Influencer marketing is a highly lucrative industry, set to reach $16.4 billion in value in 2022. Social media continues to expand as a space for entertainment and advertising, making it an ideal way for influencers to connect with brands and expose target consumers to products and services.
So, it makes perfect sense that more and more brands are interested in developing impactful partnerships with social media influencers to increase brand awareness and sales. If you’re wondering how influencers connect with brands or how to connect with influencers as a brand, then you’ve come to the right place!
Keep reading to find out:
- What is an influencer marketing agency?
- Three key things to look for when choosing the best influencer marketing agency for your brand.
- Why a full-service influencer marketing agency like Sway Group is ideal for brands looking to optimize the impact and ROI of influencer marketing campaigns.
What is an Influencer Marketing Agency?
Influencer marketing agencies connect influencers with brands and facilitate influencer marketing campaigns. Agencies can differ in terms of the niches they serve, the social networks they specialize in, the size of their influencer network, and more.
A high-quality, full-service agency will host an expansive network of vetted influencers and offer a team of social media experts to facilitate the influencer marketing campaign from ideation to launch and results reporting.
How Do Influencers Connect with Brands?
Brands can scout influencers on their own, influencers can cold pitch to brands they’re interested in working with, and brands can choose to save time and money identifying influencers by outsourcing to an influencer marketing agency.
How to Connect with Influencers with Brands
With the industry of social media marketing and advertising constantly changing and focusing on consumers, it’s important to know what precautions you can take as a brand to have low-to-zero risk partnerships with authentic, premium-quality influencers.
One way to guarantee you’re working with the best is by partnering with an influencer marketing agency. Let a team of social media and influencer marketing experts pair your brand with an ideal influencer who can get your products and services in front of untapped target consumers!
How to Choose the Best Influencer Marketing Agency for Your Brand
1. Are your briefs compatible?
As a brand, the foundation of any marketing campaign is the campaign brief. Once you share your ideas and goals with a prospective influencer marketing agency, that agency will return a creative strategy/proposal to show why they are the best team to manage the campaign.
The agency should share suggestions for the campaign content (post types, ideal platforms, themes or relevant concepts), a targeted list of influencers capable of achieving the campaign goal, KPIs, and a plan for results reporting (more on this later).
Review the proposal and make sure the agency strategy fits the natural flow of your brand.
2. Do you want influencers and experts?
Some influencer marketing agencies specialize in influencer discovery, but aren’t experts on content creation and posting strategy. If that’s the purpose the agency seeks to serve and they’re experts at it, then great! But that doesn’t help your brand if you’re interested in finding an agency that will give you the most out of a partnership.
A full-service influencer marketing agency covers the entire campaign process from ideation to connecting influencers with brands and results reporting and analysis. What makes a full-service agency high-quality is:
- Their creative team factors the latest social media trends into the content for maximum impact
- They know how to adapt content to different platforms and know what platforms are most relevant to your brand needs
- They can adjust the campaign based on initial results (if videos like Reels and TikToks are driving more engagement than images or stories, the agency should advise the influencer to pivot their focus moving forward)
Some agencies, like Sway Group, offer in-house content creation on top of influencer-produced content. Learn more about our content studio here.
3. Prioritize consistent reporting
Reporting throughout a campaign can inform an adaptive strategy and enable brands and influencers to optimize impact and receive maximum return. While an agency might apply data analysis throughout the campaign, you – as a brand – are still entitled to see those results on a regular (if not daily) basis so that you can contribute to the evolving strategy.
Agencies should include a data-driven reporting strategy in their campaign proposal. Agencies can give daily, weekly, or bi-weekly reports. Make sure you choose the best strategy that fits the level of involvement you envision for your brand.
Why Work with Influencer Marketing Agencies
As a brand, your focus is on creating products and services, enticing and maintaining customers, and expanding your reach and impact. Marketing, especially social media marketing, is a vital element to growing your business. Outsourcing to an influencer marketing agency is a great way for brands to connect with influencers and streamline the campaign process.
Choose an influencer marketing agency that provides a detailed brief that lets you know your campaign goals are seen, heard, and possible to achieve through partnership. Make sure the agency can do more than find you an ideal influencer. Consider using a full-service agency with a dynamic team of creative strategists to ensure impactful and engaging content. Access the data reports you’re entitled to throughout the campaign and adapt the content strategy according to what will serve your company best with an ideal ROI.
Sway Your Audience with Sway Group
Sway Group is a full-service influencer marketing agency that offers digital advertising services and in-house content creation. We’ve been connecting brands with influential content creators for more than 10 years and use our expertise to continuously grow with the fast-changing digital landscape.
At Sway Group, we balance automated elements of the campaign process (for efficiency) with the focused efforts of a creative team (for direct, guaranteed quality assurance).
Influencer Network
Our team of Influencer Management professionals connect with influencers and ask detailed questions to better understand their potential for campaigns. We then use software like our Influencer Dashboard and Creator IQ to bolster the human element of our screening process and develop a high-quality network of professional influencers.
Campaign Management
During and after campaigns, our team of social media experts use results-driven strategies to maximize the reach, appeal, and impact of the campaign. Then, they will continue to track the campaign performance to optimize a data-informed strategy and ensure brand clients grow engagement and sales.
Work with Sway Group!
Save time and resources by working with Sway Group. Choose confidently from targeted lists of vetted influencers who align with your brand goals and guidelines and get the most out of your influencer marketing campaign by collaborating with your assigned team of social media and digital marketing experts. We will transform your brand’s ideas into valuable, influential assets.
For more information, contact us today!
