1

INTRO

In this eBook, you will learn why Influencer Marketing is a hot topic and
how to plan and execute your Influencer Marketing activity. In a study,
60% of respondents stated that they considered a blog or social media
post while shopping. This is just one of the statistics that underline how
successful you can be with Influencer Marketing.

This eBook is primarily targeted towards community and social media

managers as well as agencies and is structured and written as a practical
guide.

Running influencer marketing activities requires different skills compared

to creating and publishing content on your own channels. Researching in­
fluencers, setting up agreements and creating a brief can be a complicated
task if done for the first time. We have created this eBook to help you mas­
ter that challenge.

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 TABLE OF
CONTENTS

OVERVIEW 6
WHY INFLUENCER MARKETING ? 7
WHY IS INFLUENCER MARKETING CURRENTLY A BIG TOPIC ? 10
WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO INFLUENCERS HAVE ? 12
TYPES OF INFLUENCERS 13
EXAMPLE : DARIADARIA.COM 16
HOW TO CHOOSE
THE RIGHT INFLUENCERS 18
CHECK IF FOLLOWERS ARE REAL 19
CHECK FOR ORIGINAL CONTENT 22
REACH 24
MEDIA KIT 25
PLATFORMS 26
AUDIENCE AND ENGAGEMENT 27
PAST BRAND PARTNERSHIPS 28

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WHERE AND HOW TO FIND INFLUENCERS 29
B2C VS. B2B INFLUENCER MARKETING 32
CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING INFLUENCERS 34
HOW TO WORK WITH INFLUENCERS 36
DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVE 36
TYPES OF COOPERATION 37
PROVIDING PRODUCT SAMPLES 37
CONTENT COOPERATION 37
CAMPAIGNS (LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP ) 38
COOPERATION AROUND AN EVENT 39
WORK ON CREATIVE IDEAS 40
REALISTIC VS. ARTIFICIAL CONTENT 41
HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS 42
AGREEMENTS WITH INFLUENCERS 44
MANDATORY AGREEMENTS AND PAID COOPERATIONS 45
BRIEFING AN INFLUENCER 48

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BUDGET FOR INFLUENCER
MARKETING ACTIVITIES 50
DISCLOSURE OF PARTNERSHIP 52
BRANDED CONTENT ON
INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE 54
INSTAGRAM BRANDED PARTNERSHIP 55
BRANDED CONTENT ON FACEBOOK 57
BRANDED COLLABORATIONS ON YOUTUBE 59
BRANDED CONTENT ON TWITTER 60
BRANDED CONTENT ON PINTEREST 60
BRANDED CONTENT ON SNAPCHAT 60
WORKFLOW . PROCESS
INFLUENCER MARKETING 61
SUMMARY 64

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 OVERVIEW

Influencer marketing has evolved into one of the megatrends of digital

marketing in recent years. In this type of marketing, professional influen­
cers establish a network of trusted followers and create high-quality con­
tent over a long period of time. Marketers should evaluate how to incorpo­
rate these content creators in their marketing strategies and budgets.

While some big companies did this by working with celebrities, today com­
panies of all sizes can work with influencers. The web made it possible for
everyday users to publish content. Many of those users built big networks
of followers.

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 Searching for #advertisement on Instagram​yields more then one million results​.

WHY INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Influencer marketing provides the opportunity to promote your brand and
products to an audience that is not following your own channels. Brands
can work with influencers to reach the audience influencers have estab­
lished for themselves. The main difference is that the influencer, not the
company, creates content regarding your brand and its products.

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The trend to hire an influencer to promote the product or service of a
brand is not new. What is new, however, are the media channels on which
influencers appear. Traditional media (television, print media) has been
replaced by a few platforms with large reach.

EXAMPLES:
Adidas cooperated with Instagramers showcasing running
equipment.

Pedigree worked with influencers to show their support for a

cause in order to humanize their brand. Influencers encouraged
followers and fans to buy a bag with touching stories. The brand
gave a bag of food to a dog in need for every bag bought in ex­
change.

The clothing brand H&M works with Instagram influencers such

as Julie Sariñana and Ela Velden to present their latest collec­
tions.

Mercedes Benz uses Influencer Marketing to improve its image

and to maintain an air of exclusivity around themselves.

