Influencer Internet Marketing Strategy for Business Growth

If you’re not using a digital marketing agency for your business growth, you lose major marketing ground to your competitors. This goes for businesses, regardless of niche. If you think it’s hard to find influencers in your niche and price range, think again. In fact, there has never been a better time to partner with influencers. Why? Influencers today come in many different forms. From nano-influencers to major celebrities, influencer marketing is now approaching its golden age. The COVID pandemic has also ushered in the golden age of influencer marketing as Christoph Kastenholz explains in a recent Forbes article; “There’s a saying that ‘there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.’ 2020 was the latter. As both brands and consumers adjust to this ‘new normal’ and become ever more confident online, 2021 will take no prisoners in the digital sphere.” This is all-important for a business owner or business director because influencer marketing is the best way to reach B2C and B2B customers. This is why influencer marketing saw massive growth last year. And it is affordable for every business. Did you know 49% of marketers spent less than $10,000 last year on influencer marketing? “According to the InfluencerMarketingHub research, in 2020, 62% of companies that took part in the survey increased their Influencer marketing budget throughout 2020, and an additional 20% committed to keeping the same level budget in 2021.” Not only are businesses increasing influencer marketing budgets, but they are also spending less per campaign. That means more campaigns, more reach, more qualified leads, more brand awareness, and more sales. It is social media advertising to the highest degree. What other marketing path offers that up? If you need an influencer marketing strategy for business growth, keep reading. The EWR Digital team has developed a solid influencer marketing strategy that has proved valuable for businesses again and again. Our team of influencer marketing specialists can tailor an influencer marketing strategy for any business, from crypto marketing to e-commerce. Let’s get right to it!

Creating the Perfect Influencer Marketing Strategy for Business Growth

Marketing tactics of any kind are not a one-size-fits-all thing, like the snuggie, which is especially true for any influencer marketing strategy. This is because influencer marketing is complex and takes deliberate targeting and planning. From finding the right influencers that fit your niche and budget to building off each influencer campaign, here’s our step-by-step influencer strategy. And guess what? It is only four easy steps to business growth via influencer marketing.

4 Step Influencer Marketing Strategy

Step 1: Have a Game Plan Before Dining Anything Influencer

This is probably the most important step for influencer campaign success. And surprisingly, this is the most commonly skipped step by businesses. Why is having a game plan before doing anything else influencer? Because it will guide the entire influencer marketing strategy and all influencer campaigns. So what does a game plan mean? It means knowing your goals and desired outcomes for the overall influencer campaign. Say you want to grow your Instagram following, grow brand awareness, and build a social media lead list. Knowing all of this allows you to craft the influencer marketing campaign. A few questions to ask when developing your business’ influencer marketing strategy includes:

• What do I want out of the influencer campaign (sales, brand awareness, social followers, etc.)?
• What is the audience I want to reach (demographics)?
• How long will the campaign run?
• How many influencers will I need for the campaign?
• How many posts will the campaign need?
• What will be the media format for the posts?
• What is the budget for the influencer campaign?

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Having goals and a game plan also allows you to track key metrics to see how successful your influencer campaign was. This gives you insight into what works and doesn’t work and sheds light on what you should do again. If the campaign was a hit, rinse and repeat for more business growth.

Step 2: Stick to the Budget and Have a Plan to Manage the Influencers

It can be easy to get carried away with your influencer campaigns. It’s a pretty exciting marketing endeavor. Even poorly planned influencer internet marketing strategies will have some form of success. But we’re going for massive business growth with your influencer campaign. So ensure you stick to the budget and plan to manage the influencer relationships once the campaign kicks off. That’s right, influencer relationships. Let each influencer know just what to expect from the start. This will ensure that each influencer knows how much they’re getting paid per post, how many posts they need to post in a certain amount of time, and what media form each post would be. It may even be helpful to create a campaign sheet for each influencer with the above expectations and info. Be ready to track each influencer once the campaign kicks off. You’ll need to have a Google Sheet or Excel with influencer names, social media handles, post dates, post pic or URL, and performance of each post over time. This all may seem a bit neurotic for a simple influencer campaign. However, you want metrics and data to ensure future influencer campaign success. You also want to keep influencer relationships strong. If three of the five influencers had exceptional results, and you tracked those results, you will want to nurture those relationships more.

Step 3: Find influencers, but be sure that they are real influencers

With all the planning and admin stuff out of the way, it is time to find some influencers and get the message out about your future influencer campaign. Finding influencers and making contact is pretty simple, you just need to know what to look for when it comes to choosing influencers. This is VERY important! Beware of fake influencers. There are a ton of them online eager to take your internet marketing spend and not generate results for your influencer marketing campaign. So what should you be looking for when it comes to finding the right influencer for your campaign? First, what type of influencer do you want (nano-influencer, micro-influencer, etc.)? Nano-influencers and micro-influencers are the best these days. Second, you want the influencer to have the audience you want and need. This starts with simple Google research. Let’s say you need an Instagram nano-influencer with parents as an audience. Google “best parent nano-Instagram influencers” to get started. Boom! Not a bad start to finding the right influencer for your upcoming influencer marketing campaign. Now start browsing Instagram profiles of the potential nano-influencers to see which ones catch your eye. Be sure to make a list. Once you have a few top nano-influencer candidates, it is time to qualify them to ensure they are racking up the engagement you need. Don’t be fooled by follower count. You need to check post engagement to ensure you are working with a real influencer with a true following. Always check an influencer’s engagement on posts. This goes for any social media channel and any type of influencer. Even if an influencer cost is $25 per post, which is relatively cheap, check engagement. You want every marketing dollar to have value when it comes to your business’ influencer campaigns. Now it’s time to make contact with your top, qualified influencers. But how do you positively make contact to ensure you partner with the influencers you want?

Step 4: Make Contact with Influencers via Email.

Contacting influencers for your business’ upcoming influencer marketing campaign is also much easier than you would imagine it would be. But this only goes for micro-influencers and nano-influencers. If you want to contact major influencers, like mega-influencers and celebrity influencers, you’ll probably need to go through an internet marketing agency. But unless you have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on a single Instagram post, you should stick with micro-influencers and nano-influencers. In fact, the engagement on nano-influencer and micro-influencer posts is much higher than the engagement on celebrity and mega-influencer posts. According to a recent article via Built In, “The average influencer on Heartbeat’s platform with 1,000 to 5,000 followers has an engagement rate anywhere from 5 to 10 percent. If they have between 5,000 and 10,000 followers, the engagement rate typically hovers between 3 and 5 percent.” When reaching out to an influencer, do not message them within social media unless they have an email or website listed on their social media profile. Instead, email the influencer directly. This has far better results in making contact and keeping the relationship moving in the right direction, especially in those early courting stages. Once you get a positive email response, give the influencer all the details you outlined from the above “Step 2: Stick to the budget and have a plan to manage influencers” for top results.

Start Developing an Influencer Marketing Strategy for Business Growth Today!

The above four steps allow you to develop an influencer marketing strategy that has facilitated business growth for large and small businesses, both B2C and B2B. However, developing, managing, and tracking an influencer marketing campaign or campaigns, can prove time-consuming. It may even prove a bit overwhelming. This is why EWR Digital is ready to help in all your internet marketing endeavors. We have helped companies in nearly every industry with internet marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, branding, videography, and more. Need more information about crafting an influencer marketing strategy tailored for your business and niche? Feel free to contact us and get your influencer marketing campaign off to a powerful start.