In today's dynamic digital landscape, influencer marketing has emerged as a pivotal strategy for both musicians and companies within the music industry. Leveraging the power of influencers offers incredible opportunities to amplify brand visibility, connect with targeted audiences, and foster authentic engagement. Whether you're an emerging artist seeking to expand your fanbase or a music company aiming to elevate your brand presence, integrating influencer marketing into your strategy is not just advantageous – it's essential.
Keep on reading to find out my step by step guide on how to set up successful music industry influencer collaborations.
Step 1: Influencer research and selection
How can you find the best influencers in your industry? Unless you already follow people with a strong exposure in your niche, I would suggest researching relevant hashtags on Instagram and TikTok and see what pops up. If you are a rock music artist or you run a rock record label, you could research for example #rockmusiclover #rockmusicfamily #rockmusicinfluencer.
Another way to find your best partner is to check what other competitors in your industry are doing. Are there similar artists and brands working with influencers? Add them to your list as they are probably very familiar with what type of content would work best for you.
Finally, you could research music events and see what posts got a lot of traction. If a content creator got a lot of visibility thanks to a video about the last festival that they attended, chances are that their followers are into that type of music and that they will be interested in what you have to offer.
Step 2: Influencer outreach
For you to get in touch with influencers, there are two main scenarios: you either speak directly with them or you need to go through their agency (if they have one). If you are at the beginning of your music journey or you just launched your music brand, I suggest you only work with independent influencers as big agencies will charge you a big fee. Smaller but more niche creators are the best way to go at this point as they also probably have less chances of having fake followers.
Create a strong email/DM message where you pitch your project and the type of collaboration you want to work on.
Remember that many influencers get hundreds of DMs every day, so a little trick I use is to add as your first sentence or subject ‘Paid collaboration request’, as by doing so you will have a higher chance that the influencer will open your message.
Step 3: Get analytics
Once you have caught the influencer’s attention and they are willing to work with you don’t accept their offer right away but instead ask for screenshots of their analytics.
The most important data you should ask for is engagement rates, impressions, reach and top countries, as there is no point setting up a collaboration if the content creator has followers in a market that is not relevant for you. You want to see good solid numbers and evidence that people are actually really engaging with them before spending any money. Avoid working with people who have hundreds of thousands of followers but zero comments under their posts, as this is normally the first sign of a fake account.
Step 4: Negotiation and contracts
Once you find your perfect match, it’s time to start negotiating a fee. Normally, influencers can provide you with different promotional packages that include posts, stories, reels etc. I cannot really tell you how much you should pay for each service as this varies a lot depending on the country, the influencer’s reach, the type of content requested etc. Have a budget in mind and always try to negotiate the best deal. A tactic that you can use to push the price down is by guaranteeing continuity to the influencer; you can explain that if things go well, you have three more campaigns in the pipeline and that you would like to collaborate again on your promotion. This way the influencer can see a long-term investment and they may be more willing to drop the price.
Finally, write a contract to protect you. Unfortunately, there are scammers out there who will take your money and then disappear or create something that was not what you agreed to in the beginning. A contract will prevent this from happening and will protect you in case things go wrong.
There are many contract templates out there so pick one and make sure that you have both signatures on it before sending any money.
Step 5: Work on the content
An influencer with very good engagement numbers knows exactly what their audience wants to see on social media. Of course, feel free to give your input but keep an open mind when you discuss content.
To double your reach ask them to add you as a collaborator on their Instagram post so that their content will also appear on your profile. This is a win-win situation as the influencer will also benefit from your audience. If your goal is mainly to drive people to Spotify or to your website, I would suggest working on a story-format that includes a call to action to your release, service or product. The best performing content is always the one that looks authentic, genuine and real so ensure that the content creator always keeps this in mind.
Lastly, always make sure that the influencer has all the right tags, links, hashtags etc.
Step 6: Analyse your campaign’s results
Once your campaign is over it’s time to check if your strategy really worked by asking for post and story screenshots with stats. You want to see exactly how many users were reached, how many clicks on your links were made and how many followers you gained. Make sure that this part is included in your contract as it can happen that after a campaign your influencer disappears.
If you are happy with the results keep working with the same influencer but if you are disappointed let them know and be prepared to work with somebody else in the future. It is totally ok to not get it right the first time.