In the world of influencer marketing, it’s no surprise that content is king. As we’ve discussed, there are a variety of different use cases in which content creators collaborate to help support brands with their needs.

With that in mind, not all content is created equal. Different types of activations require different types of assets, which are ultimately generated by all kinds of influencers — varying in size of following, persona, demographics, and more.

While working with influencers, the below scenarios are important to consider when questioning whether or not a draft approval component should be implemented throughout the content creation process:

  • Size of the Influencer and Total Incentive Amount: Per the spectrum of influence, macro-influencers are typically those individuals who are earning their living as content creators. The spectrum helps marketers to determine how to best collaborate with each persona, including when to use activity-based compensation (i.e. compensate when someone puts in the effort for creating high-quality content) versus performance-based (aka, via an affiliate link or coupon code), or a combination of both. Brands who are focusing on activity-based activations with an increased investment allocated towards incentives want to ensure that they are getting the content they’re paying for. Draft approval may be a good use case when working with larger influencers, or where larger dollars are on the line.
  • Content Use Case: Brands are increasingly leveraging influencers to create content outside of just posting on social media. For example, creators are providing photography assets for product launches or for other marketing initiatives. As these types of images are typically of higher quality and are being posted directly by the brand (instead of by the influencer themselves), draft approval would be a great use case for creators who are sourced specifically for high resolution, raw imagery or videos. To expedite this draft approval process, the Mavrck platform has functionality allowing brands to provide direct feedback to influencers in real time when it comes to any requested updates to their content or captions. Additionally, if there are no updates to be made, the brand can accept the content as-is and easily notify the creator of this.
  • Industry Vertical: In various industries, there are increased regulations that both brands and creators need to be wary of. Some products within the health and wellness vertical must carefully adhere to stricter FTC regulations and guidelines that apply to these emerging (within influencer marketing) markets are continuously shifting. Draft approvals are a great safety net to help ensure that brands are complying with what can and can’t be stated within influencer content, or claimed by creators when it comes to referencing health benefits or before and after effects.

 

It’s important to note that when implementing a draft approval process, there will almost always be an increase in the amount of time it takes overall to get content live due to the back and forth method of providing feedback from the brand to the influencer. With the additional step of a draft approval, there may be an increased drop-off rate when it comes to influencers who are willing to apply to the campaign, so you’ll want to keep that in mind from the very start of sourcing influencers and make it clear what is expected from them. An effective way to counteract potential drop-off would be to increase your incentive amount, whether that’s in the form of additional cash, increased gift card value or extra product given to the influencers in exchange for this additional requirement of draft approval.

That being said, if your brand is looking for a quick turnaround time for launch or to activate a high volume of influencers, including draft approvals may not be the best step to add to your content creation process.

All in all, draft approvals are a great way to ensure that brands are getting the quality of content that they’re looking for, in an effort to produce evergreen content they can leverage to achieve their marketing goals. To learn more about how Mavrck can help your influencer strategies, book a demo here.