What is influencer marketing and how to take advantage of this strategy?

Have you ever thought about creating a promotion and being able to invite the most influential people in your industry to help you?

It would be like a dream come true, though for now, this is just a mere illusion. But sometimes, dreams will come true, as we will see in today’s article, thanks to influencer marketing. Discover how  to take advantage of this fantastic strategy.

I think what I’m going to say is undeniable. You would like to create the best online business of your sector, so you can make a lot of money, create a strong brand and become a reference for other companies and entrepreneurs.

Everything makes more sense when there are companies that already succeeded. If you think about any products or services, you can think about the best brands offering them.

You certainly know stories of companies that have started without any customers, with just a good idea. In a short time, they were making money and now are a reference in their industry.

You, who consider yourself an enterprising and daring person, believe you could get the same results (or improve them) in your industry because you dream of creating a successful business.

Why can’t you become as successful as they are?

However, you have already started your business and have struggled for months to make some money, working hard from the first day, but you didn’t get the results you wanted.

You have the feeling that something isn’t working, but you don’t know how to find a solution to the problem or identify what exactly isn’t working as expected.

Mainly because you have a website tailored to offer a good user experience, you share valuable content on your blog, you are participative in social networks and are working with email marketing. Knowing that you are doing everything you can to get positive results, this situation leaves you confused and worried.

As if that were not enough, you participate in forums and leave comments on blogs, with the intention of attracting visitors to your site.

The problem is that you managed to attract some visitors, but not the number of customers you were expecting.

After much thought, you come to the conclusion that you have done absolutely everything you could create a successful business, but you will not be able to find a solution to the problem.

So, what exactly is happening? Why can’t you get good results and others get it in no time? Do they know something you might not know? Or maybe the problem is in your strategy?

Maybe they are following a strategy you still don’t know. This strategy is called influencer marketing.

Using influencer marketing techniques, you can improve the results of your company or project.

However, if your planning is not correct, the result may be the opposite. That is, in this case, the effects would be negative.

But before delving into the subject, I would like to talk to you a little about the basis of influencer marketing, so you can understand how this strategy can help improve your digital marketing.

Networking: the best weapon for getting collaborations and improving online business results.

One of the main mistakes of many companies and entrepreneurs is to think they shouldn’t look for an opportunity to create partnerships and collaborate with other entities and people.

They think they don’t need to make deals with anyone because they believe that their business could be in danger if they ask for help, or because, according to them, they simply don’t need anyone’s help.

However, the world of entrepreneurship is not far from real life. For example, if you want a better life, you will have to share moments and experiences with others. And in business, the same thing happens.

Collaboration means sharing the work more effectively. Once you understand this logic; it is easy to understand that networking will be your best ally.

Networking is one of the most efficient and cost-effective solutions for achieving satisfactory results with an online business.

If we also think that we are in the digital age and that it is possible to connect with people from all over the world in a matter of seconds, we can deduce that this is a powerful weapon in your arsenal.

If you already use this technique, you know exactly what I mean.

Therefore, in my opinion, networking is the best weapon to create a network of collaborators.

But what does all this have to do with influencer marketing? Don’t worry; we are going to start talking about the main topic of this article.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is nothing more than collaboration between a company or entrepreneur with an influential person in an industry (influencer) for both sides to benefit.

However, you’re probably thinking that you just would have to get in touch with some influencers to start receiving a large number of offers of collaborations.

But as logic indicates, don’t expect excellent results in a short time, especially if you are creating a  new business.

If you want to increase the possibilities of collaboration with influencers, you only have one alternative: You’ll have to start planning an influencer marketing strategy.

That will allow you to take small but very relevant steps.

How to plan an influencer marketing strategy?

Before planning any influencer marketing strategy, you need to have at least a website or a YouTube channel.

These are the essential tools for any type of business.

Without at least one of these options, you will not be able to find people interested in collaborating with you, which means that it will not be possible to get positive results.

That said, I’ll explain how to devise an influencer marketing strategy so that you can get started right away:

► What is your intention?

Maybe you believe this question doesn’t make sense, because most businesses are created with the aim of selling.

However, wanting to sell is not enough. Also, not all business are created just to try to sell something. You should understand this point before we can continue.

You should think about how you want to sell a product, the services you are offering or how you want to advertise your personal brand.

Before planning these aspects, nobody can help you, as the influencers will need this information to see what is the best way to work with you.

Now, I’ll explain to you how I work to plan an influencer marketing strategy:

► How will you plan your promotion?

In other words, you need to define when the promotion is available to your customers, what you will offer the users and what the rules are to participate.

This is important because it is the starting point of the strategy and without this information, you will not be able to plan your marketing activities.

