Influencer Marketing: Effective Tips, Strategies and Examples

In business, trust is the most important thing. 

And since trust is evolving, businesses are putting more effort into building stronger emotions. For a small business, targeting their customer is one thing but choosing the channels which can boost the trust in the brand is a whole new thing.

For that, lots of businesses are approaching influencer marketing. It’s more engaging, effective, and safe. 

But to find the influencer that can represent your brand to your audience requires work. If you are new to this, here is the ultimate guide to help you. 

Why Know About Influencer Marketing?

Building trust is key to any successful business. But since the trust is changing, the Edelman trust barometer in 2017 revealed that people tend to believe less in the media and government as compared to previous times.

However, another reason from Neilsen in 2015 was, The Global Trust in Advertising survey reported 83%people to have more faith when someone they know recommends them something. 

Also, 66% surveyed say that people trust the opinion of people who posted online.

Influencer marketing fills the gap between the brand and its audience. It works as a bridge that helps people in building trust in the brand. 

It’s a great way that helps you in targeting a new audience, boosting brand awareness, and helps in improving your ROI. 

In definition, Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where brands ask influencers and bloggers to endorse their products to the audience. 

Why Should You Consider Influencer Marketing?

Aside from using the built-in audience of influencers, the form of marketing offers several advantages to small businesses. 

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest-growing methods in the market. Around 40% of marketers reported having a separate budget for this method. 

Also, 80% of businesses reported having raised in overall profit due to influencer marketing. 

It Boosts The Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is one of the reasons why businesses are gravitating toward influence marketing. 

Influencers have more presence on social media and people who are following them. It’s a great platform to use for improving brand exposure. 

Using legitimate followers and a high engagement rate can help in making the brand noticed faster. 

It Can Reach The Target Audience

Influencers have more people who believe and take their recommendations seriously. The base of followers is the reason why more and more businesses are approaching them. 

These days, you can easily get influencers no matter what you are selling. Several good and trustworthy influences in fields can target the audience you want to reach. 

It Gives More Engagement 

For a small business, it’s a real struggle to handle social media and take care of likes as well as shares. 

Influencer marketing can bring lots of engagement to your post. It can boost your social media interactions with your customers as they promote it for you. 

It’s helpful for small businesses that are looking for extra help to improve their overall presence on social media. It’s one of the ideal options for improving engagement as well. 

It Gives Stable & Better Content 

Influencer marketing revamps your content as well. It makes sure that your content is relevant and helps in getting more engagement from your audience.

Creating content for your audience and followers is on-trend. It helps in getting more attention and building trust too. To get the advantage from it, influencer marketing can do great help.  

It Gives More Credibility 

One of the reasons why businesses are taking influencer marketing seriously is they are getting credibility from their audience. 

Consumers believe more in content when it’s given by the influencer. The reason behind this is – Influencers are the third part, and the consumers believe their recommendations are unbiased and honest. 

Collaborating with trustworthy influencers helps in making the brand reputation better and also boosts its credibility. 

Types Of Influencers To Know For Business 

Different influencers are suitable for different campaigns. Also, as compared to other options, they all have their own set of followers, reach, and results. 

For a small business, if you are deciding to choose the type of influencer. First, here are some important types you should know, including when and why to use them. 

The Nano Influencers 

Image source: Mention

Nano influencers are the smallest, and they are easily available on social media. You can target Instagram, it’s the main playground of most influencers.

Nano influencers are ideal for small businesses, especially if you are on a tight budget. They deliver effective results, and they can target a specific audience. 

Some basic characteristics will help you in finding nano influencers. It includes: 

• The followers are between 1k to 10K 
• Suitable for low-budget & small business
• Close connection with fans
• More interaction with the audience 
• Typical fans of specific brands 
• Twice engagement rate  

Takeaway: Nano influencers offer more engagement as compared to others, said 2019’s survey from the state of influencer marketing. It’s ideal for small businesses and budget marketing. 

The Micro-influencers 

Micro-influencers are beneficial if you are looking to shift to a specific approach to your brand. 

Image source: Izea

It gives more targets and makes it easy to deliver the message.

 Micro-influencers have all the benefits that you can get from nano; along with that you get more substantial fans and engagement rates. 

