Yeah yeah, we know what you’re thinking. You’ve heard so much about influencer marketing in the past couple of years that you’re just tired of hearing about it. Maybe you’re under the impression that influencer marketing is just another marketing fad that doesn’t amount to much. Or maybe you think that traditional marketing methods and maybe your website is going to bring you success.
Well, it’s time to listen up. Influencer marketing is not only a way to bring more viewers to your website or boost engagement on your own social media platforms but engaging with the world of influencers can help grow your brand and massively increase brand awareness. But don’t just take our word! Take it from the 93% of brands that say influencer marketing has helped them grow brand awareness. Here are some ways you can easily join in on the fun.
Start to Maximize Your Visibility
When you think about social media marketing and digital advertising, you need to think of the word, visibility. Showing off your brand in the digital sphere is all about increasing the number of eyeballs that are viewing your product. Without this increase in viewership, then there’s no way that you can grow your brand and bring more of those people in to buy your product or service.
That’s where influencer marketing comes into play. Working with influencers across a variety of social media platforms is the single best way in today’s world to maximize visibility. Think about the difference between a small local watch brand that just has a Facebook page with a couple hundred of followers and a larger brand, like MVMT Watches, which has thousands upon thousands of followers across a majority of social media networks. When a customer gets it into their mind to buy a new watch, which of those companies are they going to think about first?
No question about it. They’re going to think about MVMT first.
And why is that? Because MVMT spent the time, money, and energy necessary to bring influencers on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and a variety of other platforms on their side to promote their watches.
If you really want to increase brand awareness, you need to start work on the relevant social media networks for your brand and start building influencer campaigns based on them.
Pro Tip: Don’t bother with platforms where your audience doesn’t frequent. For example, if you’re trying to get the attention of younger kids from 10-15 years old, stay away from Facebook and focus on Snapchat.
Pick a Cause and Use Influencers to Promote It
It’s been shown time and time again that a large majority of consumers are likely to buy from a previously unknown brand simply because they showed an affinity towards a certain social cause.
No matter whether this is urban or rural poverty, the plight of war-stricken people in the Middle East, the threat of climate change, or any other issue – this is something that consumers increasingly care about. They want to know that your brand actually cares about more than making a quick buck off of their purchase.
This is one of the best action steps that your brand can use when starting up your influencer marketing campaigns. Pick a cause that is closely related to your brand that will resonate with consumers. For example, if you are Levi’s, then maybe the cause would be recycling old pairs of jeans to cut down on waste. Or if you are Habitat for Humanity, maybe you choose to cut the poverty rate as a cause. From there, influencer campaigns can be directed at bringing more awareness to this cause. Consumers are going to connect the dots on their own, see that you are a brand that cares about your social responsibility and be more likely to do their business with you.
This is the best kind of brand awareness possible. And all thanks to influencers!
Give Your Influencers Some Space
If you’ve ever conducted an influencer campaign in the past, you know that it’s a bit like a teacher getting his or her students to do a school project. Giving students too many creative directions and requirements can cut down on their creativity and cause them undue stress. Giving them too little requirements will confuse them on the purpose of the assignment and not deliver the results you’re looking for. The exact same is true with influencer marketing.
When you work with influencers, you need to remember that their entire job is content creation. That’s what they do best. That’s what they eat and breathe every day of their lives. If you try to take that creativity away from them, what are you left with?
If you really want your brand to grow with influencer marketing, then give your influencers free reign over your collaborations. Don’t try to put them into a box and tell them that they have to create this exact type of content that looks exactly like this. Sure, you can give them some guidelines, but boxing in your influencers is only going to create inauthentic content and will most likely keep that influencer from working with you on successive collaborations.
Work with Influencers on Giveaways
The last tip that we have for you is all about giveaways, giveaways, and more giveaways. Working with your influencers to give away free products, gift cards, or anything else is a fantastic way to reach new audience members. Who doesn’t love the chance to get something free?
For example, Alaska Airlines has recently worked with a number of influencers to give away free plane tickets. Now, this might seem like throwing your money down the drain, but imagine how much brand awareness this brings to your company! For the price of one flight ticket, you’re going to get hundreds or even thousands of new potential customers who will think of your brand first.
Influencer marketing is no longer a new marketing strategy. It’s been several years since the first influencers started turning their work into a business. If you want your brand to be known throughout the digital world, then working with influencers is mandatory.
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