If you want the sale, you have to ask for the sale. It's really that simple. Take a look at your last campaign (or the current campaign that's tanking) and locate where and how the influencer wrote copy that specifically asked for the sale.
Chances are they didn't. Or if they did, it was posted carelessly on a one-and-done post. Influencers are marketers: They have influence, they have an audience, but they are not necessarily copywriters, and even fewer of them are true sales experts.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing or a dealbreaker, but you do have to communicate what you want in terms of copy from your influencer. That means you have to pay attention to how your influencer writes before hiring them based on analytics alone, and you need to be willing to direct them.
Guiding influencer copy does not mean that every post is a hard sell (far from it), but it does mean that you have to prepare the influencer's audience through brand awareness and then ask for the sale. It isn't much different than asking someone to marry you on a first date, and then being shocked when they say "Hell no" and call the cops.
The issue is most people don't want to ask for it. We're afraid that if we ask for the sale, the audience won't respond well, or that somehow we'll break influencer marketing by simply asking our audience to buy. That is only true if you can't sell your way out of a paper bag.
Go back to basics. Influencer marketing is content marketing first and foremost, and while there's room for innovation, most people forget that the same "rules" you'd apply to other forms of online selling not only apply but work even better when applied to influencer marketing.
Your influencer has to ask for the sale while providing value and entertainment at the same time. If they do this, you will absolutely see an increase in sales immediately. Which means you must work with the influencer to write copy and build a content strategy that creates solid relationships between you and their audience, and — most importantly — converts them.
Would you write one blog post and expect to convert a ton of leads?Would you send one email about your Black Friday Sale and expect to convert a bunch of buyers? Would you post to Facebook one time, and expect to grow your following? No, no, and no.
So please tell me why you're okay with paying for one post at a time. In the 80's, we called those one-hit wonders. I don't care what the influencer's following is like. I don't care that their engagement is bananas. One post isn't going to cut it — ever. At best, you'll get ignored. At worst, you'll get ignored by the minuscule fraction of people who even saw the darn thing to begin with. Either way, it doesn't work. And you've spent a pretty penny on one post, for literally nothing.
If you want your brand's name to be memorable, and if you actually want to build a relationship with the people hanging out on your influencer's platform, use your sales/marketing head. It takes going the distance. It takes more than cheaping out on just one post. You might think you're saving money "testing" out the influencer, but in actuality you're flushing cash straight down the can.
When I'm working with influencers for my clients, I commit to four to seven pieces of influencer-generated content per month, and I work to get my influencers on retainer so if the first month is a success, I work with them for three, six, and 12 more months. By doing this, I have ample time to warm up their audience, get to know them, integrate a higher percentage of their audience into ours, and create content they want to engage with and buy from. Oh, and by hiring an influencer for ongoing work, I actually pay less per post because influencers appreciate the loyalty and relationship.
You heard that influencers don't like to be micromanaged?
Well, they also don't love having zero clue what you want from them and being the head-honcho of your failing campaign. Call me a control freak, but I micromanage. Every influencer I've ever worked with (and I have worked with dozens of top influencers at every tier and now have a loyal influencer network) has been grateful for the help and clear expectations.
Influencers like to be helped — they want you to succeed with them.
What they don't like is getting bossed around by marketing managers who don't actually have a plan, or understand their audience, and are just a general ball of frustration — or don't communicate. If you want your influencer campaigns to be successful, you can't just send over a product, decide on where the post is happening, and take the laissez-faire approach — or what I call the lazy-faire approach.
Give the influencer direction, set goals, set expectations, let them do what they do best, but understand that they aren't going to be the one who knows how to sell your product. You are. If you want success with the influencers you work with, you're going to have to roll up your sleeves and contribute some mental muscle.
These three steps seem so simple, but are major contributors to how well your sales do this holiday season (and beyond) with influencers. Stop making excuses for why your campaigns don't work, stop being okay with mediocre results, and please stop blaming the influencers you hire.
Influencer marketing will never be a strategy that you can just throw money at and hope it works out, but with the right strategy, long-term plan, loyal influencers, and killer content, the amount of sales you can leverage from influencer marketing is literally second to none.
Jenny Beres is the cofounder and president of Pink Shark PR and Pink Shark Studios. An influencer outreach powerhouse, Jenny helps her clients get rich, famous, or both by leveraging the power of influencer marketing to create engaging and exciting campaigns that help talented founders, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and brands create fame, brand authority, and — of course — increased sales. Follow her on Instagram.
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