EPISODE 42 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: Collaborations vs Influencers with Jess Rhufus from Collabosaurus
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Today, I'm welcoming back the beautiful Jess from Collabosaurus, because an inquiry popped into my inbox last week, that I didn't feel that I was quite the expert to comment on. When it comes down to collaborations, Jess is my go-to gal. She is the pro. Welcome back, Jess. Thank you so much for being here.
Jess Ruhfus:
Thank you so much for having me.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
So, this email I got actually came from woman named Bree, and she said, "Hi, Sonya. I was just wondering if you knew, when wanting to collab with a parent for your kid's clothing brand, what you offer in that collab to them? How does this work? Is a collab different to a rep search?" So, there's actually a lot to unpack in this, isn't there Jess?
Jess Ruhfus:
Yes, it's a big question.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
It is. So, what are your initial thoughts around this?
Jess Ruhfus:
Okay, well, my initial thoughts, I kind of wanted to separate out the differences between, influencer collaborations versus brand collaborations, and then I'll talk about ambassadors. So, basically I think the word collaboration does get thrown around in a million different ways in a million different contexts. I think that often leads to so much confusion around, what exactly is expected or going to happen as part of any collaboration.
So, when an influencer collaboration happens, and of course, I'm kind of generalizing with a lot of this, because there are definitely gray areas, but an influencer collaboration is typically an individual person. So, you're teaming up with a single person, typically who has sort of, one or two platforms. So, for example, Instagram and YouTube, but they're big channels. Typically, an influencer and brand collaboration relationship is really an integrated advertising relationship. So, you pay as a business, you're paying money, for three main things. There's placement, so they post on their feed, content creation, they'll like take a photo of that thing that they post on their feed, and then alignment with that influencer, which in some cases can be really beneficial for a brand.
So basically it's an advertising relationship with a couple of perks. You can use platforms like Scrunch or Tribe or Hypetap, to explore influencer collaborations for your brand. You might also find, Instagram's DMs and stuff like that is a really great way to establish connections with individual influencers.
But a little bit of a difference between brand collaborations. When I'm talking about brand collaborations, I'm talking about two or more businesses, teaming up. So, you're not teaming up with an individual person, that has maybe one or two platforms. You're teaming up with a business that have many platforms and many assets that you can leverage in a collaboration. So, things like products, your services, your email list, your website, your skillset. Maybe you're running an event and you've got an event audience, for example. 90% of the collaborations that happen through Collabosaurus, for example, which is all about business to business collaborations, they do not involve cash exchange whatsoever.
So, it's an exchange instead of value. And this can look really different depending on what you want to achieve creatively, and all that kind of stuff. But it doesn't just have to happen on social media. You can collaborate on a limited edition product, for example, Gelato Messina and Tim Tam is a really great example of that. Gelato Messina is a business, Tim Tam is a business and they've both teamed up to do a limited edition product. You can collaborate on an event or a content series. There's a reason brand to brand collaborations are so much cheaper than digital advertising. It mostly comes down to the fact, that there's no cash exchange involved, but they can be leveraged in so many different ways and platforms and they hold an incredibly high value. You can use things like, Collabosaurus to get them established.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Amazing.
Jess Ruhfus:
Does that kind of answer the question of separating them out?
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Yeah, for sure. I think that's the thing that Bree's asked, how do I collab with an influencer? So, I think probably the terminology there is really good for people when they are going and doing some research, to be super clear on to be getting those right answers. Obviously you've got so much experience with the collaboration with two brands working together. I understand that that is the space that you're the expert in. If we just pull it back for a second to, I guess, the general sort of concepts and theory behind this, and then pivoting and applying them a little bit to the influencer's space. I think there're some principles that still apply.
So, something that she's then gone on to ask me is, "How should I approach this, if they were to ask for an offer for a 50% off code for themselves and users." So, she's saying, "I'm not sure if this happens or not, but just wondering if it does and how I should approach this."
