If you want to go far, it’s better to go together. While you have an all-star brand, there are still likely many who don’t know about your product or services yet. Enter influencer marketing! Influencer marketing helps your business reach an audience by using someone who has already established trust and credibility with their followers. 

Think of the influencer like the peanut butter to your jelly. They already have a following, and they’re willing to help spread the word about your product or service. Check out these ways to leverage influencer marketing for your business. 

Find Like-Minded Influencers

These days, there are all types of influencers out in the world. While celebrities used to be the ones who held the power, there are now people with millions of social media followers simply for being themselves. There are influencers of all ages and interests who you could partner with to promote your brand. Try using hashtags to search, or speak with customers in your target demographic about which influencers they’re following. This will be a sure sign that the influencers may have a target audience much like the one you’re trying to reach.

Offer an Incentive

Once you find the influencers you’d like to ask about promoting your brand, you’ll want to reach out in a professional manner to let them know you’re interested. Often, influencers will list their business inquiry email in their social media bios. If you aren’t sure how much you can offer the influencer to help promote your brand, you can start by asking the influencer for their rate per post. This should give you a good idea of whether you’ll want to move forward. 

If you’re using influencer marketing, there’s a strong chance that you’ll be getting your brand in front of first-time customers. As with first impressions, it’s important to put your best foot forward. Consider offering an incentive or discount for first-time buyers to entice them to make a purchase. The incentive could include offering a discount for a one-time purchase or including double the product for the price of one purchase. Consider what makes sense for your business and what is a big enough incentive to drive those first purchases. 

Outline the Details

Now it’s time to outline the fine print. Determine which platforms the influencer will use and in what way. For example, you might want the influencer to post 5 total posts, three on their “stories” and two on their timeline, depending on the platform. Use the platforms that make the most sense for your target audience, as well as influencers who may be reaching the same demographics as your audience. 

Track the Results

To understand if your efforts with your chosen influencer(s) are working, you’ll need to track your efforts. An easy way to do this is to offer a discount code specific to the campaign and to the influencer. Include their name in the discount code so that you can easily see how many sales were driven as a direct result of your collaboration. This is also a great way to see if partnering with the chosen influencer is worth an ongoing partnership. Set a goal before you embark on your efforts to measure your success. For example, if we have X amount of new customers who used the discount code, we would consider this marketing campaign a success!

It’s time to get out there and partner with influencers to give your brand a boost. Consider your target audience and choose an influencer who has a current audience who aligns with who you’re trying to reach. You never know just how many new customers you could earn/get!