In influencer marketing, companies are faced with the challenge of fairly compensating influencers for their reach and connection to their community, while at the same time ensuring a profitable collaboration. As is so often the case in life and in all sub-disciplines of marketing: budgets are limited, but the desire for the most successful campaign possible is great. The key is to create a win-win situation where both the brand and the creator benefit from the partnership. In this article, we delve into strategies for successfully negotiating with influencers to secure a collaboration without overpaying and to achieve your marketing objectives.
One of the most significant errors in contract communication with creators is discussing finances without thoroughly presenting the product to be promoted. This approach can impact the creator’s desire to form an emotional connection with the brand and weaken your negotiating position. It is crucial that the influencer first has the opportunity to get to know your brand and try out your product. Not only can this create a relationship with your company, but you can also receive direct feedback on your product. If the creator doesn’t like your product, the collaboration won’t come to fruition and you can start a new influencer search. However, if the creator does likes your product, the negotiation is usually much easier.
Depending on the production costs of your product and the reach of the influencer, a so-called barter deal can be made: In this arrangement, the company provides a product package for free, and the creator, in return, publishes content about it – without monetary compensation. It goes without saying that this also applies if you are distributing a service instead of a physical product.
If a barter deal is not an option, either because the influencer does not agree and/or has significant success on social media and thus does not want to forgo a fee, they typically set the price. However, it’s almost always worth negotiating: either to reduce the fee or to get more content for the demanded price. The latter option is generally the better choice—if the marketing budget allows—since negotiating the creator down does not establish a good foundation of trust. It might even lead to the influencer putting less effort into the campaign execution.
Instead of focusing exclusively on one-off collaborations, it is possible to offer the influencer multiple collaboration opportunities. Depending on the product, budget and marketing strategy, a regular placement in the creator’s content makes more sense than a one-off. As this is not only the better option for the influencer, but has usually also proven to be a more effective advertising strategy, you should definitely at least consider this option. These long-term partnerships create multiple points of contact with the community, which strengthens the credibility of the cooperation. In addition, repeated collaborations solidify the trust between the brand and the creator. This leads to the influencer being generally more willing to make price compromises for future projects.
By offering multiple collaboration opportunities, you demonstrate flexibility, which forms an important foundation for successful partnerships with influencers. This flexibility allows for a better consideration of the creators’ needs and preferences, enabling the development of tailored partnerships. By providing the option of multiple pricing packages, you can also better adjust your financial framework to the individual requirements of the influencer. This way, you can collaborate with influencers of varying reaches without exceeding your budget.
One way to maximize the effectiveness of influencer campaigns is to negotiate a (partially) variable remuneration based on performance and to use the campaign tracking of influencer marketing platforms such as influData for evaluation. Instead of a fixed remuneration, all or part of the remuneration is linked to the actual results of the campaign based on the KPIs usually achieved by the creator, such as engagement rate or video views. This can increase the influencer’s motivation to produce high-quality content and achieve the campaign goals. At the same time, it minimizes the risk for the brand of investing a significant portion of its marketing budget in individual influencers who may not perform as expected.
In addition, influencer tracking offers the opportunity to create a basis for future negotiations through previous campaign evaluations. By analyzing the results of past joint projects, companies can better assess the performance of the respective influencers and make informed decisions for subsequent collaborations. This enables the adjustment of the fee to ensure it is fair and performance-oriented. Additionally, influencer reporting can serve as a reference for negotiations with other, new creators, underlining the importance of benchmarking.
We recommend recording all details of the collaboration in the contract in order to avoid misunderstandings and create a clear basis for the partnership. This includes the period of cooperation, the number and type of planned publications and the agreed remuneration. A non-disclosure clause is also advisable to ensure that confidential information and the exact course of the collaboration remain protected. A detailed contract not only provides legal certainty but also serves as a guide for both parties to ensure that all parties fulfill their obligations.
Successful contract negotiation with influencers starts with building a trusting relationship and a willingness to offer flexible collaboration options. Once an agreement has been reached on the collaboration, it is crucial to record all details in the contract. In addition, it is advisable to monitor the success of the influencer campaign to justify a variable fee and create a basis for future collaborations. Through thoughtful planning, open communication and clear contract terms, companies can build long-term and successful partnerships with influencers and effectively achieve their marketing goals.