At Related, we’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons throughout the years while coordinating and executing Nordic influencer campaigns across our client spectrum.

In this third post of our influencer marketing blog-series, we’re sharing some do’s and don’ts with you.

Let’s start off on a positive note with some “do’s”:

• Keep it simple – center your activations around few and clear messages. It’s a communication ground rule, but too often overlooked. You may be eager to share all the great things your brand or product has to offer, but too many messages will drown each other out and confuse the audience. If you have a lot of different messages, spread them out in separate activations with different themes.
  

• Focus on long-term relationships. Once you’ve found an influencer who is a great match with your brand and strategy; stick with it. In those cases, the collaboration is a valuable opportunity to gradually build up a deep and trustworthy relationship with the influencer (and their audience) over time as part of a long-term strategy. The content will be deemed more authentic by the followers, and creates a solid basis for more conceptual campaigns and a true brand ambassadorship.
  

• Make clear and realistic goals. Influencer marketing can quickly become expensive if you’re not on top of what a realistic influencer fee looks like and if you’re not clear about what the goal of the collaboration should be. A good tip is to look at performance on previous paid collaborations. Even if the influencer has a lot of followers, the price of a collaboration should reflect the expected performance and not only potential reach.

Our recommendations on what to avoid:

• Don’t underestimate niche and micro influencers. Some mega and macro influencers have become less financially attainable because collaboration fees have skyrocketed. Also, some of them may have lost their relatability and feeling of closeness to their audience as their reach numbers have increased. If you’re aiming for more than just spreading general awareness, collaborating with micro influencers who have built a strong community can be highly effective in reaching a particular audience – especially if it’s a niche area. Since the investment per collaboration with a micro influencer is often lower compared to larger influencers, campaigns that engage multiple micro influencers can be more cost-effective and have better ROI compared to one macro influencer collaboration.
  

• Don’t skip corners – play by the rules! In the past few years we’ve seen more and more legal cases towards brands and influencers who fail to adhere to local marketing laws. Audiences have also become more guarded towards hidden advertising and may react negatively towards it. Always make sure your collaborations are clearly marked as paid marketing and keep your path clean. If in doubt, consult an expert (us, for instance 🙂).
  

• And last but not least, don’t micromanage the influencer’s content. The influencer has built their online presence and platform themselves, and therefore have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t towards their particular audience. The content should always be created in the influencer’s own tone of voice and style, which at the end of the day is what your brand is buying into. In addition, micromanaging the influencer’s content might not only provide a bad base for a continued relationship, but the content will also appear less believable and more ad-like – which will make the followers less susceptible to the message. In short, trust the influencer!
  

Read more about influencer marketing in the Nordics and learn more about do’s and don’ts in our Influencer Marketing White Paper: LINK