How to Implement Influencer Marketing Method to Boost Business
If you would be interested in knowing how to use what is known as influencer marketing to uplift your localised business in regards to growing your brand awareness, generating more leads and driving in more sales, then this information here will put you on the right track.
But firstly, what exactly is this online marketing method all about?
Influencer marketing is basically about leveraging the authority or status of a well-known person online who has a lot of followers (e.g. via social media).
This is done by connecting with such a well-known person and offering them a great incentive or compensation in exchange for using their powerful influence to promote your product or service to their followers – which as a result brings you more recognition and more sales.
Imagine watching an advert that features a well-known celebrity and wishing you have access to the same influential figure that big companies have for their business? Well, as a local business you can now achieve this with influencer marketing.
Here are some tips on how to use influencer marketing to boost your business:
Identify Your Marketing Objectives
Until you know exactly what you hope to achieve through your association with an influencer, it’s not a good idea to reach out to them. So, make sure you already have objectives in place that you would like to achieve before connecting with an influencer.
Locate Prospective Influencers
Providing your objectives are in place, how do you discover influencers to connect and work with? The key is to find influencers who are most likely to have an impact on prospective customers in your localised area and that are ideal for your offer.
You can search online for influencers who have lots of followers – using relevant keyword search terms for your industry type.
For example, if you own a gym it would make sense to do localised internet search via Google for gym bloggers and via social media sites (such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook) for gym influencers.
Besides, an alternative option is to search for influencers relating to your local business industry as well as your location by using platforms that are built for this exact purpose that can help speed up the search process.
One powerful website platform that is highly recommended for this specific task is klear.com. You can actually track influencers anywhere in the world based on location (and other metrics) – through klear.com
Filter Your List of Influencers
Accumulate a list of multiple influencers via your searches and then filter the list. You see, every influencer you find isn’t going to be a good match for your specific business and needs. Most of them perhaps won’t be.
That’s why before you reach out, it’s vital to dig in and do some research to narrow down your list and choose the most ideal influencers.
You can watch out for things like number of followers, whether they have the right target audience for your offer and whether they are the right fit for your brand values.
Develop a Relationship
Once you’ve narrowed down your list, you might be tempted to go straight for the kill by asking your chosen influencers to promote your offer to their followers.
Not so fast. You should first take a little bit of time to develop some rapport with them. Sign up to their blog, follow them on social media. Get involved such as making comments on their blog, liking their posts on Facebook…
By doing this, you are strategically paving the way for your request to them to promote you to their followers. Besides, using this method provides the angle to be able to soften them up a bit in a non-salesy way and make them more receptive to your approach as they would then be aware ahead of time that you are a real fan.
Make a Request
As long as you have already established a relationship with an influencer, then get in touch with them to make a request – by asking if they would be interested in working with you.
For instance, if you are asking someone to help you out on Facebook, your best way to reach out might be messaging them on Facebook – and so on. Make sure that you are very polite and professional, and as people like receiving compliments it wouldn’t hurt if (as part of getting in touch) you praise an influencer for an excellent job that they have done.
In line with making your request, you would have to offer a valuable incentive or compensation.
You should of course know in advance what you are willing to offer the influencer in exchange for promoting your product or service to their followers. Be prepared to negotiate – and if you can’t mutually agree on a deal, be prepared to walk away.
Regarding an incentive or compensation to offer an influencer, some may work to help you out only for cash, while some others may work with you in exchange for getting a valuable service or product for free.
If influencer marketing (which is a major online marketing method) is something of interest to you and you can make use of the above information to implement it, you will really grow your brand awareness and generate more leads and more sales as a result. Wishing you the very best in your business.