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Partnerships with influencers in your market could generate long-term
value for the company’s brand. However, it is important to carefully plan
your influencer marketing activity, as poorly implemented activities could
harm your brand.

Furthermore, working with influencers should be integrated into your (dig­

ital) marketing strategy and not be treated as an isolated activity.

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 WHY IS INFLUENCER MARKETING
CURRENTLY A BIG TOPIC ?
Organic reach has declined over the last couple of years, and consumers
often intuitively ignore ads on social media. While companies struggle to
engage with their audience (or have to spend lots of marketing dollars),
influencers have been able to build highly engaging audiences around
topics they love. Their followers hang on their lips to learn what’s hot and
what’s not. They are the celebrities of a new generation. They reach their
audience directly through social media without any media companies as
gatekeepers. Influencers that interact with your products can have a big
impact.

It has never been easier to create content, put it online, and build an audi­
ence — all from your smartphone. Currently, all influencers use the same
platforms: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest
and WordPress, among others. This has made it easier for marketers to
focus their research for influencers on a few major platforms.

Influencers have built a follower base by creating solid content for many
months or even years. As a brand, you can expect your products to be
shown in an appealing way, since influencers may generate fresh new ways
to showcase your products.

Influencers are creative and talented digital powerhouses, and brands

want to utilize that talent.

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Quality of pictures taken on smartphones has increased tremendously over the years.
Apple showcases that with the #​shotoniphone campaign​ on Instagram.

CREDIT: NEIL RASMUS/BFA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK:​one of the world’s most

famous Youtubers Casey Neistat ​video blog about Emirates First Class Suite

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 WHAT CHARACTERISTICS
DO INFLUENCERS HAVE ?
The most important trait of influencers is the production of quality content
over a certain period of time that builds trust and engagement with an
audience.

TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS
THAT DEFINE AN INFLUENCER:
High-quality content.

Standing out among the masses.

Targeting a specific audience.

Passion for their niche.

Authentic communication with their (often young) audience.

Persistence over years.

A network of trusted followers.

Constantly experimenting with and adopting new content for­

mats.

Their content is shared and talked about.

Has an effect on the purchase decision.

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Some influencers are doing it “just for fun” — meaning they do it along­
side a regular job — while others work hard to build a business exclusively
around the content they create.

In general, the quality of content published by influencers has improved

greatly over the years. Today, it is not as easy as it was a few years back to
build an audience and become an influencer. It takes time to establish an
audience, and people who started early and continued creating content
have a big advantage.

TYPES OF INFLUENCERS
Besides looking at the follower count of a potential influencer, you can fur­
ther distinguish influencers by the platform they publish on or the target
audience they communicate with.

TYPES OF INFLUENCERS DIFFERENTIATED

BY PLATFORM - EXAMPLES:
Video blogger (or “vlogger”): An influencer solely focused on
creating YouTube videos and building a subscriber base on You­
Tube.

Blogger: Someone publishing blog posts with text/ pictures/

videos on their own hosted blog.

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 Instagram: Someone that published pictures on Instagram, us­
ing classic posts and/or the stories feature.

Facebook: People creating communities by publishing posts

(original content or content from others) on their Facebook pro­
file or page (often combined with FB groups).

Twitter: Especially used in live coverage of media events, politics

and sports.

Dave Lee​is reviewing tech gadgets on his YouTube channel (which is his main
publishing channel with over 1 million followers), and running presences
on I​nstagram​ and T​witter​. He does not have a website or blog.

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EXAMPLES OF BLOG BRANCHES:
Travel blogger: Publishes long-form content about travel desti­
nations.

Fashion blogger: Visits events in their industry and publishes

pictures with short texts on Instagram.

Food blogger: Shares recipes, visits restaurants, and/or blogs

about a healthy lifestyle.

Tech blogger: Reviews gadgets, smartphones.

Fitness blogger: personal fitness.

The Sartorialist fashion blog (WordPress) was started in 2005 by

Scott Schuman, long before the success and reach of Instagram
and is one of the most renowned fashion blogs.

