Why is the “Pay for Posts” Model DEAD when working with INFLUENCERS? (Thread)
**This may stir the pot a little**
2/ Let me propose a second question to you:
How much do you think it would cost for organic social posts from 30-50 influencers with 10K-100K followers?
3/ I think we can ALL agree that whether you went through an influencer agency, that represented talent, or directly to 30-50 influencers asking to pay them for posts, you’d AT LEAST be forking up $15,000.
4/ Again, I think we can all agree that $15,000 is a conservative quote for 30-50 influencers posting and this would more likely be around $30,000.
That's a lot of money.
5/ With this in mind, why is the “Pay for Post” model DEAD:
- OVER-PRICED
- Transactional NOT Relational
- Relationship built on asking, not giving
- Lacks authenticity
- Most importantly, there’s a better way to do what you're looking to do…
6/ So what’s the better way?
7/ Steps to Success:
Step 1:
Identify & Reach Out to 300 influencers in hopes of seeding your product to them- NO STRINGS ATTACHED.
8/ Let each influencer know that you think they’d simply love your product and you want to get it in their hands.
Have them send you their address and you’ll get your product shipped out to them right away.
9/ Again, no strings attached- you aren’t asking them to post in exchange for product, compensation, any sort of sponsorship, etc.
10/ This will lead to...
Relationships built on giving, not asking.
Relationships that are relational, not transactional.
Relationships that will have immediate and long-term, compounding value.
Relationships that lend itself to genuine brand community building.
11/ It will also lead to...
Relationships that will generate FREE Organic Social Posts.
12/ What do you mean FREE Posts?!?!
13/ Let me continue…
From the 300 influencer outreaches, our team typically sees 100 influencers opt-in to receive product.
From the 100 influencers that opt-in to receive product, we typically see 30-50 people post organically on their social handles FREE of cost.
14/
**Averages across seeding campaigns our team has executed**
15/ Even though we seeded the product “no strings attached”, 30-50 influencers posted organically for FREE and of their own FREE will.
16/ Not to mention your team could follow up with everyone who posts with a message that says,
“We’re so glad you loved the product we sent you that you shared it with your audience, we’d love to share your content with our audiences as well, could we have the rights to do so?”
17/ Many micro influencers will grant usage rights to brands when they start the relationship in this way...
18/ Don’t get me started on how much posts x usage rights would typically cost but just know it’d definitely be more than the $15-30K conservative, estimate from above.
19/ Let me circle back on an important note here though…
Not 30-50 posts for $15,000-$30,000...
30-50 influencers (10K-100K followers) posting and potentially granting usage rights for FREE.
20/ Lastly, I’m not playing ignorant to the COGS of the 100 products being seeded out “No Strings Attached” either, but the below costs are still much better than paying $15K-$30K for 30-50 influencer posts with no usage rights.
21/
$20 COGS x 100 products = $2,000
$35 COGS x 100 products = $3,500
$50 COGS x 100 products = $5,000
22/ Before paying more influencers or agencies for posts, give this strategy a go!
How we scaled Animal House Fitness from 0 to $1M in 4 months through the use of INFLUENCERS (THREAD)
2/ Product seeded 100+ influencers before ramping up any marketing spend (I.e. FB & IG Ads).
3/ A note worth mentioning:
When product seeding, our team doesn’t contract influencers or ask them to post in exchange for product, we look to build genuine relationships with them.
After effectively mass “INFLUENCER seeding” your product, how do you track which INFLUENCERS organically posted without spending hours on manual social scraping? (Thread)
**Video Tutorials Included**
2/ If you missed this thread, this is how we’ve experienced the greatest level of success in building out the foundations of an influencer program via MASS INFLUENCER seeding:
3/ That said, once you’ve seeded your product to 100+ INFLUENCERS, your team’s influencer lead may ask,
“How do you expect me to have the time to manually look up every influencer who posted on social while also putting together a report on their organic analytics?!”
What’s a practical approach to scale your INFLUENCER program without a massive upfront investment? (Thread)
2/ As I’ve said before, instead of thinking Micro OR Macro influencers, think more along the lines of a Micro TO Macro strategy.
3/ The practical steps laid out below will not only save you significant dollars on an upfront Macro influencer investment, but will also create a community of influencers that generate value on a monthly basis.