Influencers. They are totally “hot” these days. If you ask young horse girls what they want to be later on, you will now increasingly get the answer “an influencer.” Where before Anky was a great role model and riding at Olympic level was the end goal for many, we see that this has completely shifted. Today’s idols are often riders who excel not necessarily with their sporting achievements, but rather by sharing their – sometimes very ordinary – lives. And very successfully, too. Are you already using influencers in your marketing strategy?
Influencer Marketing
In our world, the world of online marketing, influencers seem to be becoming increasingly important. In fact, the bigger brands really can’t do without (some) influencers anymore. Influencer marketing has matured very quickly in recent years and more and more rules are emerging around influencer marketing, for influencers and advertisers, to keep collaborations transparent. As of July 1, major influencers – those with more than 500,000 followers or subscribers on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok – have been joined by a package of stricter rules on sponsorships and advertising.
So time to explore this topic further….
Don’t think too big
When using influencers, you really haven’t had to think only about the very big paid influencers, like Enzo Knol or Monica Geuze, for a long time now. The perfect influencer or ambassador for your brand or product is probably right under your nose, in the heart of your target audience! And you are just a DM away from an interesting collaboration.
For example, put out a call for testers on your account and see what responses there are. It can already do a lot for your reach on social media by partnering with some of these “testers” who post some fun stories or reels in exchange for your free products. Or do a fun win with a fellow entrepreneur. After all, these are also forms of influencing. Underestimate the power of this, start small!
When a user on social media has between 100 and 5,000 followers, they fall into the category of nano-influencers. Channels with 5,000 to 50,000 followers fall into the category micro-influencers. The use of these “smaller” social media accounts can be very beneficial to your brand or product! It is precisely those personal recommendations from these accounts that often work best. In fact, authenticity and interaction have a much greater impact on your engagement these days, than reach.
Influencer rules.com
On this website you will find the main rules for influencers, as defined in the Media Act, consumer legislation and the Social Media & Influencer Marketing Advertising Code.
This handy website compiles the rules for each channel for you. With helpful examples of mentions and hastags, they help influencers be transparent about advertising in videos and posts.
Are you getting serious about influencers? It certainly doesn’t hurt to check out this website.
More tips!
Now the new stricter influencer rules within the media law basically “only” apply from more than 500,000 followers or subscribers and there are very few influencers within the equestrian world who reach this in my opinion (although Matt Harnacke is already eerily close to it with his YouTube account).
What seems to be especially important is that an influencer should be clear about when he or she is advertising, consider underage viewers and clearly communicate who you he or she is.
For collaborations with influencers on a smaller scale, I have some important tips/do’s for you:
1. Clear agreements
Make clear agreements. It sounds so logical, but it is really important to put clearly on paper and express to each other what the expectations are. How many posts/stories/videos does the influencer make, in exchange for what? How often?
Document this in a contract or ask for a quote, for example. Treat collaborations as a professional exchange of services. It can prevent a lot of annoying situations!
2. Provide a good briefing
To make a living from your work as an influencer, you must have enough collaborations with companies. And the more collaborations that become, the less time is left for such an influencer to really delve into the product or brand that needs to be promoted at the moment. For example, it sometimes happens that influencers do not read the briefing properly, or it can therefore happen that they send out a message that is not quite right. Sometimes this doesn’t quite capture the USPs (Unique Selling Points) of the product. Heartbreak and a missed opportunity for such a brand working with influencers!
3.Provide feedback on results
Because of that busy existence, influencers often move on to other things immediately after collaboration. Then again, it can happen that after such a campaign there is no feedback from the influencer at all. Were there many responses? What did it accomplish? What have we learned? What can we take from this into other communications around the brand?
All points that would be just super important to me as an online marketer and entrepreneur, when working with an influencer to spread the word about my product or brand.
So make agreements about this too at the start of the collaboration or make sure you can measure results (for example, with UTM tags on links) or a certain discount code that allows you to see how many purchases were generated from the influencer action.
BONUS TIP! Instagram Collabs
Did you know you can do even easier collaborations on Instagram these days? Instead of tagging other people in a post or video, you can now invite that person as a “collaborator” and then their name will also appear at the top of the screen as a co-author of the post! And not only are both of your names then at the top, the post returns on both of your feeds and you share the likes and comments. So that way you can take advantage of someone else’s reach (especially if they have a greater reach than you).
When you create a post or reel, you can click “tag people” and then “invite contributor.” Note! This only works with corporate accounts and only when the coauthor accepts the collaboration request in Instagram.
Good luck and have fun!
