Influencer Marketing – A Powerful Tool

We all at some point might have gone through this stage where we buy a certain product just because it is endorsed by some big celebrity. Just the fact that the name is associated with the product or service, one can suddenly see a surge in your website traffic. This is known as influencer marketing. Though it isn’t easy to really bring on board a celebrity yet if compared to an unknown person/non-celebrity, it has more impact.

The idea is to rope in create brand awareness and affinity through an individual. Even the name of a brand or sharing of some content related to your brand by a celebrity or someone influential is all part of influencer marketing. A really powerful tactic, but trying to figure out the best influencer can be really difficult. One wrong or right decision can change the entire scene. The influencer’s relevance to your market target, your efforts and ideas and if how much he/she can influence is all that matters.

Targeting Influencers

In the social media realm, one can find both niche as well as large influencers who can actually have an impact for your brand. Now, who you want to reach out to ultimately depends on your goals, which could be:

To Increase awareness: Everything comes down to your goal. If you want to create or build awareness about your brand or product/service, it actually makes more sense to go after large influencers. Roping in large influencers automatically gets you a lot of star power and a very large following. It’s very important that you keep both your company’s and the influencer’s brand in your mind as you identify relevant influencers. One should also be sure about the fact that the influencer’s personal brand should not contradict your own.

To Drive sales: If there is already some buzz regarding your brand or maybe if you are targeting a few distinct markets, then you can think of reaching to niche influencers. These influencers operate within a semi-isolated section of a larger vertical. Now, that you’ve developed your list, here are some tips for engaging with influencers:

  1.  It isn’t necessary but it does help to get a personal introduction to a large influencer. So, when you have a mutual connection with a large influencer it actually helps decreases the initial hesitation of your initial contact and the probability of the influencer earnestly considering your request does increase.
  2.  Keep things real. Take your time, do your research to understand you’re influencer better and their passion. This lets you not only build a more personal relationship, but also helps you form one which is beneficial for both sides.
  3. Don’t over expect because that is the reality. Although, your incentive doesn’t always have to be monetary, but it’s important to have one. For e.g. if you are targeting say a fashion influencer. Even providing exclusive information about your product can help you a great deal. While you get the benefits, the influencer reinforces the position of the product/service as a fashion expert with exclusive information. You can consider the various offerings by the company’s and determine whether any of them can be beneficial to your target influencers. Sharing a few incentives you could potentially offer:
  • Promoting the content by the influencer
  • Free products (you get the rights to review those products)
  • Access to data or information
  • Collaboration on content creation

Whoever you’re working with, be it large or niche influencers, or maybe a combination of both, keep in mind that strategy is the key. Do build relationships with the right influencers and in the right time because that way influencers would be sharing with their networks around the same time so you can enjoy maximise the profit and impact.



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