Influencer Marketing Guide For Maximum Business Growth

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.

Whom Do Consumers Trust? Social Media Influencers!

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 Guide For Maximum Business Growth

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.

• Do You Know Your Target Audience?

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:

• Key demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
• Consumer interests (fitness, health, gaming, family)
• Social media channels
• Spending habits Income and careers Favorite types of content (video, images, articles)

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.

• Engagement Rate Is The Most Important Influencer Metric

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:

Engagement Rate = (likes/views + comments) / followers x 100

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.

• Partner With Nano-Influencers And Micro-Influencers

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.

• Let Influencers Do What They Do Best — Be Creative

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.

Ready For Maximum Business Growth Via Influencer Marketing?

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.

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap

Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.

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