We know that influence marketing works, that’s why more and more brands are going all-in. But influencers (we prefer the term creators) are people. Not a product. Marketers need to ensure a mutual fit; the brand or product needs to make sense in the context of the creator; their brand as a creator, their audience, and the content they create, need to align with the brand.
A great brand/creator relationship starts with a values match. With that in mind, here are 10 influencer marketing interview questions to help marketers decide if a creator is the right fit.
Remember, this isn’t a one-way communication. Encourage content creators to ask questions in return. The goal here is an open dialogue.
And make make sure you set any creators you work with up for success with a solid influencer marketing brief.
1. What is your niche?
If you’ve gotten to the conversation stage you should know this already. Still, it’s good to hear their area of expertise and how it aligns with your brand (and your brand values) in the influencer’s own words. Think of this like a warm-up question.
2. What is your audience demographic?
Another question that we marketers should already know the answer to. “Who is your audience and what kind of content do they love?” is how we’d phrase this question.
The goal here isn’t so much about fact-finding as is seeing how the creator thinks about and talks about their audience.
3. How do you measure success?
We’re looking to uncover how engaged the creator is in their brand partner’s success. This is an opportunity to talk about metrics like engagement, reach, and conversions and should give a sense of how the influencer approaches partnerships.
4. What are your rates for sponsored content?
5. Can you provide examples of past campaigns?
Ask the influencer to provide examples of past campaigns they have worked on, this will give you a better idea of their experience and the type of sponsored content they create. It’s also an opportunity to hear what they get excited about when it comes to sponsored content.
6. How do you handle negative comments and feedback?
Negative comments are an unfortunate fact of life in online content, sponsored or otherwise. Getting a sense of the influencer’s approach to negative comments and feedback is helpful to understand how they’ll might handle any issues that may arise during the campaign.
7. How will you promote our brand?
You can phrase this one as “how do you see fitting our brand into your content?” You’ll want to hear any ideas the influencer has to share your stuff in the context of their content and audience. Authenticity is key to a successful creator campaign, and that’s what we’re probing for with the seventh in our list of influencer marketing interview questions.
8. How will you disclose sponsored content?
Marking sponsored content as such is the right thing to do. It’s also required by the FTC in the US, and by many other regulatory agencies around the world. Sponsored content has to be clearly marked as such. It’s important to know that the influencer understands this fact. More than that though, it’s helpful to hear how they go about doing it.
9. How will you engage with our brand post-campaign?
Is there a longtail to the campaign? Or is this a one-and-done engagement? Either way, you’ll want to make sure you’re aligned. You’ll want to know if the creator will remove the sponsored content after a certain length of time, for example, or how/if they’ll engage comments after the campaign has ended.
10. How will you measure the ROI of the campaign?
It all comes down to return on investment (ROI). As marketers, we’ll be measuring on our end but as a creator with influence with their audience, you’ll want their insights too.
Ultimately, that’s what every one of these influencer marketing influencer questions is trying to uncover.
By asking these questions, marketers can ensure there’s alignment between influencer and brand, which is the best way to ensure influence marketing success. It’s important to remember that influencer marketing is a two-way street, and both brands and influencers deserve to have a clear understanding of their roles and expectations in the partnership.
Influencer Marketing Made Simple
The BENlabs team uses proprietary AI tools to help make influencer marketing smart, scalable, and successful. From finding the perfect content creators, automating A/B testing of content, copy and CTAs, and surfacing clear, predictive analytic insights early, when they can make the most difference, BENlabs is here to help.
