Influencer marketing is at an all-time high. Last year, over 6 million sponsored posts were uploaded to Instagram alone and three-quarters of marketers increased their influencer budget. Why? Because social media influencers have thousands of loyal followers who trust their recommendations and brands can leverage this to target their ideal buyers. However, not all businesses have the expertise and resources to manage influencer campaigns in-house. This is where influencer agencies come in.
What does an influencer marketing agency do?
Unlike typical influencer platforms that simply provide access to a database of content creators for you to search through yourself, influencer agencies offer a fully managed service to simplify the process. This includes managing all communications between brands and influencers and creating a strategic plan of action based on your business values and goals.
Once an approach has been agreed, your influencer marketing agency will manage your campaign from start to finish. Your agency team will source suitable influencers, negotiate rates, set up contracts, produce creative briefs and guidelines, send out any product samples and review content before it is uploaded. They will also track your influencer campaign’s progress and report back to you on a regular basis.
Acting as a middleman between the two parties, the agency must also advocate for both the influencer and the brand. This may include making sure the business understands the value of their influencers and their need for creative freedom, while at the same time ensuring that all content fits the brand’s values, tone and objectives.
Benefits of working with an influencer agency
Access to top-rated influencers in your niche
As experts in their field, influencer agencies like FYI have access to thousands of influencers across the UK - and millions more around the world. Whatever your niche and whichever platform you’re most interested in, agencies will use their connections to reach the best influencers for you. In some cases, they can even share feedback from previous campaigns to help you choose your favourites.
The key here is that agencies will know exactly who to look for. For instance, partnering with micro-influencers who have smaller followings but great engagement rates will often be better for your business than bigger creators. So, if you’re still focusing on a huge follower count as a prerequisite, you need to think again!
Another major advantage of this approach is that influencers are much more likely to respond to requests from agencies they already have a good relationship with. Those with thousands of followers receive a barrage of emails from brands every day, and as a result, they are likely to miss your message amongst the clutter. But if they’ve worked well with the agency before, they’ll be more inclined to open their emails.
Dedicated resources to save you time and effort
As well as removing the hassle of finding and vetting influencers yourself, agencies also save you time and effort in other areas. If this is your first time trying influencer marketing, you’ll need to learn all about the collaboration process and industry rates. You’ll also need to develop a plan and manage all the different variables to form an effective campaign. And yes, that is as time-consuming and painstaking as it sounds, especially if you only have a small marketing team!
Influencer agencies, on the other hand, have dedicated teams and resources to do all of this for you. That way, you can focus on what you do best and outsource any outreach tasks. At FYI, for example, our digital marketing experts draw on multiple years of influencer campaign experience to guide brands and aid influencer success.
Measures in place to protect your brand
Experienced in putting together influencer contracts? Clued up on the latest promotional content regulations? Well, in that case, you don’t need an influencer agency! However, if this isn’t your area of expertise, it’s best left to the professionals. The problem is that in order to create an influencer marketing campaign without any issues, you need certain measures in place to ensure everything runs smoothly.
When working with an agency, you can rest assured that the contract between you and your influencer is watertight. There will be no loopholes that they can use later if things don’t go to plan. Agencies will also ensure that any content published fits your brand guidelines and campaign goals. In addition, they’ll check that posts adhere to social media best practices, so that your account doesn’t run into trouble. Otherwise, you may waste money on posts that won’t be approved or even get deactivated.
Increased campaign success and better ROI
Leading on from the last point, having an experienced campaign team is key to a successful campaign delivery and ultimately, your business’ bottom line. Without a strategic plan and structured approach in place, your content will soon become disorganised and ineffective. To prevent this, agencies will create clear publishing schedules to work to. This will ensure that your influencer knows exactly what’s needed and when, and that all posts are cohesive and complementary to get the best results.
In addition to this, at FYI, we go one step further. Our team will monitor all campaign activity using trackable links and make adjustments throughout as necessary. We’ll then compile the best performing content from your influencer’s profile and use our Facebook advertising expertise to promote the posts on your brand’s social media pages. This is an affordable and effective way to amplify the content in order to reach as many of your target buyers as possible. In turn, you can expect to see more traffic and sales from social media.
Looking to hire an influencer agency?
Whether you’re looking to grow your online community, promote a new product or even change your brand perception, we can help. At FYI, we have access to over 20 million content creators worldwide, all with proven results. From Instagram micro-influencers to TikTok superstars, we can help you find an influencer to suit your needs.
Ready to outsource your influencer marketing to our talented team? Send us a message via our website or call us on 01617310048, and we’ll take it from there.