How your startup can use influencer marketing

Imagine a marketing channel that could provide high ROI, promote word-of-mouth, and increase brand awareness. Welcome to the wonderful world of influencer marketing! As a business owner, you may be wondering how you can utilize this powerful marketing tool to reach new customers.

Look no further – this article will provide you with everything you need to know about using influencer marketing in your business this year!

What is influencer marketing?

First things first – let's define what influencer marketing is. The practice refers to working with individuals who have a large following and can therefore reach a broad audience. These individuals are called influencers.

An influencer is somebody with the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship. Here are the main types of influencers in 2022:

• Celebrities: Kim Kardashian currently has 326 million followers on Instagram. When she posted about her new shapewear line, Skims, it sold out in just a few minutes.
• Industry experts: Neil Patel is an entrepreneur, digital marketing guru, and bestselling author. He has over 700,000 followers on Twitter, and his blog receives millions of views per month.
• Micro-influencers: Micro-influencers are everyday people with a smaller but highly engaged social media following. They typically have between 100 and 10,000 followers on their platform of choice. They offer a more personal touch than celebrities or industry experts and often have very engaged audiences.

How does influencer marketing work?

The idea of influencer marketing is to tap into the social media followings of trusted people to promote your product or brand. The influencer will mention or show your product on their social media platform, and their followers will see it. If the product is something that interests them, they may make a purchase.

It's a simple but effective way to reach a larger audience and boost sales. And, because people trust recommendations from people they know and respect, influencer marketing can be an extremely powerful marketing tool.

Why you should consider using influencer marketing

Having your brand mentioned by a celebrity is not only cool, but it can also do wonders for your business.

Here are some of the top reasons to use influencer marketing:

• Reach a larger audience: One of the main benefits of influencer marketing is that it allows you to reach a larger audience than you could through traditional marketing channels.
• Increase brand awareness: Influencer marketing can help increase brand awareness and reach for your business. When people see your product being used by an influencer they respect, they'll be more likely to remember your brand when they need a product or service that you offer.
• High ROI: When done correctly, influencer marketing can have a very high ROI. One study found that 83% of marketers found influencer marketing better or comparable than traditional channels.
• Increase social engagement: Social media platforms are all about engagement. The more people engage with your brand on social media, the more likely they will become customers or clients. Influencer marketing can help increase social engagement by getting more people talking about your brand.
• Build relationships: When you work with influencers, you have the opportunity to build relationships with them and others in their networks. These relationships can be valuable in the future, whether you're looking to collaborate on a project or promote your brand to a new audience.

How to use influencer marketing

Now that you know some of the benefits of influencer marketing let's take a look at how to use it. Here are some examples of influencer marketing on different channels.

Instagram/Facebook

Instagram is where influencer marketing really took off. It's a visually-based platform, which makes it perfect for product promotion. Most brands will work with influencers on sponsored posts. The influencer will take a photo or video of themselves using the product and include a caption with a link to where people can buy it.

These Instagram posts work great for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. But, many other types of businesses can use this type of influencer marketing.

For example, you could work with travel influencers to promote your property if you own a hotel. They could take photos or videos of their stay and share them with their followers, along with a link to your website. Or, if you own a restaurant, you could work with food influencers to promote your menu items.

As the parent company of Instagram, Facebook is also a great platform for influencer marketing. You can use influencers in the same way as you would on Instagram, creating sponsored posts with photos and videos of them using your product. You could also use Facebook Live to do a Q&A session or demonstration with an influencer.

Youtube

The world's second-largest search engine is a great place to reach your target audience through influencer marketing. If you have a practical product or service, you could work with an influencer to create a sponsored video review or demonstration.

A B2B vendor of kitchen appliances could work with a cooking influencer to create a sponsored video of them using your product. Youtube is also big with the video gaming crowd. Live streaming is a popular content format, so if you have a video game-related product, this could be an excellent platform for you.

Sponsoring an influencer's existing content is a good idea too. If they do a weekly roundup of the best new products on the market, you could pay to have your product featured in that roundup.

Youtube influencer marketing can be a great way to reach a specific target audience. And, because Google owns Youtube, there's a good chance that your sponsored video will show up in related searches, which can help you reach an even wider audience.

TikTok

Next up is TikTok, the newest social media platform on the block. It's quickly become one of the most popular platforms, especially with Gen Z. And it's a great place for influencer marketing, as the mysterious algorithm makes many videos go viral.

TikTok is all about publishing creative content. So, if you have a product that can be used innovatively, you might want to look into it. For example, if you sell makeup, you could work with a beauty influencer to create a sponsored video of them doing a creative makeup look. Maybe they can add a dance routine to make it more fun and engaging.

Websites/Blogs

Most influencers and celebrities have their own website or blog. You can use this to your advantage with influencer marketing. You can work with an influencer to create sponsored content for their website or blog. It could be in the form of a written post, video, or even a podcast episode.

Many online pet stores partner with pet influencers (who are sometimes literal pets) to create a sponsored blog post about the best new products on the market. They could include links to your website in the post so their readers can easily find and purchase your products.

Then, there’s submitting a guest post to an influencer's website or blog. This is a great way to get your name and product in front of an audience and introduce your brand to the world. Plus, it will help your SEO if you include backlinks to your website in the guest post.

How to get started with influencer marketing

Now for the fun part – how do you actually get started with influencer marketing? Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Define your goals: What do you hope to achieve with influencer marketing? Is it more sales from website visitors? More social media followers? Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start looking for influencers who can help you reach those goals.

2. Do your research: Not all influencers are created equal. Some have a larger audience than others, but that audience may not be engaged. Others are more relevant to your industry than their peers. So, it's essential to do your research to find the right influencers for your campaign. You should also be wary of bots and fake accounts.

Make sure you're working with real people who have a genuine interest in your product or service.

3. Have a budget in mind: Influencer marketing can be expensive. Depending on the size and engagement of an influencer's audience, you could be paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a single post. So, it's crucial to have a budget in mind before you start reaching out to influencers.

4. Contact the influencer: Once you've found an influencer you want to work with, the next step is to reach out and contact them. Many influencers have their contact information listed on their website or social media profiles. If not, you can try reaching out to them through a mutual friend or connection.

5. Negotiate the terms of the partnership: Once you've contacted an influencer, it's time to negotiate the terms of the partnership. This includes things like how much you'll pay them, what type of content they'll create when they aim to publish the content and any other details of the partnership. It would be best to get all of this in writing, so there are no misunderstandings later.

6. Monitor the results: After the content is published, monitoring the results is crucial. You need to watch things like website traffic, social media engagement, and sales. If you don't see the results you were hoping for, you may need to adjust your strategy or try working with a different influencer.

Final thoughts

Influencer marketing can be a great way to reach a larger audience and achieve your business goals. By following these tips, you'll be on your way to running a successful influencer marketing campaign.

Do you have any tips for running a successful influencer marketing campaign? Share your thoughts in the comments below!