You have done all the work and the influencer has finally made the post you have been waiting for. What next? In this article we will go through the steps to take once the influencer has posted and share the free influencer relationship management templates to optimise the success of your influencer program. In fact this is the most important stage to build a lasting influencer program and maximise ROI, continue reading to learn why.
The posted and relationship management stage is crucial to close off your initial campaign, thank the influencer for the great post and most importantly build a lasting relationship to maximise ROI for your influencer program.
The reason this is so important is because you now have the data you need in order to decide how to continue. The key here is to foster lasting relationships with your performing influencers and encourage continuous posting and exposure to maximise the marketing impact for your brand.
In order to understand how to structure your campaign we always refer to the 4 stages of your influencer campaign. In this article we will cover the last stage of your influencer campaign which is the posted & relationship management stage.
As this stage is the beginning of building up an effective influencer program, it is important to understand how it fits in to rest of your influencer campaign in order to effectively structure your communication according to the previous engagements with the influencer.
This is the first step of your influencer campaign where you contact a new influencer for the first time. Your main objective here is to maximise your reply rate to get as many influencers as possible in your pipeline. Read about the right influencer outreach strategies and free templates here.
Once an influencer replies you will typically move to the negotiation stage where there can be two outcomes. 1. The influencer agrees to your proposal or 2. The influencer asks for more money. To access the right negotiation strategies as well as templates for your Instagram influencer campaign read our full article on influencer outreach templates here.
Once you agree to the terms with the influencers you typically move into the awaiting post stage. The work isn’t over yet it is a crucial moment where you should follow up with the influencer to make sure that they will post. Read more about the right strategies and access our influencer outreach awaiting post templates here.
Once the influencer has completed the post you ideally want to build a long lasting relationship to continue to benefit from the partnership.
This is the stage we will cover in this article.
The Posted stage is the final step of the first collaboration, where you evaluate the performance of the influencer’s post, including engagement and conversions. This assessment helps you grasp the success of your campaign and the influencer’s impact on your brand.
In this stage it is extremely important to use the data you gathered to build an effective influencer program. Besides thanking the influencer for the post you now want to decide how you can continue to work with these influencers to maximise the impact for your campaign. In order to do this you typically want to categorise your influencer based on performance. We recommend to segment them into the following 3 performance categories:
This will allow you to strategically allocate resources to the influencers which matter most.
We often mention the strong power law distribution in influencer marketing which means that the majority of the sales are generated by a small group of high performing influencers. The key challenge is to identify these influencers which can make the difference.
Below is an example of how the performance distribution can look like. The data comes from a D2C brand in the home & living space who organised a Black Friday campaign leveraging influencers as the only marketing channel. The brand was able to achieve a total revenue of $665.2K during November and December.
As you can see from the chart 61.5% of the revenue was generated by high performing influencers, followed by medium performing influencers with 30.1% and General / low performing influencers with 8.4% revenue contribution.
What is astonishing however, is if you look at the number of high performing influencers vs medium and low performing influencers in this campaign which is visualised in the chart below.
Only 2.1% of the influencers which participated in the campaign generated over 60% of the revenue. This example shows the strong power law distribution in influencer marketing. What can we learn from this? Focus on your high performing influencers. Send a big bouquet of flowers a personalised postcard, call them to whatever it takes to build a long lasting relationship with these influencers.
Essentially the more of these high performing influencers you are able to identify the bigger your business. Below is an overview of the top 10 performing influencers in this campaign.
With high performing influencers we typically recommend to work with fixed payments instead of affiliate deals to maximise ROI. As you can see from the overview above, working with affiliate gets expensive if an influencer makes a lot of sales.
On the opposite, with low performing influencers you typically want to work with affiliate instead of fixed payments to hedge your downside and combination of both is also possible if you want to reduce risk. For a full article on how to optimise ROI with performing influencers read our full article here.
We frequently refer to low performing influencers as general performers as the term low performers sounds negative. When working with these influencers, it is important to understand that spending too much time on communication can put pressure on your ROI. This doesn’t mean that there is no value in these relationships, it just means that you should be strategic about the resources you allocate in managing these partnerships.
It's important to express gratitude for their efforts and offer ongoing support. While their initial post may not have yielded high conversions, you can encourage them to continue sharing your affiliate link in their bio or on other platforms.
This not only supports your campaign but also motivates the influencer to remain engaged with your brand by potentially boosting their commission.
Here's a customizable template you can use to guide your communication with low performers:
P1 - Posted <3 Conversions
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you so much for the beautiful post! Your participation in our campaign means a lot to us, and we appreciate your efforts. :)
We have left your link and code active so you will continue to earn affiliate commission. Feel free to use the link also on other platforms which will benefit your affiliate earnings :)
In addition, I have sent you an invitation to the Dashboard so you can create your log in, put in your bank details, and track your commission.