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BY FOLLOWER COUNT:
MICRO INFLUENCERS: People with a follower count relatively low
compared to “famous” influencers ( they have less than 10,000
followers​)

MACRO INFLUENCERS: Influencers with an audience over 10,0000

followers, often represented through agencies

There is no defined list of platforms that influencers use or of audiences

they serve. Most influencers publish content across several platforms. In
most cases, a video blogger also publishes content on Instagram, or a blog­
ger publishes updates on Twitter. In general, influencers are oftentimes
very present at a single channel, but do not want to miss the opportunity
to reach additional people on other platforms.

EXAMPLE: DARIADARIA.COM
Daria is a blogger from Austria, she started her blog in 2010 and published
classic blog posts. Daria today is a famous figure in the (german) online
world, she covers topics concerning eco-living, clean-fashion and healthy
living. Her presence changed over the years, she now hosts a podcast,
writes stories for print publications and is booked as a speaker.

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What started as a hobby-blog is now a business. Daria has
164K followers on Instagram
42K subscribers on YouTube
2500 followers on Soundcloud

Instagram account of Daria Daria

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 HOW TO CHOOSE
THE RIGHT INFLUENCER

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If you plan to work with influencers, you should consider several impor­
tant factors. The first thing to consider is the number of followers an influ­
encer has; however, there is much more to it than the number itself. Does
the influencer’s content match your brand and do they have experience in
working with brands? Are their followers real? How much engagement is
happening on their pages or accounts? In the section that follows, we take
a detailed look at a few factors you should check before starting partner­
ships with influencers.

CHECK IF FOLLOWERS ARE REAL

Prior to researching a potential influencer in detail, invest a few minutes
to check if the followers on their account are real. There are many ways to
achieve a high follower count, with the two most common methods being:

Followers being bought on the web within minutes (all you need
is a credit card).

Establishing a follower base can be automated with bots to a

certain extent (especially common on Instagram).

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 The first result in a Google search for “buy Instagram followers”

You certainly want to avoid cooperating with an influencer with “fake fol­
lowers”.

CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS INDICATE

THE USE OF FAKE FOLLOWERS:
An influencer is followed by many users that have not posted
and/or lack a profile picture. You can typically assume that these
followers are fake.

Influencers with followers that are predominantly private ac­

counts and feature “spammy” usernames.

People creating fake accounts typically don’t create realis­

tic-sounding bios.

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 Irrelevant or spam comments: If an influencer receives a large
number of comments, it can be assumed that their followers
are active. Again, this can be automated with bots. If most com­
ments lack substance (e.g. “good post”, “good picture”), they are
of no value to a brand.

Generally, if an account shows thousands of followers but little

to no interaction on posts (or a very low numbers of posts), you
should be suspicious.

Blog about brands working with the wrong influencers – you want
to avoid to be featured in an article like this one.​

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Notably, there are automated methods to check for fake followers (but
you should always take a look for yourself as you can not fully trust those
tools either). Although one certainly cannot click through thousands of
accounts, checking a few posts and about 20 followers on each platform
should give you a basic idea as to whether a potential influencers followers
are real.

CHECK FOR ORIGINAL CONTENT

You should also take a detailed look at the content the influencer is creat­
ing – is it unique and does it stand out? In today’s world of “oversharing”
with millions of posts published every minute, it is important to work with
influencers having a fresh approach.

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Article about a photographer who was caught
using stock imagery while stating otherwise.

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Instagram account ​@insta_repeat​is showing how the same spots are photographed
the same way again and again. This makes it hard to stand out from the crowd.

REACH
Reach describes the number of people an influencer can reach across all
platforms. As mentioned earlier you should also consider working with
“micro-influencers​”.

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FOR EXAMPLE:
Followers on social media accounts.

Subscribers on YouTube.

Traffic on the website (unique users, recurring users).

The number of newsletter subscribers (also ask for open rate).

Interactions on content published.

MEDIA KIT
Professional influencers are typically prepared to provide all of the num­
bers listed above (often mentioned as a “media kit” on their website) to
you. However, you should always do a quick check yourself to draw your
own conclusion as to whether the numbers provided make sense to you. If
the provided numbers do not look right to you, ask for more details or con­
sult a co-worker for a second opinion. Generally, the more professional the
influencer acts, the more trust you can have that the provided data is real.

The top influencers may be represented by agencies, i.e. top YouTubers of­
ten have contracts with agencies that represent them and brands can only
work with them through those agencies.

