How influencer allowlisting can save your brand money
Allowlisting (formally whitelisting) is the process of an influencer granting a brand partner advertising permissions to their social media accounts to run paid ads as their content can reach more people, or a more targeted audience.
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Influencer-Generated Content
Let’s be honest. As marketers, we’re always looking for solutions that help us cut costs where we can, while still bringing in impressive results.
That being said, we know that content creation can be one area that consistently swallows a major chunk of your brand’s budget each year. The good news is that, in addition to its ability to generate brand awareness and sales, influencer marketing can also drastically reduce your content creation costs.
Enter influencer-generated content (IGC).
Influencer-generated content refers to the images, videos, and other creative that social media influencers create, usually in partnership with a brand. In other words, it’s the by-product of influencer marketing — and it’s one factor that cannot be ignored when calculating influencer marketing ROI. Keep reading to learn why IGC is a game-changer in your full-funnel marketing strategy and how you can measure the impact it has on your business.
That being said, we know that content creation can be one area that consistently swallows a major chunk of your brand’s budget each year. The good news is that, in addition to its ability to generate brand awareness and sales, influencer marketing can also drastically reduce your content creation costs.
Enter influencer-generated content (IGC).
Influencer-generated content refers to the images, videos, and other creative that social media influencers create, usually in partnership with a brand. In other words, it’s the by-product of influencer marketing — and it’s one factor that cannot be ignored when calculating influencer marketing ROI. Keep reading to learn why IGC is a game-changer in your full-funnel marketing strategy and how you can measure the impact it has on your business.
What are the benefits of allowlisting influencer content?
1. Negotiating image rights to an influencer’s content is drastically more cost-effective — not to mention less time consuming — than a full-blown professional studio shoot.
In fact, it costs a fraction of the price. MakeupEraser co-founder Elexsis McCarthy once told us that she used to spend $3,500 for one video to be created professionally. Now, for the same price, she can get 10 videos and 30 pictures by partnering with influencers.
2. Instead of shooting in-house content, repurpose influencer content across all of your marketing channels—including emails, paid ads, website, out-of-home activations, or your branded social media channels. Over the last year, brands cut 52% from their content creation spend by repurposing influencer content on their marketing channels. This allows you to support every single stage of the funnel with eye-catching, high-quality content without spending any more of your budget — a great way to lower customer acquistion costs (CAC).
3. Influencer content is extremely high-performing.
For the same amount of money you spend on a photoshoot, you can source a handful of influencer content that will attract more interest from your target audience. As a matter of fact, studies show that IGC garners double the engagement of brand-directed content and UGC-based ads (including content from influencers, customers, employees, and other members of a brand community) get 4x higher click-through rates. You can even turn your highest-performing influencer content into allowlisted ads to stretch its impact and boost your return on ad spend (ROAS).
In fact, it costs a fraction of the price. MakeupEraser co-founder Elexsis McCarthy once told us that she used to spend $3,500 for one video to be created professionally. Now, for the same price, she can get 10 videos and 30 pictures by partnering with influencers.
2. Instead of shooting in-house content, repurpose influencer content across all of your marketing channels—including emails, paid ads, website, out-of-home activations, or your branded social media channels. Over the last year, brands cut 52% from their content creation spend by repurposing influencer content on their marketing channels. This allows you to support every single stage of the funnel with eye-catching, high-quality content without spending any more of your budget — a great way to lower customer acquistion costs (CAC).
3. Influencer content is extremely high-performing.
For the same amount of money you spend on a photoshoot, you can source a handful of influencer content that will attract more interest from your target audience. As a matter of fact, studies show that IGC garners double the engagement of brand-directed content and UGC-based ads (including content from influencers, customers, employees, and other members of a brand community) get 4x higher click-through rates. You can even turn your highest-performing influencer content into allowlisted ads to stretch its impact and boost your return on ad spend (ROAS).
How should brands work with influencers to generate branded content?
1. Ensure you include image usage rights in your terms.
Without image rights, you won’t be able to repurpose the content onto any of your marketing channels. So, make it a priority to include it in your terms. On Aspire, you can automatically acquire licensing rights on every collaboration, so you have the ability to repurpose content however you’d like.
Without image rights, you won’t be able to repurpose the content onto any of your marketing channels. So, make it a priority to include it in your terms. On Aspire, you can automatically acquire licensing rights on every collaboration, so you have the ability to repurpose content however you’d like.
