1/ The Only Influencer Marketing Strategy You Need (To Start or Scale)
Here's the exact game plan and step-by-step process of building an influencer community PLUS lessons on how to identify, outreach, and collect content
++ Templates Provided
2/ First: Identify Influencers
If you have the money for a discovery tool, use Tagger. That's what we use as an agency. It pulls all the data you'll ever want/need of 5M profiles. If not, use free tools you have at your disposal such as the Instagram Dropdown Arrow.
3/ Pick any influencer that you think would be perfect for your brand. Go to their profile. Click on the dropdown arrow, and this is going to pump out people of the same affinity based on similar aesthetic, features, hashtags, bio, etc
4/ AKA this is Instagram saying - “Hey, these are similar people to follow that are parallel to this person” - all based on the algorithm. You can see how this can unlock hours and hours of free influencer discovery.
5/ You don’t have to wait for a big list to start executing nor should you. This strategy applies to 1 or 1,000.
Next, you don’t want your DM’s getting lost in their inbox and even worse, giving a bad first impression. How you craft your message is very important.
6/ Second: Outreach
For DM’s & Emails - You want to provide 3 things: A quick introduction and in one sentence explain who you are (get to the point - it’s not about you!), share why you are reaching out to them, and then most importantly...
7/ use the phrase “no strings attached” - Reassure them, you aren’t asking for anything in return. Lastly, make sure you leave with a CTA (call to action) AKA asking for their address.
Template to use here: docs.google.com/document/d/1pZ…
8/ Third: Send Your Product
The simplest step of getting creators your product can be difficult. It takes time like everything else in IM. To continue a great 1st impression, I'd at least send a handwritten note to make this unboxing unique from what regular customers receive.
9/ Even after you get their address, sizing, etc you then have to flag your 3PL or create a zeroed out order on Shopify - all of which again, takes time. The Kynship Seeding App (on Shopify App Store) provides a solution to send your products efficiently and with ease.
Again, without you asking! There is a variable of whether they will post or not because you aren't asking or requiring it. How do you track this without just checking Instagram or trying to scrape it yourself to try to collect this content?
12/ MightyScout is what we use as an agency. Upload all influencers you send products to in order for MightyScout to track whether they post or not. You'll gain organic data and downloadable content (stories included). Here's a great breakdown of this:
13/ Any influencer that posts, follow up for usage rights. Template message: "I wanted to reach out because I saw your content and loved it! Would you be against granting us permission to reshare this content to our FB/IG pages, as well as use it in ads for 30 days?"
14/ Fifth: Implement Content into Facebook Ads
Reformat this content into 9x16 and 1x1 in order to be able to use it in all placements within FB/IG ads. Additionally, get it captioned, 90% of video ads are watched without sound - use tools such as Kapwing or VEED for all of this
15/ What's crucial with any IM campaign but especially seeding, is to stay organized. Here's a Master Seeding List sheet to use. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
After your campaign concludes, do the following:
16/ Organize the influencers who responded positively to the product such as they email asking for more product, want to work together, and/or posted.
Sixth: Tag influencers - who produced great content & granted usage rights. Send them more product as a thank you...
17/ ...and offer a contract for them to produce consistent UGC for you as well as a discount code to promote to their followers. Providing organic & paid analytics for you to keep track of.
18/ Seventh: Analyze & Keep Going
Rinse and repeat what's working. What persona types are consistently raising their hand to receive free product? What UGC is performing best? Not everyone you seed product to will have immediate ROI and this is okay.
19/ This is a long-term brand investment with beneficial short-term growth. Remember, you're laying the foundations of your influencer community that has compounding value. More on this here:
20/ At the very least people are seeing/talking about your product online/WOM. Whatever the final number of influencers that you want - to produce UGC, start an affiliate/ambassador program, etc - this is the strategy to use in order to have any of these.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
1/ Influencer Seeding vs Gifting: What's the Difference? (Thread)
In both, brands send products for free.
In both, brands desire to create a community of people with their products.
In both, brands want something out of the deal.
But this is where the similarities end.
2/ Gifting is a one-time experience. Seeding uses the word "seed" on purpose (see below).
Gifting requires an opt-in from the influencers.
Seeding is, well, a free gift.
Gifting asks. Seeding gives.
One is transactional. The other is relational.
3/ You see with the word: seeding - this is an entirely different mindset. A seed planted. The gift (my product) is a seed to you that eventually, I want to blossom into a long-term relationship.
The problem with gifting programs is the REQUIREMENT.
2/ Congratulations, you finally got through the negotiation process with the agent/influencer but now you have to draft up a contract. Even if you just agree on “product for post,” you will want to draft a contract that provides you protection.
3/ Overall, right up front - #1 FTC guidelines are important for both brand and influencer to understand. This needs to be in the contract somewhere, usually as an addendum. If you need help with FTC compliance - InfluencersIQ is a great resource. @RobertFreundLaw is the man.
1/ Influencer Best Practices 101 [PART 2] (THREAD)
Influencer Pricing - What the hell do I pay them?
*[PART 3 - 9/23] Influencer Contracts
2/ Google "Influencer Pricing", you get a variety of answers. In 2014, I would say IM is the wild wild west. Guess what? It still is. Look at these two influencers: one with 20k following, the other with 108k and verified - charging the same price!
3/ This is why it's really difficult to navigate what fair pricing is. There is no set standard across the industry. Influencers set their own prices, throwing stuff on the wall and seeing what brands will pay OR agents are involved and then mark up the price bc they take a cut.
2/ Context: This is specifically for wanting to team up with influencers in an official capacity, ultimately ending up contractually working together. Hence, why there tends to be a negotiation process. It can be an intimidating and tough situation, especially if agents jump in.
3/ 3 Negotiating Rules:
#1 Be Clear & Up Front. You want to move as quickly as possible. This is from our template outreach email (also found within the Shopify Compass course).
Something like this should go in the first email to show you mean business.
1/ Brands massively underestimate the importance of having authentic relationships and people who are genuine brand advocates, represent their brand.⠀Let's take a look at @Gymshark and how Ben Francis did it (THREAD) + PRACTICAL STEPS of how you can do this at the end.
2/ To start, look at @hellahgood9 and how gassed he gets when another gymshark package arrives. This is the fruit of doing this. DHL says "Another one?!" (which speaks to how they take care of their athletes).
3/ You see videos like this and we still have CMO's asking for ROI on cultivating community with influencers.
Community 101: build relationships on giving, not asking.
If you begin by asking something of them, you might get some posts. But that community will never adopt you.