Is Your Business Right for Influencer Marketing?

Written by Ashley Groves

Influencer marketing can be a very useful and cost-effective promotional tool for businesses. But this kind of marketing is not right for everyone. We’ve outlined some considerations to help you figure out if your business is right for influencer marketing. We also have a few tips on how to have more successful influencer marketing relationships and campaigns.

What is influencer marketing?

An influencer is a person who has grown a fan base on social media by developing an image and lifestyle that their fans like, want, and connect with. Influencers range from micro-influencers with only a few thousand followers to celebrities with millions of followers. (Like them or hate them, if the Kardashians come to mind, they’ve done their job. They are great at creating widely-known personal influencer brands.)

Influencer marketing is when an influencer publicizes your business to their fans using their social media platforms. This type of promotion can take many forms. It could be a mention in an Instagram Story, a blog post reviewing a product, or even a video tutorial of how they use your product. There are plenty of creative ways for influencers to integrate your product or service into their accounts.

Why should I use influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing can be advantageous for your business in multiple ways.

First, there are influencers for countless niches, as well as specific regions. Promoting your business with influencers is a great method for directly reaching your target audience. For example, if you want to publicize your new coffee shop to local residents, you could work with an influencer well-known in your area. They could visit your place and post an Instagram Reel of them enjoying your coffee and delicious treats.

Second, people follow influencers because they like them and want to see their lives. Fans are there because they want to be. They’re a dedicated audience who is more likely to trust the influencer’s opinion. Followers usually have higher engagement rates with their influencer’s content. This means that an influencer promoting your business is more likely to reach a more committed audience than a general advertisement.

Finally, influencer marketing can be a lot more affordable than you think! Of course, working with a celebrity would be quite pricey. But if you work with a smaller influencer who fits your brand and target audience, you can directly connect with your desired market in a cost-effective manner.

Pro Tip – The influencer doesn’t have to have hundreds of thousands of followers in order to be effective. Often, a relationship with a rising star with only a few thousand followers can be very rewarding for both you and them. They might be happy to endorse you simply in exchange for free goods. Big influencers most likely also require payment. If you can build loyalty with them before they get too big, you could have the potential to grow with them as they continue to build their fan base.

Is my business right for influencer marketing?

We’ve established what influencer marketing is and why it can be helpful… But is influencer marketing even a good fit for your business?

The first thing to consider is your niche. Are there influencers working in your niche? There are so many influencers in niches like food, beauty, fashion, travel, and fitness. But there are significantly fewer influencers in a niche like construction equipment. We don’t particularly recommend it for most business-to-business operations.

Does your brand already fit within an active community on social media? When there is already an active community passionate about your niche, it’s much easier to be successful with influencers. For example, if you’re in the pet industry, there are strong communities following hashtags like #catsofinstagram or #dogsofinsta. Communities like this can give you an excellent jumping off point.

The next consideration is your target market. Who is your target audience? What platforms are they using? Are there influencers on that platform, and do they reach your target audience? There needs to be a match between your target audience and an influencer’s fan base.

Instagram and TikTok are particularly good platforms for influencer marketing, followed by Facebook, and Twitter and Pinterest. But the algorithms and nature of each platform impact how effectively an influencer can consistently reach their audience.

The Right Fit

Understand if your business translates well to influencer marketing. This kind of promotion is fantastic for consumer products, but trickier for services. Influencer content is usually visual, which makes it easy to create content involving products. They can simply take a photo with your product and post it. Instagram Reels are particularly hot right now for integrating into influencer marketing. A visually captivating Reel can get extensive reach for weeks.

Some services can still be effectively marketed through influencers. It might just take a bit more creativity to figure out how the promotion should work.

The final thing you should consider is the image that an influencer cultivates. Influencers don’t just promote products, they promote a certain lifestyle. This lifestyle is central to their brand.

Do influencers in your niche represent a lifestyle and image you want associated with your business? Does their image align with your brand values? If so, influencer marketing could definitely be a good fit for your business. Be sure to consider their values to ensure they fit with your brand before entering into a relationship, since their attitudes could impact the perception of your brand.

Tips for More Successful Influencer Marketing

To get the most out of your influencer marketing, follow these tips.

When discussing promotion with any influencer, be very clear about what you are giving them and what you are asking from them in return. This includes compensation, content format, number of mentions or promotions, and duration.

Will you simply be providing them with a product? Will you be paying them money as well? How many times will they mention your product? Where will they mention it? When will they mention it? How?

How will you track the effectiveness of the campaign? Will you provide them with a coupon code for their followers to help you track your metrics?

Keep in mind that popular influencers will often have their own requirements for working relationships. With smaller influencers, you’ll have more flexibility in the details of your campaign.

Build a relationship with your influencers

You can have more success with influencer marketing by developing and nurturing a relationship with your influencers. The more they get to know you, the more invested in your business they will likely become. With a little personal touch, they’re more likely to feel some loyalty and more motivation to go above and beyond to promote you.

Furthermore, if you keep working with the same influencers, their fans will be exposed to your business over a longer period of time. The more exposure their followers (and your target audience) have to your brand, the more likely they are to remember and trust your brand. This will nurture more sales.

Struggling to develop your influencer marketing campaign? We can help manage and coordinate your influencer marketing campaigns and fit them in with your larger marketing strategy. Contact us for a free marketing consultation, and we can talk about what kind of influencers would be a good fit for your business.

Special thanks to Ashley Groves for writing this blog post!