5 Ideas to Make the Most Out of Your Influencer Marketing Spend

Creating quality content about your brand is expensive and time-consuming. You need to invest heavily in cameramen, expensive studios, and models. On top of it, if you don't have a large or dedicated team to do it, content creation can be overwhelming.

However, you can leverage your partnerships with influencers to build a content bank faster and affordably.

Influencer-generated content, whether it's images, videos, reviews, or any other creatives that social media influencers create, is often thought of as a by-product of influencer marketing and is usually not given much importance. But by repurposing your influencers' authentic content, you can maximize the benefits of your influencer marketing spend.

The creator would also be happy to let you use it for minimal or no extra cost as they've already invested in creating content. It would benefit them as well to get the maximum ROI from it.

In this post, we will share 5 ideas on what to do after a creator posts about your brand. If you are looking to optimize your influencer marketing ROI, check out this post.

Here are 5 ideas on how to repurpose a creator's post

1. Use their review as social proof on your website

When people see that you solved a problem for someone else, they are more likely to make a purchase. On top of that, if they hear about it from someone they already trust, the journey from brand awareness to purchase can be even faster.

That's why you should repurpose the creator's pitch about your product in their post on your website.

Let me show you an example from Athletic Greens. Dr. Andrew Huberman is one of the podcasters they sponsor, whose reviews they've used as a testimonial on their website.

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2. Establish trust with organic re-sharing

Social media is often about responding to others with gestures similar to what you get. If someone comments on your post, you comment back with at least an emoji, or if someone posts about you in their story, you feel like you should re-share it on your profile as well.

The same idea can be used in creator partnerships. When a creator mentions you in their post or story, repost it on your own social media profile.

Some ideas for phrases you can use with the post:

• "Glad you loved it, <creator named>."

• "Can't believe we were mentioned by…."

• "See what <creator name> said about us."

This should be done, especially if you had sent the creator a gift, and they did give you a shoutout. It builds organic trust among your followers too, as they see influential people promoting you.

Here's an example of this idea in action by Snif, the perfume brand.

They also have a 'highlight' section on their Instagram profile where they've collected all the re-shares or posts and stories by creators and celebrities.

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3. Use CGC in your paid advertising campaigns

Wouldn't it be cool to not only get creative for your ads without shooting them yourself but also see them perform better than your competitor’s ads?

That's the power of authentic, creator-generated content.

Recently, we even saw a couple of comments on a LinkedIn post from marketers and brand owners that vouched for it.

There are two ways you can use influencer-generated content in ads:

• The traditional way — Brands can run ads from their account, but the creative is by the creator. Brands have to get a license to only creators' content.

• Whitelisting — Under this, brands use the creators' accounts for advertising the content of that creator.

Here's how Athletic Greens does whitelist ads

Content generated by creators is great because they bring in creativity and authenticity and know exactly what their audience likes. It adds social proof when people see others like them getting benefits from the product.

This strategy also helps you scale your paid advertising channels. The way to make FB or TikTok ads work is to have a high volume of creatives to keep testing.

But imagine how much time & money it would take for your team to create 100 pieces of content in-house. A lot! But if you tap into 20 creators and each one creates 5 pieces simultaneously, you will have 100 pieces in a span of 2-3 weeks. And would be more cost-effective than creating them in-house.

Also, Consider this —  the last time you shared your experience with a friend or family about a product was based on your personal experience and not an ad. When you work with creators, you are able to bring in multiple such stories in front of your audience.

A note about re-using content on paid channels

Just because a creator has made a post about you or shot a few videos to talk about your product on their channel doesn't mean you are free to use that content. Don't get into legal trouble or ruin your relationship with the creator for using their content without written permission.

Before you use their content for anything that wasn't discussed, reach out to get usage rights (usage rights define who owns the content and where it can be used) for the video/post. Here's a script you can use:

“Hey {first_name},

We're so glad you loved our gift. Thank you for sharing it in your story.

We'd love to be able to share this with our audiences as well! Could we have the right to use this content on paid social sites for 30 days?

Thank you.”

4. Quote them in blogs

We haven't seen a successful example of this idea in the DTC world, but websites and agencies use quotes from influential people to add weight to their claims. This improves the authority of the blog, and readers tend to engage more with the overall website.

The same idea can be applied to your DTC brand blog.

Creators can fuel your content marketing efforts too.

Here's an example of how to do it— If a creator shares how your product helped them, and you’re writing a blog around a theme related to that product, make sure you include their story or post in your blog.

Here's an example of how to do it— If a creator shares how your product helped them, and you’re writing a blog around a theme related to that product, make sure you include their story or post in your blog. You can use an AI blog writer to create this content in no time!

Not just blogs; you can use this content for your newsletter or product listings as well.

It also has the secondary benefit of helping you with the distribution. When you share with the creator about how you mentioned them in your blog, they might re-share/re-tweet your post, helping you reach more people.

SARAL tip: Do put a link to their social media channels in your blog. It's a great way to reciprocate their support & build a relationship.

5. Share their profile on your channels

This is different from sharing content organically.

How can you leverage the partnership with the creator right after you onboard them and not wait for the content to come in? And make it a win-win for both.

Here's an idea — Give them shoutouts on your social media channels. They are on social media for the same purpose as your brand — to get attention from their target audience.

When you present them in front of your audience, they not only appreciate your support but also gain followers from it. You get in the good books with creators, they get traction, and most importantly — your audience also starts taking notice of your brand when they see you associated with a creator they might know & trust.

Sometimes, creators might re-share this announcement on their socials which also gets you more organic followers, making it a win-win overall… and they didn’t even have to post about you yet!

Final thoughts

The smart thing to do to get ahead of your competition, beat the high cost of running ads, and get the most out of your influencer marketing campaign is to think beyond posts and sales.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but the fact is that to maximize the ROI of influencer marketing, you need to use the content generated across all stages of the funnel — partner with creators for brand awareness and sales, use their content to build trust in your brand, get maximum clicks on your creator-generated ads, and then finally improve conversions on your landing page by repurposing content for social reviews.

Did we miss any ideas? Or did you try any one of the ideas that we listed above? Signup for our  No BS Influence Marketing Newsletter, get in touch, and let us know.

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