The micro-influencer has more followers than nano, well the reason is they are specialized in a specific field.

 It gives more prioritized quality and the audience who are looking for a similar taste. 

Here are some characteristics to understand about micro-influencers- 

• The followers between 10k to 100k
• Specialized in a specific niche 
• It gives average pricing 
• The extremely high rate of engagement
• Offers for compensation like shout outs etc
• The better segment in the audience 
• Reliable and relevant followers

Takeaways: You can easily find micro-influencers on Instagram. Almost 30% of accounts are micro-influencers. 

It’s ideal for your potential customers and followers instead of collaborating with star influencers. 

The Macro Influencers 

Image source: Iconosquareblog

The perfect idea of using macro-influencers is for boosting engagement and improving the reach. 

A macro influencer is for when you want people to know about your brand, notice, and get more discussion. 

It boosts the reputation of your brand and shares more with other customers. 

The micro-influencer is given you more control over running your campaigns related to influencer marketing. Here are more characteristics to know- 

• Followers between 100k to 500k 
• Easy to reach and more engaged 
• Multi-brand collaboration in a low number 
• It’s more costly 
• More loyal followers and better impact

Takeaway: Macro Influencers are ideal options when you are looking for more ways to increase the reputation of your brand, services, and products.

The Mega Influencers 

Mega influencers are best for improving the sales of your product. It has more broad reach so you can get more audience, and it includes 

Unlimited budget as well. 

Image source: Dearmishudad

The target audience might not trust your oversaturation in the placement of a product in the market. That’s why it’s ideal to use it to target maximum reach. 

They are more active in social media. However, it depends on their fan base. Also, you need to check whether they are good for your market or not. 

They are top in the tier in terms of influencers, and here are more characteristics that you need to know about them.

• Followers between 500k to 2M
• They have vast numbers of consumers
• Quick ability to boost brand visibility 
• Popular and well-known in the market 
• Have high price tags 
• Tied with several brands 
• Boost in sales and campaigns 

Takeaway: Working with the mega influencer works better when you need high results and save time from doing the campaign. 

All-Star Influencers 

All-stars are ideal when you want to develop an image of your brand. 

In the case of a partnership with all-stars, you need a high budget, but in return, you get immediate PR along with ads. 

They are usually over sponsored, and collaborating with them allows you to showcase your brand to potential followers. 

All-star influencers are similar to mega influencers, but they have more followers. Also, you can consider them celebrities. 

To know more, here are some characteristics of them- 

• Followers more than 2 million 
• Not really the experts in fields
• Massive numbers of followers
• Instant hit and reach
• Extremely costly and limited to large brands. 

Takeaways: The all-stars are easier to communicate with a larger audience who shares similar tastes and mutual leaders. You can get more conversion rates. 

How To Find The Ideal Influencer For Small Business?

Knowing how to find the influencer who can help your business to grow and make connecting with your audience is the utmost important part. 

The right influencer can help you in achieving your goals, including more traffic, reach, brand awareness, etc. 

To find the one for you, here are important tips to follow. 

Get Your Goals Straight Before You Start 

When you are looking for influencers, do not focus on every influencer you get. It’s important to pick the right influencer for you. 

Before you choose the right one, you are going to find the goals and why you are looking for influencers. 

Start with outlining your campaign, like what kind of results you want to see etc.

You also need to find the objective of your influencer marketing. Here are a few that you can add- 

• Link Building 
• Improvement In Sales
• Brand Awareness
• Build Brand Identity 
• Lead Generation
• Better Engagement 
• Building Audience
• Customer Loyalty

Pick the objectives that define your primary goals. You can search better when you know why you need it and what results in you want. 

Choose the Type of Influencer Campaign 

When you map out the plans for your influencer marketing, now it’s important to consider the type of influencer you want. 

Different types are added in the influencer campaign, It includes- 

• Brand Ambassadors – To regularly promote your brand in exchange, they get discounts or perks.

• Affiliates – Sharing the codes so they earn when someone uses the funnel to buy an item from your brand. 

• Giveaways & Contest – Using contests and giveaways to use influencers mentioning your brand.

