Influencer marketing is one major way through which brand social media advocates/influencers help push your business into the public eye and make your products more visible and loveable on the market.

However, with the right influencer marketing tool, you are on your way to succeeding at influencer marketing.

To succeed at influencer marketing, you’d need to identify the right kind of influencers for your brand, those who have traction in your field and who have some sort of influence over your target market, and speak to them about promoting your business.

Influencers don’t have to be celebrities- they could be journalists or even manufacturers/retailers in your line of production. Just identify the key people!

Here are three ways through which influencer marketing can aid your business growth:

1- Identify Key Influencers for Social Media Marketing

The three major types of influencers are connectors, advocates and mavens. Realize which ones will work for your business, and work with them.

Connectors are the influencers who aid you in building wide networks on social media. These special influencers give your products a very wide reach as well, by their word-of-mouth promotion of your products and services.

Advocates have great charisma- just like salespeople and promote your brand with finesse; so much that very few people can doubt their authenticity.

Mavens, the third type of influencers are customers who have used your products or services and have positive reviews. They are the most honest group of influencers and their followers tend to take their comments about brands very seriously.

When choosing influencers, it is paramount to decide which ones would work best to promote your brand; a maven might be more appropriate for a tech brand that produces gadgets, while advocates could work better with fashion or women-wear brands, and connectors are super awesome at increasing your reach for comfort products.

Don’t be too much in a hurry to pick an influencer without first deciding where your product falls on the scale of product type, and tailor-fit influencers to help promote your business.

This is one of the most important distinguishing features between brands which build their businesses through effective influencer marketing strategies and brands that fail.

2- Make Your Engagement with an Influencer Mutually Beneficial

Want your influencer to make your brand a priority? Then treat him or her as a priority too.

Many businesses forget to do this and as such, cannot have key relationships with their influencers. And influencer who isn’t being treated properly is less likely to give their creative best to promote your brand.

See working with an influencer like an investment- and in fact, with the right influencer, it is an investment!

Negotiate with influencers on what they want as payment for their services: be it money, commissions on converted sales, free samples of your products, your product’s market shares and so on. 

3- Become an Influencer for Your Business!

If you’ve been having some difficulty with finding the right influencers for your brand, this is perhaps one good point to note.

You can become an influencer for your company or brand, but the key to doing so is to avoid being too pushy or your audience. Be authentic. That might be a little difficult for you, seeing as your brand is your baby, but if you can successfully show the world an authentic side to you- noting the imperfections of your product, for instance, it would go a long way to prove that you are an authentic brand.

When you become an influencer for your brand, you put a name to the face- and it becomes more important to be courteous, and responsive to brand clients who might have questions or complaints.

Are you ready to step your business up a notch through the use of influencer marketing?