Influencer marketing is the type of marketing that primarily focuses on using industry leaders to help convey the message of your brand to your target audience.
Instead of marketing directly to potential customers via direct marketing campaigns, you get the word out for yourself through influencers.
This is very different from Search engine optimisation campaigns, which focuses more on what information the prospective audience is searching for online and works around those queries. The influencer marketing instead focuses on reaching out to influencers who are trusted by their followers due to their sheer content and topical authority.
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These influencers may be celebrities, achievers, or other significant people known to have garnered trust and credibility among segments of the audience by virtue of their authenticity or expertise in their domains.
Getting an influencer to follow your brand could benefit you in various ways like helping increase brand awareness, gaining credibility among the target market, improving your SEO rank, and expanding your overall reach.
If you are looking out to market your product or service through influencers, this blog gives you 11 ways by which you can make influencers follow your brand.
How an Influencer might follow your Brand
Influence More Consumers
While you may wish to stick with the tried and tested methods of marketing, why lose out on an opportunity to expand your customer base through influencer marketing.
Implement influencer marketing as a part of your existing marketing strategy and check out the results for yourself.
Gift Your Product
Find bloggers that share your aesthetic and reach out to them by sending them your product as a present.
The purpose of gifting your product to the influencer is exposure through social media avenues.
The influencer may choose to post about the product and its benefits of their social media handles, which could bring in publicity.
For instance, if you own a brand of makeup, sending across some products to renowned makeup artists with a big fan following could be a wise idea.
Our team of social media experts can draft a complete strategy to promote your brand on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Giveaways
You could choose to partner with the influencer in giving away your company’s products to winners of contests announced on the influencer’s page.
This will not only help in increasing the number of followers on your social media accounts but will also create a buzz about your products in the target market.
Make sure that the products that you offer to giveaway are useful as we need to keep the audience engaged in the contest.
Referral/Affiliate Program
Offer a decent payout in return for successful referrals.
Bloggers would require spending time and energy in referring their own audience to your company, thus, reward them with a return on investment.
Offer bloggers an incentive to promote your brand and launch an affiliate program to increase conversion rate.
For example, Amazon has a robust affiliate program that offers higher commissions to those bringing in more referrals.
Improve Trust in your Brand
As per a study done by Nielsen, only 58% of consumers trust branded websites in comparison with a whopping 92% who trust recommendations from influencers.
70% of consumers surveyed said that they trust consumer opinions shared online while only 29% of them agreed to have trust in advertisements sent on their mobile phones.
This implies that people believe what influencers have to say about a brand more than what the brand itself has to say.
Native Advertising
Influencer marketing is a form of native marketing. This means that it comprises content that consumers already view.
This is great news because 47% of consumers block ads using apps or other methods but still view what influencers say about your brand.
This means that about half your audience will not even get the chance to see your ads if you opt for traditional marketing over influencer marketing.
Social media has opened up new and unconventional paths for marketers. Twitter marketing, for instance, is great for brands to interact with customers, reach out to influencers and keep tabs on the latest trends of the industry.
Let Your Influencer be Free
Remember that your influencer has been around for a while and has a larger follower base. So they probably know what attracts the audience and what may not work well.
Therefore, give your influencer to creative freedom to market your product in a manner that would reap the best results.
Let them stick with their signature style and tone.
It has worked well for them in the past and in high probability, will work well with your product too.
Find the Appropriate Influencer
Do not just go by the number of followers a person has, watch out for their engagement rates.
If you choose to work with a celebrity, you may eventually find out that he/she stole the limelight while your product went unnoticed.
Therefore, look for an influencer who is influential in your niche and has the potential to divert his own followers to your brand.
You may use tools like NinjaOutreach to find appropriate influencers.
Create Original Products Along With Your Influencer
There are more ways than one in which you can use an influencer to gain profitability.
Apart from using their expertise to grow your brand, make good use of their knowledge to build unique products that could entice the target market.
Taking into consideration an influencer’s opinion on designing your product could give you a deeper insight into the expectations of potential customers.
This way, you would be able to create products that suit your target audience better, consequently resulting in more sales.
Create an Influencer Network
An association with one influencer will help you promote your company; however, having a network of influencers will take you miles ahead in reaching out to a broad audience.
You will no more be restricted to potential customers of a nice but interact with a variety of customer groups.
This could be fruitful in increasing your brand’s visibility, driving conversions, meeting your brand’s marketing goals, and lots more.
Let Consumers Experience your Brand
An influencer marketing campaign must not solely revolve around an influencer promoting your brand or product. It must create an impact that lets customers get a feel and experience of your brand.
Your primary aim behind launching an influencer marketing program must be to make your brand come alive.
Let the followers of your influencer get associated with your brand in a more personalized way, such that they feel connected with it.
Induce a positive experience for potential customers. Better customer engagement almost always results in better conversion rates.
Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways of reaching out to your target audience and establishing a positive brand image.
Try it out for yourself and see how it benefits your brand in myriad ways.
