YES!! A BIGGGG YES!! Here’s how:
Influencers are these huge personalities who seem either inaccessible or not that budget friendly.
But the thing is, that’s actually not true!! Let me explain how:
A. Budget-friendliness:
If you feel that influencer marketing won’t be friendly to your pocket, chances are that the influencers you have in your mind are top-tier influencers with millions of followers in their respective communities and niches.
Did I say tier-?! Yes!!
There are different tiers/levels of influencers. They are based on the number of people following them. These tiers are:
1. Mega influencers — more than a million followers:
These are basically the celebrities in their niches having millions in their community. Usually, their engagement rate is quite low but they offer high-quality content along with the potential to reach millions. They do charge higher than other tiers but taking into account the potential reach they promise, their ROI is quite high.
2. Macro influencers- Anywhere from 500K to a million in follower count:
Like the mega influencers, they too have a lower engagement rate but are more experienced with working with brands. Plus they can help brands and businesses put out various types of content ranging from blogs to video content.
3. Mid-tier influencers- within 50K to 500K followers:
These influencers are more trustworthy in the eyes of the audience. They have higher engagement with their respective audience as compared to the mega or macro influencers. This may be due to the factor that they must have spent a lot of time building their community.
4. Micro influencers- from 10K to 50K followers:
Although they have a small following, these are the influencers a small/medium-sized business should mostly look for.
It’s been observed that the audiences of these influencers are more likely to buy the products they are endorsing. Although their content might be less polished than that of the higher tiers, their audiences feel its authenticity.
These influencers put in a lot of effort to establish trust with their community and try to gain expertise in their particular niche. All these efforts make their audience put their faith in the products these influencers recommend.
5. Nano influencers- with 1K to 10K followers:
It might seem that the nano influencers have the smallest follower count but they have the most engaged audience. Their content is personalized and hence their audience is hooked on them. Sometimes these influencers don’t mind accepting sponsored goodies or products rather than a fee since they want to build their experience of working with various brands and a portfolio.
Therefore, it’s the nano and micro-influencers that are the most apt choices for the marketing strategy of a small or medium enterprise.
Although influencers charge differently depending on how much they deem appropriate and the platform they have their audience on, generally they range from:
Nano influencer: $10-$200 per post
Micro influencer: $100-$1000 per post
Mid-tier influencers: $1000-$10,000 per post
Macro influencers: $5000-$20,000 per post
Mega influencers: $10,000+ per post
[Note: the charges may vary from platform to platform that an influencer is active on]
B. How can you reach out to these influencers:
Influencers can be reached out to by direct or indirect means. Direct means include sending a direct message on their social media profiles or getting in contact with them through email. [There are samples templates of these e-mails available online]
One can also work with influencers through an influencer marketing agency. These agencies will help you develop a strong connection with social media influencers that are most relevant and in sync with your brand. They will also help you plan out the influencer marketing campaigns.
An influencer marketing campaign might as well be described as an experiment for a small business. So will it be worth it?
ABSOLUTELY!!
Here are some benefits of influencer marketing:
1. Targeted audience:
The audiences of your targeted influencers are your potential audience as well. An influencer gives you a pre-existing targeted audience and potential customers. So your campaign then becomes more targeted marketing. This specific audience’s need and likes perfectly aligns with your products.
Since the audience of the influencers already have trust established, they are more likely to make a purchase if that influencer was to recommend your product.
This highly targeted marketing increases the chances of actual sales being made.
2. Spreading your word:
When an influencer recommends your product, your brand will be visible to a new set of eyes that might not be aware of it. It will lead to an increase in reach and through the influencers you will not only get new potential customers but more people will come to know about your brand.
3. Establishes trust:
Since the influencer’s audience have a pre-established strong relationship, their recommendations are often considered credible by their audience. Also, the influencers are considered experts in their niche and took their time in building their community. Hence they are the experts in the subject matter in their audience’s eyes.
This establishes an authority. Therefore, an influencer promoting your product comes across more as a recommendation and not as an advertisement.
This recommendation from an influencer will in turn lead to an increase in your credibility in their audience’s eyes and potential customers are likely to be turned into long-term customers!!
4. Increase in website traffic and lead generation:
When an influencer recommends a product it redirects their audience to the website of the product or other platforms. This audience will then increase the engagement of your site or Instagram profile.
This new audience might check out other of your products which in turn will help you score more customers.
5. Flexibility and affordability:
Influencers have proven to have the best ROI from all marketing strategies. They are suitable for any type and size of business. Running paid Ads might seem effective but their price also keeps increasing with time. This is where influencers prove to be cost-effective.
Along with this, influencers may produce many different types of content according to the need of a business may be. They might write a blog post or produce a video about the product. They keep it flexible!
6. Drive in sales:
Partnering up with an influencer will lead to a direct increase in your actual sales. Since the audience has much-needed faith in the influencers, this turns their
audience into potential or newly acquired customers.
Since increasing sales is one of the most important goals of any marketing strategy, influencer marketing helps you reach closer to that goal!!
To conclude
Influencer marketing is one of the most cost-effective, efficient, and optimal marketing strategies to be used. The potential of influencers will only be increasing in the future. Therefore, it might seem a challenging task, but it’s bound to give you a high return on your investment!!
Also Read: 11 Super Effective Lead Magnets to Pull in High-Quality Leads!!