5 Ways To Collaborate Effectively With Influencers Through Email Marketing
One of the most effective marketing strategies today is to collaborate with online influencers. With thousands and even millions of followers, online influencers can increase your sales exponentially with just a tweet or an Instagram photo.
Collaborating with influencers, or social proof marketing is a rapidly rising trend in email marketing for countless companies because of its impact on consumers.
Here are five ways to collaborate effectively with influencers through email marketing:
- Customer Testimonials and Reviews
- Work With Micro-Influencers
- Create Product Collaborations
- Boost Your Email User Experience
- Include the Influencers You Already Have
Types of influencers
Influencers can have millions of followers or a few thousand, but all can increase your brand recognition and sales. Your marketing goals and funding may determine the influencer you choose for potential collaboration. Consider these options when targeting influencers for possible collaboration:
Mega Influencers
Social media stars such as Kylie Jenner have millions of followers, but they can be expensive. Jenner charges more than $1 million for a sponsored post. Mega influencers may be best for awareness campaigns and marketing to a broader audience.
Macro Influencers
Macro influencers make a name for themselves through their blogging, podcasting, books, and expertise. Seth Godin, a marketing expert, is a macro influencer that many business leaders look toward for advice.
Micro Influencers
These influencers are smaller in scale but can significantly impact your marketing. Sarah Joy, a lifestyle blogger who writes about home decorating, fashion, parenting, and lifestyle topics, has more than 570,000 followers on Instagram. Their followers see them as authentic, trustworthy, and relatable.
Loyal Followers
Your best customers may be powerful influencers. When your loyal customers and clients post about your eCommerce business’s great products or services on social media, they offer you the best kind of free advertising. Any marketing professional will tell you that word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective marketing.
Why Partnering With Influencers Is a Savvy Marketing Move
Most marketers rate the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing better than other marketing types. Statistics show that influencer marketing can provide a return on investment of up to 5X.
Influencers’ followers trust them and their opinions, so they’re much more likely to make a purchase recommended by their favorite influencer.
Online influencers are marketing professionals at heart, so the way you approach and collaborate with them should be sophisticated and savvy. Influencers will want their collaboration with you to be something that adds to their image and is consistent with their brand.
These five ways to collaborate effectively with influencers in email marketing.
How To Collaborate With Influencers Through Email Marketing
The marketing synergy you find through collaboration with influencers through email marketing can include these five marketing moves:
1. Customer Testimonials and Reviews
Influencers offering their reviews and testimonials can be an effective recommendation. An influencer with a popular lifestyle and home décor channel on YouTube could make videos using different housewares and storage solutions in exchange for products and an affiliation agreement. Your email marketing could then feature links to that review.
The result would be a win for your company since influencers’ followers trust their opinions and look to influencers for advice. For the influencers, the collaboration will likely result in more followers and higher income. This collaboration will be a win for your company and influencers.
2. Work With Micro-Influencers
While there are huge influencers with millions of followers, the macro influencers, your company shouldn’t bypass micro-influencers, who may have less than 100,000 followers in their niche. Though they have fewer followers, micro-influencers followers tend to be more engaged and more passionate about the niche subject.
Their followers see micro-influencers as more authentic and likely to use the recommended product. Consumers say authenticity influences their buying decisions, making collaborations with micro-influencers a decisive marketing move.
3. Create Product Collaborations
Themed products created through collaborations with influencers can catch consumers’ attention. The possibilities are endless, but partnerships could include an influencer creating a menu item for a restaurant, a fashion influencer could have their own capsule wardrobe with a clothing brand, or a lifestyle blogger could create their own scents for a candle company.
In the email marketing announcing the collaboration, you can detail how your brand and chosen influencer work together to create a memorable, limited-edition, signature product. The influencer can also promote this collaboration through articles and visual posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
4. Boost Your Email User Experience
Don’t let email design hold you back when collaborating with an influencer to boost your email marketing. Using design, including visual hierarchy notes, you can make your communications involving influencers clear, concise, and engaging.
The visual hierarchy looks at how readers process information in an email or a printed page and design the information in the email to improve the user experience.
5. Include the Influencers You Already Have
Your company may already have influencers on the payroll. Employees, founders, and CEOs can be influential on social media. Adding a quote from your in-house influencer and a photo will add interest and credibility to your email marketing.
Including your company’s CEO in emails thanking customers for subscribing or making a purchase adds a personal touch that customers will remember. Emails from an employee influencer who can tell readers more about your products will make your customers feel like they’re part of your company’s “family.”
Final Thoughts
Two are better than one when it comes to pairing your company with an influencer for an email marketing campaign. The advantages of collaboration with an online influencer, including the interest and impact of the campaign and having a target audience of their followers, make this teamwork a savvy email marketing move for many companies.
Add these ideas and best practices to your email marketing plan and perform a marketing audit to gauge the email campaign’s results. You’ll likely see your company’s brand recognition and sales increase after collaborating with an influencer in social proof marketing.
Further reading