As the digital world continues to expand and evolve, many people have found their way into the limelight as internet celebrities, often referred to as influencers. These influencers come in various forms, including streamers, bloggers, social media celebrities, and movie stars. They all have a following of thousands of loyal fans who typically relate to their favorite celebrity. Because of these people’s niche following, they are ideal candidates to help promote your business or products through an influencer marketing strategy.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Fundamentally, influencer marketing is the strategy of partnering with an influencer to use their sphere of influence to help sell your product. Many of these influencers have dedicated followers who are inclined to listen to their favorite celebrity and purchase the same products. By partnering with an influencer with a large following, companies can gain exposure for their products without much work.
Where To Get Started With Influencer Marketing?
Much like building a regular marketing strategy, research is essential in determining which platform and person you want to promote your products. You can expand to other platforms later, but you should start where you already have a good enough presence.
You’ll also want to decide what goals you want to achieve with this initiative. The two most common goals are often building brand awareness or product sales. When starting, you’ll want to clearly define what you hope to achieve from this partnership and how you’ll define success. By having key performance indicators (KPI) in place, you can quickly see what’s working and if you need to pivot your strategy.
How To Go About Contacting Influencers?
Picking the right influencer for your strategy is another part that requires a good amount of research. You’ll want to spend some time doing social listening to understand where your industry is being talked about (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) and who’s talking about your industry. It’s always wise to go for someone who is a trusted authority in the space you work in.
The best way to reach out to potential partners depends on setting up their profiles. For most micro-influencers (people under 3,000 followers), a simple direct message asking about a partnership should be just fine to get their attention. Other more prominent influencers may have a business email in their profile or a link to their website with partnership details. Reach out to them with your pitch. Most of these influencers are business-minded, so they are usually open to discussing partnerships.
How To Know If Your Strategy Is Working?
Testing to see if your strategy is working depends on the goal. Suppose you’re looking to increase your overall sales. In that case, having a few affiliates or promo codes get shared can help you see how many transactions were made with that code. This gives you a deeper look into what percentage of recent sales are attributable to your influencer.
If your goal is brand awareness, checking your social analytics can give you more insight into growing traffic. You can also review how your social media presence has improved or worsened throughout your partnership.
Be sure to regularly check in on your partnership’s progress to ensure that you are getting the most out of your marketing efforts. You’ll also want to keep an eye on any positive and negative feedback that comes through and adjust your plan accordingly.
The Takeaway
The key takeaway is that influencer marketing can be a real benefit to your marketing efforts. If you can partner with a good influencer knowledgeable about your industry, has a good following, and stay active on social media, you can see a significant boost in your marketing analytics. Make sure you’ve done your research and choose to partner with the right person for the right reasons.