to consider how a partnership would be mutually beneficial for both parties. They may be more likely to agree to collaborate if there's a genuine shared interest between them and your product or service. Celebrity influencers might appear attractive at first, but if the audience members they bring to the table don't fit your customer profile, then the potential relationship may not be a match.

There are many ways to go about finding a potential influencer you can partner with. You can reach them through word of mouth or even through influencers you already work with. Don't be afraid to use an agency to find your influencers, or reach out to them directly on their social media pages or website.

2. Turn the business relationship into more of a friendship

When working with an influencer, remember that above all else you're dealing with a person, not a company. Business jargon, tense negotiations and complicated contracts aren't generally a part of influencer culture. Instead, speak in casual terms and behave as if you're nurturing a real friendship.

If possible, put one person at your company in charge of your brand's relationship with the influencer. Having a sole contact person helps bridge a genuine connection between your company and the influencer. If you keep handing them off to different employees, the nuances of ongoing strategy can easily fall through the cracks and you could miss out on opportunities to build an authentic relationship with the influencer.

Once you've found the right influencer, give them as much information as possible and make sure they know the story behind your brand. Share your company's mission with them and any other corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives your team engages in. The more influencers know about your product or service, the more they'll be able to communicate that with their fans.

Keep these partners up to date with new product launches or influencer marketing campaigns. Or, simply check in with your influencer from time to time to keep your connection strong. Your influencer will feel special and cared for if they're kept in the know. Effective influencer programs hold Zoom happy hours or even in-person meetups at regular intervals to help nurture the influencer relationships with the company, and even each other.

Periodically send them free samples of your product or services to let them know you're thinking of them. It demonstrates good faith that you believe in your product or service, and you might even get a free shout-out for it.

3. Use their input for marketing strategy instead of ordering them around

Quality influencers with loyal followings have put in countless hours to build their niche. It's through a deep understanding of their audience that they've been able to change opinions or drive measurable outcomes through the platforms they use. Because no one understands an influencer's audience better than they do, you should leverage their expertise when devising a collaboration strategy.

Once you've converted an influencer into a true brand fan, you should lean on them for advice about how to steer the collaboration with your company.

Instead of telling them what to do, which inevitably comes off as flat to their audience, you should hand them the reins. Get them thinking for you, and be open-minded about their creative ideas, even if they're out of the realm of your company's typical operations.

Remember you approached them for a reason, so don't be afraid to trust them when it comes to collaborating. Be careful not to force your company's standard practices onto them if it doesn't make sense for how they interact online. Influencers have a very good understanding of how to create marketable content that is native to their platform, and this expertise shouldn't be undermined or ignored.

Getting them on your team

Influencer marketing strategies can be powerful when your influencer partners are on your team. However, it takes time and sustained effort to turn your influencer into a true brand representative. Once you have taken the time to convert your influencers into genuine fans, your influencer collaboration will yield returns far into the future.

John Boitnott is a journalist and digital consultant who has worked at media companies for 25 years. He writes about startups, marketing and leadership at Entrepreneur, the Motley Fool, Readwrite.com, Jotform.com, and his blog.

This post appeared on Entrepreneur.com.