Before you start looking for potential partners and influencers, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and who you want to target. What are your brand's objectives, values, and messages? What are the characteristics, preferences, and pain points of your ideal customers? How do you want to position your brand in the market and differentiate it from your competitors? These questions will help you define your goals and audience, and guide your search for compatible and relevant partners and influencers.
This should always be the starting point, but it should not be a one-time check. In my experience, after 1-2-3 years of working with an influencer/creator, both parties become complacent and paths often diverge without notice. I propose that this should be an annual evaluation exercise.
Once you have your goals and audience in mind, you can start researching and vetting your prospects. Various tools and platforms, such as social media, blogs, podcasts, industry events, directories, databases, and networks can be used to find and analyze potential partners and influencers. Additionally, referrals from existing partners, customers, or employees can be requested. When researching and vetting prospects, key indicators should be considered. These include reach, engagement, and reputation; how many followers, subscribers, or customers they have? How often do they post or interact with their audience? How positive or negative are their reviews or ratings? How credible are they in their niche or industry? Alignment and fit should also be taken into account; does their content match yours? Is their brand identity compatible with yours? Expectations and requirements should also be considered; what are their goals for partnering or collaborating? What are their fees for services or endorsements? What is their availability to requests or needs?
Yes to all of the above. I have found referrals from existing partners especially helpful; they not only help find out if the collaboration is real and smooth, but they might also open new opportunities to do business with that partner. After all, both ended up intersecting at the same influencer. However, there is no better way to gage fit that meeting the partner/influencer/creator and their manager IN PERSON before moving on to the next step.
After narrowing down your list of prospects, it's time to start negotiating and formalizing your agreement. Communicate respectfully and clearly with potential partners and influencers to establish mutual understanding and trust. Additionally, set realistic and measurable goals and expectations for the partnership or collaboration, as well as define the roles, responsibilities, and deliverables of each party. Document your agreement in a written contract or proposal to include the scope, duration, frequency, benefits, incentives, compensation, rules, guidelines, and standards of the partnership or collaboration. Consider what specific activities each party will perform or deliver, what tangible or intangible benefits each will receive or achieve, how each will pay or receive compensation for services or endorsements, how each will protect or respect the intellectual property of the other party, etc. This will help ensure that any disputes are handled appropriately.
Part of this should always be product and brand training. As much as an influencer may resonate with your brand. It is imperative that the influencer comes across as authentic when they showcase your brand. I've also found that providing brand assets or even design and copy assistance to the influencer allows the relationship to flourish and provides the influencer with the support they need.
On your agreement always consider what needs to take place if the relationship were to end (planned or unexpectedly). It will help protect your company and your brand but also forces you to evaluate risks and come up with mitigation plans in advance (when you are not in crisis mode).
Once you have launched your partnership or collaboration, it is essential to monitor and evaluate your performance and results. You should track and measure various metrics and indicators, such as the output and quality of the partnership or collaboration, the impact and value it has had on your brand, and the feedback and learning that has come from it. It is important to assess how well each party performed or delivered their activities, tasks, or projects, as well as how satisfied they were with their own and the other party's work. Additionally, you should consider what effect the partnership or collaboration had on your brand awareness, reach, trust, loyalty, advocacy, sales, revenue, and profit. Finally, it is important to gauge your audience or customers' reaction to the partnership or collaboration through their feedback, comments, or reviews. This will help you identify what you did well and what you can improve in the future.
Based on your monitoring and evaluation, you should adjust and optimize your strategy and approach for your future partnerships and collaborations. You should identify and replicate what worked well, and avoid or fix what did not work well. You should also seek and apply feedback and suggestions from your partners, influencers, audience, or customers. You should also test and experiment with different partners, influencers, formats, channels, or messages, and see what works best for your brand. By adjusting and optimizing your strategy and approach, you can enhance your brand partnerships and influencer marketing, and achieve your goals and objectives.
I've heard before the reference to brands keeping 'a long or transparent leash' on their influencers/creators. I think this type of relationship is about establishing and agreeing on the 'limits of the field' vs. having a fixed control mechanism. You don't want to kill your partner's creativity and have them resent you for lack of freedom, but you do need to be very clear on what is 'out-of-bounds' for your company or brand.