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 The “Hire Me“ page of the fashion blogger freddieharrel.com,
which lists brands she worked with in the past.

Less experienced influencers (or “up and coming” influencers) may not be
prepared to provide a media kit right away. If you are convinced that the
person is a great fit for your brand, you should still evaluate working with
the potential influencer (it is possible that you are the first brand in your
market to reach out to the influencer).

PLATFORMS
When researching influencers to work with, you should consider influen­
cers with a presence and reach in your market. If your company, for exam­
ple, is primarily focused on Twitter and YouTube, these platforms should
be the first ones to investigate.

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This does not imply that you should not evaluate working with an influen­
cer that has reach on Snapchat or Instagram in your market. Why miss the
opportunity to work with a blogger that has an email subscriber list with
10.000 contacts?

When considering working with multiple influencers, it would make sense

to choose influencers with strong presences on different platforms or in­
fluencers reaching different audiences.

AUDIENCE AND ENGAGEMENT

It is not only important to check if a potential influencers followers and
comments are real, but also how the person you plan to cooperate with is
connected in the community. You can check this by simply performing a
Google search for the influencer — is s/he talked about? Do others mention
him or her on social media? Is the audience following the influencer rele­
vant to your company?

There are thousands of influencers in every industry and sector. For a tra­
vel company, it would not make sense to cooperate with an influencer
blogging about fashion trends simply because this influencer once created
a travel blog.

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 Influencers are present in almost every industry and sector. T​hrotl​,
for example, is one of the most popular bloggers on Instagram in the car industry.

PAST BRAND PARTNERSHIPS

When screening the content of a potential influencer, you can also check
how the influencer has partnered with brands in the past.

FOR EXAMPLE:
How was the brand mentioned and how were the products fea­
tured displayed?

Was it a one-time post or a lasting partnership?

How did the posts perform?

Did the brand share the created content?

Again, you can also request this information from the influencer.

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 WHERE AND HOW
TO FIND INFLUENCERS ?
There is no single search engine that could perform this task for you. How­
ever, the good news is that you can perform most of the research yourself:

Search for popular hashtags in your market: Use the search

function on Instagram and Facebook to do your research. Which
users have a large follower base? What are they posting about?

Try out (google) one of the “influencer search engines” – there

are many tools out there that may offer a good start for your re­
search. Check out Swat.io's blog article with the 10 platforms
for successful influencer marketing.

Influencers and bloggers like to connect: In many markets, there

will be:
Facebook groups.

MeetUp.com pages.

Blogger directories (a website listing bloggers in your

market).

Ask your agency: Are you working with a (social media)

marketing agency? Challenge them to research poten­
tial influencers to work with. Note that famous influ­
encers are sometimes represented by agencies.

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Traditional media: In many markets, influencers are invited to
many types of events, TV shows, and radio interviews, among
other platforms.

Also check your own social media accounts: Who is commenting

and trying to engage with your brand? Maybe the influencer is
already subscribed to your content, and you just need to reach
out to get the discussion going.

Use Google: Search for topics that your brand should rank high
in for your market. Which sites come up? Are any listed sites ca­
tegorized as suitable blogs? Are there any social media profiles
connected to the sites shown? If so, how many followers are ac­
tive on those accounts?

Agencies representing influencers: In many markets there are

agencies solely focused on connecting brands with influencers.

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one inbox?
Then you are looking for a social media manage-
ment tool. Give SWAT.IO a try! Swat.io is a tool for
teams and supports content planning, scheduling/
publishing, community management, monitoring
and analytics for all major channels.​

GET YOUR
FREE DEMO !

31
 website of ​collabary,​a Zalando company which aims to
connect brands with influencers and content creators.

B2C VS. B2B INFLUENCER MARKETING

While most of the talking about hype in influencer marketing is about con­
sumer brands doing it, influencer marketing is also gaining momentum for
B2B marketing. The main difference is that in B2B marketing influencing a
buying process takes many more steps then let’s say working with 10 Ins­
tagramers to feature new sneakers.

