So you want to build an influencer marketing strategy. Maybe your boss asked for one. Maybe you’ve seen competitors doing it and realized influencer marketing matters enough to stop watching from the sidelines.
Most guides on this topic read like they were written by someone who’s never run a campaign. They talk in circles about “brand alignment” and “authentic partnerships” without telling you what to do on Monday morning. This isn’t that.
Figure Out What You’re Trying to Do
Before you start sliding into creators’ DMs, you need to know what success looks like. And “more sales” isn’t specific enough.
Are you trying to drive traffic to a product page? Build awareness for a new launch? Get user-generated content you can repurpose for ads? Each of these requires a different approach, different talent, and different metrics. A campaign designed for awareness looks nothing like one designed for conversions. Mixing them up is how budgets get wasted.
Get specific. Write it down. “We want 50 pieces of UGC for paid social” is a goal. “We want to grow our brand” is a vibe.
Know Your Audience (For Real This Time)
You probably have some idea of who your customers are. But this is where it gets tricky: your target audience and your ideal influencer’s audience aren’t always the same thing.
Say you’re selling premium skincare to women in their 30s. The obvious move is finding skincare creators in that demographic. But sometimes the better play is a lifestyle creator whose audience trusts her product recommendations, even if skincare isn’t her main thing. The trust transfer matters more than the content category.
Spend time in the comments. See who’s engaging, what they’re asking, and what they’re buying. That tells you more than any media kit.
Set a Budget That Makes Sense
This is where people get weird. They either want to pay creators in “exposure” (please don’t) or they assume every influencer costs $50k per post (most don’t).
Rates vary wildly based on follower count, engagement rate, content type, and platform. A TikTok video typically costs less than a YouTube integration. A nano-influencer with 8,000 followers might charge $200. A mid-tier creator with 500k might want $5,000. These are rough numbers, and they shift constantly.
Build your budget around your goals. If you need volume, work with more smaller partners. If you need a big splash, maybe one or two larger names make sense. No universal formula exists here.
Find Talent Who Fits
This is the part everyone underestimates. Finding the right people takes time. A lot of it.
You can use platforms like Grin, CreatorIQ, or Aspire to search by niche, audience demographics, engagement rates, and so on. Or you can do it manually: scroll through hashtags, check who your competitors work with, and see who’s already talking about products like yours organically. Some brands bring in agencies like Factory PR to handle talent sourcing and outreach, especially when running larger campaigns.
Those organic mentions are gold, by the way. If someone’s posting about your category without being paid, they’re probably a genuine fan. That authenticity shows up in the work.
Don’t fixate on follower counts. A creator with 20k engaged followers will outperform one with 200k ghost followers every time.
Reach Out Like a Normal Person
Your outreach email sets the tone for the whole relationship. Keep it short. Be specific about why you’re contacting them (not a generic template that could go to anyone). Tell them what you’re offering and what you’re asking for.
Something like: “Hey [Name], I’ve been following your content for a while, especially your recent post about [specific thing]. We’re launching [product] and think it’d be a good fit for your audience. Interested in chatting about a potential collab?”
Done. No novels. No corporate speak. Just a normal message from one person to another.
Brief Them Well, Then Get Out of the Way
Creators know their audience better than you do. The whole point of hiring them is their expertise. So give them the information they need (key messages, any legal requirements, deadlines, usage rights) and then let them do their thing.
Brands that micromanage every frame end up with stuff that looks like an ad. And not in a good way. People scroll past ads. They stop for content that feels native to the platform.
Your brief should include the non-negotiables and leave room for creative freedom. If you can’t trust someone to represent your brand without a 47-point checklist, you picked the wrong partner.
Track the Right Metrics
What you measure depends on what you set out to do (remember step one?).
For awareness, you’re looking at reach, impressions, and video views. For engagement, it’s likes, comments, shares, and saves. For conversions, you need trackable links, discount codes, or pixel data.
A common mistake: judging a top-of-funnel awareness campaign by bottom-of-funnel conversion metrics. If the goal was to get your brand in front of new people, and you got a million impressions, that’s a win. Doesn’t matter that it only drove 12 sales directly.
Set up tracking before the campaign goes live. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this gets skipped.
Build Relationships, Not Transactions
One-off posts can work. But the real value comes from ongoing partnerships. When a creator mentions your brand multiple times over months, their audience starts to associate the two. That’s when you see real movement.
Partners are more invested when they feel like collaborators instead of ad slots. They’ll negotiate better rates for long-term deals. They’ll put more effort into the work. They’ll care if the campaign performs well.
After a campaign wraps, follow up. Say thanks. Share results if they were good. Stay in touch even when you’re not running anything active. The best partnerships don’t feel like business transactions.
Expect Some Misses
Not every partnership will hit. Some content will underperform. Some collaborators will ghost you after taking the product. Some campaigns will flop for reasons that remain a mystery.
Normal. The brands that win at this treat influencer marketing like a portfolio. Some bets pay off big, some break even, some tank. You learn, adjust, and keep going.
Document what worked and what didn’t. Over time, you’ll develop a sense for which partners and content types perform best for your brand. That institutional knowledge is worth more than any single campaign.
Building an influencer marketing strategy isn’t complicated, but it does take effort. Shortcuts (like buying fake followers or spamming people with copy-paste outreach) catch up with you eventually. The brands doing this well treat it like a real marketing channel, not a side experiment.