2. Provide clear guidelines for creators before they work on a campaign.
We advise giving influencers enough creative freedom to produce content that aligns with their personal brand. However, you should still set clear expectations upfront to get content that is on-brand, high-quality, and exactly what you are looking for. In your guidelines, include things like:
– A visual storyboard or mood board
– Simple instructions such as “Product should be clearly shown in the photo”
– Other specific elements they should include or not include
– Content examples
This will help influencers understand what kind of content you’re looking for, and eliminate much of the back-and-forth or reshoots. On AspireIQ, you can streamline the tedious process of sending out your content guidelines to each influencer with our collaboration guideline templates, which also include visual terms.
We advise giving influencers enough creative freedom to produce content that aligns with their personal brand. However, you should still set clear expectations upfront to get content that is on-brand, high-quality, and exactly what you are looking for. In your guidelines, include things like:
– A visual storyboard or mood board
– Simple instructions such as “Product should be clearly shown in the photo”
– Other specific elements they should include or not include
– Content examples
This will help influencers understand what kind of content you’re looking for, and eliminate much of the back-and-forth or reshoots. On AspireIQ, you can streamline the tedious process of sending out your content guidelines to each influencer with our collaboration guideline templates, which also include visual terms.
3. Set up a clear workflow to avoid any content mishaps
From the moment an influencer signs up to work with you, there are many stages to go through before you reap the benefits of influencer-generated content.
For bigger campaigns, make sure you include a content approval stage in your workflow to ensure that no content goes live without your authorization. Avoid any mishaps by setting aside a time to review and accept final images (or videos) before they’re posted. Or better yet, use Aspire to automate workflows, from signing the contract and sending over content guidelines, to approving and confirming when content goes live.
From the moment an influencer signs up to work with you, there are many stages to go through before you reap the benefits of influencer-generated content.
For bigger campaigns, make sure you include a content approval stage in your workflow to ensure that no content goes live without your authorization. Avoid any mishaps by setting aside a time to review and accept final images (or videos) before they’re posted. Or better yet, use Aspire to automate workflows, from signing the contract and sending over content guidelines, to approving and confirming when content goes live.
4. Keep all approved content in one folder and give access to other teams across your organization
As we’ve stated above, being able to repurpose influencer content is one of the biggest benefits of influencer marketing. So, make sure you’re collecting all of the content your influencers are creating, whether it be the images posted on their Instagram feed, or short-form videos like TikToks and Instagram Stories. You never know what might come in handy for paid ads, emails, and the like!
As we’ve stated above, being able to repurpose influencer content is one of the biggest benefits of influencer marketing. So, make sure you’re collecting all of the content your influencers are creating, whether it be the images posted on their Instagram feed, or short-form videos like TikToks and Instagram Stories. You never know what might come in handy for paid ads, emails, and the like!
5. Create a custom campaign with the creators whose content you love
Authenticity is key to good marketing content, but hard to achieve by an in-house team alone. That’s why brands have been working with celebrities, influencers, customers, and other brand fans for decades.
That being said, the best way to ensure that you’re sourcing authentic content is by working with creators whose content you already love. On Aspire, you can create a custom campaign where you’re only working with those who already create content that aligns with your brand’s aesthetic, messaging, and the like. With our suite of creator discovery tools, you can find well-aligned influencers in no time.
Remember to give them the room to be creative and unique. This freedom will allow the creator to produce content that you’re sure to love, while still being authentic to themselves.
Authenticity is key to good marketing content, but hard to achieve by an in-house team alone. That’s why brands have been working with celebrities, influencers, customers, and other brand fans for decades.
That being said, the best way to ensure that you’re sourcing authentic content is by working with creators whose content you already love. On Aspire, you can create a custom campaign where you’re only working with those who already create content that aligns with your brand’s aesthetic, messaging, and the like. With our suite of creator discovery tools, you can find well-aligned influencers in no time.
Remember to give them the room to be creative and unique. This freedom will allow the creator to produce content that you’re sure to love, while still being authentic to themselves.
Learn How Ruggable Drove Revenue through Influencer Allowlisting
Ruggable saw higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and lower cost-per-engagement (CPA) when running allowlisting campaigns through Aspire.
Ruggable
“Ruggable has been able to increased revenue through influencer whitelisting as well as build more solid relationships with our creators who perform well – couldn’t advocate for it enough!”
Jhanavi Dhawin
Influencer Marketing Manager, Ruggable
Influencer Marketing Manager, Ruggable