Should you hire an influencer marketing agency?

You started your Instagram page from your basement, pained for hours over getting just the right selfie and the best memes. Now after the blood, sweat, and tears, you’re starting to make it – to really experience success as a social media influencer – as the tens of thousands of views are rolling in. It’s creating all sorts of questions about what the next point in the trajectory should be to bring you to your highest potential. Should you hire an influencer marketing agency? In this blog we’ll discuss if you need one and how to find a good one.

What is an influencer marketing agency?

Influencer marketing agency are also called “social media influencer marketing managers” or “social media influencer managers.” What do they do?

An influencer marketing agency runs the business and operational aspects of your platform on your behalf. They handle business inquiries from potential sponsors, deal with any legal or contractual issues that may arise in the course of you doing business.

The agency may also:

• Consult with the influencer on brand strategy
• Conduct market research
• Negotiate sponsorship deals
• Monitor the progress of the platform and any campaigns run on it,
• Manage communications with other partners involved with the brand

The goal is to allow the influencer to focus on what they do best: creating engaging content that drives views and increases the brand’s power, reach, and size.

How do you know when you need one?

As we’ve discussed in other blogs, the financial aspects of being a social media influencer need to be managed well. How do you know when it’s worth making the investment in marketing support?

You should think about hiring an influencer marketing agency when you have reached a plateau in terms of your bandwidth. If you feel that your influence has grown to the point where you need someone else to help you manage the operational aspects of your platform, you should consider hiring a manager to help out.

You may be struggling to create partnerships with other brands. Or maybe you don’t know how to effectively negotiate a sponsorship deal. Perhaps you are seeing the competition emerge with more engaging content and you are worried about losing share. All of these are threats to your growth, both in terms of the breadth of your following and also the financial stability of your “business” as an influencer.

In the case where you have become a mega-influencer, you may be looking at hiring employees to support your growth. This may be a daunting task, especially if you don’t have experience running a business with employees other than yourself.

If you are seeing these signs, it may be time to consult with a marketing manager for your influencer page or platform.   

How do you find one?

There are many social media managers out there, and all of them have attractive marketing pitches. How do you know which one is for you? How do you find a good marketing agency if you are a successful influencer?

Here are some places to look.

#1 Other influencers

This is probably one of the better ways. Look for successful influencers who have a similar following, values, and style as you. Then either reach out to them and directly ask, or do research and try to figure out which influencer marketing agency they are associated with. This can usually be found where their contact information is listed.

#2 Google Search

It would make sense that marketing agencies who help social media influencers would have a presence on the internet.

#3 LinkedIn

Most credible business professionals have at least some presence on LinkedIn. You can conduct a search using the query function, or post a discussion to your network.

Questions to ask an influencer marketing agency

Once you narrow down the candidates to a short list, ask them the following questions:

• How many people are on your team?
• How do you preserve client confidentiality?
• Do you have experience working with influencers like me?
• How long do your engagements typically last? Is there a minimum contract length?
• What is your process for negotiating brand deals/sponsorships? Provide examples of successful negotiations in which you created a positive outcome for your clients.
• How do you intend to grow our audience?
• How do you work with an influencer on content strategy?
• Is there a minimum amount of time an influencer is required to work with you?
• How are you compensated?

Consider this decision carefully…

There is a great potential to have a large impact on society by being a social media influencer. We’ve seen it happen before with some of our clients. But at the same time, as a social media influencer, your public image is everything. Hiring a marketing agency shouldn’t only be about the dollars (how much they cost, how much money they can make you).

Be careful and make sure they understand your core values as an internet personality, your strengths and weaknesses, and your long-term vision for your brand. All of these factors must be included in your evaluation to maximize your chances of success.

Think it through, take notes, and most of all, if your instincts tell you that the social media manager who wants to represent you as an influencer isn’t quite right, it’s okay to take a pass.

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