I recently had the pleasure of hosting a closed roundtable discussion at Glossy Beauty Pop. The discussion was incredibly insightful and included beauty influencers, brands, and industry experts.
While the rules of this roundtable limit me from sharing exactly who said what (you had to be there 😉), I can share some general insights that might give some inspo for your influencer marketing strategies.
*After you've read these tips, download our influencer brief slide deck template to use as a starting point for creating your own personalized version for your creators.
The Art of Influencer Marketing: 5 Tips for Designing Win-Win Partnerships
1. Always provide clarity on the objective of your partnership and campaign.
This is essential for both brands and creators! Yes, the goal will ultimately always come down to ROI but what that means differs depending on the scale of the partnership and stage of the brand. Communicate what metrics will be utilized (and ensure they make sense)!
2. Flings are out — long live the long term relationship.
Both the brands and creators in attendance talked at length about how long term partnerships are where it's at. Creators love them because they provide stability and continuity, and brands love them because they see better ROI results.
3. Brands need to pay attention to the impact of their seeding efforts.
Multiple creators mentioned that brands sometimes ignore when they post about gifts, leading to frustration, miscommunications, and miss opportunities. Conversely, some of the brands in attendance talked about how they were able to bring partnerships to the next level because of product seeding success. Brands seem to be leaving a lot of opportunities on the table here — I had actually recently learned about this before hosting this roundtable, when Traackr conducted some research on product seeding and its impact on influencer marketing.
4. Every partnership is an investment for influencers, too!
This feels like a no-brainer, but it’s good to be reminded. It’s important for all of us to remember that when evaluating partnerships, creators need to consider how it would impact their reputation, how their audience would respond, and whether they could carry out the partnership with authenticity. My piece of advice to brands here? If you’re getting pushback from an influencer that you really want to partner with, take the time to understand why that is. At the minimum you’ll make them feel heard and respected, at the most you could learn something new about how your brand is perceived.
5. A good relationship produces a good partnership.
If the brand is personable with the creator and treats them as a trusted partner, it will come through in more compelling and effective content. There are many great examples of this in the beauty industry — K18 Hair was one of the brands specifically mentioned by creators in this discussion as having this aspect “on lock”.