Influencer Relationship Management: Work Well With Creators!

Social media influencers play a huge role in brand promotion online. Their aesthetic photos and funny Reels don’t just entertain—they help brands sell, too. That’s why it’s important to treat these creators like VIPs with top-notch influencer relationship management.

Managing influencers sounds like a daunting, intimidating task. There’s so much you need to do, from negotiating deals to keeping influencer content in check. But it’s a must for your brand if you want long-term partnerships with these powerful online personalities.

Not sure exactly how managing influencers works? We’ve got you. Keep reading to see what it really means to nurture relationships with influencers and why it’s important for brands.

What Is Influencer Relationship Management?

Influencer management refers to the strategy of nurturing relationships with influencers to maintain long-term partnerships between them and your brand. It’s about building an awesome bond with the creators you tap to promote your brand in your influencer marketing campaigns. That way, they’ll stay loyal to your brand and will be open to collaborating again in the future.

The key to successful influencer management is to treat your brand ambassadors as partners, not hires or employees. It’s about forming a close, authentic, mutually beneficial relationship—they scratch your back, and you scratch theirs. You can do that with open communication, collaborative work in influencer programs and campaigns, and a genuine friendship with them.

But what does a brand really get when they invest time and effort into influencer management? According to Sprout Social data, 49% of consumers make purchases inspired by influencer posts monthly, weekly, and even daily.

Here are just some of the benefits you can reap when you build strong connections with your partner influencers:

• Creators’ long-term loyalty to the brand well after the end of their paid influencer campaigns.
• Higher trust scores from consumers. An influencer’s consistent promotion of a brand seems more genuine and trustworthy than a one-off sponsored post.
• More engaging and informative influencer content, thanks to the creators’ deeper understanding of and relationship with your brand.
• A smoother workflow with little to no conflict when you mount influencer marketing efforts.

What Is an Influencer Manager?

There’s no one-size-fits-all definition of what an influencer manager is. But these marketing professionals are essentially responsible for mediating relationships between brands and influencers to ensure smooth communication during projects.

These influencer agents typically work for either the brand or the influencer side. Their role and main goals differ significantly depending on who among the two parties they represent. But managers always try to ensure a smooth relationship and work process between the two.

First, let’s talk about influencer managers who work for the brand. These managers will typically first be briefed on the brand’s project. Then, they’ll use their knowledge of influencer marketing trends to assist in finding the best brand ambassadors for the job.

These managers will typically keep the brand’s interests at heart. They’ll negotiate lower rates for influencers to stay within budget and ensure every move aligns with the brand’s campaign goals. Their main goal is to implement an influencer marketing strategy that’s successful enough to boost brand awareness and drive sales.

Next, we have the agents who work for influencers. These managers keep the creator’s interests at heart. That means they help striving creators land paid partnerships and negotiate deals to maximize those influencers’ earnings from projects. Basically, they make sure the influencers don’t get the shorter end of the stick when dealing with big companies.

How To Manage Influencers: 7 Common Tasks a Manager Has To Do Daily

Managing influencers requires strategic planning, consistent communication, and strong relationship-building skills. Wondering how to manage influencers successfully to drive authentic long-term partnerships between them and your business? Here are seven things any competent influencer relations manager does every day to maintain and nurture those relationships.

1. Identify and Reach Out to the Best Influencers for a Project

The first task an influencer relationship manager must perform for a project is influencer discovery and outreach. The goal is simple—find influencers that are the best fit for a campaign’s objectives. Managers must look for creators that have a follower count, engagement rate, and aesthetic that matches what the project needs.

From there, managers will conduct influencer outreach. This typically entails messaging or emailing the creator to ask if they’d like to collaborate for a brand campaign. They explain why the influencer is a good fit for the project and how the partnership may be mutually beneficial.

If the influencer expresses interest in the project, it’s also the manager’s responsibility to negotiate the terms of the partnership. This includes details like deliverables, expectations, scope of work, compensation, and timelines. When everything’s good, the manager draws up a contract for both the brand representatives and the influencers to sign.

2. Brief Creators on the Campaign’s Details

Next, managers have to brief the influencers on the actual influencer campaign. They’ll lay down the brand’s goals, products to promote, required messaging, and timelines for the project’s roll-out. Onboarding influencers and ensuring they know the campaign’s pertinent details allows them to carry out their roles more smoothly.

This is also where the influencers and brand representatives should agree on the type of output expected of the creators. How many posts should they publish promoting the brand? What aesthetic and vibe does the content need to convey? All of these minute details must be agreed upon and put in writing for a smooth, hassle-free project workflow.

3. Communicate With Influencers Throughout the Campaign

At this point, managers can relax and leave the influencers to do their thing—aka brainstorm and produce creative content. But that doesn’t mean they can go MIA. Managers need to be able to communicate consistently with the influencers throughout the campaign.

Managers are expected to contact influencers to ask for updates on content production. They must also be ready to answer any questions the influencers might have about their tasks. Essentially, managers are the main point of contact for anything the brand ambassadors need throughout the campaign.

Once the influencers submit the promotional content they produce for the brand, managers are in charge of providing feedback. If the brand representatives have any revisions for the creator, the manager relays it to the creator and negotiates deadlines. They ensure that both the influencer and brand are aligned in the final content that is approved for the project.

4. Encourage Authenticity and Creativity in Influencer Content

Some people might assume that an influencer relationship manager always looks out for the brand’s best interests only. But that’s not the case at all. Good managers should also look out for the influencers, especially when it comes to their creative freedom.

Plenty of marketers try to micromanage how influencers produce content for their brands. In this case, the influencer liaison’s job is to manage the brand team and defend the creators. They are hired for their unique content product skills, after all.

