In the simplest of terms, everyone’s an influencer if you think about it.  It is human nature to share about the brands, businesses, and things we love with the people we interact with.  In today’s terms though, influencer marketing is a form of marketing that involves individuals on social media that share brands and products to their unique and engaged audiences (i.e. followers).  Many brands and businesses will pay influencers to endorse their products through photos and videos. If you’re considering dipping your toe into the influencer marketing world, here are 5 ideas and tips to consider when getting started.

• Consider the size of your brand:  The size of your company should be directly aligned with the popularity of the influencer who endorses you.  If you’re a smaller sized brand, you should align with micro influencers (i.e. 1,000 – 100,000 followers on social media platforms). Micro influencers tend to have a smaller following, but higher engagement with those that do follow them.  This tends to lead to a better ROI for your business. 
• Host an event:  This is a great way for smaller, local level businesses to tap into influencers that are in your area.  Host a small event, and invite individuals from your area that have a following and are in your niche.  You don’t need a big budget for this either!  Simply invite them in to see your store, or a new product, and provide light appetizers and drinks.  You could even gift influencers with your new product or a gift card to spend in the future as a thank you for coming and sharing with their audiences. 
• Give influencers control of the creative: Provide influencers with your creative vision for your brand or product, but allow them the creative freedom to bring your story to life with their audience.  This will make the content come across more organic, and less forced. They know what nuances work best for those that follow them. 
• Create ongoing relationships: Find influencers that you can continue to work with in various ways over time.  Don’t just reach out to an influencer and have them post about your business one time and be done.  Approach influencer marketing as an overall part of your marketing strategy.  Figure out the unique cadence of your business and tap into influencers to help promote you during those times.  The more your business or product is shown to their audiences, the more likely those individuals will turn into long term, loyal customers.
• Define how you will measure success:  This will look different depending on what type of work you are doing with influencers.  Think about what you want to see as an ROI based on how that influencer is promoting your business.  A great way to measure success with influencers that are promoting a product or service is to provide them with a unique promo code to share with their followers.  You can then track the redemptions on your end to measure the success of that influencer in creating sales / awareness around your brand.

These are just a few of the ways to get started with influencer marketing.  There are many more tactics that can be considered for your influencer toolbox.  Let Collina Digital help you get started!  Give us a call or email us at info@collinadigital.com today!