15 Feb Get Influencers To Notice You
How to get influencers to notice you with blogger @GirlAboutBerwick
“Successful marketing of your small business or start up, should include an element of social media and your best way to spark organic growth is to engage with influencers, who can help promote your product/services to their audiences.
Influencers are the power brokers of digital marketing. A recent survey from the influencer agency CollectiveBias found 30% of shoppers are more likely to purchase a product endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger than a celebrity. One mention from them can deliver record-breaking traffic to your site. And they don’t just deliver traffic either. An influencer’s mention is an implied endorsement, and that means trust.
So how do you get social media stars to pay attention to you?
We chat with Blogger, @girlaboutberwick about her top 5 tips for catching the eye of influencers.”
1. Make yourself known
“A straightforward way to begin is simply to engage with them directly on their social media sites. Follow them, share, like and offer insightful comments on their posts. Enter their competitions, tag and mention them in your own posts. Be proactive and interested.
Never be afraid to direct message an influencer, I’m 100% more likely to engage with a business if they’ve gone to the effort of contacting me. But always be sure your contact has purpose, for example: an initial introduction, a product launch, or perhaps you have an upcoming event that you would like to invite the blogger to, etc.”
2. Focus on location
“One of the best things a small business can do is take advantage of what’s close by and local influencers and bloggers are a great example of this. It’s likely that the influencer/blogger has built relationships and contacts within the area that are going to be useful to your business. It’s often, not about what you know, but who you know! Plus, influencers and bloggers spend a lot of time out and about talking and socialising with people so there’s potential for them to be sprucing your business by word of mouth without them even realising – and it’s basically free marketing for you!!
Also, get out there and introduce yourself. Why sit behind a computer emailing when it could be easier to meet them face-to-face at a local cafe. The communication and relationship becomes much easier and they’ve got a face and personality to put to your brand and business.”
3. Know your influencers target audience
“There’s one main point I look for when it comes to promoting other businesses – do they align with my target audience.
Girl About Berwick focuses on businesses and events around Berwick and I need to remember that that’s what my audience is expecting. There’s definitely a little blur with boundaries, for example I might promote something in a neighbouring suburb but I’m not going to promote a new cafe opening in Williamstown.
It’s also incredibly important for me to be constantly thinking about my target audience and whether what I’m promoting is aligned to them. The flow on from this thinking is that I’m naturally drawn to businesses that appeal to my audience. My suggestion for businesses is to know and research your influencers. Spend time looking through their social media feeds, go onto their website, ‘Google’ them, make sure you know them and their product well before spending the time and effort in building a relationship with them.”
4. Offer up samples
“Whilst I recommend following your influencers as well as liking and commenting on their posts where appropriate, sometimes this might not be enough to attract their full attention.
If you’re thinking about sending a product sample to an influencer, begin to think how other businesses might do it. Are they simply going to pop it in a post bag and into the mail box? If you’re local, why not think about personally delivering it? How are you going to package it? Women especially will notice the way it’s wrapped. However you do it, try and provide them with something they’re not expecting.
Also, remember the saying – you have to spend money to make money. Think about how you shop online, I’m more likely to shop at an online store if I’ve already experienced their product – the same notion applies to influencers. They’re more likely (and more excited) to promote a product if they’ve seen and experienced it firsthand, it also provides for an easier writing experience! So, put some money aside in your budget and provide them with product samples or invite them in to try your new menu/venue/service. Once they promote your business it only has to engage one person. That person might then tell their sister about it, her sister might tell her best friend, her best friend might tell her work colleague and before you know it, you’ve reached 100 plus new potential customers.”
5. Keep evolving
“To stand out from the crowd will often mean you’re going to have to step out of your comfort zone. This might mean something like I’ve previously spoken about with direct messaging or scheduling a face to face meeting – this ‘cold call’ style of communication is not always easy but can be essential to your business.
Ensure you’re always evolving, especially when it comes to social media and technology. There’s constantly new ways of upping the ante on your posts. For example, a lot of people are beginning to use the ‘Stories’ feature on Instagram. It’s a quick snapshot and is displayed as soon as you open your Instagram feed meaning it’s often one of the first things people will see.”
6. Know when to call the experts
Like we have said in previous blogs, there is only so much we can tell you to do – and the rest is up to you. If this is something that daunts you a little too much, don’t hesitate in asking us more. We have social media packages that allows you to sit back and for us to take over and get your brand known.
When in doubt, call the team at Redsteps to cover all social media aspects and leave the responsibility to us!
Good luck!
