Building Strong Influencer Relationships for Lasting Partnerships

As an influencer marketer, the most important aspect of your job is fostering genuine relationships with your creators. But when you’re preoccupied with tracking campaigns, managing contracts, and running seeding programs, it’s easy to let this slide and become an afterthought (after all, there’s only so many hours in a day!)

Your program can boast numerous creator partnerships. But unless you invest time and effort into cultivating relationships beyond the span of social media deliverables, those creators are not going to go the extra mile for you. It’s genuine, mutually beneficial influencer relationships that lead to more authentic partnerships, better content, and ultimately, to more successful programs and produce amazing ROI.

In this subchapter, we’re diving into how you can build a great rapport and trust with influencers from day one of your partnerships—and beyond.

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Why are strong influencer relationships important?

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Strong relationships mean long-term partnerships

Let’s face it: The pay-per-post model of influencer marketing is long past its use-by date. Pay per post influencer relationships aren’t just expensive and inefficient to manage; they do very little to establish authenticity or trust in your brand—and can even undermine it.

If a consumer sees your product mentioned by an influencer once in an Instagram Story and they never mention it again, this can come across as a cold ad placement, rather than a genuine recommendation. As Molly explains, it’s repeated exposure to your brand over time that increases engagement and ultimately leads to purchases:

“The people who consume their content aren't going to see that this is a one -time ad spot. If you can look for ways that this product gets integrated over time into their content, into part of their lifestyle, that's a much better indicator of the quality of the product and where their belief lies with the brand than a one -time ad spend.”

Molly Savage, Omnichannel Growth Marketing Leader at Bobabam.

Booking a creator for multiple campaigns and investing the time to build a trusted relationship is how you retain creators over the long-term—and reap the benefits of a partner who is truly immersed in your brand.

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More collaboration means better content

By working closely with your influencers—providing feedback on content, educating them about your products, and showing you’re invested in their success—the output of that partnership is going to be much higher quality than if you leave them to their own devices.

When brands take the time to build a rapport with their influencers and talent managers, influencers are going to feel more engaged and more willing to go the extra mile. As Lindsey sums up so well:

“While influencer marketer campaigns can be a one-off, you really want to build those relationships to a point where creators are essentially extension of your brand.”

Lindsey Gamble, Influencer Marketing and Creator Economy Consultant and Advisor.

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Influencers want to feel seen and heard

There’s no shortage of influencer campaigns that have gone south due to a misalignment of expectations between brands and creators. The primary cause? A lack of investment into relationship building and aligning on shared goals.

When there’s so much focus on ROI, it’s easy for brands to forget that creators are humans just like the rest of us. But to be a good influencer marketer, being interested in what makes your influencers tick is crucial; after all, you’re going to spend a LOT of time interacting with them!

Would you become close with your co-workers if you only talked about work? It’s no different with influencers. If you want to become genuine partners, you need to go beyond campaigns and negotiations and understand what motivates them to create content—and chances are, you’ll get a lot more opportunities for

“You'll be top of mind when they have something big going on on their channels and that’s when you can lean on that relationship. That's when deals happen and not being too shy of getting really creative.”

Danielle Murphy, Influencer and Partnerships Manager at Mudwater.

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How to build better relationships with your influencers

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Schedule an onboarding call when creators join your program

Your first touchpoint with new program members is critical—you never get another chance to make a first impression!

On  practical level, an onboarding call helps you to set a cadence for the communication that creators can expect from your brand and answer any initial questions they might have about content approvals, incentive structures, and so forth.

But most importantly, an onboarding call allows you to establish a personal connection with creators. As Molly explains, this is your opportunity to really dive into an influencer’s background, interests, and goals, and set the stage for a more than just a transactional relationship:

“I have a 15 minute block in my calendar that new creators that we're working with can book. I ask them how they started social media. What do they love about it? What don't they love about it? What are their goals for their social media? What would they love to learn about it? All of them say that they don't talk to other brands about that sort of stuff!”

Molly Cole, Influencer Marketing Strategist + Partnerships at Epic Gardening.

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Design a stellar communication strategy

The foundation of any good relationship is communication—and influencer partnerships are no exception. Remember: These people are 100% remote, and it could be a while before you meet them in person—if at all. Being a responsive brand partner will always go a long way in establishing a better relationship. So, how can you improve communication with your influencers?