You can delay the start date of the promotion if there is an unforeseen event if there is no other alternative, but it is preferable to do what you promised, because your brand image could be damaged, especially if you are just starting your business and customers don’t know you.

► What is the profile of the influencers you wish to contact?

Not all influencers have the same profile. If you don’t select the ones who can offer you the strategy you are looking for, you could be disappointed.

That means that you will have to contact users who work with similar products or services, or that talk about these products because if they don’t know what they are offering, they will not be able to   convince their subscribers. If you do things correctly, your strategy will bring satisfactory results to both parties.

You should think that in every sector there are always subsectors. And in one of these sub-sectors, is where you can find the ideal influencers for you.

Once you have the profile of the influencers, you can take the next step.

► What kind of content will you use to promote your brand?

How do you want to promote your product? With a post, with a newsletter, through a video or with all possible options?

These questions, in turn, will help you define the best influencers for the type of campaign you are creating.

But the most crucial question is what kind of content you want to promote and what channel you want to use to advertise your brand to new customers.

For example, if you are working with an influencer that has a relevant YouTube channel, you can boost conversions exponentially in a matter of seconds.

Because YouTube can help you spread your brand to thousands or millions of people in the blink of an eye.

Can you imagine how many conversions you could get? That could change the course of your business.

► How will you contact the influencers?

The most challenging part, though it seems paradoxical, is to get in touch with the influencers in your industry.

Don’t just write an email, send a tweet or talk to them through some other social network; you will need to convince them to collaborate with you.

Many will not even respond, others will show interest but after a time will ignore your messages, but don’t be discouraged because of you certainly will end up finding some who would be interested in helping you.

Your primary goal should be to get the best results possible.

Sometimes, if you are original, you can achieve excellent results, especially with the help of a dedicated influencer marketing tool.

► Measure the results of your strategy after contacting the influencers

You should also measure the results of your strategy. That is, how many influencers accepted to start collaborating with you.

The truth is that some influencers will tell you that they want to help you, but not all of them will do so, for some reasons.

► What are the options for agreements with influencers?

There is a wide variety of agreement options, but the most common ones are:

1. Paying money
2. Collaboration

If the influencers you are contacting ask for money, don’t be surprised. Welcome to the virtual world. They need to survive; they are not doing that for charity.

If they are very influential people, they have the power to do so, although the final decision is yours. If you can’t afford the cost of the action, you don’t have to accept their proposal.

Exchanging actions is a great option, although you will need to dedicate the necessary time to fulfill your part of the agreement, which can be a problem when you are working full time on a new project.

In this type of agreement, you will exchange “favors,” that is, you will do something for the other person, and they will do their best to help you.

To have good results, you need to be a good negotiator, so that you can get what you want, by offering something relevant in exchange.

After setting the foundations of the agreements, it’s time to start working: If everything run as expected, before long you will start seeing the advantages of your influencer marketing strategy.

What will be the result of your influencer marketing strategy?

You have already completed the negotiation to work with your partners, but you need to know exactly what you want to get with these agreements. If you don’t know that, you won’t be able to measure the results of your strategy.

Typically, entrepreneurs collaborate by offering:

► Mention in social networks

Influencers that have a large fan base on Facebook or Twitter, for example, can offer to talk about you in their profiles, advertising your brand to all these followers.

Although, from my experience, there are more effective ways to increase conversions.

► Mention in influencer email marketing campaigns

It is increasingly common for entrepreneurs to help each other through email marketing campaigns.

If, for example, you are going to promote a course, you could offer an opportunity for influencers who accept your proposal to make some money through an affiliate program. This way, you will get new customers, and they will make money because their subscribers will most likely buy the course by clicking on their affiliate link.

► Advertising campaigns managed by an influencer

Continuing with the previous topic, if you allow an influencer to create an advertising campaign for you, the profits can also be high.

Someone who has worked with marketing for a long time will have more experience in creating and managing campaigns, which may be advantageous for you, as you are just starting your business venture.

► Write a guest post on an influential blog.

If you have the chance of writing a guest post on a relevant blog, your conversion rates will increase, as you will be writing directly to people interested in the same topics.

What is the benefit of that kind of strategy? Well, you will be generating confidence, because if this influential person allows you to write on his blog, his users will know that it is because you are at least someone they can trust.

And that, for all practical purposes, can make all the difference.

► Publish a video on an influencer’s channel

I call this strategy “express boost” because with a video on Youtube, your message can be transmitted in seconds to millions of people.

In this case, you should be prepared for the flood of requests, as long as everything has been done correctly and your strategy has been well planned.

I think with all that information; you have enough resources to start publicizing your brand on the internet. If you do things carefully, this strategy can bring fantastic results.

It’s time to start working and feel the power of influencer marketing for your business.

Have you ever used any influencer marketing strategy? Did you get the expected results? Share your story with us.