What Small Businesses Need to Know about Influencer Marketing

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Rather than convincing all of your prospects to do business with you, what if you just had to convince a few of them? Then, those new clients could tell the rest of your potential customers about how great you are. Of course, this only works if you focus on the right new clients, folks with influence–the kind of people the rest of your prospects respect, trust, and turn to for input. That is influencer marketing in a nutshell.

Sociologists proposed the hypothesis that the majority of people are influenced by a small number of opinion leaders during a study in 1944 about the process of decision-making during the presidential election. The translation for marketers is that if we can successfully find and engage opinion leaders, they can help us connect “with the masses.” This can be done organically, or by paying the influencers for their help.

Social media has given the whole things new legs since it makes it easier than ever to 1.) identify influencers and 2.) become an influencer in the first place.

Platforms like SnapChat, YouTube and Vine (RIP!) have enabled a generation of personalities to cultivate enormous followings by creating and sharing unique, and often silly, content. These channels, and their superstars, are most popular with millennials, and marketers have been salivating over the new opportunity to connect with this high-value audience.

But influencer marketing isn’t just about this wave of new content creators.  According to one study, 84 percent of global marketers planned to launch at least one influencer campaign. Small businesses need to focus on finding the influencers that matter to their audience, and remember the following:

1. An influencer doesn’t have to be a celebrity. They just need to matter to your customer base.
2. An influencer doesn’t have to have a huge following. Sometimes people with smaller fan bases actually have better engagement stats.
3. An influencer doesn’t even have to be a person. An organization, such as a non-profit, can make an excellent partner.

When you find the right influencer, someone (or something) who is trusted by your clients and prospects, they can help you create content that resonates with your target audience. They can also help you distribute that content by sharing it on their own social media channels. Influencer marketing is not as new as it seems. For small businesses, it is another tactic for reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time.

Want to chat about what influencer marketing can do for your small business? Contact JR Lisk today.