In 2020, Dior, a global beauty and fashion brand, launched the ‘67 Shades of Dior’ influencer marketing campaign to promote the different shades of its Forever Foundation. Result? Their engagement rate increased by 120% and audience reach grew by 33%.

It’s not just these big brands leveraging the power of influencer marketing. Even small businesses are trying their hand at it. 

In fact, influencer marketing is expected to have a greater ROI than traditional advertising methods. 

Curious about how to make influencer marketing work for your brand? Read on to learn how to collaborate with influencers for brand growth.

What is influencer collaboration?

Influencer collaboration is all about a strategic partnership where brands team up with individuals who have a strong online presence in specific niches. The influencers help brands reach wider audiences by leveraging their credibility and connection with followers.

 There are multiple influencer platforms where such marketing can really shine:

• Instagram: Renowned for its visual appeal and massive reach, it’s ideal for influencers sharing eye-catching content and stories
• TikTok: Perfect for viral content and engaging short videos that capture younger audiences
• LinkedIn: Great for professional influencers who share industry insights and build B2B connections

Types of Influencer Collaborations

No matter what you’re selling, whether it’s a must-have everyday item or a coveted luxury, getting noticed is crucial for your brand. And teaming up with influencers is a great way to do just that. From high-profile celebrities to relatable everyday people, the right influencer can help your brand connect with the target audience in various ways.

1. Sponsored posts

One of the most effective ways to collaborate with influencers is through sponsored social media content. In this setup, influencers create and share posts about your brand on their social media profiles in exchange for compensation.

You’ll need to provide the influencer with your content guidelines, social media policy, and marketing objectives to ensure the content aligns with your brand’s vision.

However, the influencers need to disclose the brand partnership in their posts. Sponsored collaboration would look something like this:

While sponsored content is one of the most common influencer collaboration methods, brands often struggle with tracking campaign performance, calculating revenue, and ensuring the brand’s message is consistent. 

Marketing Management Solution helps you manage influencer campaigns across various niches effectively. You can craft comprehensive marketing plans and execute promotional events, whether you’re working on a small-scale project or a large campaign.

It can help streamline your broader influencer marketing strategies, including TikTok marketing, by outlining a process for managing sponsored influencer posts.

For instance, the Social Media Content Plan Template allows you to organize and schedule posts efficiently, plan out relevant content with a clear calendar, and coordinate with influencers by tracking their deliverables and managing communication all in one place.

The template also enables brands to track the progress of influencer campaigns through custom fields and statuses, ensuring everything aligns with your campaign goals.

Download This Template

What’s more, Brain is one of the must-have social media AI tools to make your marketing campaign more engaging and effective. You can give tailored prompts for generating influencer campaign ideas, crafting content briefs, and developing marketing case studies!

Luckily, you can also store all your resources in  Docs, keeping your campaign materials organized and easily accessible. Use it to create actionable documents with essential features like tables for data organization, attachments for quick references to the style guides, and embed features for images and media, enabling seamless marketing campaign management.

2. Product gifting

Gifting is another popular way to build influencer brand partnerships. You send your product samples to influencers, hoping that they’ll showcase them on their social media stories or posts.

Remember that if you’re only offering products without any financial compensation, influencers aren’t obligated to promote your brand. They might decide not to feature your products, or they could even share negative feedback if they aren’t impressed.

Here’s how you can gift products for smooth influencer collaboration:

• Before sending products, establish a connection with relevant influencers. This increases the likelihood that they’ll be genuinely interested in your product
• Suggest to the influencer that you’ll promote their content on your social media channels or website, which would also increase their reach. However, this might work only for micro-influencers
• Make sure your product is relevant to their content. You do not want to approach a beauty blogger with a tech gadget unless a phone with a high-definition camera, which overlaps with their interests

3. Account takeovers

Instead of constantly brainstorming new social media content for your brand, you can also let an influencer take the reins of your social media account.

It’s not only a fresh and exciting approach, but influencer-created content often performs better than the usual brand posts because people follow the recommendations of popular influencers.

There are two ways you can move forward with it. You can go for a full account takeover, where the influencer gets direct access to your company’s account. Or, if you prefer more control, the influencer can simply send you the content and captions, and you handle the posting.

Here are a few things to keep in mind for account takeover influencer collaboration:

• Make sure the influencer is someone you’ve worked with before and trust; this is your brand’s account, after all!
• Takeovers are typically for a set period, whether it’s a day, a week, or longer, depending on the marketing campaign strategy.

If done right, a takeover can inject some serious excitement into your feed and give your audience a fresh perspective.

4. Brand ambassador program

Want to take your influencer collaborations to the next level? Consider turning top influencer partners into brand ambassadors. This isn’t about a single post; brand ambassadors are in it for the long haul.

Brand ambassadors are usually celebrities or influencers with massive followings who regularly use and promote products of a particular brand, sharing their genuine experiences with their followers. They might feature your brand in their everyday life, represent you at events, and even distribute freebies.

For example, Chris Burkard, a famous photographer, is a brand ambassador for Sony cameras.

To make the most out of brand ambassador collaboration:

• Only invite influencers to be brand ambassadors after a successful initial collaboration
• Choose influencers whose values and style match your brand’s for more effective promotions
• Give them discount codes to share with their audience, creating a tangible link between their endorsements and your sales

5. Hosting events

Hosting events is a perfect way to connect with Instagram influencers beyond the digital space. It allows you to showcase influencers’ personalities off-camera and create authentic content that resonates with your audience.

Whether it’s a casual get-together or a more formal affair, influencer events provide a fresh way to engage and entertain.

• Start by selecting engaging and entertaining influencers who align with your brand
• Choose a venue that fits the vibe of your event, whether it’s a private gathering, a corporate function, or a charity fundraiser

Make your event a standout success . The template assists you in setting clear marketing goals and timelines for event promotions, ensuring you stay organized and on track.

With this template, you can:

• Reach a larger audience with fewer resources
• Create promotional materials for your event
• Increase event recognition in influencer communities

6. Product collaboration

Collaborating with a dedicated influencer can create a significant buzz for your brand. One effective way to honor their influence is by naming a new product after them.

This exclusive touch will captivate the influencer’s followers, as fans are often eager to buy items that feature their favorite influencer’s name.

For example, McDonald’s launched a BTS Meal after BTS, a South Korean boy band.

If you don’t have a close relationship with an influencer, don’t worry! You can still explore collaboration opportunities. Reach out to an established influencer with a substantial following and propose co-creating a product together.

Ultimately, whether you’re naming a product after an influencer or collaborating on a new design, the aim is to leverage the creator marketplace to drive interest and sales while providing them with an opportunity to increase their engagement rate.

7. Giveaways

Giveaways are a popular method for influencers to engage with their audience and promote the products of various brands. Unlike influencer gifting, where the influencer receives products directly, giveaways are for their followers to win prizes.