I mean, this is something that we see brands doing with the collaboration. They might offer a discount or a voucher or something for different services or offerings and things like that. My advice here would be that you've got to make sure that you can track everything. What would your advice be if she is looking at offering discounts when working with a brand or influencer?
Jess Ruhfus:
I mean, I would make sure, first of all, that the influencer or the brands that you're potentially going to be working with is a fit from a brand alignment perspective. Are you really happy to be teaming up and to be promoted through their channels and all that kind of stuff and aligned in that way?
Sorry, [inaudible 00:06:09], I've got Alfie barking in the background.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
No, no, all good. We'll just keep going. An Iso life. We're all in locked down, we've got kids and dogs and neighbors and housemates and everything happening.
Jess Ruhfus:
Awesome. So, I mean, I would make sure that the alignment really makes sense and you're really happy to be teaming up with that brand or influencer in the first place, and absolutely echoing what you're just saying and definitely track as much as possible. You can do that through a number of different things. You can create a unique discount code, for example, or you can use link tracking softwares. Things like Bitly, is a really good one that's free and it's a link shortener. You can see where clicks have come from. You can also create within Google Analytics, UTM links that basically just... You can have a very unique link for any individual influencer or ambassador that you're working with, just so that you can track exactly how much traffic or purchase activity is coming from their promotional activity.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Fantastic. And one last quick question for you, Jess. What are your thoughts on giveaways with brands or influences?
Jess Ruhfus:
Look, I am generally for them, but I do think you need to be wary of a couple of things, when you're looking at giveaways. The first one is, what are you actually wanting to achieve off the back of this kind of promotion? Often, businesses really want to, grow their Instagram following or grow their email list for example. If they have that really set, it makes any marketing activity that they do so much easier, because you can just run it through that filter of the goals that you have and make sure that it's actually helping you achieve those goals. So if, for example, your major marketing goal is to grow your email list, you don't want to be doing giveaways all the time that don't help you actually achieve that thing, or you can look at doing a giveaway, that's a really high value prize that will actually drive people to opt-in with an email address in order to enter that giveaway or competition. So, that's probably a good thing to think about.
The other thing to be aware of is just be careful of how many brands, for people who are involved in any one giveaway, because I think so many businesses do these big loop giveaways, which very rarely work in my experience. That's because there were way too many brands involved. You know, there's 50 companies that people have to follow, like posts and comment, tagging their friends, for example. Those 50 brands... there's so many brands involved that no one brand actually gets enough spotlight or meaningful community growth for it to be worthwhile. So, make sure it's hitting your marketing goals, in an overall strategy sense. Number two is, be wary of how many people are involved.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
I think that's a really good point. I see these loop giveaways all the time. I get emails, people reaching out to me, wanting me to be a part of them sometimes. I'm with you on that. I just don't think they're effective at all. It just really dilutes, whatever you're trying to achieve. Again, totally with you on looking at your marketing goals. I think what you're saying in regard to building your email list, that then becomes an owned asset that you have. So, there's a whole lot more value in getting someone's email address than there is just getting a follow, especially with the way the algorithms are working at the moment and the reach organically. So, amazing points. Thank you so much, Jess.
Jess Ruhfus:
No problem.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
All right. Bree, I hope you're listening to this and this has answered your question. If anyone else has any marketing questions that you'd like me to address on the podcast, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Either shoot me a message on Instagram. Our handle is @kiss_marketing or an email to hello@kissmarketing.com.au. Thank you so much again for your time, Jess. Now I know that you offer a lot of, sort of free trainings. You've got an amazing platform. Why don't you go ahead and give Collabosaurus a bit of a plug if people want to know more about working in that brand to brand space?
Jess Ruhfus:
Thank you. So, you can find us on all of those social media at Collabosaurus, collabosaurus.com is the website. We also have two podcasts channels. So, the Stop, Collaborate & Listen, is a quick-fire marketing Tip Type podcast. Then we have, This is how we do it, which are interviews with partnership experts.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much again for your time, Jess. Pleasure as always, having you on the show.
Jess Ruhfus:
Thank you so much for having me. Thanks Sonya.