YouTube ads are 84% more likely to attract viewers’ attention than TV commercials. That, plus a user base with 2.7B active users, makes YouTube one of the best platforms for brand growth.
But, besides the impressive results of YouTube ads, we cannot deny that most of the users wait to hit the skip button as soon as it shows up. Luckily there’s a better way to promote something on YouTube and that’s partnering with YouTube influencers.
Nearly 72% of Gen Z and Millennials say they follow influencers on social media (including YouTube), and about 82% of the buyers say they follow recommendations from influencers.
So, if you learn how to partner with YouTube influencers, you can leverage the platform to increase brand awareness, sales, and engagement, and this article gives you just that.
Keep reading to find:
- 6 expert tips to partner with YouTube influencers
- 7 collaboration ideas to partner with YouTube influencers
- Expert tips from people in influencer marketing
Let’s get started!
6 Tips to Partner with YouTube Influencers
When partnering with YouTube influencers the number of subscribers they have does not promise results. Finding the right ones does.
Below, we discuss 6 proven tips you must know before partnering with a YouTube influencer.
1. Search the right influencers for your audience
To reach the right audience, you should consider various factors beyond just the influencer’s niche. Some key points you would have to evaluate are age, interests, location, and engagement.
Nikola Sokolov, the CEO of influencers.club, says you must create the user persona you want to target first. Find their interests and inspect their behavior overall. Then, research “Who connects with these people online” or “Where does this audience hang out (on what platform)”. Feel free to search beyond the complementary niche.
For example, if you have a wellness brand, and you want to promote your new fitness program, the immediate category would be collaboration with fitness influencers.
But, if your audience is high school girls looking for fitness programs to stay in shape for prom in California, you need to consider who reaches this particular audience. Usually, that’s someone who has similar interests as them, it’s around their age and location.
To find influencers that can match specific criteria, you need to use a good influencer discovery tool.
Our dashboard is the most precise discovery tool on the market. You can search a 100M+ influencer database by niche, gender, age, location, and 40+ other filters and get a custom list of YouTube influencers with verified emails for each.
Check the example below to see how it works:
You can add as much as you need to match your target audience. Once done, click on Export List, and within a few minutes, you will have your customer list of influencers at your disposal.
Read More: How To Find YouTube Influencers
2. Partner with smaller influencers
Smaller influencers have a dedicated audience within a given niche. The followers are actively engaged, because smaller influencers post only relevant content to their interest. Surveys show that macro-influencers with large audiences managed to reach about 5% engagement while micro-influencers doubled it.
On the other hand, smaller influencers are more approachable. It’s easier to get into business with them instead of the macro or mega influencers. That also means collaborating with smaller influencers is much more affordable.
3. Set clear expectations
The key to a successful collaboration with a YouTube influencer is effective communication. That means the influencer must know your goals and expectations to deliver the best content.
Therefore, before contacting influencers, make sure you outline your goals, deliverables expectations, and deadlines. Once you ensure that both parties are on the same page, you can add other must-have points.
4. Offer creative freedom
Influencers are skilled content creators who know how to increase engagement among the audience through creativity. They know their audience, what appeals to them, and what gets them to action best.
Also, they are skilled with the algorithms of the platform so the content will definitely have good reach results. Therefore, make sure you leave the content creation to the influencer and trust in their skills.
5. Build genuine relationships
Focus on building long-term relationships with influencers instead of per-project collaborations. The only way to build genuine brand loyalty is to show consistency to the audience.
Therefore if you’re trying to build relationships with the influencers, show kindness, appreciate their work, give them feedback, and keep them posted. Make sure to keep that contact alive.
6. Provide value to your influencers
Besides the compensation fees, you should look to provide value to your influencers. That could be free products, exclusive access to your service, discounts, or other perks. They will appreciate it, and share it on their channel. This will boost the interest in your brand and spread the word.
7 Collaboration Ideas to Partner with YouTube Influencers
We picked the top collaboration ideas for brands with YouTube influencers below that are currently trending on the platform. Additionally, you will learn how they are beneficial for your brand and expert tips to consider.
1. Unboxing
Great for: Launching new products
An unboxing video is when an influencer unpacks products and records the reaction. They walk the viewers through the experience, share their excitement with their audience, and encourage communication through comments.
This is one of the best ways to introduce your brand in an engaging way. YouTube influencers have an established connection with their audience and know how to build anticipation while promoting your product. Viewers see your product and get real-time reviews from their trusted influencers.
The reason these videos work is that you get to raise the interest of your brand with a new audience. Additionally, as a brand, you get to learn more questions, queries, and overall interest in the new product and make more informed decisions.
According to a recent study, people have spent at least 60,000M hours watching unboxing videos on YouTube, and 81% of buyers watch unboxing videos before making a purchase. Based on these stats, unboxing videos become the 4th most influential content on YouTube.
The best industries for unboxing videos are tech, beauty, and fashion.
2. Hauls
Good for: Increasing sales
Hauls are videos in which the influencer shows multiple products they bought from a given brand. Similar to the unboxing, they also comment on each piece in the bag and share their experience with the audience.
However, the excitement in these videos is higher compared to the unboxing because influencers show their “cherished catches” to which everyone can relate. According to Google, there was a 13x increase in views of haul videos in 2018, and it continues to thrive further.
