The global influencer marketing industry has now surpassed $16 billion. And as an influencer marketing manager, you’re responsible for helping those dollars make their rounds. Now you just need a bigger piece of it for yourself.
In this blog, we’ll get into everything an influencer marketing manager needs to do to increase their salary. By the end, you’ll be able to chart a clear path toward the raise you deserve and boost your influencer marketing manager salary.
What is the role of an influencer marketing manager?
Influencer marketing managers run a team of content creators on behalf of the brands that employ them. These managers are responsible for recruitment, nurturing strong relationships, reporting on program success, and more. Sometimes influencer marketing managers are a team of one, while others lead a team of influencer marketing specialists.
What is the average influencer marketing and social media manager salary?
According to Salary.com, an influencer marketing manager in the U.S. typically makes anywhere from $92,904 to $136,058, for an average of $111,473 annually.
That said, two main factors determine an influencer marketing manager’s salary.
The first is location. Here’s a look a the top five U.S. locations for a high-paying average influencer marketing salary:
- Alaska – $124,961
- California – $124,515
- District of Columbia – $123,991
- New Jersey – $123,244
- Massachusetts – $121,282
The second is experience. An entry-level influencer marketing manager will likely make closer to the $90K side, while a more seasoned professional can expect to make well into six figures.
How can I boost my salary as an influencer marketing manager?
So are you ready to make that Alaska money? Here are ideas to hone your skills and put yourself in the best position to maximize your earning potential.
1. Make organization a priority.
It’s going to be tough to succeed as an influencer marketing manager without impeccable organizational skills. From creator discovery and outreach to organizing content and tracking results, you’ll need to pay extremely close attention to detail if you want to keep everything straight.
Be sure that everything related to your influencer marketing program has a home and you know where to find it. By ensuring that nothing can slip through the cracks, you’ll prove your dependability and become someone people know they can always count on.
Free Resource:
2. Find the ‘face’ of your brand.
Your brand is more than just a product or service. It’s a community of like-minded people who all share a common interest. Whether you’re a fashion, pet supply, or athletic supplement brand, everyone who interacts with your company has at least one thing in common: you.
Working with influencers is the best way to tell the story of “you” and help personify your brand by giving your brand a face—ideally, one that consumers can trust. By finding content creators who align perfectly with your brand’s mission and values, you’ll help generate content that resonates best with your audience and strengthens your connection with your fans.
3. Seek regular feedback from influencers.
As an influencer marketing manager, it is critical to always stay open to new ideas—especially when they come from your influencer partners.
When one of your creators comes to you with a thought for how you can improve your campaign, take the time to hear them out at the very least. Remember, you hired your creators because of their authentic relationship with their audience. If they come up with a product or content tweak they think their fans will appreciate, it’s always worth a conversation.
4. Become an expert on the creator economy.
The creator economy is always changing. Each time it evolves, it affects your entire marketing team in one way or another. But not everyone can keep track of all the new developments and their greater implications.
That’s where you come in.
Make a point to keep everyone on your team up to date on the latest happenings in the creator economy and for your brand as it interacts with consumers. By penning a weekly email or internal newsletter, you can provide your team with a valuable resource and establish yourself as an authority on the creator economy.
5. Get clever with your campaigns.
There is nothing more boring than a stale influencer marketing campaign. Don’t worry—it happens to the best of us. But you’ll need to snap out of it quickly if you want to get that raise.
If you find yourself in a rut, consider trying your hand at an experiential marketing campaign and give your consumers a memorable encounter they’ll be excited to share with their friends. These campaigns are a great way to shake things up and provide an interactive “experience” that helps your audience better understand your brand, products, and what you stand for as a company.
6. Generate value for the entire marketing team.
The real definition of influencer marketing ROI goes way beyond simple dollars and cents. By implementing a full-funnel strategy, you’ll create value for the entire marketing team and see gains at every stage of the customer journey.
When reporting on that value, think of the three pillars for proving success:
- Social media metrics like follower growth on brand pages, influencer reach, UGC, and increased share of voice.
- Ecommerce metrics, including repeat conversions, cart abandonment rate, return rate, etc.
- Web metrics like site traffic, earned media, and bounce rate.
Prioritizing these pillars in your influencer marketing strategy makes life better for your whole team, including the person signing your checks.
7. Always be innovating.
Thousands of brands in every industry now use content creators to help build positive brand sentiment and drive conversions. As an influencer marketing manager, you need to stay sharp enough to cut through the noise and produce new and innovative campaigns that help you stand out.