The key here is to ensure that you guide the influencers when they make branded content, not control them. Align on the key messaging, important design elements, and general do’s and don’ts for the campaign. But allow them to have fun with their content and put their own unique spin on things.

Remember—their content creation style is what draws the brand’s target audience to them in the first place. The authentic content they put out is what their fans will best respond to. These influencers know best about what to put on their page, and it’s important for brands to understand that. And that’s exactly what an influencer relationship manager should fight for.

5. Liaise Between Influencer and Brand for Any Issues That May Arise

It’s normal for influencers and brand teams to disagree on certain things during a campaign, from deadlines to compensation. When tension arises during an ongoing project, the influencer manager should step in and liaise between the two parties. They become a mediator who should try to find common ground between what the influencer and brand want.

This is where the manager’s strong relationships with both the creators and brand teams come into play. They should talk to each party calmly and get them to understand the other side’s stance on things. Only then can both sides find a compromise on their issues and work through them. The sooner these issues get resolved, the faster the project can get back on track.

6. Track the Performance of Influencer Posts After the Project

After the campaign wraps up, the manager is in charge of tracking the performance of the influencer content. They’ll use analytics tools to assess reach, engagement, and conversion metrics to see whether they delivered as brand ambassadors. If they have a close relationship with the influencers, they can ask them directly for analytics reports on their posts.

Based on these metrics, managers provide recommendations to the brand as to whether they should continue working with these influencers. They might also suggest to the creators how to better optimize their branded content in future campaigns.

7. Keep in Touch With Influencers To Foster Long-Term Relationships

Just because the campaign is finished, it doesn’t mean an influencer relationship manager’s job is done. Remember, influencer management is all about fostering those long-term relationships with high-performing influencers. So, keeping in touch with them is a must.

When a campaign ends, managers should express their appreciation for the influencers’ contributions to the project. This can be anything from a quick thank you text to treating them out to lunch after the project wrap-up.

They should also regularly check in with these influencers and maintain authentic friendships with them. That way, reaching out to them for future projects can be a breeze, and negotiations will be even easier!

Pro-Tip: Use Influencer Relationship Software To Manage Creators

Yup, you heard that right. Nowadays, you don’t have to toil and manually manage influencers you work with. Instead, you can simply use influencer relationship software to automate and streamline how you manage your collaborations.

There are plenty of high-quality influencer marketing platforms in the industry today. These platforms make many tasks related to mounting influencer projects incredibly easy, from outreach to negotiation to content approvals. Many of them also incorporate AI into their systems, allowing you to make data-driven decisions about your campaigns and partnerships.

Here are some of the many benefits of enlisting the help of an influencer management platform:

•  It’s easier to manage and oversee multiple influencers across different projects and social media platforms.
• You can use the platform’s influencer database to streamline your discovery and outreach processes.
• You can monitor every influencer’s deliverables and deadlines at a glance on a single dashboard, allowing for smoother campaign management.
• Platforms can help facilitate negotiations and contract signing between brands and influencers.
•  It automates payments to the influencers, preventing compensation delays.
• It helps organize your work history with partner influencers that you can look back on whenever.

Overall, these platforms serve as one-stop shops for brands that want to streamline their influencer management strategies.

What Is the Best Influencer Relationship Management Platform Today?

Because influencer marketing is such a powerful tool in the digital world, there are plenty of influencer platforms available today. But what are the best influencer relationship management platforms out there? Here are two that we highly recommend.

Later Influence for Easier Influencer Management

One platform that should be on every brand and influencer agent’s radar is Later Influence. This influencer platform is designed specifically for brands directly managing creators and brand ambassadors.

On Later Influence, you can manage thousands of influencers and see tasks each of them must accomplish in one screen. That makes it super easy to track, approve, and optimize the content your influencers produce and submit. The platform even automates your workflow per partnership according to your niche, social media platform, and target audience.

The platform also has a cool fake influencer detection feature that flags suspicious creators. This reduces the chances of fraud and scams during your project’s influencer discovery and outreach stages.

Meltwater for AI-Powered, Data-Driven Features

Later Influence is awesome for those prioritizing streamlining their influencer management workflow. However, some brands are more interested in reaping the benefits of AI and analytics in their influencer platforms.

According to Statista, 63% of brands plan to use AI and machine learning in their influencer marketing efforts. Does that sound like you? If so, you might be more interested in a platform like Meltwater.

Meltwater is an influencer platform that harnesses the power of AI to make influencer management easier for brands. Its extensive influencer database recommends the best collaborators for a brand, depending on its niche and parameters. This makes identifying the most suitable influencers for your campaigns much easier and more accurate.

There’s also a social listening tool that lets you assess your target audience’s sentiments on details of your influencer campaign. See their sentiments on the creators you’re eyeing for the project and topics they love and hate. It’s an awesome tool to use to fine-tune your campaign and influencer partnerships before you launch the project.

Frequently Asked Questions

Influencers Are Great, But You Have To Grow Your Brand’s Page, Too!

Fostering connections with influencers who hype up your brand is a game-changer in the world of social media marketing. However, you can’t rely solely on them for your brand’s success online. You also need your brand to grow independently and sustainably flourish. Path Social can be a big help with that.

Our team uses an AI-powered algorithm to find your target audience on Instagram and organically promote your page to them. We target only real users, never bots. This gives you new followers who are genuinely interested in your content, leading to authentic growth and engagement. Creators like Terrell Conyers have gained almost 30,000 fans with our help, and you can experience the same, too!

Serious about long-term growth on Insta? Don’t put all your eggs into the influencer relationship management basket. Grow your Instagram page with our organic promotional strategies and get more followers for your brand with Path Social today!