If you’re a social media fanatic, or a business owner looking to expand, you’ve inevitably heard of the phrase ‘influencer marketing’.
But what is it, why should you be using it, and – most importantly – how can you use influencer marketing?
This guide will give you everything you need to get started.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencers are one of the fastest-growing marketing strategies. It’s heavily focused on word-of-mouth but uses other people’s existing influence to do it.
When people want to purchase something, they’ll often take a look online to compare different brands, check the reviews and ask their friends or family’s opinion. In fact, Oberlo report that a huge 9 out of 10 people check online reviews before going ahead with a purchase.
Rather than taking the word of the brand you’re buying from, customers will almost always seek out the opinions of people they trust. And one of these trusted people is their favorite influencer.
Influencer marketing simply uses the influence a certain person has over others. Influencers in the digital world are trusted by thousands or millions of people, meaning their opinions are hugely valuable for brands.
Having your product positively reviewed by an influencer who has a similar fanbase to your target audience could help you skyrocket your sales in no time.
Why should I use influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a top marketing strategy for small and large businesses alike. Influencers help build trust around your product for consumers and save you money on content creation (influencers will create high-quality content for you). Using a variety of influencers in different areas can also help you to expand your audience to new locations – making it perfect for growing your small business into a large enterprise.
How to use influencers for marketing
So, now you know what influencer marketing is, you’re probably already following someone on your social feeds that could be a potential asset to your business. Here are a few ways in which you can leverage the use of influencers for your brand:
Content creation
You can use influencers to help you create custom content that appeals to your target audience. Usually, you’ll provide the influencer with a brand guideline so that there is a level of consistency between your typical content and theirs. They can create any style of content you’d like from social media posts, videos, or even blog posts.
Seeding
Seeding is where you’ll offer an influencer something for them to promote, rather than expecting them to create content. For example, you could provide them with event tickets, a new product, or something that you’ve made with them, and their audience in mind.
The idea is that they’ll promote this on their feeds to their fans, who will then want to buy the same or follow your brand.
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Collaboration
Another way to work with influencers is to collaborate. Adding their branding to your site or launching a line of products in their name could help you sway their audience into buying your brand. Influencers will likely expect to receive a commission on each item sold.
There are so many other ways to use influencers for your small business. This is just the tip of the iceberg to get you started.