As you’re building your small business brand, one of the most important factors to success is getting your name out there. You can try your hand at search engine optimization, online marketing, billboards, radio ads and other venues, and you may find some success. But if you really want to expose as many people as possible to your brand, local influencers are the way to do it.
If you’ve ever looked into influencer marketing, you may think it’s just for people whose products and services are targeted toward young people on social media. Regardless of your industry, however, you can approach influencers who can help you find a broader audience, no matter how niche your offerings are.
At Body Details in Miami, we partner with many different local influencers to broadcast the quality of our laser hair removal, tattoo removal and skin rejuvenation services. These influencers are local fashionistas who run blogs with a large audience, so it’s perfect for our small business. No matter what online space your local influencers operate in, connecting with them is crucial — but usually not too difficult. We’ll show you how you can do it.
What’s Influencer Marketing, Anyway?
In short, influencer marketing is simply getting influential people to market your business on your behalf. This is often more beneficial than just marketing yourself online because these influencers already have an audience. And if their audience is interested in your industry, you are automatically targeting people who are more likely to be interested in what you’re offering them.
Though influencer marketing is a newer trend, it’s an incredibly effective one. There are a few ways you can partner with a local influencer to boost your brand, including:
• Writing a guest blog post on their site, with a link back to your own site
• Interviewing the influencer for a blog on your own site
• Asking an influencer to review your product in a blog or a video
• Asking an influencer to feature your offerings in a tutorial
Before you can make these requests, though, you have to actually connect with the influencer. This is, perhaps, the trickiest part of the whole process. But, it is doable.
Step One: Identify Influencers
First, figure out what your goals are. Do you want more calls and website visits? Or are you simply looking for more brand awareness? Once you have that figured out, do some research and find 10 to 20 local influencers who can help you achieve your goals. There are plenty of online tools you can use to do so, including:
• Kred
• Klout
• BuzzSumo
• NinjaOutreach
• LittleBird
And many more. Make sure your list is full of influencers who would actually work with you based on your offerings, not just a list of famous or semi-famous people.
Step Two: Create A Budget
No one works for free, and that includes influencers. Some may charge $20 for a guest blog spot, and some may charge $200 for inclusion in a tutorial video. You may find influencers who will work with you for free, but as a small business owner, you should understand the pain of asking someone to work for free — after all, you charge your customers, don’t you?
In a blog like this, it’s practically impossible to give a solid number for what your budget should be. After all, local influencers in Iowa City probably charge less than influencers in Los Angeles. But, when you are really trying to get your brand out there, be ready to spend a portion of your marketing budget on influencers.
Step Three: Build A Relationship
Influencers are bombarded with requests every day. Instead of cold-calling influencers, start building a relationship. Follow their social media and interact with their posts — whether that’s commenting, “liking” or retweeting. You should also visit their blog and comment on a few different posts. Just don’t overdo it -- you could come off as sort of “stalker-ish.”
After a few weeks of interacting with the influencer online, they’ll probably recognize your company. Now’s the time to send them a personalized email, explaining what you like about their online presence and what kind of partnership you’re requesting. Every business is different, but try to think of a way that you can make them an offer of free services or discounts in exchange for their participation. Know that you won’t get a positive response from every influencer -- that’s okay. Once you get affirmation from at least one influencer, though, the real work begins.
Step Four: Plan Content Together
Now that you have an influencer working with you, it’s time to really figure out what kind of content you want to produce together. With two to three influencers, expect to spend about 20 hours (at the very least) creating content together for a campaign. You’ll want to make sure your brand is showcased, but you don’t want this content to be a sales pitch. After all, influencers’ followers trust them to bring them the best products, not pitch to them.
At Body Details, we work with local influencers to create videos that document their experiences with laser hair removal. We post these on our site, giving backlinks to their blogs, and we also encourage those influencers to post the videos on their own sites. In that way, we create a mutually beneficial relationship that showcases a product viewers can trust. After all, if local fashionistas trust us to handle their hair removal, why shouldn’t the viewer?
