Influencer marketers, as the name implies, are people who are active on one or more social media channels and who typically encourage people to purchase (or avoid) certain goods and/or services). Following are some tips on how to use influencer marketing to help people get to know and trust your business.

Identify Your Target Audience

The first step in learning how to use influencer marketing is to know your target audience. You have to know who you want to reach before you can find those who can help you to reach them.

If you aren't sure what type of people would appreciate your product and/or services the most, check your website on Google Analytics and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Where are most of your website visitors located?
  • What group of people frequent your business? Consider age, gender, financial background and other factors to accurately determine who is most likely to do business with you.
  • What group of people make the most expensive purchases from your business? You may be surprised to find that a very small group of clients is actually providing you with the most business.
  • Do people come back to your business repeatedly or do you need to rely on a regular influx of new clients?

Once you know who to target, it's time to look for an influencer who is already effectively reaching that particular audience.

Start Small

It can be tempting to feel that you need to find an influencer with millions of social media followers in order to make a dent in your industry. However, the truth is that micro-influences actually have more influence and generate more organic traffic than those who have an untold number of social media fans. What is more, it's usually easier to work out a deal with a micro-influencer than it is to get in touch with someone who probably gets thousands of emails every single week.

If you aren't sure how to get in touch with influencers in your field, consider the following tips from influence marketing experts:

  • Meeting potential influencers face to face is one of the best ways to get to know people who could promote your business at some point in the future. Go to industry-related conferences and expos to get to know new people and help them get to know you.
  • Twitter is an effective social media platform to use to find potential influencers. LinkedIn is great if you are targeting a B2B market.
  • Do careful online research to find people who are honest and trustworthy. Never choose an influencer without knowing his or her goals, plans and objective.
  • Look for people you can help. Influence marketing is a two-way relationship. As you help your influencer reach a greater audience, your influencer helps you by promoting your products and/or services to his or her audience.

Know What You Want from the Relationship

Another important aspect of learning how to use influencer marketing is to identify what you want out of an influencer marketer relationship. If you are looking for an honest product review, be prepared to not only provide the influencer with a free product but also accept the fact that not everything the influencer has to say about your product may be 100% positive. If you want a marketer who regularly includes links to your products on his or her site, you may need to provide some sort of remuneration. In other instances, influencers may want early and/or exclusive information about new products and/or services you intend to offer in the future.

You also need to know what you can do to help the influencer in question. Perhaps the influencer would appreciate writing a guest post on your blog from time to time. Such a relationship would benefit both you and the influencer, as guest blogging helps introduce your blog to a new audience and enables the influencer to get in touch with your existing clients.

More Important Tips on How to Use Influencer Marketing

  • Never rely solely on one or two influencers. Continually look for new people to build an influencer marketing relationship with. The more people you have promoting your business and products, the better.
  • Regularly evaluate your relationship with your current influencers. If your relationship with a particular person is not particularly productive, look for ways to end it on good terms.
  • Always be honest with any influencer you choose to work with. Integrity and trust are the foundation of every single successful business relationship.

You can also get professional help in building your brand name and promoting your business to your target audience. Brandgy offers a number of helpful services to enable you to reach a wider audience than you have in times past, including local SEO, content marketing and offsite marketing. Get in touch with us today to discover how to boost your website traffic and sales.