What is Influencer marketing and how to use it in your business?

In order for your business to grow, it needs to reach as many customers as possible. However, that can be very hard to achieve, especially if you have a new business. That’s why using influencer marketing can be a very good idea. Thanks to this unique form of marketing, you will be able to generate leads and customers naturally and with great success. Some believe that in 2019 influencer marketing will be the choice of internet marketing. Is this means search engine optimization will be a thing of the past? your guess is as good as mine.

What is influencer marketing?

At its core, influencer marketing is very easy to understand. The idea is that you need to use an influencer to reach their customer base. Obviously, you need to do some research to figure out what influencers have a large audience that fits your industry and targeted clientele as well. An influencer is a person who managed to create a large audience, and they do have the power to influence the perception of other people.

You will have to contact the influencer and talk with them to see how much they charge to promote your business in front of their audience. Great influencers have the power to influence how people perceive a certain product. So, as you can imagine, once they promote your business and recommend your products/services, you can have a great boost in sales.

Create good content that promotes your brand

As you can imagine, influencer marketing will be great for promoting your products and services. However, once you hire the influencer you need to provide them with content that they will share with their own audience. That’s why you always need to make sure that the content you have is among some of the best out there. You have to realize that quality content has the potential to take your business to new heights and improve it unlike never before.

You should create lots of articles, promotional as well as informative videos, educational but also funny images. After all, the more content you have online, the better it will be for you. You should also provide the influencer with multiple links, be it to your Facebook, YouTube, your site and any other platform where you are very active. The idea is to use the influencer as a link between his audience and your own business.

Is influencer marketing better than paid ads?

That depends on what type of influencer you choose, the prices they are asking for and a variety of other factors. But while influencer marketing seems to be on the expensive side of things, the reality is that it can end up being very affordable if you pick the best influencer to suit your needs. It all comes down to your niche. Sometimes you can generate more sales with smaller influencers if they are targeting your niche in particular.

That’s why you need to study the influencer market and actively figure out the best pick to suit your needs. Ideally, you want to analyze the influencer performance too. Some companies go with multiple smaller influencers as a test and then they adapt and adjust based on the overall process. It’s certainly a good idea to check this out and try it yourself, with results being more than ok.

Paid ads still work, so you shouldn’t stop using them completely. The best marketing approach would be to start focusing on paid ads as well as influencer marketing. Combining these two promotional methods will help you save quite a lot of money, and it can bring in some astonishing results every time.

Create a great business relationship with your influencers

Aside from using their services and paying for them, it’s also a good idea to try and reward the influencers if possible. Offering them a positive review on their own platforms, promoting them online as well and also liking and commenting their post is always handy. It’s never easy to create solid business relationships. That’s why you need to solidify the relationship you have with your influencers. But don’t ask them for favors once you established a working relationship.

Best influencer marketing tips you can use:

1. Make sure that you provide the influencer with documentation and information about your business. But at the same time, you should leave them creative freedom. Sure, they need to have some of your content, but if they want to be creative and promote you in their own way, let them do that.
2. Set up dedicated remarketing ads for visitors referred from influencers. Even if their first visit will not be a success, you can still get them back as customers, which is very handy!
3. Use multiple platforms for influencer marketing. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are among some of the best here.
4. Create a way for you to track all analytics and information related to these referred clients. You want to see as much information as possible, so you can create a new marketing campaign based on their needs.
5. Optimize your website for mobile, because many leads from the influencer will come from mobile. And that’s why it’s super important to have a fully optimized, easy to use and reliable website.
6. Try to tie the influencer compensation to the campaign performance. Obviously, if the campaign is a success, he will be paid substantially more. This offers an incentive to the influencer to boost his power so you can get more business.
7. Talk with the influencer and ask him for feedback about your content and strategy. Will these work for his audience? Do they need to be adapted? The best influencers are the ones that will actively try to assist and help you.
8. Combine influencer marketing with a plethora of other marketing campaigns. If you want to boost your exposure online, you can’t use a single marketing campaign with influencers. Use paid ads, SEO, influencer marketing, local marketing and anything at your disposal. The more places your business appears, the better.

Using influencer marketing is one of the best ways to acquire new clients. That being said, you do need to find the right influencer and work closely with him to adapt your message to his/her audience. It’s definitely worth the effort though, as most influencers will deliver a great sales boost for your company. Just try to keep that in mind and start using influencer marketing right away, you will be very happy with the results!

image credit: https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-influencer-marketing/