We often talk about what makes an influencer attractive in the eyes of marketers and businesses. We tell brands to look for profiles with a high engagement rate, good impression numbers and relevant follower demographics. But what we often forget to mention is what the influencers look for in a potential collaboration partner.

As the influencer marketing industry is maturing and as more and more brands are entering the sphere, influencers are getting swamped by collaboration inquiries. All brands are competing for the same ad space, and it is important to stand out from the competitors in order to win the best influencers over.

Whether your brand our product/service is popular or attractive to begin with of course plays a big role in the onboarding process, but there are a couple of additional things you can do to stand out from the crowd. Here are our 5 best tips for attracting the right influencers:

1️⃣ Leave room for creative freedom
We have said it time and again, but allowing the influencers to add their personal touch to the campaign is an essential part of any influencer collaboration. Influencers are not only imaginative individuals who enjoy the creative process of the collaboration – they are in fact also the ones who know their followers and what kind of content they resonate with best. In short, leaving room for creative freedom in a campaign is a win-win for both of you – you get better content and they will appreciate the collaboration more.

2️⃣ Offer a long-term collaboration
Influencers are nothing without their personal brand and credibility with their followers, and they will in most cases therefore prioritize long-term collaboration over one-offs any day. Have a well-thought-out plan for your collaboration before approaching the influencer, and make sure that you help strengthen each others’ brands over time.

3️⃣ Sell your vision – not just your product
Influencers are people just like the rest of us, and people buy ideas – not products. If the influencers don’t buy into your values and ideas, how are they going to promote your products to their followers in a credible way? Put some effort into how you present your brand and the vision for the campaign to the influencers, and they will most likely be more interested in a collaboration.

4️⃣ Make them feel special
We all like to feel that we are special, and influencers are no different. Influencers will most likely prioritize a brand that has done their research on them over one that makes them feel like ”just another advertising space”. It could be as easy as telling them that you really appreciated how they expressed their opinion on X and how that aligned with your brand values, or how you enjoyed their video about X and how you would like something similar for your campaign.

5️⃣ Take your collaboration seriously
Think of the influencers you collaborate with as your employees, and take the time to support them in case they have questions or concerns regarding the collaboration. This is, of course, a very time-consuming process, but showing that you care about the influencers and your collaboration with them will make you stand out from other brands.