Assuming you haven’t been hiding under a rock for the last five years, you’ve probably heard of or seen social media influencers at some point. No? Still not familiar with influencer marketing? Ok - I can’t wait to blow your mind! First thing. Grab your phone and go to Instagram. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom for the Explore page. See all those people! Influencers!
In 2021 alone, it is estimated that influencer marketing will be worth $13.8 billion. That’s hardly surprising, though, given the fact that 93% of marketers use influencers to promote their brand.
It’s tempting to sit on the sidelines and try to save money by promoting your small business the old-fashioned way but if you do, you’ll be left behind. Influencer marketing offers a lot of benefits to entrepreneurs and small businesses alike.
There are 6 big benefits you’ll see when you launch an influencer marketing campaign… check them out below!
Boost brand awareness
The term brand awareness describes what happens when you introduce your brand to your target market when they are at the top of the funnel, before they know they need your product.
Are you having a hard time spreading the word about your business? That’s a common pain point for growing companies. While you can continue using social media or blogs to find your customers, influencer marketing can get you a larger reach, much faster.
Influencer marketing puts your brand in front of your target market, pushing your product or service to thousands of potential new customers. As long as you select an influencer who has followers that fit your buyer persona, you’ll introduce your brand to people that will buy from you.
Drive traffic to your website
As a small business, sometimes it’s hard to actually get people to your website. As of January 2023, there are an estimated 1.98 billion websites on the Internet. How can your website stand out from allllllll the otherssss?
Influencers are great at getting people to your website.
Why? It comes down to their content and their connection with the audience. In fact, 51% of businesses say influencer content performs better than their own. Someone that has 10,000+ followers obviously knows what resonates with their audience, so tap into their knowledge to improve your traffic. When working with influencers, they will link to your page of choosing in their Instagram story or on Facebook, for example.
Increase sales with a promo code
Everybody loves a discount, and that includes an influencer’s followers. We recommend giving influencers a unique promo code for 10 - 20% off that they can promote in their post and/or story. The promo code provides a discount to encourage the new customer to purchase—it’s a win-win! To sweeten the pot even more, offer influencers an affiliate marketing program where they get a small commission on purchases made from their custom link. They are more likely to talk up your brand if they get a portion of the sales generated!
Boost your brand credibility
Trust is everything when you’re growing a business. But did you know that 63% of shoppers trust influencers more than they trust you? The more your target market sees your brand on Instagram, the more likely they are to trust you, especially with an influencer backing your brand.
The social media platforms (like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.) will never disclose their algorithm but we think how many mentions an account gets is part of where or how often the account is displayed to users. That’s anecdotal info of course but having a strong online presence with engagement and people talking about you is a requirement for Instagram verification so it only makes sense.
Collect testimonials
Testimonials are marketing gold! And influencers are more than happy to create genuine, honest testimonials if they like the product, that you can then repurpose.
First we start a conversation with the select influencer(s) and let them know our goal of collecting a testimonial to be used on the website, emails, or paid ads. Keep in mind there usually is an additional charge for content used off of Instagram or in any paid capacity.
We’ve been quoted from $150 up to $2,000 depending on the influencer and format of the content (videos always cost more). Once you both agree to the terms in contract form, the influencer can record a video about their experience with your product or simply include their testimonial in their photo caption for you to grab.
Beautifully styled content to repost
User-generated content, or UGC, is made when people outside of your business post about your brand or products. Most UGC from customers isn’t the highest quality, but when you run an influencer marketing campaign, you can ensure they will produce beautifully styled content that can be used throughout your online presence.
UGC is so much cheaper, diverse, and faster than developing the content yourself (have you priced out a photoshoot lately?!) Influencer UGC is free to repost on the platform organically in your stories or even screenshot for a post, tagging them with photo credit of course. However if you want to use the content elsewhere, just like testimonials, there is usually an added cost. We have relationships with 1,000’s of influencers so we can usually negotiate to get full rights at a very reasonable price. That way you get content from different people, in different situations, talking about your products naturally!
The bottom line
We’re living in the golden age of influencer marketing. While it’s tempting to write it off as a fad, it’s clear that influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere. Jump in and you’ll quickly realize the benefits like: Boosting brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, increasing sales with a promo code, boosting your brand credibility, collecting testimonials, and beautifully styled UGC to repost.
Instead of DIYing influencer marketing without experience, rely on Thrive Marketing Consultants to do the heavy lifting. We’ll save you time and money when we leverage the relationships we already have to get better content at better pricing. Contact us for a free quote and check out an influencer case study for some results we’ve seen.