Influencer Marketing Guide For Maximum Business Growth

• Read original article here

Business growth is always a top priority for business owners, especially in today’s fast paced digital age.

Businesses that leverage digital mobile means to reach customers are maximizing growth, and finding success around every corner.

The smartphone and social media play a role in this business growth. Businesses now have direct 24/7 access to target audiences via smartphones and social media.

However, consumers are pretty savvy. They don’t necessarily trust the marketing messages blasted across multiple social media channels.

According to a survey by Olapic and Cite Research, 44 percent of social users follow an influencer. And 34 percent of those users said they have found new brands based on influencer recommendations.

What about sales? The survey also found that 33 percent of consumers made a purchase after seeing an influencer’s post.

This is the power of influencer marketing for businesses across nearly every industry. From enterprise companies to local small businesses, influencer marketing is a must-do to reach consumers today.

Social media influencers also have the loyal audiences your business needs, and the creative edge to convert.

Instagram influencers leverage creativity with a personalized touch to connect consumers with brands.

Influencer marketing is truly a unique marketing tactic many businesses have yet to master. Is it time for maximum business growth? The following influencer marketing guide may prove valuable.

This is the first step in maximizing business growth via influencer marketing. Instead of focusing on the influencer you want to partner with, focus on the target audience you want to reach first.

Buyer personas, or audience personas should be in place before you launch an influencer marketing campaign. Buyer persona data includes:

Having the right target audience data will then help you define the right influencer for the influencer marketing campaign. The aim is to match your audience persona with the influencer’s follower base.

Here’s an example from Instagram micro-influencer @sweatandtell:

In partnership with Built, a protein bar company, this influencer’s recommendation resonates with the brand’s target audience.

With a target audience persona mapped out, it is time to do a bit of due diligence before choosing an influencer.

The difference in success and failure comes down to an influencer’s engagement rate. Engagement on Instagram for instance can be calculated using this simple formula:

Let’s look at the engagement rate for this post from Instagram influencer @kristalheredia:

This post netted 3,175 views and 167 comments. The total engagement rate for this post is 1.4 percent.

Not too bad, but to ensure maximum ROI on your influencer marketing campaign, you should shoot for over 2 percent engagement rate.

Here’s another example from Instagram nano-influencer @alexisbakerrr:

This post netted 148 likes and 18 comments for a total engagement rate of 4.5 percent, making the influencer marketing campaign a homerun.

Find influencers with the engagement rate that backs up their ability to influence. Do not get sucked in by follower or subscriber counts, because there are a ton of fake influencers out there.

It can be easy to get sucked into the follower and subscriber numbers when choosing the best influencer for your campaign.

Instead of considering very expensive mega-influencers to promote your brand, products, and/or services, think smaller.

Nano-influencers and micro-influencers have the ability to drive huge engagement to your influencer marketing campaign.

How? They have smaller, loyal followers that really do hang on their every recommendation.

According to a HypeAuditor influencer marketing study, nano-influencers and micro-influencers blow other influencers out of the water when it comes to engagement rate.

Even massive brands are turning to nano-influencers and micro-influencers for maximum business growth.

Top brands like Sephora, Banana Republic, Zara, Forever 21, and Coca-Cola, all use micro-influencers and nano-influencers.

Influencers with smaller followings are also more cost-effective. This makes them ROI positive nearly every time.

You’re partnering with influencers to grow your business, and yes you pay them, but don’t be overbearing. Influencers are creative, and they know what works when it comes to their target audience.

If you developed strong audience personas and partnered with a powerful influencer with followers that match your audience personas, let him or her do what they do best.

Afterall, they didn’t become an influencer because they don’t know what works.

Give your influencers the autonomy to be creative and you will surely find your influencer marketing campaign to be a major success.

The above influencer marketing guide can get your business on the road to growth and success.

Influencers have the power to sway the masses, and this equates to big time sales for businesses large and small.

The time has never been so critical for businesses to leverage influencer marketing. If you want to reach your target audience in a meaningful way and convert them, let influencers be your guide to growth.