How to use influencer marketing for your business growth [5 Tips]

Influencer marketing is a powerful method to attract new audiences, increase website traffic, drive sales, and raise brand awareness. Businesses are pouring resources to persuade influencers to join their cause and help with promotion. 

For example, if someone has an ecommerce store but fails to attract customers despite offering great goods or services, a single shoutout from an established influencer could make a difference. 

Asking influencers to promote a single product could work as well. If you write educational e-books and sell them on Gumroad, you might find that there is too much competition, and hardly anyone is checking your e-books. The platform also has some negative aspects, such as transaction fees. Such fees can be off-putting, and they encourage content creators to seek Gumroad alternatives with the hopes of making more money.

However, if an influencer shares a URL linking to your product page on Gumroad, you might see plenty of new customers visiting the product page and purchasing it, which would solve your problems.

With that said, there is more to influencer marketing than just sending a random celebrity an inquiry on whether they can promote your product. No, if you wish to see success with influencer marketing, there is more involved in it.

Different Tips to use Influencer Marketing

Comparing top influencers with micro influencers

As you can guess, there are quite a few influencers you can find to promote your goods. It usually comes down to budget. Big corporations can hire S-tier athletes or actors with millions of followers on Instagram or Facebook.

It is also worth mentioning that some of the top influencers already have brands they are loyal to, and they will not feel like betraying them even if you offer a lot of money for promotional posts.

Fortunately, there is no need to stick to celebrities if you cannot establish a relationship with them. Micro influencers are a great alternative. 

Even if an influencer has 5 to 100 thousand followers, they should not be underestimated. If anything, you might find that collaborating with micro influencers is more profitable. Micro influencers are usually considered to be authorities in their respective niches, and they receive a lot of engagement on their content. 

As you can probably guess, someone with 50 thousand followers will charge you less than someone with 500 thousand followers. It means that working with micro influencers will be cheaper. Nevertheless, if you can afford an S-tier influencer with millions of followers and you believe that the money spent will not go into vain, then go for it.

Finding the Right Influencers

Now that you know the differences between micro influencers and regular influencers, start looking for an influencer's profile that fits your needs.

More often than not, businesses focus on social media if they want to find Instagram influencers. After all, if someone has a lot of followers on Instagram or Facebook, it means that collaborating with such an influencer might be worth it. 

Of course, you do not need to limit yourself to the two biggest social media platforms. YouTubers are a great alternative. For instance, if you have a traveling business, collaborating with a vlogger who travels around the world would make a lot of sense. In a similar vein, you can also work with established travel bloggers who share their experience writing articles.

Twitch TV is another example. VPN and energy drink companies have been pushing to collaborate with some of the most popular Twitch TV streamers and ask them to promote these goods to their viewers. 

Influencer-specific platforms like Grin, Upfluence, Influencity, or Tagger are worth a shout as well, though you might find it effortless to reach an agreement with influencers if you get in touch with them directly.

The last thing to note is this—when looking for the right influencer, make sure that their demographic is relevant to what you want to accomplish. When you are promoting a product, the targeted audience should theoretically be interested in the said product. 

Establishing Relationships

Establishing relationships with influencers is not that easy. Do not expect to get a positive response after sending them an email or messaging them directly on social media. No, if you target a top influencer, you will need to woo them with more than just a solid compensation for a promotional post. 

Top influencers likely receive constant collaboration inquiries, meaning that they or their management will ignore some proposals. 

Other than a decent sum for the services, you should also send a clear message of what you want to accomplish. Explain your goals, policies, and expectations. It is necessary to establish these things early on so that both you and the influencer are on the same page.

You need a strong relationship with an influencer that will last for a while. A one-time collaboration is an option, but finding a reliable influencer and then abandoning them will leave you in square one. If you find a reliable influencer, it makes sense to work with them long-term if it is beneficial to your brand.

Deciding on Goals and Content

Since there are different goals to consider with an influencer marketing campaign, you need to decide what yours should be. You may want to:

• Generate leads and drive sales
• Create buzz about your brand
• Drive new followers to your social platforms
• Gain insight on customer behavior

Knowing what your goal is will help figure out what content the influencer will publish on their channels. 

For example, if you wish to generate leads and increase sales, a simple shoutout on an influencer's Instagram page might not be enough. Instead, an influencer should write or share an honest, in-depth product review or create a video reviewing your product themselves. 

On the other hand, if a brand aims to create hype surrounding their new upcoming services or products, they might ask influencers to create a drip campaign on social media. During such a campaign, influencers share little teasing details, which ultimately leads to the reveal at the end of the campaign. 

Measuring Results

Indeed, some aspects of influencer marketing might feel lackluster, and it happens because of the content. By experimenting with various content types to see which ones are providing the best results.

Influencer marketing campaigns can be short when you ask for a single promotional post and be done with it. At the same time, it is more common to work with influencers long-term to reach better results and take your brand to new heights.

Once you find the results to your liking, you will have a better idea of making the most out of influencer marketing.  

From there, you will want to double down and collaborate with more influencers to reach new audiences and continue scaling your business. 

Conclusion

At the end of the day, influencer marketing is one of the best ways for brands to reach their goals. However, since the competition is pretty fierce, and not finding the right influencer can be difficult, it is important to know how to approach the search if you wish to collaborate with reliable influencers. 

Use the information in this article to your advantage when looking for an influencer for your brand.