What is an Influencer Marketing Agency?
As the name indicates, an influencer marketing agency is an organization that works with brands and influencers to run influencer marketing campaigns, predominantly via social media. Some agencies specialize in producing influencer campaigns using just one or two social networks, while others are happy to work with influencers on virtually every social channel.
Full-service influencer marketing agencies manage campaigns from start to finish. They organize everything from the ideation and planning up to the reporting at the campaign’s conclusion.
Influencer marketing agencies strategize, execute, and manage influencer marketing campaigns for their clients. These can take various forms, including product placement, sponsored content, paid sponsorships, and more overt advertising by influencers for brands.
Most influencer marketing agencies build relationships with top influencers in a wide range of niches. They can go to these influencers whenever a client wants to run a relevant campaign. This makes it easy for agencies to recommend suitable influencers to brands when they are ready to undertake a campaign.
Why Would You Work with an Influencer Marketing Agency?
With many bands traditionally choosing agencies to do their marketing for them, it makes sense for them to do the same for their influencer marketing. The agencies are specialists in the field and usually have more expertise than most firms have in-house.
Full-service influencer agencies serve all stages of influencer marketing campaigns. These include:
- Determining the target audience for a campaign by category, age, geographical location, and other filters
- Identifying popular influencers who regularly participate in successful influencer marketing campaigns and are willing to work with reputable brands. The influencers need to be relevant to a brand’s message, popular with the desired target audience for the particular campaign, respected, and have genuinely impressive engagement rates.
- Developing relationships with successful influencers
- Working with influencers across multiple social platforms and understanding the nuances of each. For example, influencers on Twitch are very different from those on Instagram or Twitter. And they have incredibly diverse audiences. Agencies know which channels are best to find particular types of target audiences
- Strategizing and ideating influencer campaigns that match clients’ objectives
- Assisting influencers to create compelling and relevant content suitable for each influencer’s audience
- Working with brands and influencers to schedule posts at the most effective times to meet a campaign’s goals
- Monitoring that influencers share quality content that meets brand standards, complies with FTC and other legal guidelines, and matches what has been agreed for the campaign
Most influencer marketing agencies have a network of tried and trusted influencers. The agency can take a brand’s goals for its campaign and automatically know which influencers will best suit the campaign.
Also, the agencies act as trusted go-betweens. Most influencers are busy people, many of whom receive thousands of messages every day. Often, they will ignore and leave unread anything that they don’t perceive will directly affect their lives. They are likely to miss outreach from brands. However, once an influencer has had their first contact with an influencer agency, they are far more likely to open their future emails and other messages.