The creator economy is incredibly fluid. So, establishing direct connections with as many creators as possible is going to give your brand a lot more clout when running partnerships. This isn’t just about how quickly you respond to emails or DMs (though you should always strive for a 24 hour window!) but how you make an effort to nurture creators within your program to create the best content and become a true brand messenger. As Amber explains, YOU should thrive to be the constant in an influencer’s inbox:

“You've got to think about the fact that creators change agents, they change management, they change their team. So when you think about building a relationship, you really want to get in front of the creator as much as possible. It starts with that first email, getting on a call.”

Amber Kai, Head of Creator and Brand Partnerships at Sequincial.

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1. Engage with creators on their preferred platforms

Knowing what channels a creator normally uses, whether that’s email or Instagram DMs, will go a long way towards streamlining comms for your program—even before an influencer is a part of your program.

For example, having your brand (in the form of your social or community manager) leave positive comments on a creator’s content builds that recognition and familiarity so that when they do get a DM to collaborate on a project, it doesn’t feel so much like cold outreach.

And when a creator does join your program, leveraging their preferred channels to give program updates will give you better success at those communications having an impact:

”You should be talking to them on the platform that they are on. So Instagram, for example, we are very big in the DMs. We'll reach out to them and send them a DM, as well as email them. But we also like to send them messages like, hey, you guys did really great this last week. You have this many sales or you are our top ambassador for the week. So just always providing a lot of communication with them.”

Lauren Maxwell, Director of Influencer Marketing at Dreamland Baby.

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2. Go all in on education

Whenever you hire a new team member, you need a thorough onboarding to bring them up to speed on your product and brand. It’s no different in creator partnerships!

When a new influencer joins your program, there’s a lot of information they will need to digest quickly to create quality content. Depending on your product, there may be a lot of technical specs they will need to feel very comfortable talking about on camera to showcase your product well.

As a skincare brand, Colleen at ClearSTEM spends a lot of time understanding influencer’s skin challenges and recommending the right products, as well as providing scientifically-backed information about the causes of acne breakouts:

”It’s very important to make sure that you're connecting on an authentic level to your influencers and creators and making sure you're answering all of their questions. Because the more questions that they have, they're more apt to share to their audience.”

Colleen Kelley, Director of Influencer Marketing & Brand Partnerships at ClearSTEM.

By making an effort to provide these resources—and in a super digestible way—you can position yourself as a trusted partner, rather than just another brand seeking promotion.

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3. Take advantage of "one-to-many" communication

When you’re juggling numerous partnerships, it can difficult to give individual creators the amount of time and attention you would like - especially if you’re a small team or a team of one.

This is where so-called ‘one to many’ communication strategies are super valuable in nurturing creator relationships. As Lauren shares, relying on formats such as webinars, newsletters, and group Zoom calls to communicate key program upgrades will save you valuable time while ensuring that all of your influencers are in the loop.

“We always send newsletters to all of our affiliates and ambassadors. So we give them a monthly overview. What's happening in August? We have this new product launch. We have a new collection coming. We have this promo coming. We have this sale coming up.”

Lauren Maxwell, Director of Influencer Marketing at Dreamland Baby.

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Build a community for your creators

Once you’ve mastered creator communications for your program, you have a solid foundation to start bringing in other initiatives that really cement your relationship with top creators.

This can start small while your program is in its early stages. For example, setting up a private Instagram to communicate with your ambassadors or top tier program members is a great way to drive engagement and show creators how invested your brand is in their success. This also helps to build relationships between creators in your program, which can lead to further collab opportunities.

Once you’ve really built momentum and are pursuing bigger partnerships (especially paid) this is where more ambitious efforts will really move to needle in establishing those long-term partnerships. As Amber explains, it’s all about thinking of places outside of a traditional program context where your influencers can add a lot of credibility and social proof:

“Can you have the creator speak on a panel at an event that you're hosting? Do you have a digital event? Do you have a way for them to be involved? When I was at Refinery, we had editors who had brands they absolutely loved and we would have them work with a brand in partnerships to write articles, be featured, to go on trips—there's a lot of ways to engage and to build that community.”

Amber Kai, Head of Creator and Brand Partnerships at Sequincial.

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Play to your creator’s strengths

As we keep saying in this guide, influencers are your content creation experts. They know their audience and have a unique voice and aesthetic that resonates. By tailoring your partnership based on each creator's strengths, you will build more trust and goodwill than if you dictate what content formats and platforms they should use.

