Ready to Work with Influencers?
Here’s what you need to know.
By Kirsty Kelly
In this digital age, your business is one among thousands. That means it is hard to get your brand noticed, especially if you’ve just started.
Luckily, with the right social media marketing strategy, you can fast-track your success and reach your target audience. But apart from ensuring that your Instagram is on point, another way to get more engagement is to collaborate with social media influencers.
Read on for a guide on how to utilize this strategy to grow your own business.
Why Should I Work with Influencers?
First things first: what are the benefits of collaborating with influencers? For one, they’re viewed as thought leaders in a particular niche and have amassed a sizable following. If an influencer mentions your brand, this could funnel followers over to your social media. It may even lead to direct sales.
Successful collaborations also increase your business’s social proof. Being tagged by multiple relevant influencers boosts your online visibility and extends your social media reach. Additionally, their endorsements make your business seem more legitimate and trustworthy.
There have been multiple studies published that affirm this trend. For instance, Nils Borchers, a researcher from Leipzig University, highlights that collaborating with influencers provides a unique avenue to advertise a product or service in a way that is perceived as authentic.
Put simply, since an influencer’s followers put a certain amount of trust in them, they are more inclined to like the things the influencer likes.
Convinced yet? If yes, then it’s time to talk about your two primary considerations when planning a collaboration: the influencer and the platform.
1. Pick the Right Influencers
The kind of influencer that you choose will depend largely on your industry and target market. But here are two simple guidelines:
First, the influencer should have a dedicated following, but not necessarily a huge one. Dr. Dustin York, who teaches the online communication degree programs at Maryville University, highlights the importance of adapting your influencer marketing strategy to your needs and goals instead of going with what other people are doing.
For example, “someone with 2,000 followers is not seen as a traditional “influencer,” York shared with Small Biz Trends. “However, those followers might represent the majority of 16-year-olds at your local high school. A car dealership could benefit greatly by working with that micro-influencer.” Or imagine how impactful that could be if you’re a local beauty brand or pastry shop whose target customers are teenagers!
Reaching out to the biggest influencers isn't always the best strategy. A smaller, more targeted audience may lead to more sales, and will therefore be more impactful on the growth of your business.
You need to know the latest trends and whether they're in line with your target market.
Second, ensure that the influencer’s values align with your business’s. For instance, if you’re selling traditionally baked products, then a collaboration with a vegan influencer probably isn’t going to work.
Ideally, your business’s ideals and that influencer’s ideals should be a perfect match. If this isn’t possible, just ensure that there aren’t any conflicts. This makes their promotion of your product or service more authentic and more aligned for both audiences.
2. Pick the Right Platform
What social media platform(s) do you want to promote your business on? This largely depends on your target market. Statistics from the Pew Research Center show that seven out of 10 Americans use social media.
Facebook and YouTube are still the most frequented platforms, while Instagram and Tik Tok have been gaining major momentum. And broadly speaking, influencers have seen the biggest rise on Instagram, a platform where it’s become natural to see endorsements and partnerships on nearly every other post or story.
Let’s say you’re selling makeup marketed primarily for teens and young adults. Your best bet would be to promote your brand on Facebook or Instagram, as more than 60% of US citizens between 18 and 29 use those applications. If your target market changes, chances are, the ideal platform for promotion will change as well.
These are the basic considerations if you're thinking of hiring influencers to promote your business. Keep these in mind when doing your market research. With a little digging, you'll hopefully find people who can best represent your brand.
Ready to take it a step further and put your first influencer campaign into action?
Here are some things to consider:
Let’s say you’ve done your research and you’ve selected your platform of choice (in this example, let’s assume you’ve chosen Instagram) and a list of 20 influencers you want to work with. Kudos! But the work is far from over. You’ll want to make sure you:
Clarify your internal goals for the campaign. Are you hoping to grow your own following? By how many? Set a clear goal so you can track the results! Are you hoping to see a boost in sales? By how much? Are you looking for brand exposure? Know your goal in advance and plan your campaign accordingly.
Set clear expectations with your influencers. What do you want them to post: a static post or a few IG stories or both? Do you want their face in the image or do you want flat lays with the product name clearly visible? What is the deadline for posting? What hashtags should they use? What account(s) should they tag? Did you provide them with some messaging to keep everything on brand and make their job a little easier? Do you want access to share the photos after they post? It’s best to spell all of this out before you even reach out to your first influencer. Your time is valuable and so is theirs, so make this easy on everyone and be thorough and clear with your requests.
Support their posts when they go live. Nothing makes an influencer feel less connected to your business than when they post and they hear crickets from the partner. Set aside some time or assign someone on your team to engage with the influencer posts when they are live. If you asked for stories, you’ll need to be in the Instagram app each day to ensure you don’t miss the 24-hour window before it disappears. If you asked for static captions, drop a comment on the post! It makes the relationship appear more authentic to anyone reading the post as well, so it’s truly a win/win for strengthening your brand awareness.
Monitor the results. Did you hit your following growth goal? Did you see a spike in traffic? If you gave the influencers a unique tracking URL or a personal discount code, this is easier to track. Out of the 20 influencers you reached out to, how many said yes? And which ones brought the best results? The macro-influencer with 20,000+ followers, or a micro-influencer with less than 5,000 followers? What can you learn from that data? Do you need to reach out to more micro-influencers for your next campaign? Use the results of your first influencer campaign to create the path to successful and replicable, influencer campaigns for your company!
