How Top Influencer Marketing Agencies Help Brand to Achieve Success
The trending news that has the influencers and brands rethinking their plans is the closing of Famebit’s self-service program. Many Famebit users were left in shock after the announcement on April 28th that Famebit is closing their self-service and is refocusing solely on the full-service program. What this means for Famebit content creators is that they will no longer be able to independently find brands for collaboration. The only option that Famebit will offer is their full service where their experts match the influencers and the brands as well as provide provides end-to-end campaign management and delivery.
Content creators can disagree with this change, however, it is an indication that finding a partner in the influencer marketplace isn’t as simple as it seems. Famebit provides proof of this as they claim that creators earn 30 times more from full-service deals than from self-service deals and brands are seeing stronger results with full-service campaigns.
Famebit’s example shows that brands, as well as content creators, have some thinking to do about running their own campaigns. It is clearly not easy for brands to do their influencer marketing without any help. If they have the budget, teaming up with influencer marketing agencies can be just what brands need to keep up with successful competitors.
Why Brands Should Hire Influencer Marketing Agencies?
The question that will probably pop in your mind is why is there a need for influencer marketing agencies? Or is it true that brands can’t collaborate with influencers on their own? Of course, they can, but the reason why brands turn to influencer marketing agencies is simple — unparalleled expertise. They are experts in influencer marketing and they take brands’ influencer marketing campaigns to a more professional level.
There are several specific reasons that justify the value of agencies in influencer marketing:
1. Agencies have more and better connections
What makes agencies more suitable for spotting the influencer who matches the brand and the campaign is their contact list. The experience isn’t valued for no reason. It opens many doors and allows agencies to access some influencers who would potentially be inaccessible to brands.
Through previous cooperation, agencies build trust in influencers. That trust will be passed onto the brand when the influencer marketing agency recommends it. The agency’s reliability transfers onto the brand and influencer at the same time.
For example, you want to approach a popular influencer but you know that most of them are mostly thriving to collaborate with big brands. An influencer marketing agency can be a valuable asset here as they will suggest you the influencer and highlight why your brand is a good match for them. Based on the previously established trust with the agency, the influencer will be more confident in working with you.
Persil made the right choice when they teamed up with an influencer marketing agency, August United. The agency used it’s established name in the business and their expertise to identify and contact high-tier celebrity influencers who can tell the story of Persil. The influencers share their stories in video format via social media. This campaign, launched in 2018, generated over 20 million impressions and more than a 5.97 million increase in views.
Joining an agency is somewhat like entering a private circle of trust where you have access to numerous influencers who you wouldn’t know how to reach out to otherwise. Simply put, the agency’s contact list can become yours.
2. Agencies are familiar with influencers and their style
Finding the right influencers is still a big challenge for 4 of 10 marketing teams. That’s when influencer marketing agencies step in. They have teams of experts whose only occupation is to recognize the match between the brand and the influencer. Therefore, their chances of succeeding are much higher than yours.
Based on their experience agencies can assess what type of brands go with what type of influencers. Especially top agencies with numerous clients and years of hard work behind them.
Just remember Khloé Kardashian’s collaboration with Fabreeze. The brand wanted a celebrity influencer for their campaign but based on users’ reaction comments it was clear that Khloé wasn’t the best pick. No one could quite connect one of the Kardashian sisters religiously using Fabreze to clean. The mockery started and spiraled into a viral disaster.
Agencies have insight into influencers’ work as well as the results of their brand partnership. That sort of insight is priceless. They have all the data that signals the brand’s style and personality that goes with certain influencer’s personalities. You won’t be matched with an influencer because they are the only ones who agreed to work with you. You will be matched with an influencer because they are the right fit for your brand. That is what agencies deliver.
3. Agencies can handle all the logistics for brands
Working with an influencer is as complex as any other marketing campaign. It demands planning, organization, contracts, management, agreements, etc. With all the other operations within a business that brands have to handle, adding an influencer marketing campaign on top of it can be overwhelming. Ultimately it can lead to neglecting other branches of marketing as well as lack of quality in influencer marketing.
Did you know that marketers find influencer marketing to be too much work? If you are looking at influencer marketing through pink glasses it is time to take them off.
When you hire an agency that tiring work will be behind you. One of the agency’s responsibilities is logistics. The agency will manage the entire process from the introduction, contract, negotiation, deployment, payments, and others.
4. Agencies have previous statistics
Unlike brands, agencies are in dispose of the data from their clients. The statistics from their collaborations indicate the best approaches for future influencer marketing campaigns. Therefore, the actions that the agency takes are derived from different analytics and real data. In short, the statistics tell the agencies what works and what doesn’t.
