Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that connects companies with influential people, to help them with their online marketing. Influencer marketing aims to identify people who act as influencers in your niche so that you can contact them to work with you to promote your brand.
An influencer is someone who can influence people’s purchasing decisions. They have authority, knowledge, and position, and/or have a special relationship with their audience. This person is often someone who has a significant follower count within a specific niche and actively interacts with them.
Influencer marketing is bigger than ever and the number of companies that are investing in this type of marketing is increasing rapidly. We see how more and more marketers are asking for guidance and support in this area, and for this reason, below we offer concrete tips on how you can go about getting the most out of such a partnership.
Define Your Target Audience
It’s impossible to find the right influencer if you don’t know who you want them to influence. You may have already figured out who your ideal target audience is. If so, keep that personality in mind when searching for influencers.
For influencer marketing to succeed, you need to work with influencers who attract your target audience. The more you can reduce your target market to a specific niche, the easier it will be for you to choose the right influencer.
It’s also important to keep in mind that once you identify your target audience, you must do your best to interact with as many people as possible and gather feedback on your Instagram account. The number of followers will impact people’s decision to follow you or not. If you’re stuck wondering how to get more followers on Instagram, make it your top priority to share top-quality content, follow relevant accounts, and engage with your followers.
Identify the Best Influencers for Your Business
Now that you know who your target audience is and who you want to sell your products or services to, it’s time to find the right influencers who have a similar following.
To identify influencers that suit your particular brand, there are various factors to consider. For example, you must ask yourself what your budget is, what is the goal of influencer marketing, and how many influencers you want to work with.
Look for an influencer that fits your brand, before digging deeper and analyzing followers and engagement. There are different ways to search for potential people.
You can use Google to find everything you need for blogs, videos, and web pages. The disadvantage is that it can be time-consuming. You can also consider networking as there are both national and international networks for finding influencers.
Hashtags are also a great way to search for influencers. Look for hashtags that relate to your topics and if your brand has been around for a while, find people who’ve already written about you and contact them to start up a collaboration.
Create a list of people you think would suit your products and brand, based on what they publish on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Snapchat – the channel you intend to work with. Look for people you know who can represent your brand, who you would like to have as a customer, and who you actually think would use your products.
Build Genuine Relationships
Organic influencer marketing is not advertising, and should therefore not be treated as such. For it to work, you need to think long-term. Focus on building relationships with influencers that you have decided on.
Influencers are content creators, which means they want engagement. They want their blog posts to be read, and people to listen to their podcasts and watch their videos. Follow them on social media, subscribe to their newsletter, and read their content. Whenever possible, leave a useful comment and tell them why you liked the content and why.
Remember that an influencer must be truthful to their followers and give their honest opinion about your products, both positive and negative. Even if you pay for the person to showcase your product or service, what is shown needs to be transparent and genuine. The influencer has the loyalty of their followers and you need to respect that.
Final Thoughts
For influencer marketing to be successful, brands must trust that the influencer will represent them appropriately. If you choose influencers with followers who have a close match to your target audience, the odds for a successful campaign are in your favor.
