If your brand has an online presence, then you are already aware of the important that digital marketing plays in reaching your target audience. Just publishing a website with details about your brand doesn’t work. There’s no way for your target audience to know of your site’s existence – without digital marketing, your website will not receive traffic and will not be successful. The use of digital marketing is even rising among those who do not own a website. It is a technique that is constantly revised and continuously implemented not only to help brands expose their products and services to more potential clients but also to help bloggers increase their website traffic and make more money from their online presence.
One problem that a lot of companies and website owners face is the fact that the internet is changing all the time. A strategy that used today can quickly become saturated and not be effective anymore in just one or two years from now. That is why it is important always to stay informed about the latest trends in the world of internet marketing and to adapt to the changes and trends. Influencer marketing is one strategy that is becoming more popular than ever before due to its efficiency and the fact that it can lead to thousands of website visitors and an incredible spike in points. This marketing strategy has leveraged for many years, and it is still effective, but considering the latest trends that businesses are using to make influencer marketing more efficient is vital. We’ve compiled a list of essential tips that you need to consider while utilizing influencer marketing in 2017.
- Understand What Influencer Marketing Is
A lot of individuals and brands with an online presence hear the words “influencer marketing boost sales” and immediately jump in to utilize this strategy without ever learning what it is. Understanding something before doing it is a vital step if you intend to be successful in what you do. Marketing Schools explain that influencer marketing is a technique that utilizes the reputation, popularity or expertise of an influencer to reach an audience that is already acquainted with the specific influencer.
- Understand The FTC Guidelines
The FTC has set out a series of guidelines that should follow by any brand or website owner that utilizes influencer marketing. These guidelines should always be implemented and monitored to avoid complications. Search Engine Watch explains that the FTC requires such a campaign to include a disclosure that is conspicuous and clearly states that the produced content sponsored. They also need any content provided, to be honest.
- Choose Appropriate Influencers
If you rush into things, you may not do enough research to ensure you choose an influencer that is relevant to your brand or the content on your website. It is a big mistake and can lead to a loss instead of profit. You need to spend time doing research and looking through the profiles of different influencers before contacting and hiring them.
- Scale According To Your Budget
If you are new to influencer marketing, then there’s always a chance that your first campaign will not be as successful as you hoped it would be. Overspending on your first campaign? Only to find that you’ve chosen the wrong influencer, platform or content type during your blogger’s outreach strategy, can lead to a lot of disappointment. Rather look closely at your budget and spend an amount that you can afford to lose in your first campaign.
- Choose The Right Media Type
The type of media you want to promote your brand and website with is vital to the success of your campaign. You need to study your target audience and find the type of media they best connects. If you are targeting lawyers, then they may connect best with whitepapers and reports, those means an informative article may work excellent. A target audience that likes to play games may rather prefer to watch a video, on the other hand.
- Start With A Micro-Influencer
Brands that are looking for a lot of exposure may be keen on starting out with a celebrity endorsement – and they may even have the money to do so. If you, however, are a small business that cannot afford to pay millions of dollars to a celebrity, then you should know that you can still make it big with influencer marketing. The key is to start off with utilizing a micro-influencer. A recent study by Blog loving revealed that the majority of micro-influencers charges $250 or lower for an Instagram post that branded. An influencer with a larger following can cost you as much as $24,406 for a single branded post on their Instagram account.
- Don’t Be In Total Control
As the website or brand’s owner, you may feel like you should be in control of every single aspect related to the influencer marketing campaign. With this type of marketing strategy, however, you will need to give the influencer some control over the campaign as well. Remember that you will be promoting your content to an audience that is already familiar with the tone and type of content posted by the influencer – so the influencer will obviously be able to create something similar to help you reach a larger number of his followers.
- Remember The Link
Influencer marketing is not only an excellent strategy for increasing brand awareness but can also be a powerful SEO tactic. Many of the influencers that you can utilize own a blog where they can publish a post about your brand, products or services. With such a large following, their blog is most likely ranking well on Google and has great metrics, such as a high Page and Domain Authority. Remember to ask the influencer to link directly back to your site – this will give you a high-quality backlink and may even push your site’s rankings higher in Google.
- Utilize An Influencer With Multiple Channels
While searching for an influencer, you will find that many only targets a single channel – such as a blog, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. There are, however, some influencers that have authority on multiple channels. For example, a fitness blogger has his blog, but also a large following on Facebook and YouTube. Utilizing these can give you exposure on different channels; thus improving the opportunity of the influencer marketing campaign.
Conclusion
As more and more businesses start to use influencer marketing as a vital part of their digital marketing plan, it is essential that you consider how this marketing technique is changing and to adjust your campaigns, so they fall in line with the latest trends. The tips we’ve shared here will boost the results you achieve through your influencer marketing campaigns and help you choose the most appropriate influencers in your niche – so you don’t waste a single cent.