If you’re looking to encourage influencers at scale to share branded content on their personal networks, you need to give them something in return. You can give back to your influencers in various ways. We’ll go over the most common and reliable incentives and also tips on how to choose them. While you may have an idea of what your brand can use as incentives, it is important to understand the influencer’s point of view to meet his or her expectations. With this in mind, we’ve devised 8 different factors you should consider before making a decision on what kind of incentives you offer to your influencers.

Factors for Choosing Incentives

  1. Brand type: The essence of your brand will determine the type of incentive you provide. For example, most luxury brands won’t use discounts as an incentive, so marketers should consider experiential rewards, such as VIP treatment.
  2. Influencer quantity: Increasing the number of influencers will increase the value of your incentives.
  3. Fulfillment process: Different incentives have differing fulfillment requirements. Ideally, you want to have digital fulfillment.
  4. Exclusivity: Incentives should be exclusive to only influencers, to motivate participation in your campaign.
  5. Influencer type: Pro or semi-pro influencers will require cash payment, while non-professionals will prefer branded incentives.
  6. Brand affinity: Using branded influencers will ensure the influencer is passionate and relevant to your brand.
  7. Brand Equity: If your brand is lesser known to the friends of influencers, then a higher incentive value is needed to drive referral engagement, because their friends need more motivation to switch brands or take the risk of trying a new brand.
  8. Influencer effort required: If more effort is required by the influencer to create and share branded content, then a higher incentive value is needed.

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With these 8 different factors in mind, there are 4 common types of incentives. Before choosing one of them, use some time to deliberate which of the above factors fits your brand the most.

4 Common Types of Incentives

  1. Branded Reward: The most common incentive for influencers is a branded reward. This could be in the form of a discount, gift card,  product giveaway, free trial, etc.
  2. Cash: For professional or semi-professional influencers, you will have to use payments for incentives. However, using cash with non-professional influencers will decrease relevance and trust.
  3. VIP Experience: When utilizing non-professional influencers, the most popular incentive is an exclusive experience. This type of incentive ensures they are passionate about your brand.
  4. Recognition by Brand: In some cases, you will find that influencers are more than happy to simply receive non-monetary rewards such as recognition. You can do this by featuring their content on your website or give them a few minutes of limelight in front of your customer base.

Incentives

Now armed with the 8 factors and the 4 common types of incentives you need to know before choosing your incentive, you can better activate an influencer marketing campaign for your brand. With this in mind, we’ve come up with 10 branded incentives ideas for you to consider before your influencers share your brand to their friends and families.

10 Branded Incentives Ideas

 

Exclusive Events

battlefield event

Early Access

exclusive event

Discounts

Free Trial

Contest Entries

Celebrity Greeting

celebrity greeting

E-Gift Card

Swag

swag

Product Samples

Priority Services

As a representative of your brand, you need to know what motivates your influencers to act. It is essential to have a clear definition of who your influencers are. By knowing this, you will create the most beneficial collaboration between you as a brand and the influencer as an extension of your brand.

To learn more about influence marketing download our free e-book: The Ultimate Guide to Influence Marketing.