The most wonderful time of the year is (almost) upon us. The holiday season is always an important time for brands, but now even more so. With uncertainty around in-store shopping and consumers’ spending plans, your online and social strategy should be more thought-out and solid than ever. Now is the time to create some extra eye-catching content to close the year with a bang.

How? With influencer content. Influencers can bring you closer to your target audience and vice versa.

Sounds good? Great. You should start right away, because…

1. There’s still time to think of/create amazing content

If done right and with the right tools, you can set up an entire influencer campaign in a pretty short time span. With some luck, you can still plan everything well in advance, so you can sit back and relax around the holidays.

With a good couple of weeks left to go, there’s still time to organize a brainstorm and think of some great content. Challenge yourselves to think outside of the box and come up with something creative and cool that will impress your audience. Tip: include influencers in this process and let them think along!

2. The best creators will be in high demand

Another reason to start now: the best influencers will be fully booked, soon. Pretty much all brands are starting to plan their end-of-year content and thus snatching up the highly-rated influencers, so the quicker you get to it, the better. Especially if you want exclusivity.

If you’ve already got a couple of strong influencers you work with regularly, great, contact them immediately. If you don’t, here’s a handy guide on how to find them and on how to approach them.

As we stated above: it’s a good idea to involve your creators in the brainstorming process, but it doesn’t stop there. Give them creative freedom as well. They need to tell your story in their own words, so it comes off as authentic as possible.

3. You need to include some delivery/try-out margin

Also, very important and often forgotten: include some extra margin for the influencer to actually get some time with your product/service. If your brand sells products, keep in mind that delivery and shipment to the influencer should be included. If you’re all about services, then the influencer should get enough time to test those out as well. Because the more personal and authentic their story is, the better it will translate to their followers.

Don’t know where to start? We’d suggest watching our webinar on how to build an effective influencer marketing strategy. Need some more help? Head over to our Hub to learn more about influencer marketing, or contact us for advice tailored to your brand.