Influencer marketing has only gone from strength to strength for a small business. And with the growth in social media, the prospect of tapping into a potential audience of tens of thousands or even, in some cases, over a million people is now more within reach than ever before. This article will discuss tips for effective influencer marketing for small businesses.
Tip One: Identify the Best Influencers for Your Business
For an individual to be an effective influencer for your business, they must have a well-established and engaged audience. This means that the people following them are interested in seeing their posts and are likely to engage with them. Engagement can take the form of likes, comments, retweets, or shares. As you continue to narrow down your search, start by looking at how engaging the content is on their page. If they don’t regularly post content that engages their audience, then it’s unlikely that they will be able to help you effectively reach your target market. It’s essential that you look at posts from within the last month or so since engagement can change over time.
Tip Two: Create a Solid Contribution Plan
An effective strategy begins with a solid contribution plan. This is a document where you and your team outline ideas around what you want to contribute to the influencer in exchange for promoting your brand. This could involve anything from sending them a box full of samples to let them test one of your products before they buy it or even sponsoring a contest on their blog. You want to communicate what your brand can offer influencers: whether monetary compensation or something else, you should use these influencer marketing tips, layout your expectations at the beginning of the relationship. This will help you avoid any disappointing surprises down the road.
Tip Three: Give Influencers Feedback About Their Work
Small businesses need to give influencers feedback about their work, especially if they’re not getting their desired results. First, evaluate the influencer’s work from a business perspective. Does the content align with your goals? If not, then maybe you should offer suggestions on how they can change their content to meet your needs better If you want the influencer’s content to be more effective, you will need to offer them feedback and advice on how they can make that happen. As an example, let’s say an influencer is writing about your new handbag line, but you keep mentioning how expensive it is. To make the content more effective for you, you might ask her to emphasize that the bags are made from high-quality materials and have a long-lasting lifespan.
Tip Four: Don’t Get Discouraged if Your Influencer Marketing Efforts Aren’t Immediately Successful
One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make with influencer marketing is getting discouraged when their efforts don’t immediately bear fruit. Often, it takes time to find an influencer who’s a good fit for your brand, and you have to be willing to experiment with different approaches. Experimenting with other techniques is easier than you might think. Here are some tips for better results:
- Ensure your email has the company name, so it looks like a business email.
- Send an email with a personalized message based on the influencer’s content about [topic of your choice] or his interests.
- Include your website URL in the email.
- Use solid and emotional words such as excited, so amazed, and happy in your email.
- Keep the email short, sweet and straightforward.
Influencer Marketing Tip Five: Follow Up in a Timely Fashion
When engaging with potential influencers for your small business, you must follow up in a timely fashion. ‘Timely fashion’ means as soon as possible, but before the influencer has made their decision about whether or not they want to be sponsored by your company. Influencers receive many requests to promote products and businesses, so you must be respectful of their time and immediate contact.
The last thing you want to do is have an influencer marketing strategy that will agree to work with you, then take a long time to get back to them after they have agreed. This is discourteous and will make the influencer feel like they are unnecessary to you and your business.
Tip Six: Measure Results and Adjust Your Strategy Accordingly
Influencer marketing is a highly effective tactic for small businesses, but it’s not that complicated. When you’re looking to hire an influencer, you should constantly measure results and adjust your strategy accordingly. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your effort:
- Always know what your goals are before you hire an influencer.
- Check the numbers before signing on an influencer.
- Don’t get caught up in just one channel of promotion.
Tip Seven: Understand How Paid vs. Unpaid Partnerships Work
Both paid and unpaid partnerships can be effective for influencer marketing, but they are very different. Understanding the differences between the two can help you determine which is right for your business. Paid partnerships involve a monetary transaction. Usually, the campaign sponsor will pay the influencer to share their product or service on social media. These campaigns are often done with a specific product launch or holiday season. Unpaid partnerships are much less formal than paid ones. They may be more accurately described as relationships between two businesses working together without financial compensation changing hands.
Tip Eight: Take Things Slow, Expect a Learning Curve and Make Adjustments Based on Feedback and Experience
Influencers, it is essential to take things slow. Set up your social media profiles, create a website and brainstorm content ideas. It is also good to have a clear strategy for what you want from an influencer marketing campaign and have a plan of action. If you are just getting started with influencer marketing, expect to learn quite a bit about the process. You will discover which types of influencers work with your brand, the best methods for working with them, and how you can build relationships with them. Also, expect that you must be willing to make adjustments based on the feedback and experience you get along the way.
Conclusion
If you’re a small business, no matter retail business or dropshipping business, leveraging the power of influencer marketing can help your marketing campaign in multiple ways. It can be effective by adding a strong social media presence. The same tricks influencers use to build their own followings can also work for you. It’s not as though you need to fake your interest in their hobbies or pretend you’re best friends with every person who follows them. What it comes down to is providing value and being interesting. If you have an engaging personality, it will shine through, and people will want to learn more about what you have to offer. They may even want to work with you.