As Kristen outlines, you'll also get to learn over time which influencers are best suited for which types of campaigns. This allows you to maximize the effectiveness of each campaign AND allow creators to shine at what they do best:

“Amazon Prime Day is one of our biggest months of the year. We definitely have influencers who absolutely crush it on those months, but on the down months, they don't perform too well. So, we're gonna keep them on a rotation where it's when we have really big promos like Amazon Prime, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, those are our heavy hitters that we're going to bring in.”

Kristen Althoff, Senior Director of Influencers and Socials at Mary Ruth’s.

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Create VIP experiences

For many consumers on social, the influencers you partner with are the face of your brand. Creator content is that very first touchpoint that leads to them checking out your website, and ultimately making a purchase. It’s only fair to show them that your partnership is highly valued. So, how do you create VIP experiences for top influencers?

You can give your top-performing influencers the so-called ‘white glove’ treatment in any number of ways. Early access to new products, professional development opportunities, sponsored trips, or invites to brand events all help to strengthen that tie with your brand and provide ongoing incentives to maintain that relationship. As Liv highlights, its all about positioning your influencer marketing team as a resource which enables them to do their best work:

“A lot of them want to feel important and like they're bringing value to you, right? I would send someone to their house to go help them if you know they're in LA and they can't figure things out. I would always make sure that they had access to brand new products. Just having them feel like they're almost an extension of the team is what has worked for me.”

Liv Soibelman, Head of Ecommerce at Blueprint.

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Most importantly: Don’t be afraid to get personal

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Behind every influencer’s social handle is a real human. You might be in a contractual arrangement, but taking a genuine interest in your influencers' lives outside of their work is the real difference-maker when it comes to building relationships.

You have a million different levers at your disposal to show influencers that your relationship extends beyond strictly business. Sending birthday cards, thank you notes, or small gifts for reaching certain milestones grows personal connection and shows that you think of them as a trusted collaborator— not just as a source of branded content.

Sometimes, even the smallest gestures make the biggest difference. Just checking in to ask how their weekend was or how their family is shows that personal connection is alive and well:

“If you can tap that into that “hey, just checking to see how your vacation went” or “I hope that you're feeling better because I noticed that you were sick.” If you can bring up those small conversations, it keeps your email every time it pops up in their inbox as not a “I have to do that.” It's a “I want to talk to that person because they ask about things and they talk about life and not just what I have to do.”

Rebecca Beach,  Influencer Marketing and Creator Relationship Manager at VERBfluence Agency.

At the end of the day, strong creator relationships are about authenticity. Influencers don't want to feel like a cog in the machine or one-out-of-a-million creators. They want to work with brands that value their community and expertise, and treat them like a trusted partner. By prioritizing consistent communication, building personal connections, and investing in creative collaborations, you can build an engaged community of long-term creator partnerships who are genuine ambassadors of your brand.

But there’s no doubt that even the strongest creator relationships will be tested at times—no more so than during the content approvals process. In the next section on the Field Guide, we’re going to talk about how you can keep those relationships intact!

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How do long-term influencer partnerships benefit brands?

Long-term influencer partnerships help brands to build credibility and affinity with their target audience, as well as run more efficient programs via strong creator retention. When an influencer consistently promotes a brand's products over an extended period, it serves as a powerful endorsement of a product’s value, rather than just a cold sponsorship. By investing in long-term  relationships, brands can leverage the power of consistent recommendations from respected voices in different communities or niches, and open up opportunities for other types of collaborations.

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Why is personal connection important in influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is all about the trusted relationship between creators and their audiences. For genuinely impactful partnerships, brands must prioritize building personal connections with the influencers they work with. Approach influencers in the same personable way you would with a colleague, and take interest in them beyond the scope of the professional project. When influencers feel a human connection with the people behind the brand, they are motivated to create higher-quality content, contribute ideas, and go the extra mile to promote products they genuinely enjoy using.

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What are some best practices for building trust with influencers?

Give influencers the creative freedom to produce content that resonates with their audience, leveraging their strengths in different content formats to maintain content quality and a consistent style. Be responsive to their needs and answer questions promptly using their preferred communication channels, keeping them in the loop on brand developments. Most importantly, take a genuine interest in your influencers' lives outside of your business arrangement. Seeing creators as people, rather than vendors offering a commodity, is what will set your brand apart from competitors!