Influencer Marketing: Content Is King!
By: Mary Ann Bautista
Content is KING!
We’ve all heard this adage, but what does it really mean when we are talking about influencer marketing? Well, that’s our deep dive this week. How to get great content, who owns it, can it be used outside of the influencer’s social media and what value does it drive?
The first and best way to get great posts for your e-commerce business is to be sure you know what you want. What is the goal? What are the features and benefits of your product or service that are unique and really get folks excited? Let’s say you have a spray painter to sell. Well, what are the best qualities of your painter and what makes it different from the competition? Perhaps an unboxing video would be a great post? The influencer films themselves opening the box, unpacking all the contents and goes over the features of each item in the box. It’s great for consumers to know exactly what to expect. That way when they order your product, there are no surprises or disappointments.
How about an explainer video, where your influencer puts the product together and “explains” how it works? They could connect a paint can, turn, and explain all the knobs and controls and describe how it sprays the paint. This is like a tutorial on how to use the product. And how about seeing the product in use? An influencer could demonstrate the product in use and show the final project. Imagine watching an influencer prep and paint a bookshelf. This could be great content to inspire Do-It-Yourselfers to think about a project they could use the paint sprayer for.
These are just a few examples of the kinds of content you might want for your product or service. Not each is appropriate for every product…but I hope this will get you started.
How do you get this great content? You ask for it and you are as detailed about what you do and DO NOT want as you possibly can be, in writing! And if the influencer does not produce to your specifications, ask them to fix the problem. We also highly recommend withholding payment to the influencer until the final creative asset is finalized and approved.
What’s next? The influencer posts the content to their social media accounts. It’s important to be sure that they take this step. This is what we call compliance! Many platforms can confirm this for you in their reporting dashboard. But do make sure a compliance step is taken! The next thing that normally happens is that the influencer removes the post after a certain agreed period of time, or a predetermined number of views, likes or engagements. And then that content is gone, it is over! You got your 10-seconds of fame. But does it have to be that way?
Well, that depends on who owns the content or if usage has been discussed. The ownership and usage of the content should be pre-negotiated in the upfront contract. We know that great content has far-reaching value beyond that initial post. So here at BDM we work hard to secure the content in advance whenever possible. You may wonder why the influencer wants to take sponsored posts down? Well, most influencers want their feeds to be heavy on the content that they are known for and not on paid advertising. That’s understandable! Their followers follow them because they like their work, aesthetic, or vibe. They are not following them to be sold something!
There are ways, however, to use the content after the initial post, with permission that absolutely will continue to benefit your business. And we can even make that an automatic agreement upfront in the contract. Imagine if you had a great piece of content that did a wonderful job showing off your product or service. How can you make great use of that? There are countless ways. Here is a partial list just to get your juices flowing:
Email to prospects
Testimonials on your site
Product display pages
Retargeting
Newsletters
TV and Video Ads
Display Ads
Great influencer content can benefit and add value to almost all of your marketing executions. First it will save you time and money creating those assets yourself. Photo and video shoots can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. What if you could get that content from your influencer program? Additionally, IGC or UGC (Influencer or User-Generated Content) is HUGELY valuable. You get an assumed 3rd party endorsement, spoken in the influencer’s own words and with their own style. This adds the social proof that we all know consumers look for before buying.
Finally, the content that Influencers produce is far more credible. Believable and authentic than anything you can produce yourselves. It shows your product or service in the real world, being used by a real person, without all the fancy production bells and whistles you’d use in a video or photoshoot. It can be magic for your business!
