Alignment is more important than ever in today’s marketing, as consumers can easily tell when an influencer is being inauthentic in their content, especially when attempting to endorse or promote a company.
If an influencer’s content doesn’t align with the company they’re representing, the relationship comes across as a disjointed, flashy cash grab. Instead, to create meaningful and memorable content, brands need to work with influencers who share the same mission and vision.
Working with the most compatible influencers will build more trust and credibility, increase engagement, help improve your brand’s reputation, and ultimately lead to more conversions.
Learn more about how to build authentic influencer relationships with the right approach.
Define Your Mission in Actionable Terms
A big part of establishing authenticity is being clear about what your brand stands for and how it manifests in your daily decisions. Don’t rely on potentially vague vision statements—be specific.
Once you’ve determined the values you want to exemplify, translate them into relatable themes that can give your influencer partners some guidance. For example, you might want influencers to perceive and advertise your brand as inclusive, sustainable, transparent, or innovative.
This mission could then instruct the kind of content the influencer creates around your brand, giving them a good understanding of what you’re all about.
Of course, making your values clear will also help influencers determine whether you’re a good fit for them, which brings us to the next point.
Look for Influencers Who Live Those Values
While you may want to work with influencers with appealing aesthetics and a large following, these aren’t the main factors that should establish a partnership.
Look for influencers whose values align with your brand’s purpose and goals by reviewing their existing content. As you search for the right partner, focus on personalities who naturally share your brand’s values, not just those who are compensated to promote them. Past videos and content will provide a clear sense of where potential partners stand.
A large following can be great for getting you in front of more people, but smaller nano- and micro-influencers often have the most loyal and engaged followings, and they tend to come across as the most authentic.
Keep in mind that your values don’t need to align perfectly with the influencers’, but they must share the values that matter most to your brand. Additionally, steer clear of partnering with influencers who could potentially create controversy due to questionable content or conflicting values.
Create the Space for Authentic Collaboration
While it’s natural to want your influencer partners to reflect your brand’s language, it’s usually more effective to let them express their thoughts in their own words. Scripted endorsements can come across as inauthentic, especially to audiences who are well-acquainted with an influencer’s unique voice and content style.
Rather than relying on scripts, provide influencers with a mission-aligned brief that highlights key points and the general direction you want to take, while allowing room for their creative touch.
In other words, it gives influencers ownership, not control. The perfect partnership will allow creators the kind of freedom they desire when discussing a brand while keeping their content in line with your brand.
In fact, many influencer sponsorships tend to result in some of the most memorable branded content, offering a perspective or a certain flavor that you might not have come up with internally.
Measure More Than Clicks
It’s good to get a high click-through rate (CTR) with your influencer partnerships, but that’s not all that matters. You could see thousands of clicks but minimal conversions, and relying solely on traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) might not reveal why.
In addition to CTR, views, and other metrics, get a deeper picture of how people feel about your brand by tracking metrics like brand affinity, audience sentiment, and the frequency with which comments and shares reflect your brand values.
Ultimately, the sentiment around your brand will be critical in defining the success of your influencer content. Your goal is for people to develop the same loyalty to your brand as they have for the creators they follow, aligning your brand with both the creators and their values.
Get the Most From Your Influencer Relationships
Having influencers behind you can do wonders for content creation, but you don’t merely want a content vendor. A strong, long-lasting relationship with an influencer whose values align with yours will culminate in them becoming a brand advocate.
That kind of brand advocacy will also likely come across to audiences as authentic, improving your reputation as you appeal to new potential customers.
When the message and messenger effectively align, that’s when trust (and performance) grow in the long term.