How to Team Up with Influencers in your Industry

You have probably heard about influencer marketing. Seminars, webinars, live videos and different other platforms are concentrating on influencer marketing.

 

Influencers are people who have been able to garner a huge following online and excel in a specific industry. They might be celebrities or people who have built their name from their online activities.

 

Either way, influencer marketing can get your marketing efforts to the next level.

Most small business owners feel that this form of marketing is for large businesses. While not all businesses can afford this, influencer marketing should be on every marketer’s bucket list.

 

What if you become an influencer? It means you will market your business better. But how do you go about this?

 

Here are 9 Ways To Increase Influencer Marketing:

 

1. Produce Content in Repeatable Formats

What works best for you; videos, podcasts, infographics, blogposts or webinars? Knowing your strong suit will help you follow an influencer’s path.

 

Influencers are able to produce content throughout the day. This keeps their audience engaged and coming back for more. To someone else, it might seem easy creating such content but it not always easy.

 

Influencers are people who have tried out different methods and when they found one that works, they stuck with it. There is an influencer who will stick with videos, another on podcasts, and another on social media and others on blogposts. By establishing what works, they are able to use repeatable formats to create content.

 

There are influencers who produce content series. For their series to be successful, they have to follow specific tried and tested formats. This not only allows them to reach out to many people but also create their content on time.

 

2. Be Authentic, Be Yourself

If Oprah tried to be Obama, would you still follow her? Most probably, you will not.

By being authentic, influencers are able to build trust among their followers. They are honest about what they do and most of them are willing to show their lives step by step.

 

Establishing trust with your followers is one way of building a unique brand that people can associate with. You will build authority in your niche. A good example is Ric Dean, the brain behind PBNPilot. His old blog series gave him a large following online.

 

Besides him talking about his departure from ILD, he also talks about his time at the company. People trust him and recognize him as an industry expert.

 

Your followers understand that you are not perfect. They need to learn from your failures, if only you are open about them. You can leverage authenticity by being vulnerable in your content; tell it as it is.

 

3. Link Up with Influencers in Your Industry

Are there influencers in your industry that you like? Or, are there microinfluencers in your level that you can link with? I recently got quoted in an Expert Roundup where I talk about using outsourcing and delegation for these tasks or types of jobs.

 

Teaming up with an influencer in your industry will help propel your authority online. Collaboration between influencers is symbiotic; you are exposed to the influencers’ audience and you expose the influencer to your audience. While you might not have a huge following, having content or great products to offer will make you a suitable partner.

 

Both parties must be committed to the partnership to spread the word far. It might be a video that you do together, or a blot that you either author, or a guide that has both your names. If you cannot collaborate with an influencer, do guest posts on the influencer’s platform.

 

4. Leverage the Power of Social Media

Influencers have established their presence on different social media platforms. It allows them to reach more people from these platforms and direct them to their content on their websites or their preferred platform. On most websites’ homepage, you might have seen social media buttons with the tag ‘keep in touch with me’.

 

With an influencer, it is not always about concepts you teach but how you teach them. You might not have to create content for each of these platforms since you can repurpose. You can use your Facebook videos on YouTube and use clips from these videos on Instagram.

 

The followers on these channels might be the same but you have to tailor the content for the specific channel. Most people are on social media to have fun. Therefore, you need to create concise and entertaining content; longer content should be on your website only.

 

5. Use Q&A Forums

Questions and answers are part of influencers’ golden strategies. They use questions to test new products on the market, to get the feeling of their followers and to keep followers engaged. If you want to create relationships with your audience, use questions.

 

Questions will break barriers between you and your audience. During question and answer sessions, you are able to give instant and authentic answers. Followers get insight into your business and personal live.

 

Asking questions on social media and other platforms does not require a lot of effort. Even though the sessions do not need much effort, you need to make them interesting.

 

When your followers feel heard, they will be more receptive to your business. They will market for you and your follower numbers will grow. Building a community of followers will make your mission easy, your brand stronger and your conversion rates higher.

 

6. Consider Reviews

Reviews matter; whether negative or positive. Besides helping put your business in front of a new audience, they help you get a clear picture of how your audience feels about your business.

 

Negative reviews show you your business weaknesses; they help you improve. When responding to negative reviews, you should remain positive. Promise your audience that their complaints are being looked at and really look at them. After the issue has been rectified, reach out back to the customer who wrote a negative review and inform them.

 

Positive reviews market you. Even then, you need to respond to them. When responding to them, you can inform the happy customers of new developments of other products you offer.

 

Reviews, whether malicious or true, are always believed by consumers. When offering services, or selling products, you should ask consumers to leave reviews on your site.

 

This is what influencers, especially in the SaaS industry are doing.

 

7. Watch Different Influencers

How does your influencer plan their content? How often do they post? What makes you want to follow them? How are they different?

 

By following influencers on different platforms, you are able to copy their strategies and implement them for your own benefits. Besides their originality, there are other tricks these influencers use to grab the attention of followers.

 

Different influencers have different strategies but there is always a thing that makes them unique. It is through analyzing the day to day activities of different influencers that you are able to carve your own strategy.

 

Most influencers create a buzz about their next post or their upcoming product; something that gets you waiting. This is a trick that you can implement.

 

8. Consistency Matters

Are you following an influencer? Follow them consistently until you get what you are looking for. Learn the different ways of growing your business to influencer level.

 

You cannot engage your followers the right way if you cannot produce consistent content. Most influencers have a posting schedule; once a week, twice a week or thrice a week – whatever works. By strictly following a set schedule, your followers trust you.

 

They will be there waiting for you to post content. If you cannot create content daily, do not make any promises. Creating content every day does not pay if you deliver shoddy work.

 

How is your schedule? How many posts can your week accommodate? Setting realistic expectations lets you establish authority and impress your customers.

 

9. Consider Micro-Influencers

Is your business big enough to link with DJ Khaled? Maybe not, but there are other influencers you can reach out to.

 

Microinfluencers have a few thousand followers; they are on the rising path. They are learning and building to be on top. These are people to learn from especially if your business is a startup.

 

Microinfluencers are not celebrities which mean they are more reachable. You can work with them better than you can with celebrities. Piggyback on their growing influence to promote both your businesses and rise to the top.

 

Using Influencer Marketing for Your Brand

There is a lot to learn from influencers. The best way to do it is to watch them go about their day to day activities. Most influencers have failed at one time in their marketing but they have bounced back up. You will fail when trying to implement different strategies.

 

Learn from these failures. There are numerous benefits of being an influencer. First off, the large audience you garner converts to customers. You can direct them to your website, make them subscribers and grow your sales.

 

Using an influencer to market your business may cost you thousands of dollars; something your business might not afford. Instead of budgeting for influencer marketing, learn from influencers and become one yourself with London ON seo specialist While it takes time, it is all worth it after all.