How do you find a right influencer (streamer/blogger)
A streamer is not just a platform, he or she is also a brand, and it should resonate with yours.
First of all, you should decide whether you will look for the suitable people on your own or delegate this work to specialized platforms. In the first case, you'll have to spend a lot of time sweating, yet you will be 100% sure that you have found the right person to present your product. Also, it can be cheaper to work with a streamer directly, but not always, as many of them work exclusively through an agency that represents them. There’s another tangible disadvantage of this approach: it’s the weak guarantees regarding that your conditions will be met. Often you will have no leverage on the influencer: it happens that some streamers don’t fulfill the agreed conditions, not being that much afraid of losing the fee. In turn, specialized platforms cooperate with streamers on a continuing basis, so they know whom to trust and they can guarantee that the conditions of the advertising campaign will be met in full. Now let's take a closer look at how to act in both cases.
If you decide to do the search yourself, then it's time to get into the wilds of Twitch and YouTube. Pay attention not only to the number of subscribers on a particular channel, but rather to the views count on its videos or to the number of viewers and their activity in the chat. Also check how often the streamer goes live.
We’re out of the basic tips, now, to the main thing. Pay attention to the game that the streamer is broadcasting and check if its audience suits your product. For example, MOBA and MMO fans (World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Dota 2) are more likely to chase gaming devices. Premium items are beyond the reach of the young viewers (Garry's Mod, Fall Guys players). Of course, the gaming audience is heterogeneous and there are potential customers in every genre. Still, it’s best to maximize their number by selecting streamers whose audience is more likely to be interested in your offer.
Before approving a streamer, spend at least 15-20 minutes on his channel watching his behavior, ask some questions in the chat, make sure that this is the person you would like to be associated with. And finally, check the channel for cheating subscribers: a two-minute check can save you from funds wasted on the promo.
Are your plans a little more ambitious than recruiting 2 to 3 influencers per campaign but you don't have enough staff and contacts to get together and filter out 10 or more faces? Then delegate this task to specialists. All you need to do is announce your budget, set the campaing goals and then speak out about your additional preferences and the most dreary part of the work will be done for you. There are many agencies and platforms on the market that can help you find influencers. We recommend using Drope.me. There you’ll not only get your promoters, but also a convenient tool called “user actions”. It’ill allow you to set targeted actions not only for the streamer, but also for the potential users of your product - for example, to follow your social networks, or download an application, to subscribe, to complete a chain of in-game actions . And most importantly, detailed analytics will be available to you. You will learn how well each of them did his or her job, how many users they brought, what actions they performed, and much more. This is a game changer in the area of influencer's promo, as it will free you from collecting a ton of data after the campaign.
Turning ordinary advertising into an event to be discussed
The Fantastic Five of the streamer ads (which isn't really all that fantastic) are the banner on the broadcast, the banner under the broadcast, the chatbot message, the mentions by the streamer, the product demo. This is the base, but it is not enough not to get lost within thousands of other proposals. Lazy viewers have learned how to filter this information, just like the cries of an annoying NPC in their favorite game. It’s vital to radically shift the approach from passive baiting to a full-scale event. If you’re a game developer and you want to promote it to the masses, the influencer simply has to demonstrate the gameplay, rather than just mention it. If you sell devices, they must be in the frame!
For example, you want to advertise a new model of your mouse. Ask the streamer to use two cameras: one directed at the face and the second one at the hands. Then, during the game session, let him arrange a challenge. Get 100 kills in CS:GO within the allotted time. Any challenge must have a prize for passing or a penalty if the player fails. They should influence not only the streamer, but also his audience. Let’s say, in case of successful completion of the challenge, a mouse is drawn for every 10 kills, and if the streamer has fulfilled all the conditions (100 kills), then in addition he also raffles the very mouse with which he played that has an autograph.
If the promo is planned to be long-running, then let there be only one such event day, but during the entire period before that, the streamer should mention the main integration event, inviting people to watch the climax and the endgame.
Do this and the audience WILL WANT your product
Don't forget who your audience is. The best way to sell a product to a gamer is to gamify the process. Players are willing to spend hundreds of hours to get that achievement in the game. Give them this opportunity in life. Let the accomplishment of the targeted actions become desirable. Here are two examples instead of a thousand words.
Say, you’re promoting a new game and you need to get users’ attention. Add a reward to those who meet (or kill) a streamer in the game - it can be a title of a kind, or a decorative game item. If the game does not offer multiplayer mode, reward those who download it through the influencer's referral link. The main thing is that it shouldn’t be a standard valuable thing like in-game currency. You’d rather want it to be a unique hat for a hero, or a weapon skin.
If your product is material - it doesn't matter, you can still give the opportunity to loot an achievement here. Make a referral link sales counter and give out a stream-related reward when a mark is passed.
- 100 sales - streamer plays live with viewers
- 500 sales - the streamer plays the game chosen by the viewers
- 1000 sales - streamer puts on a ridiculous costume
If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, no one knows your audience better than a streamer, reach out to him. The fun, and sometimes the absurdity of what is happening, will gain more mentions of your product and the streamer himself, so profit for everyone. And if you are not ready for any radical tricks, then for starters, you can try Drope.me, where upon completing simple actions, users will become participants of a small yet pleasant draw. More incentives mean more profit.
In conclusion, I would like to recommend to approach promo companies in extraordinary ways and not be afraid of experiments. So that you can go beyond the usual coverage and enter the history of the best with the best case.