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THIS IS WHERE B2B INFLUENCER
MARKETING IS DIFFERENT TO B2C:
The buying process takes many more steps, therefore, you need
to establish a long-term relationship with the influencer

The activities you plan out will be more unique for every market,
there is not one big platform representing, let’s say “influential
procurement managers in the auto industry”

“Influencer” is not a job title in the B2B world, they are profes­
sionals in their sector and have years of experience

The budget needed may be substantially higher than for B2C

It will involve more traditional ways of building trust with the

influencer (1:1 meeting, events etc.) and therefore cannot be
scaled like a B2C activity

When researching B2B influencers in your market you may focus more on
LinkedIn, Twitter and industry events in your area.

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 CHECKLIST FOR
EVALUATING INFLUENCERS
☑ Platforms used by influencers:

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Pinterest

Twitter

...

☑ Check if followers are “real”:

Do the followers publish content? Do they have follo­

wers?

Are comments written by humans?

How much interaction is happening with the creator?

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☑ Reach:

Number of followers

Website traffic

Subscribers

☑ Is the potential influencer creating content in your market?

Fashion market: Visits events in their industry, publis­

hes pictures with short texts on, ...

Travel market: content about travel destinations

Other topics your brand is interested in or related to

Food market: Spices, Recipes, Food, ...

☑ Budget

How much budget is needed to start working with the

influencer?

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 HOW TO WORK
WITH INFLUENCERS

If you have completed your research and identified a suitable influencer

for your activity, you can begin drafting the project. There are different
ways to cooperate with influencers.

DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVE

Before reaching out to a specific influencer, you should define what objec­
tive you want to accomplish; for example:

Are you looking for a short term partnership with many influen­
cers at once to get your products featured?

Are you planning to work with a specific influencer over a longer

period of time to create content featuring your products?

Are you hosting an event and want to get in touch with influen­
cers in your market for the first time?

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While discussing your objectives with the influencer, you should also listen
to ideas the influencer might have to get the most out of the partnership.

TYPES OF COOPERATION
PROVIDING PRODUCT SAMPLES
The simplest (and lowest impact) form of cooperation with an influen­cer
involves reaching out and providing product samples. Established and
known influencers constantly receive product samples without requesting
them, and this is not a recommended tactic for your brand. Product sam­
ples should only be provided if influencers request them. This opens the
door for more meaningful cooperation later on.

You should never send out product samples without contacting a potential
influencer beforehand. If you provide product samples, also try to contact
the influencer to receive feedback (e.g. How was the experience using the
product? Do you have any ideas to share? Are you willing to post about it?)

CONTENT COOPERATION
You define the content to be produced and published on by the influencer
by creating a content briefing to be discussed with the influencer.

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Experienced influencers may have their own ideas on how to stage your
products or services. The results of this activity are posts or blogs being
published on the channels owned by the influencer, showcasing your pro­
ducts. Such co-operations are easy to establish, and will have more impact
than simply providing product samples.

W​ebsite of MichaelSchulz, e​ xample of an Instagramer

who quit his regular job and now creates content for brands.

CAMPAIGNS
( LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP )
Instead of simply planning a few posts to be published, you could also ex­
tend your relationship with an influencer by working out a detailed cam­
paign plan. This is recommended if you have found an influencer who
completely fits your brand (and that you enjoy working with). Instead of
working on simply a series of posts, think of it as a long-term relationship
where the influencer not only publishes a few posts, but creates materi­

38
al about your products several times a year around specific events. This
could be a combination of content created for blogs, social media, or
events published by the influencer and sometimes reusing (or re-sharing)
material from your own channels. There are many creative ways to work
with influencers beyond social media and blogs. Whatever type of content
you create, it is very important that it is authentic content.

COOPERATION AROUND AN EVENT

This type of cooperation can be twofold: You are organizing an event and
invite influencers to be part of it (and cover it), or you are cooperating with
an influencer who attends an event and creates content about it. This is
also an opportunity to present your brand to many influencers simultane­
ously and get a discussion going regarding potential activities.

Facebook page of FashionCamp Vienna, an event for bloggers and influencers.

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WORK ON CREATIVE IDEAS
Keep an open mind towards new ideas. There is no definitive list on how
to partner with influencers. The list provided above is just a rough catego­
rization of the most common types of partnerships with influencers. It is
up to you, the digital marketer, to develop creative ideas and discuss them
with the potential partner. Brands trying out fresh ideas when working
with influencers have a higher chance of getting noticed. A few different
approaches that brands have tried in the past include:

Hosting a live stream on Facebook

Slicing content: Re-sharing parts of content on different chan­

nels (i.e. re-using pictures in marketing folders or featuring the
created content in an ad campaign on Facebook).

