How to Work with Influencers to Grow Your Business
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that has begun to gain a lot of traction in the past few years. It can be one of the most effective ways to reach new potential customers and grow your brand. However, since it is still so new, it can be difficult for small businesses to get started with influencers and figure out how to best utilize them. Through our personal experience as micro-influencers as well as our professional work at The Marketing Greenhouse leading influencer campaigns, we've figured out best practices for working with influencers and want to share them with you to help you grow your business.
Influencer marketing: how does it work?
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing where businesses partner with influencers to reach new potential customers. Typically, the business will identify which influencers they want to work with, and then pay them to create content or run extended campaigns together. In some cases, the influencer may simply promote the product or service on their own social media channels, while in other cases, the two parties may collaborate more closely on content creation or campaign strategy.
Why use influencer marketing
So, why use influencers versus a more traditional marketing route. There are a few reasons for that. For starters, influencers have already built trust with their audiences, so when they promote your product or service, it carries more weight than if you were to advertise directly to those same people. In addition, influencer marketing is often more cost-effective - you can reach a large audience without spending a lot of money on things like airtime and ad space. It's also growing in popularity. Each year, more and more companies are turning to influencers to help them reach new audiences, and it will only gain more popularity in 2022.
Figuring out your goals
The first step in working with influencers is figuring out your goals. What do you hope to achieve through this partnership? More website visitors? A higher conversion rate? Increased brand awareness? Once you know what you're hoping to achieve, it's much easier to identify the right influencers and create a strategy that will help you reach your goals.
Identifying the right influencers
Once you have an idea of your goals, it's time to start identifying the right influencers. This can be tricky, as not everyone who has a large following is necessarily the best fit for your business. In reality, smaller or micro-influencers often have a more intimate relationship with their audience, which creates higher engagement. You'll want to look for someone who aligns with your values and target audience, and whose followers are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Creating a strategy
Now that you've identified the right influencers, it's time to create a strategy for working with them. This will vary depending on the goals you set in the previous step, but will likely include things like content ideas, campaign themes, and length of the campaign/partnership. It's important to be clear with your influencers about what you want from them and to make sure they understand your brand and target audience.
It is necessary to give direction to your influencers, so they know your expectations, but you should also provide them with some creative freedom to allow their voice to come through.
Often brands give influencers scripts that they have to read, which can create a disconnect with the audience and come across as disingenuous. We recommend instead giving them key points to touch upon in their campaign.
Monitoring results
Once your influencer marketing campaign is underway, it's important to monitor the results closely. This will help you determine whether or how successful the campaign was and identify areas for improvement. Keep track of things like website visits, conversion rates, social media shares, and any other metrics that are relevant to your business. Doing this will help you tweak your strategy as needed so that you can achieve better results in future campaigns.
It’s an exciting time to be in marketing and advertising.
As digital marketing becomes more sophisticated, it has become vital to building your brand presence online through social media. Using influencers to spread brand awareness, drive sales, or drive traffic to your website is the way of the marketing world now, and as such, it has opened up so many opportunities for growth and creativity.
At The Marketing Greenhouse, we love working with influencers to help businesses grow. If you're looking for help getting started with influencer marketing, or want to learn more about our services, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We'd be happy to help you with your next campaign!
