Influencer marketing involves finding and collaborating with prominent individuals who are capable of swaying public opinion through their reputation and expertise over a specific niche. Simply put, they’ll help you promote your brand and give it credibility. Using this strategy helps increase your brand’s authority as well as turn some of the influencer’s fans into potential customers. So if you want to become a better social media marketer this 2019, include influencer marketing in your game plan. We’re here to help you with finding and working with influencer:

How to Find an Influencer

The first thing you need to learn about influencer marketing is how to find influencers. To that end, you need to start with the channel. Most influencers can be found in online social media, but the two leading platforms you need to visit when looking for them are Facebook and Instagram. You can also check out sites like Snapchat if you like, but Facebook and Instagram are the best social sites to go influencer hunting.

Next, you need to make sure your target influencer’s niche is relevant to your brand. Don’t just have anyone advocate your product due to the millions of followers they have; make sure you’re both representing the same thing, too! For example, if you’re selling to a B2B audience and you want to promote your business, you shouldn’t ask soccer players to advertise your brand.

Basically, looking for relevant influencers isn’t that hard. But if you’re still stuck, try typing some common hashtags or keywords in the social media networks’ search boxes and see if any influencer’s name comes up (just make sure the keywords reflect your industry). You can also make use of tools like Influence.co and Zoho Social to find them in case you still need more help.

How To Work With An Influencer

After you’ve found an influencer you’re interested in working with, you can then proceed with contacting them. Keep your messages short and to-the-point, and don’t overburden them with too many details. When asking them to collaborate with you, you should give them a basic profile of your brand as well as a good reason why working together is a fantastic idea.

You need to continually collaborate with influencers if you want your brand to get bigger. It’s not enough that influencers and their followers are talking about you; they need to do so for a prolonged period (which is ideally around six months to a year). After that time frame, your marketing campaigns would see fruitful financial results like more brand awareness and increased sales.

Additionally, remember that your primary target is the influencer’s fans, not the influencer per se. Learning how to work with influencers is just as important as finding one, and it will take a lot of time and effort. But you don’t necessarily have to have your brand personally win the influencer over! You just need to make them see how it can be something their followers want.

Summing Things Up

Influencers can help you in your marketing campaigns in many ways. They can help increase your brand’s credibility and loyalty, create new leads and conversions, and boost sales and profitability. What more can a level-headed marketer ask for? So if you haven’t tried influencer marketing before, then this year is the perfect time to start!