Influencer Marketing for Small Businesses

Influencer marketing is expected to be worth $15 billion by the end of 2022.  

This means that a lot of brands and businesses are already including it within their social media marketing strategy in Nashville – and it’s time you do too!

But can a small business like yours afford to work with influencers?

Of course! Influencer marketing for small businesses is one of the most effective and powerful marketing methods today.  

With over 4.26 billion social media users across the globe, influencers are the leverage you need to expand your reach and take your sales to the next level.  

In this article, we are going to discuss with you everything you need to know about influencer marketing for small businesses.  

Influencer Marketing for Small Business 101

1. Identify Your Influencer Marketing Campaign Goal

Before you work with influencers for your social media marketing campaigns in Nashville, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve at the end of the day.  

Is it to raise brand awareness in the short term? Is it going to be a long-term ambassador-style partnership? Do you have a specific target for boosting your sales each month?

Whatever objectives you want to accomplish, both in terms of physical results and marketing goals, make sure you clearly define what they are.  

Once you know what you want to attain with influencer marketing, think of how you'll achieve that in partnership with an influencer.

Will co-creating a product or special line help you achieve that? Will posting about your products on their social media profile be enough?  

It’s worth thinking about how you’re going to use influencers in your campaigns to guarantee the best results possible.  

With a goal in mind and an action plan on how you’re going to achieve it, it’ll be easier to find the right influencers to work with.

2. Research Influencers and Micro-Influencers

Now that you have a goal, the next step is to find the right influencer for your social media marketing campaign in Nashville.  

Follow these best practices to help you get started!

• Scour through the comment section of your social media accounts. There might be someone already interested and engaging with your business. What's great about this is that you can be working with someone passionate about the project, making it more authentic.  
• Research relevant hashtags on social media to find influencers in your niche. You can also use a branded hashtag you've used in the past. Check out who's using the hashtag often and what their posts are all about.  

• Check out your competitor’s Instagram accounts to gauge what kind of influencer marketing campaigns they've been doing and who they've worked with in the past. Based on their previous campaigns, you will get an idea of what to do and not to do.  
• Ask your customers and followers directly. What better way to know who you should collaborate with than to ask your very own fans and followers?  
• Work with micro-influencers within your community because they tend to have a higher engagement rate. Plus, their rates are cheaper!

3. Assess Your Chosen Influencers or Micro-Influencers

Once you have a short list of influencers you want to work with, it’s time to assess if they’re the perfect fit for your brand.  

The first thing you want to do is review each influencer’s content style and quality. Check out their social media profiles to see what kind of content they publish, their style, and their quality.  

Ultimately, you want to work with influencers who have the same values as your brand. This will ensure that they can deliver the quality work you need for your campaign.  

The next thing you want to do is review each potential influencer’s demographics. Is their audience also your target audience?

You need to know where your potential influencer’s followers are located, as well as their age, gender, income, language, buying behaviors, and more.  

4. Reach Out to Your Influencer of Choice

You’ve done your research and you’ve confirmed they’re the right people to work with.  

What you want to do next is reach out. But before you DM or email your target influencers, it’s important to get your tone, message, and level of professionalism right.  

Your first message can either break or make your partnership with them. Here are some best practices to ensure you’re reaching out the right way:

• Research your potential influencer's contact details. Most Instagram business profiles have an email button that allows you to email them directly from within the app.  
• Before sliding into their DMs, if you can source an email address, it's best to reach out to your influencer through email. It's more professional and it allows you to go into detail about your brand and campaign mission.  
• Ask for an influencer media kit, especially if you’re still not sure you want to work with them.  
• Set a good impression by introducing yourself properly, your role, and your business.  

• Share information about your campaign and the direction it’s going in. Let them know why they would be a good fit for it.  
• Be open to discussing rates, timeline dates, and other details.  
• Talk about their work, what you like about the content they put out, and how they’re going to strengthen your campaign.  

Now that you know what to do, it’s time to discuss what you shouldn’t do:

• Never use an impersonal or spammy bot to contact your influencers.  
• Don’t reach out in the comment section of their post. DM them instead.  
• Never use the same message you used to reach out to one influencer to another. Personalize your intro email or DM for every influencer you want to work with.  
• Never message an influencer who is far outside your niche.  

5. Be Clear and Set Expectations

You want to be clear and transparent with your negotiations.  

Ask about their rate so you’ll know if you can afford their services. Then, present a clear outline of what you want the influencer to deliver as part of your campaign.  

This means you should already have a breakdown of precisely what needs to be published and their corresponding deadlines.  

6. Create Onboarding Materials

To help your influencer get comfortable with the project, create onboarding materials you can share. Our Nashville social media experts are happy to help if you have any questions!

A great onboarding process would be setting up a Dropbox or shared Google Drive folder and then place there all resources the influencer can use to inform and refine their posts, such as the following:

• Brand Style Guide – You want them to know what types of images, color palettes, logos, and tag lines they can use in their posts.  
• Editorial Style Guide – You want your influencer to get the right tone of voice in their copy and use the right language that aligns with your brand.  
• Press Releases and Talking Points – Share example copy that influencers can use to draft their captions or storyboarding for their content. Include crucial info like stats and figures from press releases.  

• FAQs – Include an FAQ where you can answer and explain all the frequently asked questions about your brand, business, campaigns, and how you deal with influencers. You can also include information about the deliverables like file formats, dimensions, and file-sharing locations.  

Providing influencers with materials they can use to boost their posts will help ensure that they can deliver the campaign on time. If your campaigns expand, you can also use these materials for onboarding new influencers.  

7. Track and Measure Results

Track and measure the success of your campaign. This will give you insights on how you can improve your campaigns and achieve better results for your social media marketing campaign in Nashville.  

Here are some tips to help you track and measure your influencer campaigns effectively:

• Use Instagram’s paid partnership feature to help you gather insights about how their sponsored posts have performed.  
• Set up UTM tagging for a specific influencer post so you can track and measure how much traffic you generated from their content.  
• Share campaign results with the influencers. Doing this is a good way of building a professional working relationship. You can also use it to better prepare and plan for future campaigns you might work on together.  
• Ask for their feedback. You want to get their insights about what worked, what didn’t, how their followers responded, what their followers liked best, and how the campaign can be improved moving forward.  

Looking for Social Media Marketing Experts in Nashville?

If you’re from Nashville and you’re looking for a social media marketing expert who can help create a social media content strategy and help you reach out to the right influencers, we can help!

At Digital Resource, our social media marketing experts will work with you to create a custom social media marketing and content plan that will put you ahead of your competitors and attract customers beyond your location.  

Contact us to learn how we can make it possible for you!

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