8 Influencer Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Most of us hold the perception that influencer marketing is something that is mainly for larger businesses. Ultimately, social media influencers who are on top such as Kim Kardashian can even charge huge amounts of money for one Instagram story. No doubt that expenditure of this type can’t be often afforded by small businesses, and at times even by medium-sized businesses.

Also, social media is now occupying a sizeable division of the marketing sector, at the same time it is turning out to be increasingly effective for many business markets. That’s the reason everyone should use influencers as social media turns out to be tougher for almost all businesses. Influencer marketing is, thus, a way to hold an individual’s status within the organization to uplift the profile and position of the organisation as a whole.

Here is a list of eight influencer marketing tips for small businesses:

Consider Demand and Supply

While taking the decision about the social networks to be used for your influencer marketing drive, consider demand and supply. There is no doubt that social media content’s demand is all over. However, more content is available in certain platforms than others while some will give you limelight better than others.

For instance, it might be really difficult to gain limelight on Facebook, as that’s where everybody likes to start. Having said that, this platform can be really helpful if you have a small business with largely local clientele and if the influencers you are expecting to work with have a plenty of local followers. Along with the probability for engagement numbers, demand and supply helps in regulating the cost of engagement.

Focus on Collaboration

Certain influencers consider this business of influence mostly like a cash cow, on the other hand others treat it more like a public duty which also adds to their income. Influencers who function a cash cow are probable to “sell” you off on “buying” a story on social media, and then shift to next person.

However, the influencers who tend to be more public service minded are the ones who want to team up with you. You are likely to get better ROI if you engage with influencers like a collaborator. As a consequence, these influencers become acquainted with you as well as with your brand, and then they take keen interest in aiding your business develop.

Strive for High Engagement Rates

When you work with a local influencer who has a less followers, the engagement rate turns out to be much more crucial. Partly, the reason behind this is that those smaller followings are often more curios about what the influencer has to opine than large ones. The local food critic could be taken as one example, who mainly writes for local websites and paper. So you are getting access to a large number of people who are interested in your services and products even if the pool to start is smaller.

Now with time as your business develops, you can gradually shift to influencers who have larger followings but low rates of engagement. Do the calculation: Focus on the engagement of the influencers and not at the number followers they possess!

Begin Locally

Even if you can afford to engage directly with celebrity influencer, do not do it initially as it will not be as much beneficial for you as opting to stay local will. Just imagine you run an auto repair shop or a restaurant.

In both of these cases, you are connecting to local clientele: now people won’t be bringing their vehicles all the way from distant parts of the country for you to work on it. Also unless you have a celebrity chef, people won’t be coming out of their town simply to have food at your restaurant. So you must begin with people who are acquainted with your auto repair shop or love the food of your restaurant. As people talk about you locally, the number of clients are probable to increase. You never know, you might be able to start another shop or become a local restaurant chain.

Keep an Eye on their Industry

Remember not to select influencers in a different industry than that of yours simply because they are influential and local. You need to ensure that content furnished is something which is interesting for their audiences, or else you won’t be getting an effective ROI. It can be safely said that a huge amount of marketing budget is being wasted on engaging with wrong influencers.

Examine Cost Per Action and Remember to Price it Right

This is more or less like buying some type of advertising, since you never wish to pay too much for exposure. Receiving name identification is of no worth if it doesn’t transform into sales leads. You know what’s worse: spending the marketing money in the wrong way would mean that you don’t have it at hand to pay for better choices. Also not each influencer is equally productive. So, cost per action aids you understand who shall be considered for the influencer marketing drive. Along with this, before starting to work with influencers, you must calculate if it’s most appropriate to pay in experiences, products or cash. Giving out experiences mostly comes out in better content, as the influencer gets an opportunity to see each angle that a regular client does.

Do What Benefits You, Not Your Contemporaries

When you are striving to build your name, it becomes too simple to look at strategies and tactics your contemporaries (or may be personal heroes) are making use of and embrace them for your motive. Though this can benefit sometimes, blatantly imitating someone else’s ways and perspectives to influencer marketing will not always give the desired outcomes. In certain cases, it might even hamper your own brand and harm your credibility. So, it’s better to concentrate on the content produced by you.

Trace your Result

When you have small business with limited marketing budget, it’s most important that you should be in a position to trace your ROI in the best possible way. This allows you to check where it’s proving to be beneficial and where it isn’t.

It permits you to advance your budget all over, withdraw what is certainly not a good ROI, and double-down on what certainly is. Use coupon codes, tracked links, and other ways to trace the results in order to know which venture had the greatest payoff. Now you will be able to reform your budget to concentrate on the influencer marketing drive that proved to be most successful. 

Synopsis

These are the most effective influencer marketing tips for MSMEs which will not only help them sustain but also keep them ahead of the competition.

Mamta Sharma

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