Digital Marketing All-In-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 3

Engaging Influencers Using the “Three Cs”

IN THIS CHAPTER

Approaching influencers with irresistible offers

Ensuring great results and happy influencers

Compensating influencers the right way

The overwhelming majority of influencers, especially the ones brands should be targeting, are not celebrities. They don’t have agents. They aren’t corporate entities. They may not have any corporate (let alone marketing or advertising) experience to speak of. They’re real, genuine people who have amassed an online following simply by being themselves.

Reaching out to influencers, getting them to respond, and ultimately getting them to do what you want is possible … but it’s not as easy as automated transactions. You can’t “order” engaging, personal, and authentic sponsored content the way you can buy ad space or hire a celebrity endorser who will ultimately read from a script. And you can’t reach out to influencers as though they’re press or as though they understand (or care about) your corporate-ese.

Mastering influencer outreach, relationship building, and program execution isn’t hard as long as you keep the three Cs in mind: communicating, contracting, and compensating. This chapter ...