With intense competition and scarce resources, brand influencer-generated marketing managers are under pressure to give their best. This means, brand managers are always striving to save costs wherever possible, yet are expected to deliver value for money. For many marketers who are yet to join the low-cost efficiency bandwagon, one way to prune costs is through an influencer marketing platform service. Here, brands commence their influencer marketing campaign with the help of an influencer that posts interesting and engaging content that eventually helps drive sales. Here is also where brands cut costs and increase productivity efficiently. How?
With the help of Influencer-Generated content (IGC).
Creating engaging and interesting content is resource-intensive. Though many brands follow a hybrid model- they create content and also reuse IGC, many brands these days try to rely solely on Influencer- generated content.
This also means they are super-picky when it comes to choosing the right influencer from the influencer marketplace.
When brands are sure that IGC created is at-par or even better than their in-house images, text, videos, GIFs, or other content, they know they can rely on them for long-term influencer marketing contracts. These come with clauses for reusing IGC according to the brand’s requirements.
Why is influencer-generated content considered important?
Cost-effective and time-saving
Let’s explain this with an example. A start cosmetics company wanted to promote its brand new range of lipsticks. They approached a few celebrities, most of whom charged northwards of $10,000 for endorsements. Next, they approached a few influencers who agreed to promote the lipsticks on a commission for each sale. They created videos, images, GIFs, and other content, posted it on social media, and shared the content with the company. This not only saved them thousands of dollars, but all they had to do was also to ship them the products to promote which cost them only $500. All this was done within a week. If they had approached a celebrity for endorsement, the whole process from signing the contract to implementing the content would have taken weeks, if not months.
Can be repurposed efficiently
Influencer-generated content can be a great addition to the brand’s own content requirements. The brand can use it on its website, marketing materials, and social media handles. This gives social proof and a genuine and authentic review of the product. What’s more, it helps increase the influencer-generated following.
High performing
Coming back to the lipstick example, giving free samples to influencers for promotion on a commission basis helps the cosmetic brand in more ways than one. If they were to sign a celebrity endorsement, that would have cost millions of dollars without any guarantee of an increase in sales.
How brands and influencers could join hands to generate branded content (IGC)
Ensure you have the rights to IGC in the contract- When it comes to signing the dotted line, the brand manager should include a clause stating the rights to use influencer-generated content for further use. In fact, most brands, whether big or small, always put in this clause.
State the guidelines to create IGC- The influencer-generated marketing contract should have terms that balance the influencer’s creative freedom with the business objectives of the brand. For example, the content created should not hurt the sentiments of people or show someone or something in a bad manner. In fact, the contract should contain a clause where only approved content is posted online and shared with the brand.
Set up a workflow– Especially if you are running a big campaign, you should specify a workflow where the content creator (influencer-generated ) should create and post content within deadlines. This will make sure brands can take the best advantage of specific times of posting content.
Keep all approved content accessible to whoever needs it- Within your organization, you need to make sure your content is accessible to your colleagues and whoever else needs them. This will help to reuse the content at other places. For example, an influencer’s makeup tutorial can be used on the brand’s website or even on its social media handles.
Summing It Up
There is no doubt influencer-generated content has a better impact than in-house content. The influencer has spent years increasing his count of followers, he knows what works and what doesn’t. Though he might not have the professional skills and knowledge needed to create in-house content, he knows with experience what his followers will like.On the other hand, in-house content may look pushy and sales-oriented; people are so used to ads they don’t even like to see them. An influencer’s content or recommendation is taken seriously, leading to conversions
