Influencer marketing for small businesses in 5 steps

How can influencer marketing help your business?

The fact that your company doesn’t belong to Adidas or H&M does not mean that you cannot benefit from influencer marketing. Social media influencers are fantastic assets for small-scale businesses as well.

There are many influencers available and there are plenty of options for businesses of every size and budget. All you need is to know where to look for them and what you should be looking for.

It’s a bit daunting to begin influencer marketing if you’ve not been there before. To help you get started, here are five essential steps for executing successful influencer campaigns for small-sized companies.

Step 1: Create your campaign

Before you begin looking for influencers and publishing content on social networks you must outline the campaign. The first thing to do is select a goal for your campaign. For small-scale businesses, common goals are visibility, awareness, the addition of new followers to social media or traffic to your site or store.

Make a timeline for the campaign and budget. It is important to be open with yourself about the limitations of your campaign. It’s possible that you don’t have a large budget, but as long as you understand this, you can still succeed in your campaign. Find what works for your brand.

Also, choose the location where your campaign will be run. Are you looking to connect with TikTok creators, Twitch streamers, or influencers on another platform? Select the one that lets you reach your target audience. If your products are specifically targeted towards young people, for instance, you might want to choose TikTok, since over half of Gen Z consumers are on TikTok.

Then, create an assessment plan that will track your performance. It’s difficult to know how well what you’re doing if you don’t keep track of the information that pertains to your campaign. Make a list of your objectives and select a few performance indicators to aid in understanding the progress you’ve made. For instance, if you’re looking to increase the creation of awareness, you may wish to gauge clicks and impressions on campaign content.

Step 2: Locate then analyze and choose influencers

The most important aspect of a successful influencer campaign is identifying the right influencer! Brands looking for influencers must keep some aspects in mind when making this decision, such as how the content of an influencer performs. For small businesses, it is particularly important to concentrate on these aspects.

Location

Find local influencers. You’ll want someone who understands the area and your culture. If you own brick and mortar stores that will provide the influencer with the opportunity to visit.

The influencer you choose does not have to have a large number of followers. For an entrepreneur with a small budget, it is best to choose micro or nano influencers. Nano influencers have a following of 1-5K, and micro-influencers have between 5-50K followers. But, despite the small number of followers they have the highest average engagement rates and the most authentic audiences.

Audience

Alongside considering the country from which the influencer is located You must also ensure that their followers are located in an area where your brand’s name is visible.

Imagine that you select to follow an influencer located within the exact same town where your business is. However, you later discover that the majority of their followers reside outside the region, where you’re not yet shipping your goods. You’ll have missed the opportunity to attract new customers.

You can utilize influencer marketing software in order to obtain the data. It is also possible to contact an influencer for their media kits. Examine the geographic location of their audience and look at other demographics also. This way, you can be sure the influencer’s audience is in sync with your target audience.

Engagement rate

Engagement rate measures the interaction between an influencer and their followers. A high engagement rate shows the audience trusts an influencer and is happy with your content. Your brand will benefit from that by collaborating with the influencer.

Engagement is different over time, so you should study your mean engagement rate on a sample of content from the influencer’s most recent posts to obtain the most current information. Engagement benchmarks also differ depending on the social network followers, follower count, as well as content type. Don’t be sure to compare an influencer against their peers based on these factors.

Follower growth

As I mentioned earlier, the influencers whom you collaborate with don’t need to have thousands of followers. It’s important to ensure that they’ve got a decent engagement rate and healthy follower growth. An influencer must be growing steadily over time even if it’s not the fastest increase.

Keep an eye out for influencers that have negative growth, or growth that is cyclically high and low. It could be that the influencer purchased fake followers. This data can be retrieved from the media kit of the influencer or via influencer advertising software.

Step 3: Reach out

If you spot influencers you enjoy, make contact with them. In general to reach out to more influencers than you’ll need. Some won’t respond to your request, while some might not be in a position to work with you.

Contact them by email, or DM. If you’re contacting a lot of influencers you should consider the possibility of automating outreach. Make an email template you can customize for each influencer. The template should contain:

• A brief introduction to your company’s brand (what you do and who you are your message for your brand)
• Information about the campaign (objectives, timeframe and incentives)
• What do you enjoy most about the profile (and the reasons you believe they’re a great fit)

If you receive responses to your campaign, begin negotiating. If not, return a few steps and look for more influencers who might be suitable for your campaign.

Step 4: Talk about incentive and content

If you’re a small-sized business you will have a budget that will be lower than those of larger companies. But don’t worry. Certain influencers are willing to collaborate for your service, product or experience. It is important to understand that the amount that an influencer charges for marketing depend on several aspects:

• Performance statistics (follower number and engagement rate, primarily)
• Quantity and type of content (for example, video content is more expensive than photographs)
• Location (influencers who are located in New York City will charge more than those in Wisconsin)

We’ve already discussed this in the past and again: as a small-sized business, prioritize using micro and nano influencers. They’re the best way to ensure you’re getting the best results for your cost.

When you negotiate the content, make clear the points you would like the influencer to focus on; however, give them the freedom to create their content. The influencer knows their audience and can best convey your message to them.

Be friendly in discussions. If you begin with a positive attitude you might be able to develop a long-term relationship which can be beneficial for future promotions or ambassadorship.

Step 5: Start the campaign

Before influencers release campaign content make sure that you make sure you have Google Analytics or your tracking tool ready and set. It’s important to record all media used in your campaign and as much data as you can. The more information you can gather, the more clear an image you’ll get of the progress you’ve made.

It’s common to ask influencers for internal data as well. For instance, they could give you the Instagram Insights data about the number of people who saw the content they posted to promote your campaign.

With this information, you’ll be able to determine if you’ve met your goals. Be flexible here because some goals might be more difficult to achieve and you may come across a purpose or need that you’d never thought of previously.

Conclusion

Even in the absence of the same resources and resources as the global companies, small businesses will still be able to benefit from influencer marketing. Be focused on your goals. Be sure to keep them in mind throughout the campaign. If the collaboration is successful, continue your relationships with the influencer to ensure that you are able to run the same campaign at an important time in the future.