• Sponsored Content – Influencers share your content, and in return, you pay for it. 

• Guest Posting – Asking the influencer to let you write on their blog 

• Gifting – Gifting the products in return for posts, promotion, and mentioned

Get Your Influencer For Your Niche 

When you are looking for influencers from your niche, start with the famous ones. They will help you in promoting the message and get more attention on social media platforms. 

Also, they have more control over their audience and they can help you in finding the right way to get your message delivered. 

Pro Tip: Use google alert to get notified about who is using the terms related to your niche

Pick The Influencer That Has a Similar Audience

You don’t have to pick the influencer who is tied to your niche. They can be someone else and do something different too.  

However, if they share a similar audience like you, it can help you in getting a direct connection and share some kind of value. 

But before you pick that, make sure you know about your audience. 

Pro Tip: Make sure to do a target audience analysis. It will help you in understanding more about your audience and how to target them. 

Know About Influencer’s Authority 

Understanding the authority of your influencer also it will determine the relevance and enough to reach the audience you are targeting. 

When you are finalizing your influencer, make sure to analyze and see how right they are for your purpose. 

When you are doing the analysis, here are a few factors to consider- 

• Content Quality 
• Number of Followers 
• Followers Engagement Rate 
• Coverage Depth Niche 
• Website Rank On Alexa

Keep Tracking The Results

When you have a campaign ready to launch, make sure you are tracking them. 

Use influencer marketing KPIs that help you in knowing if you have reached your goal or not. 

Once your influencer market campaign is done, review the results, and decide if you have succeeded or not. 

It will help you in driving more campaigns in the future.

Where To Look For Your Influencer?

Influencer marketing is not limited to celebrities; it includes anyone who has an online presence, a specific amount of audience, and engagement.

To find the best influencers for your small business, you are going to target the places where you can easily find them. 

Here are some of the places which can help you. 

Hashtags 

image source: Benjaminboman

Using a hashtag can help you in finding influencers. It makes it easy to search the content and makes social media more accessible. 

So if you are going to search, use hashtags that are relevant to your brand. This can make it easy for you to get influencers who are working in your niche. 

To start the search, here are a few steps – 

• Go to the search box and search with keywords like sponsored, ad, and influencer. 

• As a result, you will get different profiles. Check the interested ones to know if they are a good fit or not. 

• Check the niche, content, and aesthetics to take the next step. 

• Make sure they have decent numbers of followers. Check the engagement and get an idea of how much you can get from it. 

• Add them to your list and reach out to share the idea.

Pro Tip: You can use tools. For example, the Instagram money calculator can help you in checking the engagement and its worth. 

Also, you can use Hashtag For Likes to find out the popular hashtags that are trending in your niche. 

Social Media Platforms 

The simplest way by which you can find influencers on social media is to start looking for one who is already talking about your brand. 

You can use the mentions and blog posts to find out as well as track down who is already following you. 

Also, there are tools and monitors to get a list of people. You can also use the comment sections to find who is interesting and who is ideal for picking.

Google Alerts 

Google Alert is one of the fastest options that can help in staying connected and relevant. 

Set alerts on keywords that are relevant to your niche and brand. So when someone writes something or discusses something, it will be alerted to you. 

You can easily find blogs, posts, etc., mentioning or your brand.

Bloggers

When you are looking for bloggers, make sure you are also going through the content they are posting. It’s important for you to understand that the content is relevant to your brand or vice versa. 

You can check out the platforms like Group High, Inky Bee, etc. these are helpful to find the influencers much easier for you. 

Influence Marketing Platforms 

Influencer marketing platforms like TRIBE, Buzz stream, Buzz Sumo, etc., are some of the options you can try out. 

The platforms are helpful in finding the influencer that can help you. Also, you can do research on the database according to engagement, category, reach, social platforms, etc.

What To Know About Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is affordable and effective. Also, It shows more positive effects, especially in small businesses where the marketers require to pay more attention to their brand. 

Here are some basic questions you should know about effective influencer marketing. 

Is Influencer Marketing For Your business?

If you are looking for some extra help from a third party to create more brand awareness and attract attention to your product, Influencer marketing is for your business. 

