Змінити мову (УКР)

Змінити мову (УКР)

How to make an influencer your partner and close projects without unnecessary stress?

According to IAB Ukraine, the influencer market continued its recovery after a sharp decline due to the start of the full-scale war. Brands also, at first cautiously, then increasingly actively, returned to cooperation with opinion leaders. At M&P Communications, we implemented a series of projects in the last months of 2024 involving influencers and are sharing our checklist for successful work with bloggers.

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In our experience, there are several cornerstones in working with opinion leaders. After all, the blogging market in Ukraine is quite young and often unregulated. New names appear, and work with micro and nano influencers is popular. Working with opinion leaders becomes a real challenge for companies, especially those with established procedures for approvals, briefs, mutual responsibility, and legal support of partnerships.
Among the main troubles that can arise on the thorny path to effective interaction and wow statistics of integrations, the main ones are:● Discrepancies between expectations regarding the result in the company and the opinion leader;● Contradictions between the content that the brand wants to promote and the profile and interests of the influencer and their audience;● Fuck-ups in approval processes: the gap between the influencer's expectations that a large corporation can approve everything in a few hours, and the corporation's expectations that bloggers will conscientiously wait for all rounds of edits;● Gaps in communication and tone of interaction;● The legal side of paperwork and documents, documents, documents.

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In building relationships with opinion leaders and implementing successful projects with them, there are two pillars on which an effective campaign rests:

1. Clarity of provided information and mutual understanding between you and the influencer.
2. Documents, from brief to agreement, that can guarantee that both the influencer and the brand are on the same wavelength, and their expectations are clearly outlined and approved.

By adhering to these components in their work, both brands and influencers can create a reliable partnership that satisfies the needs of both parties. After all, partnership is about both sides.

We prepared a checklist that will help turn an influencer into your partner, not make mistakes, and not go grey prematurely.

Selection of opinion leaders and starting communication with them

First of all, it's worth starting from the goals of the campaign within which work with the influencer is planned. Partnership with an influencer with a large audience may not always meet the campaign's needs. Sometimes, working with local but specialized opinion leaders will give maximum return. We form a pool of those whose audience meets your needs.
At the selection stage, it's worth paying attention to the following components:● Relevance of activities to project goals;● Number of subscribers and reactions;● Geography and interests;● Reputation;● Statistics.
When checking reputation, check if the blogger has been involved in any scandals? What do they write about in their blog? Do they work with your competitors? Don't be lazy to dig deeper.
"Run" the influencer through blacklists, but also pay attention to the adequacy of feedback, cut off subjectivity and excessive emotions. When evaluating bloggers, also look at the tone of comments, subscriber engagement, and results of past integrations.

Effective cover

This step is extremely important for establishing positive contact with the influencer. Write to bloggers with a cooperation proposal (it's better to start with email, but you can also communicate on social networks).
Greet them (don't mix up the name!), say that you're interested in working with the blogger for your brand's activities, and then describe your offer in detail. Ask where it's faster and more convenient for the blogger to communicate. Approach all opinion leaders individually, be interested in their requests, not just yours.
The components of an ideal cover are:● Greet and introduce yourself;● Briefly describe the essence of your appeal;● Briefly describe your project and your offer in detail;● Emphasize the influencer's role in your campaign;● Outline the expected format and conditions (commercial, barter, charity) of work;● Invite to discuss details and leave contact information.

Developing the perfect Terms of Reference

A well-written brief is 90% of successful cooperation. The final product depends on how the task is described and what results are expected after its implementation. When the blogger doesn't expect information from you in portions but immediately receives the brief necessary for work, it forms loyalty to you as a specialist with whom they want to implement ideas.
Also, it's important to first send the brief and confirm that the blogger agrees to the conditions described in it. It's desirable to discuss verbally if possible. Describe what approval stages will be, how many iterations there may be, how long approval takes on your side, what you expect from the blogger. For example, agreeing on a script, draft video integration, etc. Don't forget to specify the desired terms for preparation, approval, and publication of content. It's important to send the brief immediately after the influencer expresses interest in cooperation. This way, you minimize the chance of misunderstandings between you and the blogger.
Secrets of the perfect brief:● Characteristics of the audience the activity is aimed at;● Defining the type of content (post, video, stories, etc.) and its style;● Detailing key messages and tone of voice;● Time frames for task completion and publications;● Description of the project, providing information about the product \ campaign \ idea;● Description of how the influencer is involved and what result is expected from them;● Providing details (text, images, video) that need to be used in the work;● Defining the desired result and metrics for measuring it.

How to calmly handle all the documentation?

Cooperation with influencers is accompanied by proper legal paperwork. This is the law and a necessity. This way, you will be confident in the observance of all conditions of work with the blogger from both sides and guarantee yourself peaceful evenings.

Legal processes can be scary, but if you calmly approach the task and have a clear action plan, the process of drawing up contracts can even draw you in. By following these steps, you can quickly close legal issues:

Discuss and agree on all possible terms of cooperation: work format, services provided, terms of fulfilling agreements, payment amount and its terms, etc. (in good conditions, we advise doing this via email);
Draw up a contract \ act with a clear formulation of cooperation terms, including obligations of the parties;
Ask the blogger to provide a list of necessary documents (for example, extracts from the register, etc.);
Agree on payment through FOP (individual entrepreneur) or another legal entity and sign documents (contract, acts of completed work, etc.);
Control the signing of documents through platforms such as "Vchasno" or "Diia.Signature".

Content publication and request for statistics

Closer to the publication date, you need to clarify with the influencer if the material is ready, if everything is going according to plan, and then finally approve it. If the client has edits, they need to be made at this stage. Later will be too late.
After the long-awaited content is published, congratulate yourself and the influencer on this, thank them for the great work. But don't forget that there's one last stage ahead: analytics and statistics collection. Ask the opinion leader for post statistics no earlier than 2-3 days later. Since in the first few days, the post gains maximum coverage, and then everything goes downhill. If the communication was in stories, you can ask for statistics the next day.
Analyze the received statistics and overall experience of cooperation with a particular blogger, and then combine data from all integrations with opinion leaders into a single report. And don't forget to maintain your own databases of bloggers where you record results and impressions from cooperation with each.

So how does an influencer become a partner?

Having gone through this path almost to the end (from a polite and targeted welcome letter to communications during approvals and to the result), it's at the final stage that true partnership relations between the influencer and the client are consolidated. How you communicate about the end of cooperation leaves a significant mark on the blogger's impression of the cooperation. Don't forget to thank the influencer again for their work, don't be shy to express your positive emotions and desire to work on future projects.

Also, listen to the blogger's opinion: they know better what their audience likes. A one-time integration can turn into a long-term partnership beneficial for both parties. The blogger gets a reliable partner, and you get the trust of their audience.

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M&P Communications

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O.Honchara St., 74B, office 23,Kyiv, 01054Phone: +38 093 436 96 46Email: au.p-m%40viyk

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Monday till Friday from 9:00 till 18:00Crisis communications — 24/7.

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© 2007-2023 M&P Communications

In case you have any questions

Please leave your contacts and we will call you!

Thank you!

We will contact you shortly

Can't send form.

Please try again later.

M&P Communications

CONTACTS

O.Honchara St., 74B, office 23,Kyiv, 01054Phone: +38 093 436 96 46Email: au.p-m%40viyk

OPEN

Monday till Friday from 9:00 till 18:00Crisis communications — 24/7.

SOCIAL MEDIA

© 2007-2023 M&P Communications