There has been a surge in media usage in recent times. This sudden transformation is generally attributed to the increasing use of social media channels. Worldwide online surfers spend over an hour daily online surfing social media sites. Thankfully, this trend has created enormous opportunities for businesses to advertise on social media through Influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is generally finding influential persons on social media to advertise your products or services on your behalf. Oftentimes this is significantly better than simply marketing your products or services yourself online because these influencers already have a huge number of followers. Social media influencers actually help in shaping your small business and draw in website traffic. Apart from drawing a great traffic to your business page, influencers as well add credibility to your brand.

Influencer marketing is obviously a powerful means of getting your business name out. Influencers typically have loyal fan bases with specified interests. This suggests that you can target specific groups that are your potential customers.

Close up Two hand holding smart phone with Influencer Marketing word and icons, Digital concept.

Here are few steps to follow in order to take advantage of influencer marketing

Step One: Find Influencers

To begin with, establish your ultimate goals. Are you interested in more calls and website traffic? Or are you just interested in better brand awareness? As soon as you have that worked out, perform your due diligence and identify 10 to 20 local influencers that can help you attain your desired goal. There are a number of online tools you can make use of to achieve this, like: BuzzSumo and NinjaOutreach.

Step Two: Come up with A Spending Plan

Some influencers demand $20 for a guest post in your blog and some could demand as high as $200 jointly creates a tutorial video. However, you can definitely find influencers who are willing to collaborate with you without charging you a dime, but as a small business, you ought to understand the implication of requesting anyone to work for no charge — besides, you charge your customers for the products and services you offer. If you are genuinely seeking to get your brand in the market, be prepared to give away a part of your marketing and advertising budgets on influencer marketing.

Step Three: Develop great relationships first

Most Influencers are constantly flooded with demands and proposals on a daily basis. As an alternative to cold-calling, get started with creating an important relationship. You can do this by following their page online and interact with their content on social media — whether it just comments on their post, liking their post or retweeting. Additionally you can check out their blog and comment on some posts. Just don’t go too far on it.

After a couple of weeks of engaging with the influencer online, they’ll in all probability identify your business. Now’s that the appropriate time to send them a personal mail detailing whatever you want about their digital presence and the sort of partnership you want.

Step Four: Plan Content Jointly

If the influencer eventually agrees to work with you, then it’s time to determine the type of content you would like to create together. With most influencers, be prepared to invest around 20 hours or more developing content jointly for your campaign. You’ll need to ensure your brand is featured prominently, however you don’t have to make the content a sales pitch. All things considered, influencers’ followers have confidence in them to bring the best merchandise, not to pitch to them.