Then, who will do it? Influencer marketing can be tricky. And the biggest mistake you can make is to do it yourself when you have no idea about it. 

Instead of saving, it’s good to invest in professionals to help you out. 

Which Channel Is Suitable For You?

Start with a basic question- Who is your target audience?

Gather the information on where they spend their time and which social media you can easily find them. Once you get it, you can plan your influencer marketing based on the channel. 

Here are some channels that you can consider – 

Website Or Blog 

You can boost the traffic on your website with the help of your influencer. Get an influencer who writes similar to you, and with their help of them, you can do the promotion of your website. 

Also using influencers for sharing your blog content and promotion can help you in reaching a new audience as well. 

Facebook 

You can use influencer marketing to grow the page and group for your brand. 

You can connect your audience more with your Facebook page. You can target influencers who are into a healthy lifestyle etc. 

Instagram  

According to Marketer, Instagram has raked in the list of the top 15 most influential and famous websites around the world. 

Sticking along with Instagram can help a lot in getting brand awareness, even if you don’t consider doing influencer marketing.

YouTube 

There are lots of vloggers on YouTube who can help in promoting your product and get more views. 

YouTube alone generates billions of views, along with having a huge number of users which gives you a better approach to the target.

What’s Your Aim From Using Influencers?

There are several questions you should be asking, for example, why you are working with the influencers, and for what?

Understanding how they can help you and where you need help can help you manage your marketing much easier. 

You can use it for areas like – 

• Brand awareness
• Community engagement 
• Sales
• Web traffic drive 

Examples Of Influencer Marketing That You Should Consider 

Over couples the years, influencer marketing is expanding. There are lots of brands that did amazing work and used the technique to promote their brand successfully. 

However to get initiation and to understand how they did it, here are some of the examples for you to consider. 

Subaru 

Subaru started its campaign #MeetAnOwner using the video to showcase the locations of the new Impreza.  

Image source: mediakix

They created the campaign to attract millennial buyers. 

The brand contacted Devin Grahm who is a YouTuber influencer with more than 5 million subscribers. 

They published an idea of Devin with his friends on slip and slide wearing the parachute and propelled off a cliff of 500-foot height. 

Takeaway – The video was focused on emotions rather than showing the figures or any kind of facts.

There can be lots of aspects like safety features, fuel economy, and horsepower that are considered as emotional for car buying.

But Grahm made the video focusing on natural evolution which attracted lots of millennials’ eyes. 

Tom’s Of Maine 

The brand is forced to make toiletries that are completely natural-based ingredients. 

The company was looking to promote the product. Also, to make health consider buyers more focused and encouraged to try their product.

Image source: influential 

Instead of going with any big names, The company targeted the micro-influencers who asked their followers to share their posts.

With this strategy, the company reached 4.4 million customers within the first three months. 

Takeaways – For promotions, more followers might sound tempting. But it’s not always needed.

Micro-influencers are much more affordable, and they are effective. Also, they are focused on micro endorsement, which gives a more focused campaign. 

Audible 

Audible is an amazon company, and they sell monthly membership, audiobooks, podcasts, etc.,

The marketing team partners with influencers as well as celebrities of different sizes. They also add micro-influencers. 

Instead of focusing on one option, they get the best from every possible option.

Image source: mentionme

The company offered the product to Jesse Driftwood as he shared a memorable caption talking about productivity and business management. 

Takeaway –  Audible works with different sizes of influencers. Driftwood had less than 100,000 followers but still, they teamed up with him.

The idea was the loyalty and more engagement customer that Driftwood had. With his caption, he made their customer feel the authentic suggestion. 

Common Mistakes In Influencer Marketing & How To Fix?

Influencer marketing is one of the most trendings. And as per the facts, there will be a $10 billion industry by the end of 2020.

The market is going to be more competitive. And in such a situation, you want to have impactful strategies for your influencer marketing. 

Some major mistakes can cause you some drawbacks. Here are some of them that you can consider avoiding. 

You Are Not Considering Context OverReach

Influencer marketing is not just about how many followers the creator has. Lots of business marketers end up focusing on the number of followers. 

But instead of that, you should prioritize the content they are offering. Are they from your niche? Or can you fit it with what you sell? 

