Managing Expectations When Working with Influencers

What can you expect from an influencer marketing campaign? Well, there are some important things to keep in mind in order to ensure that your campaign goes according to plan.

1.5. Managing expectations

Contact rate

Once you establish how many influencers you want to work with, contact double that. If you want to work with 10, reach out to 20. Not all of them will necessarily want to work with you, and not all will even respond.

Response rate

Generally, about 40% of the influencers who you reach out to will respond. The response rate relies a lot on the type of incentive you offer:

Product: The higher the product value, the higher the response rate.
Experiences: The response rate is generally higher, as experiences are sometimes valued more than products.
Fee: The response rate is the highest, because the influencer will send you their fee and media kit. This doesn’t mean that they’ll accept your proposal, but they’ll reply to begin negotiations.

Shipping dates

If your campaign includes products that need to be shipped out, make sure they arrive to the influencers 1-2 weeks before the scheduled publication dates. This will ensure they have enough time to prepare their content.

Payment terms

Some influencers will ask for fees to be paid at the beginning, at the end, or half before and half after.

Campaign cancellation

If there’s no contract, the influencer could choose to not go through with the campaign. In other situations, the brand may want to cancel the campaign, like if an influencer fakes their stats or violates the content guidelines. This is why it’s so important to define the campaign clearly from the beginning, as well as outline any reasons for cancellation.

Written confirmation

Close the deal in some form of writing, whether a contract or a simple email. If you make a deal on the phone, there’s no proof later. Likewise, when paying an influencer, make sure there’s some record of the transaction, like a receipt, invoice, or PayPal confirmation.

Quality of results

When the influencers finally publish their content, it may not be 100% what was agreed upon. It’s important to focus on the overall results and remember that influencers should have a certain level of creative freedom when working on your campaigns. This will help you manage your expectations and perhaps see things from a new perspective.

GUIDE NAVIGATOR

0. Introduction
1. Campaign Definition
2. Campaign Setup
3. Campaign Launch
4. Campaign Monitoring
- 4.1. Detecting & collecting published media
- 4.2. Tips & tricks for following up
5. Campaign Analysis
- 5.1. Analyzing a campaign's results
- 5.2. Expectations vs. reality: the report
Glossary