Asking the influencer to work together on ideas to combine their

reach.

Asking the community on what they want to know about your

product and what works best with them.

...

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Depending on your experience as a digital marketer, you can either start by
working with one influencer and defining a few posts to gain more experi­
ence, compared to considering larger campaigns in which you engage with
several influencers simultaneously to create a campaign-style project.

REALISTIC VS. ARTIFICIAL CONTENT

When co-operating with Influencers it is very important to make sure your
products or services are presented in a realistic way. Especially Instagram
is now the platform for hyper-unrealistic / artificial images which are not
always well appreciated by the community.

Screenshot: A​sponsored post​by Instagramer @scarlettlondon

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 HOW TO MEASURE
SUCCESS

Like every other digital marketing activity, there are several KPIs that can
be tracked. The only difference here is that you need to request some of
the data, as the content is not published on your own channels.

Depending on the objectives you set for your activity, you can track var­
ious metrics to measure the activities success. If you are hosting an event
you will compare different metrics when providing product samples to get
featured on Instagram. Some data can be collected by browsing published
posts (on social media), though you should request more data from the
influencer you are partnering with (it is important to agree that data will
be shared upfront).

Typical metrics you can measure and should request from an influencer
include:

Reach of the posts on social media (to be provided by the influ­

encer).

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 Engagement: How often are posts mentioning your products
shared, commented on, and liked?

Link clicks on posts (i.e. when a blog post featuring your product
is shared).

Video views (and how long the audience watched).

How did website (blog) traffic change?

Did you observe increased traffic on your own channels? (In­

crease in new followers, more clicks on your website).

If you agreed to use a specific coupon code, how often have

these been used?

Besides the reach you create while partnering with influencers, you should
also assess content quality. Does the created content stand out and fea­
ture your brand the way you wanted it to be featured? You should analyze
the posts featuring your brand and assess their quality compared to other
content you, the influencer, or other bloggers have created.

It is important to collect as much data as you can to compare it to other

content activities you execute on your own channels.

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 AGREEMENTS
WITH INFLUENCERS
Before rushing into planning any content for individual posts in your pro­
ject, you should reach a formal agreement with the influencer first. The
agreement covers legal aspects (i.e. image rights) and project details such
as duration and the number of content items delivered, among others.

The agreement with the influencer must be tailored to the type of partner­
ship. A contract for a long-term cooperation will be different from a pay-
per-click partnership.

MANDATORY AGREEMENTS
AND PAID COOPERATIONS
If you are paying an influencer for a project, you are in a position to ne­
gotiate the terms. It is recommended to have a written agreement set up
which defines the scope of services the influencer has to deliver.

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THE WRITTEN AGREEMENT
SHOULD COVER THE FOLLOWING :
Goals for the co-operation / for the content (Goals quantified)

Scope of services the influencer needs to deliver. Depending on

the type of cooperation, this can vary, i.e.

Creation of a blog post, define

The topic of the post

The length (word count)

How long the post stays online

Which products are featured/mentioned in

the post
Creation of a social media post, that gets shared on the
channels owned by the Influencer, define

The content and structure of the post

Which products are featured/mentioned in

the post

The platforms on which the post gets pub­

lished, i.e.
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter

46
Due dates for deliverables

The agreement should list exact dates when the con­

tent gets delivered (publish date but also a timeframe
to review the created material)

Usage agreement

Do you want unlimited usage rights in time and territo­

ry and on an exclusive basis, then put it into the agree­
ment

Advertising the created posts

Organic reach is low, so planning to invest some budget

could be part of the agreement as well

Reporting

Every influencer should report on their activity and

send their reports to you. The report should cover:

Reach of the postings

Engagement on the posts (likes, comments,

link clicks)

Views of the blog posts

User feedback on the created material

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 BRIEFING AN INFLUENCER
While an agreement frames the overall partnership (including legal as­
pects such as re-usage rights), the briefing details the actual content that
will be created and delivered. The briefing should be part of the agreement
— it ensures that both you and the influencer know what is expected to be
delivered during the partnership.

