As more and more people use social media networks like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, to name a few, you’ll figure out that some of them start to ‘influence’ others by creating, selecting, organizing, and presenting their own stories, experiences, photos, and videos. Therefore, they become influencers. This has led many marketers to look for influencers to be their final marketing tools. This expounds on how influencer marketing became an indispensable part of any business’s marketing landscape.

In brief, influencer marketing is a strong marketing tool that authorizes you to reach your targeted audience more efficiently and genuinely. If done correctly, it is particularly cost-efficient for startups. Also, as a startup, you’d like to enhance your outreach as much as you can and build your brand. So, what better approach than influencer marketing?

What is influencer marketing for startups?

Influencer marketing for startups is when a brand cooperates with an influencer (often known as a content creator) to upgrade its products or services. This is usually done through social media posts and online blogs. The goal of the game is for the influencer to motivate their followers to find out more about the brand in question.

Who can be an influencer? Most people consider celebrities and athletes when they imagine influencers. Celebrities usually charge a lot of money per post, with popular stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylie Jenner getting up to $1M per sponsored post they share.

Still, the good news is that there are many different types of influencers available. As long as someone has high-quality, committed followers who trust what they say, they can assist to promote your startup.

Why is influencer marketing so essential for startups?

Influencer marketing is all about making use of the power of social proof. By requesting influencers to talk about how amazing your product or service is, their audience will be motivated to try it for themselves.

Four out of five people have purchased something through an influencer suggestion, so it certainly works!

Influencer marketing works as it doesn’t feel like typical marketing. With people overlooking pay-per-click ads and fast-forwarding commercials on their TVs, businesses must have a way of interacting with clients. Influencer marketing for startups is more instructive and casual, like a friendly chat with someone you trust.

Influencer marketing for startups is a cost-efficient way of engaging a lot of new customers, which is great for a startup that might be on a tight marketing budget.

How to conduct a successful influencer marketing campaign?

If you decide to do an influencer marketing campaign for your startup, research is fundamental. Success or failure will be dependent on who you target and how hard they work to upgrade your business.

It’s vital to schedule ahead, especially if your launch is time-sensitive. Finding the right influencer is time-consuming.

If you’re short of time, there are influencer agencies available that can find influencers for you to work with. However, it’s easy enough to do yourself. Some tips to ensure your influencer marketing campaign for startups delivers results are listed below:

Understand your target audience before you begin

Before you launch to send an email to prospective influencers, you must know which audience you want to target.

You should have done this when you prepared your business plan or lean startup plan, but if not – think about which type of audience you want to reach out to.

Know your goals

You need to know what you want to accomplish from your marketing campaign. This will impact the influencers you contact, as well as the content you ask them to prepare

Consider which influencers you want to use

It’s vital to know what type of influencer you want to utilize in your campaign. Take the time to examine potential influencers on your social media platform of choice.

Decide on your budget

The influencer you work with will need the motive to post on your behalf, so you must decide how much money you can provide.

How much money should you offer? There are no clear rules for you to follow. Different influencers will get varying amounts, and it might be the case that you provide different influencers with different amounts of money for the same output.

Put together a clear brief

Some businesses like to offer the influencers they work with free reign over their campaign, while others would rather provide precise instructions to follow. Both ways of working are great, but the significant thing is to prepare an understandable brief. Consider what you’d like the influencer to do, what you want to accomplish, and the messages they need to impart.

Reach out to your influencers

The next step is to communicate with the influencers you want to work with. Always select a couple that you want to work alongside just in case some don’t respond or refuse your offer.

Always send an email if you can – most influencers will state their email address on their account. Sending a DM through social media can be irrational as the influencer might not receive it.

Measure statistics

It’s important to evaluate the success of your campaign so you can see what worked and how many new clients your influencer found for you. Try to keep away from ‘vanity metrics’ such as likes and comments. While these numbers can be important, they won’t tell you a lot about the campaign’s success.

Don’t forget the rules!

Before you set up your campaign, you need to figure out the rules about influencer marketing disclosure in your country. Influencers must recognize any ‘paid for posts’; otherwise, both you and they could get penalized. This could include putting a hashtag like #ad or #sponsored at the beginning of a post, or orally saying that a video is an ad.