Influencer Marketing Hub reports that 70% of brands measured the ROI from their influencer campaigns in 2022.
While more teams are understanding the importance of measuring their efforts, they’re still not sure how to execute on their plans.
Check out these expert tips to help with your influencer marketing strategy.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing in which a company partners with an individual who has a large following on social media or who is considered an expert in a particular area. The influencer promotes the company’s products or services to their followers, who may be more likely to trust the recommendations of the influencer because of their perceived expertise or popularity.
Influencer marketing can be an effective way for a company to reach a specific audience and can be particularly useful for promoting products or services related to a particular niche or industry. Influencer marketing campaigns can take many forms, including sponsored social media posts, blog posts, videos, and other types of content that feature the company’s products or services.
Why is Influencer Marketing Important for Small Businesses?
Influencer marketing can be an effective way for small businesses to reach a larger audience and increase brand awareness. By partnering with influencers, small businesses can tap into the influencer’s audience and gain exposure to potential customers.
Influencer marketing can also be a cost-effective way to advertise, as influencers may charge less than traditional advertising methods and can often provide better engagement and returns on investment.
In addition, working with influencers can help to build trust and credibility for a small business, as the endorsement of a trusted and respected influencer can be seen as a recommendation to the influencer’s followers.
Finding the Right Influencers for Your Small Business
Influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. From global brands to local startups, leveraging the reach and influence of social media personalities can significantly impact brand awareness and customer engagement. However, for small businesses, it can be a daunting task to navigate the world of influencers and identify the right ones to collaborate with. Let’s explore some key strategies to help you find the perfect influencers for your small business.
Define Your Goals and Target Audience
Define your marketing goals and identify your target audience. Consider the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your ideal customers. By understanding your target audience, you can better align with influencers who have a similar following and can effectively promote your products or services to the right people.
Research Relevant Influencers
Begin by exploring social media platforms where your target audience is most active, such as Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. Look for influencers who create content related to your industry or niche. Take note of their follower count, engagement rate, and the type of content they produce.
Analyze Audience Engagement
Engagement is a critical factor when assessing potential influencers. It’s not just about the number of followers an influencer has; their ability to connect and engage with their audience is equally important. Look for influencers whose posts receive a significant number of likes, comments, and shares. Genuine engagement indicates that their audience trusts and values their opinions, increasing the likelihood of a successful collaboration.
Assess Authenticity and Alignment
Authenticity plays a vital role in influencer marketing. It’s essential to partner with influencers whose values and content align with your brand. Analyze their previous collaborations to ensure they have worked with brands similar to yours or have demonstrated an interest in your industry. Authenticity also includes evaluating the quality of their content, storytelling abilities, and how they integrate sponsored content seamlessly into their feed.
Evaluate Reach and Influence
While micro-influencers can be highly effective for small businesses, it’s still important to evaluate their reach and influence. Look beyond follower count and examine factors like average views and the growth rate of their social media profiles. A well-rounded influencer with a dedicated and engaged following can have a greater impact on your brand’s visibility and conversion rates.
Influencer Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
1. Choose Influencers That Resemble Your Target Audience
The most impactful criterion for choosing the right influencer is to ensure you share an ideal customer profile. Selecting an influencer who operates in a different industry or for different audiences will do no significant good for your business growth.
Instead, look at your options that already represent the consumers you want to reach. The better these influencers can relate to, convince, and understand your audience, the more conversions and visibility they will drive for your brand.
Start small and establish straightforward goals based on realistic methods. When your influencer partners share part of your established audience and then some do not, their content and messaging should be ripe to help your brand extend its reach.
– Guna Kakulapati, Co-Founder & CEO, CureSkin
2. Don’t Skip Out on Podcasting
When we think of influencer marketing, our mind immediately jumps to platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, and we forget podcasts are steadily growing in popularity.
A large population of today’s content consumers tune into podcasts to learn new skills, keep up with the trends, or even reach out with a hobby or passion they may have. If your influencer marketing strategy doesn’t extend to podcasters, particularly the ones in your niche, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to reach the right people.
– Harry Morton, Founder, Lower Street
3. Always Monitor Your Metrics
You can only gauge the success of your campaign by keeping tabs on its performance. If you don’t know what is working and what isn’t, how can you make adjustments?
Google Analytics and similar tools provide detailed information about the origins of your site’s visitors. By identifying underperforming influencer campaigns early, you can alter your campaigns accordingly.
– Max Whiteside, SEO & Content Lead, Breaking Muscle
4. Localize Your Influencer Marketing
The most significant benefit of influencer marketing for small businesses is its efficacy and affordability. Small businesses should focus on micro-influencers and localize their marketing when developing an influencer marketing strategy.
Even if a micro-influencer’s audience is small, its reach and conversion rate may be higher than that of mega-influencers, who may have less actual influence on purchasing decisions.
But, whether you choose a mega-influencer or a micro-influencer, it’s critical to understand the geographic presence of their audiences and consider what would happen if you suddenly received orders for your product from India, China, or the UK.
So, look for an influencer whose audience is primarily in your region to get the most out of influencer marketing. A solid local micro-influencer marketing strategy will generate a high ROI and open the door to further growth.
– Maria Harutyunyan, Co-Founder, Loopex Digital
Let’s take a brief break to learn how to create an influencer marketing strategy.
5. Avoid Short-Term and Seasonal Campaigns
Focus on evergreen content. Small businesses that have smaller budgets for influencer marketing should use that money for broad-purpose content.
If you cannot afford to regularly hire for new campaigns, you want to avoid highly seasonal content or influencer campaigns for short-term deals.
By spending your budget on evergreen influencer marketing content, you can stretch out the use over a longer period and reincorporate it later. This gives you more bang for your buck.
– Brian Munce, Managing Director, Gestalt Brand Lab
6. Target Influencers That Follow Your Brand
Finding someone who is already interested in your brand is a golden opportunity that you shouldn’t miss. These are the people who will never say no to a collaboration because they believe in your brand and have been doing so prior to the collaboration.
These loyal customers are perfect for influencer marketing as, unknowingly, you’ve already built a bond with them. Looking for an influencer who is unaware of you and your brand takes time to trust and understand your brand.
Hence, search your followers and see which influencer is already showing interest. This way, you’re bringing the best person on the marketing journey.
– Dwayne Kula, President, LED Lighting Supply
7. Allow for Creative Freedom
You should not tell the influencers how to act while presenting the product or talking about the services of your business. Because of their unique style of presenting themselves, they grew genuine connections. It’s crucial that influencers continue to produce authentic content. It will also help make your paid content sound less promotional and more natural.
– Sanjay Singh, Founder & CEO, Technource Inc.
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