For paid cooperations with influencers, a written briefing is recommended

to be created as part of the agreement. The briefing should provide a de­
tailed definition of the project and it must be followed by the influencer.

ELEMENTS OF THE BRIEFING

Background information about your brand and its products or
services

Your company and its values should be introduced in a

short overview

Information about the products or services that get fea­

tured in the content created

Specification of hashtags / taggings

#Hashtags that you want the influencer to use when

posting about your brand

48
 The list of accounts the influencer should mention
during the campaign

Specification of links

Provide links the influencer should use in posts created

(you may provide individual links per influencer to bet­
ter track where the traffic is coming from)

Specific requirements for photo or video shoots:

Photos or videos created should fit to your brand’s style

Provide examples and links to your brand’s social media post­

ings to help the influencer get a feeling for your brand.

A fashion blogger mentioning the brand and using hashtags

related to the brand (g​erman brand pinqponq)

49
 BUDGET FOR
INFLUENCER MARKETING
ACTIVITIES

Big or small budget – it depends on the type of activity you want to execute
and influencer you choose to work with.

There is no definite answer on how much influencers charge for their work.

The type of partnership you choose.

Is it just product samples you provide (no costs) or a

campaign lasting several months?

The reach, credibility, or “famousness” of the influencer.

An influencer with 200000 followers may charge more

than one with 10000 followers.

50
 “Up and coming” influencers may be unsure of what to
charge, and you can suggest a budget.

Pay-Per-Click Influencer Partnership: You pay only for the clicks

your content receives based on your set budget and CPC. This
solution is the most budget friendly variant, but also the one
where the influencer is involved the least.

Compensation other than money: If the influencer you want to

work with produces exceptional content, but has low follower
numbers, the compensation could involve you featuring the in­
fluencer on your channels in return for their services.

Is the influencer running their social media profiles or blog “on

the side”, or is it his or her full time job?

Some influencers provide packaged offers for brands to choose

from. They can be requested or are provided with a media kit.

Overall, it is important to have a long-term view when partnering with in­

fluencers. Depending on how much you budget, you should also be able
to imagine follow-up activities in the future that tighten your relationship
with the influencer (onboarding new influencers takes time compared to
working with influencers who already know the brand).

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 DISCLOSURE OF
PARTNERSHIP

Why it is important to disclose your cooperation with an influencer? You

should never, under any circumstances, try to hide the fact that you work
with an influencer. In the past, many companies got caught while trying
to hide the fact that they paid influencers to feature their products. Influ­
encers may offer to work with you without disclosing the partnership with
your brand. You should respond that you require disclosure of the partner­
ship. This is not only beneficial for your brand, but the influencer does not
risk losing trust from followers. It takes months and years to build follow­
ers and trust, and both can be lost with a single post if followers realize
that they are being lied to.

Depending on the platform the influencer is publishing content on, differ­

ent rules (set by the platform owner) exist on how to disclose working with
brands.

52
In general: It is not enough for a blogger or influencer to just add a tag say­
ing #ad, #sponsoredpost or #partnership in a long list of tags. It must be
clearly visible to the user that the post they are looking at, or the blog they
are reading, is published as part of a paid cooperation.

When cooperating with bloggers, you should require the author to clearly
mention the cooperation with a written sentence.

Example of a blog post published with the disclosure note

right in the headline at willcookforsmiles.com

53
 BRANDED CONTENT
ON INSTAGRAM ,
FACEBOOK , YOUTUBE
Depending on the platform the influencer is present on there are technical
differences on how the content is published, marked as “sponsored” or
as a paid ad. Most platforms publish detailed guides on how they expect
influencers to mark content when it is created in cooperation with brands.

INSTAGRAM BRANDED PARTNERSHIP

Instagram provides a dedicated feature that allows its users to brand posts
as “branded cooperation”. This not only makes it clear to the user that the
account owner is featuring a product because they are getting paid, but
also triggers a notification on the brand’s Instagram account (must be en­
abled first).

In the Instagram settings menu, you can enable a setting for your
Instagram account to be notified when someone is tagging your brand in a post.

55
The bad news is that not all Instagram users can use this feature. Current­
ly, Instagram is limiting it to users with a “high level of engagement”. If the
influencer you want to work with does not have the feature enabled, you
should require him to write “Paid partnership with your brand” in the post
description.

