A checklist of the do’s and don’ts of influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is a fantastic marketing tool. Now is the time to get started, using these five tips and solid Do’s and Don’ts for better results.
We’ve encountered them throughout our lives—those people whose influence matters, even when we don’t realize it. Those types of people are often referred to as the “cool kids.” They’re popular because they’re confident and admired and respected because they’re outgoing and friendly. You might have thought things would change as you moved into adulthood, but that isn’t the case. It’s just a different group of “cool kids” who influence you and others as you mature. As a marketer, you need to consider how these “cool kids” can benefit you and your business.
Bloggers and social media celebrities are the “cool kids” of the 21st century. Their influence is even more widespread, thanks to the rapidly advancing world of technology and social networking. What they say and post about is even more revered than the kids who wore the cool shoes to school when you were a teenager. Use that to your advantage by implementing a popular new marketing trend: influencer marketing.
5 Tips for Using Influencers for Promoting Your Brand
- Realize marketing is constantly evolving. You can either get on board or get left behind. This realization is the first step to delving into relatively new forms of marketing.
- If you don’t already have a social media presence, get one. Social networking is free to begin with, and the advantages are exponential. Plus, you can find tips to work with top influencers just by seeing what influencer marketing is all about. If you have a social media account, you have likely seen influencer marketing.
- Before researching which influencer(s) you think would be the best fit for your brand, look at influencer marketing best practices. There are many different options to choose from. Perhaps your brand is one with lots of photo ops. That means a strong Instagram presence makes sense for your company. Perhaps you have a product that’s easy to write about. Choosing a blogger could be the best fit for you.
- Find influencers. Do online research. Once you find someone who’s online presence and tone fit your brand, you’ve got to convince them. Sometimes this takes more than one contact attempt. Be persistent without being annoying, and use unique language when inviting them to promote your product. Your company is likely one of many who would like to employ their services. You’ll need to make an effort to stand out. Quickly and succinctly show them why they should promote your business over others.
- Maintain dialogue with your influencer(s), but don’t be pushy. Let them use their own voice — a voice that’s already popular and includes a large following — to endorse your brand.
Do’s and Don’ts of Influencer Marketing
As is the case with every type of marketing, there are definitely some Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to influencer marketing. Let’s start with the DON’TS:
- DON’T micro-manage. You must be willing to release the reins a bit when you’re asking someone to very publicly endorse your products and/or services. If you try to tell them what to say — if they even go for it — their followers will notice, and what should have been a great marketing strategy can go south pretty quickly.
- DON’T literally USE an influencer and then sever ties. It’s important that if you want them to continue to endorse your products, or even if you want them to help hook you up with other influencers, that you encourage and maintain a working relationship with them.
- DON’T just choose the first popular social media presence you see to market your products. DO your research. Choose wisely. Aligning your business with the right influencer is a process similar to hiring the right employee. Who you choose reflects on your business. Choose someone whose endorsement will be accepted positively by their following. This may seem silly, but if you choose a celebrity who often posts in a sarcastic tone, your business will likely not be taken seriously by their followers.
Some things you DO want to do when getting started in influencer marketing:
- DO be careful about choosing the right person to endorse your brand. This can’t be emphasized enough. For example, it wouldn’t make much sense for Ben Affleck to post an endorsement of high heeled shoes. That’s a bit of an over-obvious example, but there are many less obvious situations in which an endorsement by a particular person just simply wouldn’t make sense.
- DO maintain your relationship with your influencers. Suggest other companies like yours that you feel would be a good fit for them to promote. Influencer marketing is a great source of income for top online presences, just as it is a fantastic marketing opportunity for your business.
- DO continue to try new and exciting versions of influencer marketing. Perhaps you start with a celebrity posting about your products on Twitter. Don’t stop there. Keep moving forward. Next time, you might consider Instagram influencer marketing or some other social media influencer, and then keep progressing beyond that.
Once you see the results of influencer marketing to successfully promote your business, you’ll be glad you moved into the 21st century and gave social influencer marketing a try. Those “cool kids” can now help you promote your business in ways you can’t even imagine. For those who really aren’t sure about how influencer marketing can benefit them, attending an influencer marketing conference would be a highly beneficial way to learn the ins and outs of the process. Regardless of how you get started, you will want to jump onboard. Influencer marketing is the way to get your brand noticed.