Without previous experience with influencers or with some experience you can easily make the wrong move. This is natural since influencer marketing is complex and the campaign’s success depends on multiple factors.
Instead of shooting in the dark, the agencies make recommendations and establish collaborations based on previous statistics. If they recommend a certain influencer they have a good reason for that. They use audience demographics matching, spot channel-specific opportunities, and take into consideration competitor audits.
5. Working with agencies are more professional than directly talk with influencers
The way you interact with influencers establishes the foundation for the future of your cooperation. If your initial outreach isn’t satisfactory you can shut down any chance for a potentially successful partnership.
As experts in their niche, influencer marketing agencies know how to approach the influencer in the best way. Not to mention that having a representative in the form of an agency makes you seem much more professional. Working with an agency shows how serious you are about influencer marketing.
World-famous brands like Coca Cola, GoPro, Disney, McDonald’s, and Nestle also hire influencer marketing agencies for their campaigns with influencers. Why do you think that is? They want professionals to find and interact with influencers since they know that they are the best ones for the job. Having an agency represent you will depict you as a relevant and professional brand that will increase influencers’ interest to work with you.
6. Save money and time on the wrong influencers
Working with wrong influencers is a BIG mistake. Not to mention expensive. Wrong influencers can send a deceiving message about your business, market your products to the wrong audience, create inefficient content, and the list just goes on.
The reason why brands end up with wrong influencers is that it is hard to grasp the influencer solely based on their content. You may see the type of content they post or their engagement but don’t know how they are in partnerships. There are numerous ways in which collaboration can go wrong.
Snap Inc learned from their own mistake what wrongly picked influencer can do to you. Back in 2018, they got Luka Sabbat to advance their Spectacles item. The deal was that he will share one Instagram post and three Stories of him wearing the glasses. In return, they will pay him $60,000.
Sabbat took $45,000 forthright, shared one post, and one Story with the glasses but then he didn’t wear them at the Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks (which was also a part of the agreement). Since Luka broke multiple aspects of the contract (the Instagram post wasn’t approved by the brand and he agreed to be photographed in public wearing product tied to the ‘Spectacles Marketing Campaign’ which he didn’t do) the Snap Inc sued him.
Top Influencer Marketing Agencies
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub report from 2019, between 2015 and 2018, the number of influencer marketing platforms and agencies jumped from 190 to 740. And that number will only go up. While the high number of influencer marketing agencies does give you more possibilities, it makes it harder to pick the right one.
For the purpose of displaying some of the best agencies in the business, we have compiled the list of top influencer marketing agencies that have a long list of satisfied clients behind them:
- Viral Nations (worked with GoPro, McDonald’s, Disney, CocaCola, Nestle, etc.)
- August United (worked with Persil, Microsoft, Kroger, Pet Smart, etc.)
- SugarFree (worked with Airbnb, Casper, Swarovski, P&G, etc.)
- Obviously (worked with L’Oreal, Google, Sephora, Calvin Klein, etc.)
- SocialBook (worked with Amazon, Wix, Adobe, Kabam, Blue Focus, etc.)
How to Pick the Right Influencer Marketing Agency?
Deciding to work with an influencer marketing agency is the first step. Before you get to choose the agency that is perfect for your brand, you need to know how to make that decision.
Define what you need and what you expect from an agency and then you can proceed to the next step — revising the agencies. Here are the main factors that you should take into consideration:
Experience
Logically, the more experienced the agency is, the better they’ll know how to successfully execute the campaign. Do some research on agencies that you are interested in and find out which brands and influencers they represented in the past. Look for case studies that are related to your niche. If they have worked with brands from your industry that is a big plus.
Backed up by data
Agencies that dispose of lots of data would bring you a huge advantage. The more information they have, the more precise will the campaign be. For example, SocialBook has over 3 million influencer data which is one of the main factors that convince brands to hire them. Usually, agencies mention on the website their influencer selection so check out that information as well.
Fair price
We have already established that influencer marketing agencies can be very useful for your brand. However, that doesn’t mean that you should overpay them. Make sure that the agency you go for has a fair price. It is best that you establish the budget upfront. You can get carried away when you see the big names in the agencies’ client list and end up working with an agency you can’t afford. Don’t make that mistake.
Final Thoughts
Brands and influencers who want less responsibility and better campaign results for their influencer marketing should turn to influencer marketing agencies. The interest of brands and influencers towards such agencies is growing for a good reason.
You can tell from examples of failed attempts by brands that influencer marketing can easily take a wrong turn. Agencies will eliminate that possibility. Considering that influencer marketing campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, agencies can deliver whatever you want from the campaign.
