The influencer marketing industry surpassed $16.4 Bn in 2022.
Yes, the influencer buzz is real, and it’s spreading like fire.
And for content creators out there, it comes as an effective strategy to make their channel reach a wider audience.
In this article, we’ll talk about the top 6 ways to collaborate with influencers and grow your channel by 10X.
But before we begin, here’s why influencer collaboration is vital for your growth.
Why Should You Collaborate With Influencers?
Around 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations, compared to 38% who trust branded social media content.
So factually, you have higher chances of getting conversions from influencer marketing than social media marketing.
In fact, 93% of marketers and content creators rely on influencer marketing to grow their brands or channels.
But that doesn’t mean you can focus on one; while social media posts keep your audience informed and engaged, influencers help you get noticed by untapped consumer segments in a comparably less time.
Here’re some effective ways to collaborate with influencers and grow your channel over time.
6 Ways to Collaborate With Influencers to Grow Your Channel
#1. Influencer Gifting
As the name suggests, influencer gifting is gifting your product to an influencer in exchange for a product review and promotional post.
It’s a terrific way to make influencers happily promote your social media channel.
Besides, it costs you nothing more than providing a free product to a famous personality.
Simply put, this strategy is a win-win, and it brings you great benefits like:
- Supercharging your engagements
- Boosting your brand awareness
- Creating long-term influencer partnership
Moreover, you gain positive exposure to a valuable audience as the audience trusts the influencer and knows it’s just a gift they are talking about (no promotions).🤫
So, if you’re a small brand with a low advertising budget and want to promote your channel, influencer gifting is one of the potent ways to do that.
#2. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are social media posts where an influencer puts your channel into the limelight by creating content around it.
These posts can be easily identified by #sponsored or #ad.
Creating sponsored posts magnifies the reach of your content. Moreover, having influencers doing the promotion for you, it’s unlikely that people won’t notice your brand name.
So, how to get started?
Finding the right influencer is the key to getting started. The influencer must belong to your niche and have significant engagement and outreach.
After that, you can collaborate with them to create exciting content to grow your social media channel further.
#3. Brand Ambassadorship
Brand ambassadors are like the face of your brand. They’re the ones who cheerlead for your business and say that loud in the open.
Unlike influencers, they stick to a product and promote it for a long time or maybe a lifetime.
💭Food for thought: Who doesn’t remember Michael Jordan and Nike?
Let’s have a rundown on how a brand ambassadorship program can help your channel:
- Increased exposure of your channel
- Ambassadors create more trust
- Cost-effective
Brand ambassadorship is a traditional way to promote a brand, and people relate with them as much as they associate with your brand.
In other words, growing your social channels can be a game changer.
#4. Content Collaboration
There must already be many influencers in your industry who create content like blog posts, videos, or podcasts.
Imagine if you get a slot in their Instagram feed.
Sounds like an excellent opportunity to tell your story to their audience.💭
Here’s why👇🏻
Firstly, such influencers share the same audience with you meaning you can directly engage with them and talk about your content.
Besides, it gives you more freedom and control than any other collaboration strategy.
But there’s a catch.
Pitching content collaboration ideas to influencers can be time-consuming because there will be many in the queue. So, you have to be patient.
Although it sounds exhausting, it’s worth the payoff.
#5. Hosting Events
Hosting online events and inviting influencers to join the event is a great move to boost your channel exposure and gain some quality subscribers.
Before that, here are some things you should keep in mind:
- Make your event compelling so that it catches attention in one go
- Collaborate with only relevant influencers
- Share affiliate links and discount codes to promote your event
- Use the right social media channels for promotion
Creating an event on social media channels is a breeze. Here’s you can do that:
- Encourage your followers to create catchy content
- Start a competition with prizes
- Collaborate with influencers to come up with a campaign
#6. Product Pitch
People love stress-free advertising. That’s why you need to find a sweet spot for promotion, so your audience remains excited about your brand.
A product pitch is a great way to do that.
In this, an influencer demonstrates your channel and its content. Although it sounds like obvious product promotion, it’s much more than that.
When people see their online stars talking about your channel, they are likely to remember you or, in some cases, hit the follow button.
Moreover, it enhances your channel reach without running a blatant advertising campaign, so people love it, a win-win for both.
Wrapping Up
Choosing the right collaboration strategy is vital for your success, but before jumping on to every step, you should be clear about your:
- Marketing budget
- Marketing objectives
- Available Resources
After that, you can decide what works best for you and your social media channel.
However, one important thing is always building long-term relationships with influencers. That’s going to help to convert your audience into followers who stay for a prolonged duration.
