According to Marketing Schools, influencer marketing is when you market your products and services to people who have sway or influence over the things other people buy.
With influencer marketing, the focus is placed on influential people instead of the target market. When you employ this strategy, it’s your goal to identify the people who have influence over buyers and then organize your marketing strategy around them.
So, does this mean that influencers are only famous people? No, not necessarily, although it helps. An influencer is anyone who has expertise in a specific area, popularity or a reputation.
Basically, if this person’s recommendation would convince others to trust your startup and buy your product, the person is an influencer who holds great power.
Influencers share your products and services through blog posts, social media posts, YouTube videos and other forms of social and digital communication.
Here are just a few reasons why influencer marketing can be just what your startup needs.
It Generates Content
Influencers are trusted because their content is honest and authentic. Perhaps they’ve been blogging for many years, established a long following and engendered the trust of a large group of people.
Your startup benefits because you immediately have an audience that trusts the influencer’s words.
Because of this already-established trust factor, your startup inherits this trust as the influencer shares content about you.
It Generates Buzz
You know you need a social media campaign, but perhaps you don’t have the staff or budget to really make it work for you.
You can be sure that the influencers you choose do have hefty social media budgets. They are invested in researching, posting, tracking and responding to their followers.
So, while you might not have the time to make social media a priority in your early days, the influencers you choose can. Once you’ve built relationships with these people, you can trust them to get the word out about you all over social media.
It Helps SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for your startup’s website.
To increase your SEO, you want to have back links. These are links from other websites that come right back to yours. For example, one of your influencers writes about you and includes links to your website.
The more authoritative the linking site is, the better your search engine ranking.
So, when you work with influencers, you have the potential to generate better, higher quality back links for your website. This in turn improves your site’s search ranking.
It Increases Engagement
With millions of websites on the Internet today, it can be hard for a startup to get noticed and be heard.
To get out ahead of the competition, you want to engage your audience. This is where influencer marketing comes in.
Influencers usually have considerable followings and also an impressive reach.
This benefits you because their substantial reach and engagement level affects you directly when they share or engage with your content.
Imagine the influencer who with one article can improve the visits to your website by 200%.
The value of the influencer is seen by an increase in brand awareness for your website and an increase in your own reach and engagement.
Once you have an influencer on board, you’ll start to see more engagement for your brand, more people talking about you, more website traffic and more leads.
Final Thoughts
Influencer marketing can be just what your startup needs if you find the right influencers and get them on board.
Choose people who regularly engage with your target audience. Try to come up with several names because some people will naturally decline.
Look to people in your industry. Find people who have large followings on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and other networks where your customers are. Look for others who have active blogs.
You want to take into account their relationship to your target audience, the amount of reach and engagement they produce and what it will cost you to use them.
Your next step, once you’ve secured your influencer, is to create a strategy. Work it, monitor your results and revise as needed.
Are you a new startup ready to succeed? Are you looking to get your new business off the ground and watch it rise to success? We are here for you. We can help answer your questions and guide you through the process. Outsource your HR duties, finances, payroll and more to us. Contact Escalon today to get started.
Image: Elijah Macleod on Unsplash
