Influencer Marketing: The 5 Ways to Master It
The marketing environment of today's time is changing like never before. The tried and tested methods are being retained for proven benefits; however, the marketing world is opening up to newer methods of reaching to their customers. We all are aware of the boom of digital marketing and for all those who thought that it couldn't get bigger than this, then influencer marketing is your nemesis. A study conducted by McKinsey reveals that influencer marketing or Word of Mouth marketing has a 37% higher retention rate and the ability to produce two times the amount of sales as paid advertising. Astounded? Amazed? if yes, then here is all that you need to know about this 'alien' called influencer marketing and the ways to master it:
For the success of your influencer marketing program, it is important to find your perfect influencers. You can collaborate with them to spread the information about your product or service offering. Key point to be kept in mind here is that your influencer must really be a person that your potential customers look up to. To identify these people of utmost importance, you could look into the pool of your industry experts, brandividuals and even customers who have a following on digital media. Once you identify them, it is important for you to show them the value and the potential they hold for your business, and hence collaborate with them by convincing them to invest in the process with the agreement of sharing a part of the outcome/revenue generated through them.
Technology has taken over personal contact in today's times when almost all successful professionals have emails and notifications clogging their inboxes. There are newsletter, offers, lucky draws and what not, and in his clutter, there is a high possibility of your communication getting trashed or lost.
No other method can score over personal connect and if you get a chance to meet your influencer, then grab it with both hands. To reach to this point, you may have to use social media, but do so intelligently by reading and commenting on their blogs, giving them a mention on your posts, involving them in webinars and so on. Remember to be always respectful and accurate in your mentions so as to emanate the same vibes to your influencers.
Once you have managed to build your relationship with the influencers, be sure that they are here to add value to your business. However, you cannot expect this value to start reflecting from Day 1. You and your influencers will have to put your heads together to understand what and how much can they contribute. You could start initially with just a quote or an insight from them on a specific subject. Later, you could move ahead asking them to write articles or blogs for your business or involving them in business meetings and gatherings to talk about the business. Organizing seminars and talks with them as the key opinion leader and involving other stakeholders too in these activities will make your influencers also feel connected with the business.
An important aspect to be always considered is that these influencers are in most probability extremely busy. If getting a response from them became such an arduous task in itself, then expecting their engagement as per your schedule is next to impossible. Therefore, it is always better to have more than one influencer with your business. However, you must treat them equally at all times.
All partners, collaborators and even influencers would be happy to be associated with your business if they see a reasonable value addition to their own self through your business. Provide such opportunities to your influencers and create an influencer marketing program for your business in consonance with some of your influencers. At the very step of engaging the influencer, there are higher chances of his participation if he sees some value for himself in this proposition.
There can be many ways in which you can show this value like helping them to build their own personal brand, providing them monetary benefit, extending the services of your business at a concessional rate for them and so on.
Promotion is a big aspect of any business. While the business does many promotional activities for itself, getting an influencer to do this lends certain credibility to it. Customers often view it as a neutral third party evaluation of the business and may then show interest to know more about the brand and its offerings.
While engaging the influencers, you need to align them to this concept of message sharing that he needs to do. The same can be done through their blogs, other social media postings, participating in event organized by the business and such platforms where both the brand and the influencer get exposure.
So, here are few simple tricks to get influencers on board and keep them happy. Remember, there is no blanket rule for this and the participation and expectation of both the business and the influencer vary from business to business. So, keep these mantras with you and customize them to your business to derive maximum benefits out of it.
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