In the past, influencers simply added #advertisement or #sponsoredpost

as one of many hashtags on the post, but that is not sufficient.

An Instagram post using the tag #ad to disclose a partnership

The rule for Instagram reads as follows:

“Our policies require creators and publishers to tag business partners in their
branded content posts when there's an exchange of value between a creator
or publisher and a business partner.” (Source)

56
 A post on Instagram disclosing a partnership with Air Prishtina.

The branded content feature is not limited to posts, but can also be used
in Instagram Stories. More information about the branded content feature
can be found at Instagram Help Center.

BRANDED CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

Facebook provides a very similar feature to Instagram. Facebook page
owners can request access to the branded content tool. After a page is giv­
en access, Facebook page owners can reference brands in their Facebook
posts.

57
 Screenshot: A Facebook post with the “paid” attribute written on top

Facebook page owners can request the feature to be enabled for their site.

58
 BRANDED COLLABORATIONS
ON YOUTUBE
YouTube provides tutorials for “creators” and brands on how to partner.
Again, not disclosing a partnership can hurt both the brand and put the
influencer at risk of getting removed from a platform or losing credibility.

The brands perspective

Getting started with brand partnerships

YouTube Spaces website featuring studios where content creators meet

59
 BRANDED CONTENT ON TWITTER
On Twitter, there is no dedicated feature like on Instagram to mark con­
tent as paid or sponsored content. If you work with influencers on Twitter
you should request them to add hashtags that clearly state that content is
sponsored.

BRANDED CONTENT ON PINTEREST

On Pinterest it is possible to work together with Influencer through the
self-serve platform (which is the programmatic version of the Pin Collec­
tive). Adidas was the first company to use the programmatic version of Pin
Collective and found the stylist Liz Chernett to cooperate with.

BRANDED CONTENT ON SNAPCHAT

Snapchat offers something similar to Pinterest: The platform has recog­
nized the need to bring popular Snapchat users and brands together and
has developed a platform called Snapchat ‘Storytellers’.

60
 WORKFLOW / PROCESS
INFLUENCER MARKETING
PROJECTS

1. Decide if working with influencers fits to your digital marketing plan

and assess your knowledge/resources.

Define the objective – could an influencer help to reach your

goals?

Assess your knowledge: Are you experienced enough to set

up an influencer marketing campaign?

2. Research influencers that fit your brand.

Identify influencers that fit the brand in your market.

3. Check the credibility of influencers you are interested in working with.

Do they qualify after investigating their followers, reach,

standing in the community, ...

61
4. Set up a potential activity.

Decide which type of partnership is right for you.

5. Create the contract.

Create the contract / reach an agreement with the influencer.

6. Execute the activity.

Regularly review the material published.

Monitor the activity.

7. Check on the results.

Collect data.

Discuss results internally and with the influencer to improve

future activities.

8. Repeat.

Establish a spreadsheet or document with the influencers

you worked with and how it went.

Use that information to inform further campaigns.

62
Do you need help setting up your Influencer
marketing project, or need support to train and
educate your digital marketing team?
FRESH VAN ROOT is a Vienna based digital market-
ing agency with years of experience in working
with influencers, dating back to pre-Instagram era.
Register for a workshop or reach out for a free con-
sultation.

CHECK IT
OUT !

63
 SUMMARY

Influencer marketing is a top trend in digital marketing and will not go

away anytime soon. Therefore, it is important to evaluate how influencer
marketing can play a role in your digital marketing strategy.

Researching and finding influencers in your market can take a while, es­
pecially if you are doing it for the first time. However, the best case sce­
nario leads to a long-lasting partnership and helps to position your brand
in front of a younger audience.

Depending on how developed your market is, research can be done rel­
atively quickly (i.e. does a web-based directory of bloggers exist in your
market?). If you are having trouble finding influencers to partner with, you
should ask other marketers in your industry for advice or investigate the
social media channels of your competitors to see if and how they are part­
nering with influencers.

64
IMPRESSUM

Swat.io GmbH
Schönbrunner Straße 213-215
3rd Floor
A-1120 Vienna

Rolf Mistelbacher
CEO Fresh van Root
Loquaiplatz 12. 1060 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43 720 88 44 77
E-
VAT: ATU57693669

65
NOTES

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