Influencer Marketing Tips to Make Your Startup Win

Influencer Marketing has developed into a $25 billion industry yet many marketing executives are completely baffled by this, because it does not actually deliver the results to justify the hype for them.

A major challenge facing entrepreneurs is competition, with new startups popping up every other day. We are having trouble standing out from their competitors including other startups as well as the major brands.

In fact, due to limited resources, skills, and resources, a majority of startups fall flat during their initial years. You must focus on smart avoid being a part of this large majority.

You need to attract people, engage them and turn them into loyal customers to make the business grow. And for leveraging your business influencer marketing is the smartest way to acquire new customers.

Influencers have bigger audiences who confide them and thus can get people to trust your business. By collaborating with micro-influencers, you can get the best possible results with cost-effective startup influencer marketing campaigns.

Pick the Right Influencers

Start-up influencer marketing may help boost the exposure, scope, engagement and overall growth of your brand. The first step to that is to identify influencers that are suitable for your business category. A number of tools available online can be of great help here. They let you filter influencers depending on category, social platform, rates of engagement, and location. You even get their specific contact information so you can easily reach them.

When looking for influencers, relevance should be your first priority. Without focusing on just the ‘following’ size. You should try to reach a small but active and relevant audience, instead of targeting a large audience that may or may not be interested in your message.

Begin with the Micro-Influencer

It’s better for a startup to partner with micro-influencers who pursue a niche and passionate follower, rather than heading towards big celebrities.

A micro-influencer has very committed followers ranging from 1K to 100K. Because micro-influencers have a more targeted audience, they encourage you to target specific audiences for your startup influencer marketing campaigns. This may be depending on divisions of age, location, interests etc.

Influencer Guest Post

Another smart and budget-friendly way to get more visibility is via the guest posting. This may help entrepreneurs establish relationships with influencers. In fact, guest blogging will improve the content of the brand and ultimately it can help startups develop themselves as a figure of authority within their niche.

Most of the influencers who blog also offer opportunities for guest blogging to keep content fresh so that readers stay involved.

Choosing the right platform is key to creating brand awareness. Select the right platform, read the posting guidelines for guests and produce a pitch they can’t reject.

Affiliate Marketing is Integral

There are two very different marketing strategies including affiliate marketing and influencer marketing. The former works on the concept of direct revenue, which means that companies pay for each generated sale or lead.

On the other hand, influencer marketing is about getting to wider audiences. Brands will generate greater returns at their investment when combined to attract even larger audiences. Approach influencers to start this strategy and give them a share of affiliate revenue.

Offer Free Products/Services to Influencers

Everybody likes to receive gifts and influencers are no exception. In fact, influencers also expect businesses who contact them to offer gifts and discounts.

Give them a sample of your product or offer them a free trial of your service. Analyze what the influencer likes and give them a treat. You can get a pretty good idea of what they like to eat and wear, and what interests they have by looking at their social profiles and their personal blogs.

Both methods are successful and can help you get in touch with the influencer. Remember to be polite though, and don’t force them to promote your brand just because you’ve sent them a present.

Offer Them Valuable Feedback

When you want to have a stable relationship with an influencer then you will need to give them some valuable feedback free of charge.

Posting a comment on their posts like, ‘great post’ or ‘rightly depicted, 100% agree’ or ‘excellent job’ won’t help. That is what most people are doing, and it is a total waste of time.

Nevertheless, if you provide valuable and honest feedback, then you are giving the influencer something of worth. Sure, it will take you longer but in the long run it will be worthwhile. You may look for a typo in their content, test if your website is too slow or find a broken link on their website.

Be sure that the email’s tone is friendly and not harsh. You’re trying to help them out and get their attention, not annoy them or make them think they are worse.

Last few words…

Using these strategies will create awareness of your brand, your products or your services. You can better align with your target audience and reach them with the right influencers and a strong approach. This will help build trust and inspire people to buy from you!