This guides explains how to get the most out of an influencer when it comes to utilising influencers for your marketing efforts. To become a Partnerships certified expert, go to our highly acclaimed Udemy course here: https://www.udemy.com/course/the-influencer-marketing-course-for-marketing-managers/?referralCode=19FC1D4798718EF94F55 Or sign up for our highly acclaimed Partnercademy Masterclass course... https://partnercademy.thinkific.com/

1. How to get more out of an Influencer
This article focuses on how to get the most out of influencers. Influencers are fast
becoming one of the most popular and integral types of partnership marketing. With
the rise of Instagram and celebrity endorsements, influencers are sharply becoming
hugely important to a businesses marketing strategy.
What are Influencers?
With the rise of social media stars this marketing technique has become pivotal and
an industry in its own right. Firstly, what is meant by ‘Influencers’?
Influencers encourage others to participate in an event or purchase a product, their
decisions and opinions have power to affect their followers’ purchasing choices.
Types of Influencers
Those that encourage others and influence their decisions can be placed into two
main groups:
1) Individuals
Celebrities, politicians, sports-people and industry experts are popular examples of
this. Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, is so influential his blog on money
saving tips states to have over 15 million users a month.
2) Groups
A collective group of people who can influence others. This refers to power groups,
trade unions, fan collectives, movements or protest groups.
Where Influencers are most effective
One only becomes an Influencer when opinion is expressed towards your followers.
This means within their network they actively speak with and discuss their opinions
on certain topics that encourages debate and opinion. They have huge power when
it comes to their thoughts on companies, brands, products and campaigns.
There is therefore huge importance in finding and encouraging your influencers to
speak positively about you during a campaign. Influencers use several different
platforms to voice their opinion:
● Blogs
● Social Media
● Word of Mouth

2. ● Social Setting
● Events
● Forums
How to find your Influencers
Some influencers are more effective than others in different markets, and fortunately
with the rise of social media and new digital tools they are becoming easier to find
and reach out to.
1) Social
There are several social media applications that allow businesses to locate their
Influencers. LinkedIn allows you to find those that are popular in your network. While
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram show you the number of followers. One useful
application is Klout; a tool that scores people based on their influence; the higher
their social media activity the higher their influencer score.
2) Tools
There are companies that provide specific tools to help track and monitor
Influencers. Like Klout they measure a user’s influence by building profiles of
customers who spread and effect opinion online. Those out there include Traackr
and Little Bird.
3) Agencies
There are also specific agencies that focus their attention on finding your influencers
for you and help get the most out of them. They work with businesses to understand
their network and those currently spreading their opinion about you.
Utilising their Influence
Why is it important to locate and then utilise your influencers? In today’s digital age
the speed in which news, gossip and opinion spreads is faster than ever. With the
likes of social it means anyone can speak out and spread their thoughts. For
businesses this is both advantageous yet concerning. There’s increased popular
opinion as much as negative outbursts all at the touch of a button. A business
therefore needs to be aware of those out there that are shouting and being listened
to the most. A brand that can manage their influencers is a winning brand. The main
methods to utilise influencers are as follows:
1) Affiliation

3. Affiliation can encourage an influencer to act in your favour. For example, take
bloggers or vloggers who review products, by offering them commissions for
promoting your product it encourages positive feedback.
2) Interaction
Money is not always the answer, sometimes persuading an influencer can be done
simply with interaction. If they are voicing negative opinion it could be because they
have been mistreated or let-down as a customer. And with a little personal dialogue
they could become a positive influencer.
3) Customer Status
Some brands with loyalty schemes often label customers such as VIP or Gold
member. Show your appreciation to a major influencer by offering them a special
status.
4) Hospitality
Offer an influencer extra benefits that other customers might not receive; hospitality,
concierge, or free products before they even come out at stores. All this makes them
feel special and can only lead to positive reviews.
Both brands should actively reach out and encourage their influencers to positively
review the joint campaign. Done correctly, it can only further assist boost campaign
performance.
Example:
PUMA partner with Argentinian Star
Sergio Aguero is an Argentine professional footballer, at the time of writing playing
for English club Manchester City. In 2015 he earned the Premier League Golden
Boot for 26 goals in 31 games.
PUMA is one of the world’s leading sport-lifestyle companies that designs and
develops footwear, apparel and accessories. The company, which was founded in
1948, distributes its products to more than 120 countries.
In 2011 PUMA announced its partnership with Sergio Aguero signing a long-term
contract for the Argentine to wear their speed line boots. Sergio Aguero has over 11
million Twitter followers and is one of the most active social media Influencers in the
football industry. This means as brand ambassador he encourages a vast wave of
his fan base to buy PUMA products.