Typically, hauls are popular among fashion and beauty influencers. Around the Holidays, back to school period, end of summer, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or before any other major discount these videos start showing up on YouTube.
Although hauls are mainly associated with fashion, they apply to any other industry because many brands have major sales at one point in the year. These videos help you introduce the products you want to sell faster, inform the audience about the discounts, and stimulate the audience to do their haul and buy more products.
3. Product reviews
Good for: Collecting user testimonials
Product reviews refer to videos when an influencer shares their honest opinion with their audience about a product and their experience using it.
One thing to keep in mind here is that product reviews shouldn’t be scripted. In fact, the less you instruct the influencer, the more natural the video will be. And the more natural the video seems, the more influence will have over the viewers.
Additionally, you should allow the influencer to dive into the details of the product even if there are some challenges involved. This will resolve many frequently asked questions because the influencer community shares similar mindsets.
These collaborations with influencers are most popular among brands because word of mouth is still the best way to get someone to buy a product. Statistics note that 94% of B2B buyers rely on reviews before making a purchasing decision.
4. Day-in-the-life vlogs
Good for: Connecting with your target audience
Day-in-the-life blogs show the life of the influencer behind the scenes as they show what they do during the day. This helps them build trust among the subscribers and grow their audience.
What makes these videos ideal for brands is that you get to promote your product as an essential part of the routine of the influencer. Plus, this way the promotions are way more subtle and natural, hence, they have a bigger impact on the viewers.
Beauty, tech, and wellness products that in a way improve or simplify the lives of the audience are the most common on YouTube. However, any other service or app that brings value to the viewers applies to this category, as well. There are no limits once you find the right influencers for collaboration.
5. Product tutorials
Good for: Promoting services, software, or tech products
Product tutorials or just tutorials are videos in which an influencer walks you through the basics of how to use a product or service. They go over each feature of the service or product and explain what it does and what to expect.
By nature, these videos are not promotional, but informative. They serve as a source to guide all users (including those using free trials) to test the products and services. But, despite their nature, these videos still boost sales because people feel more comfortable and informed about a product or service.
Also, users are 3x more likely to search for a YouTube tutorial instead of reading instructions.
Therefore, if you have a product with a steeper learning curve, consider partnering with YouTube influencers to create detailed product tutorials.
This approach not only provides clear, engaging instructions for your audience but also leverages the influencer’s credibility to build trust and encourage adoption of your product.
6. Giveaways
Good for: Boosting engagement and raising brand awareness
Giveaways are contests in which the winner gets free products as a reward. In agreement with the brand, influencers create rules that usually involve engagement like adding friends in the comments, liking the picture, and sharing the post on their stories.
These videos efficiently increase engagements, bring more leads, and drive sales as a result. Moreover, giving free products through contests is a fun way to interact with a customer, and build loyalty.
Plus, the winner who’s satisfied with the product will likely share it with their friends which means more exposure for your brand.
Ultimately, since now almost every brand and influencer has a giveaway, the audience became highly selective.
Now they participate in something that seems valuable and worth the effort, otherwise, they are not interested. Therefore, when planning the reward for your next giveaway, make sure it’s something they really want.
7. Product collaborations
Good for: Engaging with your audience and building loyalty
Product collaborations refer to co-creating a product between a brand and an influencer or launching a whole line with an influencer.
Usually, product collaborations occur among big brands collaborating with mega influencers. Statistically, brands build more trust when the right influencer promotes the new line of products instead of just doing some sponsored posts.
For example, Sommer Ray, a YouTube and Instagram influencer strongly believes in taking care of your body inside-out. So, she partnered with Aaron Hefter, the CEO of Imaraïs Beauty to create a nutritional product, clinically tested gummies that help you stay fit.
Conclusion
Learning how to partner with YouTube influencers effectively will get your brand in front of new customers. Although the strategy is widely adopted, there are many collaboration ideas that can help you differentiate your brand from your competitors.
As we mentioned above, partnering with YouTube influencers and having a successful collaboration, requires finding the right influencers for your brand.
To do so, use our dashboard and some of the 40+ searchable filters. You can get as niche or as broad as you want and get a custom list of YouTubers (with their emails) within a few minutes.
Or, if you don’t have the bandwidth to do that, or the outreach yourself, we have a partnership program where we fully manage the partnerships between brands and YouTube influencers. From discovering the right influencers to handling the outreach and replies.
Want to partner with YouTube Influencers?
FAQ
The cost for YouTube influencer marketing varies depending on the length of the video, campaign scope, and audience size.
The average rate for nano influencers is $60-$850, and for micro influencers $180-$360. A mid-tier influencer is $180-$3,000, a Macro influencer is $1,100-$20,000, and a mega influencer is $2,500+.
The best way to contact YouTube influencers is to send a personalized email that will show you follow and appreciate their work, plus the reason you are reaching out (partnership opportunity).
You can also learn more about how to truly connect with YouTubers here.
Yes. Smaller brands should look for nano or micro-influencers. These category influencers have niche-driven audiences that can bring a brand significantly more leads. Yet, they are more affordable and flexible when it comes to negotiating the partnership.
