In the world of the great outdoors and the marine industry, authenticity and trust are crucial for a brand’s success. Consumers seek out real experiences from experts and enthusiasts who live the lifestyle, making influencer marketing a highly effective tool for reaching this specific audience.
Partnering with the right influencers can help your outdoor or marine brand increase visibility, build trust and ultimately drive sales. However, finding and working with the right influencers for your organisation requires strategy. As a marine, outdoor, and active lifestyle specialist communications agency, we’re sharing our five-step bite-size guide to making the most from influencer marketing.
- Outline your brand values and goals
Before diving in, take a moment to reflect on what your brand stands for. Are you all about sustainability, adventure, or innovation? Clarifying your brand values and influencer marketing goals will help to guide your search for the perfect content creator to partner with. Make a list of key messages you want to convey – this will help you find influencers whose content aligns with your business.
- Identify your target audience
Understanding the target audience, you want to reach is essential. Are your products aimed at hard-core outdoor enthusiasts, seasoned sailors, or families looking for a weekend adventure? Knowing your audience will help you choose influencers with followings that mirror your ideal customers. Use demographic insights, keywords, and hashtags to refine your search.
- Research potential influencers
Once you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve amongst a specific audience, it’s time to start the research phase. If you don’t already have an influencer marketing tool like Klear, don’t worry! Desktop research can be just as successful. Discover influencers on your chosen social media channel/s, aligning to the content and audience you’re targeting, to identify the best content creators that compliment your brand and campaign goal. Our top tips are to look for:
- Engagement: Check likes, comments, shares and the influencer’s engagement rate (easily found via online engagement rate calculators – anything above 5% is a good score!) to gauge how influenced and engaged their audience is. The biggest audience isn’t always the best approach. We often target micro-influencers with niche audiences that align with our client’s goals to reach specific markets, such as our recent Helly Hansen ‘Trail Finder’ influencer activation.
- Content: Does the influencer’s aesthetic and themes of content resonate with your brand? Look for content creators who create high-quality, regular posts (although we often steer clear of influencers with high volumes of brand deals or advertisements, as this often waters down the audience’s engagement and impact of your brand partnership).
- Organising influencer marketing
Once you’ve identified the influencer/s you’d like to work with, reach out! Start by following them and engaging with their content genuinely to show that you appreciate their work. When you’re ready to reach out, craft a personal message explaining why you love their content and how a collaboration could benefit both parties. When you connect with an influencer, be transparent about your goals, expectations, and what you can offer in return—whether it’s free products, payment, or exposure. Create a clear brief that outlines deliverables, timelines, and any specific brand messaging you want them to convey. In a recent Helly Hansen influencer activation, we gave influencers control over their ‘favourite spots’, creating inspirational and personal content on the influencer’s local trail, whilst authentically reviewing Helly Hansen kit we provided. Another key point to note is to ensure you align with ASA’s advertising guidelines – we provide influencers with this guidance, as to whether they should state #AD or otherwise.
While it’s important to provide guidance, remember that influencers know their audience best. Encourage them to put their spin on your products – we usually give influencers creative control and find this works very well. Authenticity is key, so give them the freedom to create content that resonates with their followers.
- Measuring success
Once your influencer campaigns are up and running, track their performance. Use metrics like likes, comments, shares, click-through rates, website traffic, and sales to evaluate the success of your collaborations. Measuring data will not only help you understand what worked (and what didn’t!), but it’ll also inform your future campaigns. You can check out our recent influencer activations, whereby we measure success based off key stats, including reach, views (you can ask the influencer to provide story views via the backend of their channel), engagement and product click throughs!
If you find an influencer who aligns perfectly with your brand, consider building a long-term partnership. We’ve found for our clients like Chatham, this not only fosters authenticity but also allows both parties to grow together in further campaigns each season – check out our Chatham influencer case studies to see more. Regular collaborations can create a loyal following and keep your brand top of mind.
Finding and working with the right influencers can be invaluable to reach your target audience on social media. By defining your values, understanding your audience, and fostering authentic relationships, you’ll set yourself up for success.
Take a look at some of our recent influencer marketing campaigns for inspiration: www.adpr.co.uk/work/helly-hansen-6