The major things you should check instead of followers are content to fit and rates in engagement. 

Lots of businesses prefer to work with mid-level influencers. They have followers between 10k to 100k. It’s enough for traffic, and it’s manageable. 

Also, it’s enough numbers to interact with and stay in contact with. Unlike mega-list influencers, it’s not that expensive. 

How To Fix – 

When it’s about influencers, don’t always focus on numbers. It’s crucial to consider the overall picture. 

Instead of blindly following the followers, focus on what kind of content they generate. Look at the interactions they had, like comments, blog posts, etc. 

If your content is not fitting the influencer, no matter how much you work, it won’t resonate with the followers. 

You Don’t Have Influencer Persona 

Influencer persona is helpful when you want to ensure that you are reaching the audience through the influencers. 

Having an influencer persona helps you in focusing on how to approach the customer and understand common pain points too. 

How To Fix It – 

For business, they should have the influencer persona ready, so they know what they want to convey through their influencer, 

Here are a few questions that you need to answer first – 

• What are the pain points your audience has, and how do you want the influencer to address it?

• Which channel is preferable to connect, seek advice, and share feedback?

• Which channel is your influencer using, and how much time are they going to invest?

• What type of story will fit your influencer for your brands?

You Are Only Focus On Sales 

Generating sales is one of the plus points of using influencer marketing. But it should not be the only point to judge. 

Through influencer marketing, you can achieve different goals too, like more brand awareness, earning media exposure, and traffic to your website. 

For example, having a product that is higher in price, there are chances that your target audience might not be that impulsive to buy it. 

But with the help of influencer marketing, if you successfully get attention and create awareness. You can get more sales in the future. 

How To Fix It – 

Instead of focusing on Influencer marketing ROI. Add more key points like traffic, media attention, impression, social media followers, etc., to your influencer program.

You Are Not Giving Complete Information To Influencers 

Having an influencer who doesn’t know much about your product and ends up saying something you don’t offer or do is embarrassing.

Not only does it show that your influencer is not well informed, but it makes your impression bad. 

Also, it can misinform your audience and it can lead to future hassle too. 

How To Fix it – 

When you are dealing with the influencer, make sure you, as well as your influencer, are well equipped. 

Get your theme ready for your campaign, brand story, hashtag, and other things ready. 

You Are Not Putting It On Paper 

Lots of businesses plan their campaign mentally. Influencer marketing is not a one-off campaign.  

It’s more about detailing and utilizing different ideas. Consumers need to know more and hear more so they can build trust and try your product. 

How To Fix It – 

Start with working monthly or quarterly. Also, craft more ideas to make the audience hear about the brand more. 

For example, you can send monthly or quarterly products to the influencers to promote. 

It will help in boosting trust as they will see the same brand’s different mentions. 

You Don’t have ‘Space’ For Creativity. 

Having too strict details can end up killing the room for creativity. 

Your influencer has more ideas about their audience than you. They have the understanding and know-how to share the story that will connect with them directly. 

Giving too strict instruction can ruin the approach. Also, having a different tone than usual can make their audience lose interest and trust in them. 

How To Fix It – 

When you are sharing the information, make sure to add the basic and important ones that should not be altered at any cost. 

It can ruin the authenticity of your brand. However, give enough space to them to construct the story and change according to their audience. 

Let them share the experience and add feelings to make it more genuine. 

You Don’t Have Clear Goals 

When you are choosing the influence of marketing, it’s important to understand the purpose and what you want to achieve. 

Several companies choose influencers without knowing their goals at the beginning. It creates confusion but also makes your campaign look disorganized and less ideal for success. 

How To Fix It – 

Start with writing down your goals. Why are you choosing influencer marketing, for what, and for whom?

Make sure to measure your process every month, so you can know if it’s working for you or not. 

Collect more ideas and data to understand as well as to brainstorm. 

You Are Not Considering Themes 

Champions should have themes, Especially if you are going with influence marketing. 

Having a theme gives you the template for planning the campaign. It gives a higher quality and straight point of view about your product. 

How To Fix It – 

Align your themes along with what you are promoting and what message you want to convey.  

With the help of influencers, you can make the content more educational and target your audience to get more results. 

Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs)

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