Influencer marketing can help a brand extend beyond its following to reach a captive and often niche audience they may not have otherwise. Influencers gain influence because of their point of view and style of content, and that unique storytelling and earned trust benefits the brand in a partnership.

In this blog post, PRESS shares our advice on delivering clients an influencer marketing campaign that reaches a target audience and garners unique, diverse attention.

1. The magic is in the creative brief.
Defining success is an important factor in achieving it. Get clear on your campaign goals. Ask yourselves: What challenge is this campaign solving for? What is the singular most important message to convey? Who are we trying to reach? Identifying your target audience will help you determine which platform to pursue.

2. Provide inspiration, not instructions.
With your campaign goals and platform in mind, brainstorm content ideas and nail down 2-3 potential storylines to provide the influencer; This is a critical step towards ensuring the client will be happy with the final product.

3. Select an influencer that reaches your target audience and embodies your brand.
Obvious but occasionally overlooked: The demographic of the influencer’s following must be the campaign’s target audience. The influencer’s brand must align with the client’s brand. The exception—if the client is rebranding or attempting to shift brand perception, unexpected partnerships can be successful, but success will rely heavily on the content itself.

Therefore, a final word from the wise in selecting an influencer for a campaign: Assess the influencer’s approach to sponsored content. Do they expertly assimilate these videos with their original content and receive similar levels of engagement.

4. Creative freedom is king.
Organic content is the most persuasive content. Allow the influencer to do what you’ve hired them to do. You’ve chosen them for a reason; You and your client must trust that. In fact, you should encourage the influencer to make the creative brief their own and welcome discussion of new ideas. At PRESS, in all areas, when we propose a partnership and collaboration, we treat it as such.

5. Project management matters.
Like almost anything in life, a successful influencer marketing campaign requires clear expectations and communication. Set and share soft deadlines for sourcing talent, contract negotiations, production, content submission for review and time to make possible edits to content prior to publishing.

When the time comes, if the client is flexible, don’t be afraid to ask the influencer for their expertise on day of the week and time of day to post. They know their following best! Collaborating in this way can also allow the influencer to better manage advertising fatigue by strategically scheduling sponsored content to be offset by original content.

Our final tip for shaping the perfect campaign? Avoid falling into a formula. Best practices are always changing. It’s important to keep an ear to the ground to see what’s new and approach each campaign with a fresh perspective. From helping new brands break through the noise to helping those that are more established reach an entirely new audience or a change the narrative, our team of problem solvers jumps at any opportunity to build killer campaigns that more than move the needle for our clients.