Influencer marketing is a great way to expand your reach to new audiences. For trade associations, however, influencer marketing may not be the first strategy to come to mind, especially for associations that do not have a specific product. Despite what some may think initially, influencer marketing can still be an incredibly useful tool for spreading awareness of an association and its cause.
Communicate
When you don’t have a physical product to send to an influencer, it’s key to have initial meetings to discuss the message you’re asking them to present to their audiences. In these meetings, it is best to explain your trade association’s goal and how you see an influencer assisting in reaching it. From there, spend time answering the influencer’s questions and helping them create a basic framework for the collaboration. Remember, it’s important to explain your association’s position but be careful not to cross the line into dictating how and what you want the influencer to share. You are reaching out to them to use their expertise and understanding of their audience. Let them have creative control.
Provide Resources
In addition to a campaign brief and initial meeting, it is helpful to create a bundle of resources the influencer can use for quotes, content guidance and to provide to their audience. Blog posts, specific web pages, recent articles, and relevant association member information, are just a few examples. Be sure to reference these in your conversations or call out specific aspects that you think the influencer may find helpful or interesting. Viewers can tell when someone is pushing a message they do not fully understand or support so providing informational assets will help in the overall campaign success.
Relationship over Partnership
A one-time partnership compared to a continuous relationship with influencers preferred when possible. When you work with an influencer multiple times, you’re repeatedly getting exposed to their audience, which increases the likelihood your message will stick in their minds. Additionally, the more you work with an influencer, the better their mastery of your message becomes. An easy way to evaluate whether a partnership could be a relationship worth fostering is by analyzing how their audience received your association’s messaging through the influencer’s post. If it’s generally negative, understand why and then find a creator who could address that. If it’s mainly positive, work with them again to continue nurturing the audience. Nothing is more convincing than word-of-mouth.
The rise and continued use of influencer marketing isn’t a fad. Viewers are drawn to authentic presentations of ideas, movements, products and more. Trade associations can successfully leverage this form of digital marketing with a little additional effort.
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