Your collaboration is incredibly valued.
Thank you once again for your amazing support!
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
Based on the 80/20 principle you will see that most of the influencers usually fall into this category. To still utilise these relationships we typically recommend to activate them during peak selling seasons. This can be during Black Friday or during certain seasons or for example during the summer if you are a brand selling sunglasses.
What is important here is to try to automate the communication as the average ROI per influencer is low. Using automation tools like the Influencer Hero Ai campaign automator and drip campaigns will help to maximise ROI when working with low performing influencers.
These are the influencers which will help to build your brand into household names. It is crucial in this stage to nurture the relationship and ensure that they will continue to be engaged and ideally become brand ambassadors. For high performers we recommend sending a flower bouquet or something special to show your appreciation and make sure to onboard them for a continued partnership.
To keep them engaged and double down on this opportunity, you could also consider sending them a new product to try out. This not only keeps them excited about your brand but could also lead to additional posts.
By consistently offering influencers new opportunities to experience your products, you encourage them to continue spreading the word about your brand. The ideal scenario is to transform them into loyal brand advocates or even brand ambassadors who actively represent your brand across various platforms.
Use the following customizable template to guide your communication and strengthen your relationship with medium and high performers:
MP & HP - Medium or High Performer
Hi {{firstname}},
Thank you so much for your beautiful post!
We would love to continue to work with you and send you our ENTER NAME OF NEW PRODUCT for you to try! ENTER SHORT PRODUCT DESCRIPTION.
I have also sent you an invite to your dashboard where you can see your earnings. If you connect your bank details in your dashboard we can process the payment :)
Can we send you the new ENTER NAME OF NEW PRODUCT?
Best,
ENTER YOUR NAME
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Seasonality campaigns are the best way to maximise your ROI from your influencer program. During these seasonality campaigns you ideally want to focus on your performing influencers close packages with multiple posts to reduce cost and maximise ROI and have a group of your loyal influencers announce your special offer or promotion. The reason this works so well is because the narrative on the post is conversion focused.
While a casual mention outside of a promotion will help to increase brand awareness, and can lead to some sales, it is the moment when you give your customers a reason to buy when your conversion rate is higher than usual.
In the screenshot below you can see how the sales really start during Black Friday where the brand organised a large influencer campaign. Prior to the campaign sales weren't significant. This shows the power of seasonality campaigns when working with influencers. To read how to successfully organise influencer seasonality campaigns access our full article here.
When managing a campaign at a larger scale, having access to the right tools is essential. With Influencer Hero you can manage your campaign end to end from one centralised influencer CRM.
In conclusion, managing the relationship with influencers post-campaign is critical to maximizing ROI and building a sustainable influencer program. By categorizing influencers based on performance and strategically allocating resources, brands can focus on nurturing high performers and optimizing engagement. Utilizing templates and tools like Influencer Hero streamlines communication and ensures efficient management. Continuously fostering these relationships will enhance brand loyalty and drive long-term success in influencer marketing.
Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) involves managing interactions with influencers from initial contact to ongoing collaboration. It aims to build and maintain long-term, mutually beneficial relationships to enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. An effective IRM strategy can improve brand visibility, trust, and ROI by leveraging influencers' reach and influence.
Forming strong relationships with influencers is crucial because consumers trust influencers' opinions more than traditional advertisements. Good relationships ensure influencers feel connected to your brand, resulting in more authentic and effective promotions. Long-term partnerships also enhance brand loyalty and credibility, making your marketing efforts more sustainable and impactful.
An IRM platform / Influencer CRM helps streamline the entire process of working with influencers, from discovering and vetting potential partners to managing campaigns and analyzing performance. These tools centralize data, facilitate better communication, and provide valuable insights into each influencer's impact, making it easier to optimize your influencer marketing strategy and improve ROI. Some good influencer relationship management platforms IRM / Influencer CRMs are Influencer Hero, Grin or Upfluence.
Effective influencer management involves clear communication, setting expectations, and providing creative freedom. It is essential to treat influencers as strategic partners, offering fair compensation and valuing their feedback. Regular communication, timely payments, and respecting their creative process help build strong, long-term relationships that benefit both parties.
Best practices for IRM include identifying and vetting influencers carefully, developing mutually beneficial partnerships, and using IRM tools to track and manage interactions. It's important to provide influencers with adequate time to create content, set clear expectations, and offer support and incentives to keep them engaged. Regularly reviewing performance metrics helps refine strategies and prioritize high-performing influencers.
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