Here are a few points to consider as you start planning your next innovative campaign with creators:
- Incentivize creativity – Encourage your employees and influencers to come to you with their biggest and boldest ideas. Nothing is off-limits!
- Make suggestions, not demands – Nothing stifles creativity like too many rules. Keep your influencers clear on the deliverables for your campaign, but always give them the space they need to create the content they know works best.
- Work with other brands – There’s no need to keep your team on an island. If there’s another brand with products that complement yours, invite them to collaborate and see what you can come up with together.
- Celebrate diversity – The Harvard Business Review notes that diversity and inclusion are critical for better innovation and collective problem-solving. Take some time to ensure you’re doing everything you can from a DE&I perspective.
For more inspiration on how to create more innovative influencer marketing campaigns, have a look at this resource that details some of our favorite initiatives and content creators.
8. Generate viral content.
Creating viral content is easier said than done. But partnering with creators with a finger on the pulse of the latest social media trends is the best way to increase your chances of generating the most shareable moments.
Many brands have turned to micro influencers (creators with 10,000 followers or less) to help create viral branded content. Although these creators have a shorter reach, they are often more relatable, cost-effective, engaging, and perfect for targeting hyper-niche audiences.
“More and more people want to work with influencers and creators. That means nano and micro influencers have more opportunities now than they did before, and follower count is starting to matter less.”
— Katryna Ton, fashion creator also known as “Call Her Classy”
9. Produce regular reports on the success of your program.
If you hope to increase your influencer marketing manager salary, you’re going to have to prove why you deserve it. Tracking the progress of your program and building detailed reports is the best way to demonstrate how much value you’re adding to the brand.
Be sure to build different reports for different eyes. Here’s who to keep in mind:
- Reports for your boss – For the sake of this blog, building reports for your boss is the top priority. Pull the highlights from your program and try not to bog them down with too much information. Show how far the program has come and where you plan to take it on its current trajectory.
- Reports for your team – If you have team members managing specific influencers or particular parts of your influencer or social media program, you’ll want to filter metrics specific to them. These reports can go into far more detail than the one you present to your boss and should help you navigate toward your big-picture goals.
- Reports for you – As the influencer relationship manager, you will go deeper with the metrics than your boss or marketing colleagues. These reports should hold nothing back and give you the most comprehensive look at how every moving piece works in tandem with your greater marketing strategy.
See Also: Influencer Reporting Best Practices for Demonstrating ROI [+ Free Influencer Report Template]
10. Ask ‘How did you hear about us?’
Attribution is key when determining which marketing approaches work best. That said, software-based attribution might lead you astray if you’re not asking your customers the right questions during checkout.
For example, attribution software generally overvalues paid search, organic search, and web traffic while severely undervaluing word-of-mouth conversions from content creators. Imagine this scenario: You hear your favorite podcaster raving about a brand, so you Google the company later and eventually end up buying one of their products. Well, unless the person who gave you the tip also gave you an affiliate link, software-based attribution will credit that conversion to organic search—not the podcaster.
For more effective attribution, consider adding a ‘How did you hear about us?’ section during checkout. That way, your customers can tell you exactly what action led them to the sale so that you can focus your marketing efforts on the most relevant verticals.
11. Work as efficiently as possible.
If you have a newer influencer marketing program, you’re most likely running your campaigns and tracking results with a spreadsheet. This is a great approach to building your program at first, but as you scale, eventually, you’ll reach a plateau where adding more influencers to your roster seems impossible without a little more help.
At that point, you’ll need to consider investing in software that allows you to work as efficiently as possible and generate maximum ROI.
GRIN’s top-ranked Creator Management platform allows users to streamline their workflow and save time discovering new influencers, fulfilling product requests, tracking revenue, reporting results, and more. On average, GRIN users save 61 hours per month using the platform’s full suite of influencer marketing tools.
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Book a demo: Connect with a GRIN team member to learn how the world’s leading Creator Management platform can help you reach all your influencer marketing goals.
Key takeaway: Optimizing your approach as an influencer marketing manager can boost your salary and increase revenue for your entire brand.
Maximizing your earning potential as an influencer marketing manager comes down to how much value you can add to your entire brand. By taking a full-funnel approach and stationing relevant creators at every stage of the customer journey, you’ll drive the awareness, conversions, and ROI you need to justify an elite salary.
Are you ready to stake your claim in the creator economy? Discover more helpful tips and resources from the experts at GRIN: Creator Management Learning Center