Influencer Marketing for Startups: How to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck

Whether you realize what you were watching is influencer marketing or not, this type of digital marketing has taken over almost every social platform. This tactic has become super popular with consumers and businesses as it’s seen as a more approachable and natural way of talking about your brand with potential customers. And, compared to more traditional media buys like television or newspaper, it can also be fairly affordable to implement into your marketing strategy. But, like any investment you make into your business, you want to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. In this blog, we’ll share some influencer marketing for startups tips and answer some frequently asked questions about what deliverables you should expect.

What is the Premise Behind Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a way to promote your services or products from a third-party individual or marketer. This type of marketing can take the form of a 10-minute video on YouTube, a :30 video on TikTok, or even a blog on a website. But the core goal of influencer marketing is to come off as relatable and natural as possible when talking about a particular product or experience. Similar to people leaving reviews about your business, one of the benefits of influencer marketing is that the content these marketers create appears as visual testimonials to your audience.

Influencer Marketing Examples:

Instagram:

Blog:

JUJU, posted on Lemonhearted

Youtube:

Why is Influencer Marketing Important?

A good marketing plan should be able to speak to your ideal customers at the various buying stages they’re in. Being strategic about where you place your content is just as important as what type of content you should produce. Because while you may have stellar content with great information, if it’s not on the right platform or worded in a way that resonates with your target audience, then you might as well not have posted it. 

How to Find Influencer Marketers

Influence marketing started as bloggers or videographers sharing their niche topics, perspectives, or specialties online. But now, there is a whole industry behind influence marketing with agencies like Orlando’s own IZEA that specialize in this type of digital marketing.  

When it comes to influencer marketing for startups, your instinct will tell you to go after the accounts with the largest followings or have the highest engagement. But that method is one, very costly, and two, may not be the best fit for your brand, service, or product. So, when you are looking for influencers, our best recommendation is to find an influencer with a niche topic that relates to your goal and resonates with your audience. 

For example, a lot of our clients are in the tourism industry. So when influencers reach out to work with our clients, we look at the content already on their channels and get an idea of who their followers are. We want to make sure that the content they’re producing aligns with our client’s brand and see if our content would resonate with their audience.

What Deliverables You Should Get From Influencers

Influencer marketing for startups can be intimidating for several reasons, especially when you’re first dipping your toes into this process. Whether you’re reaching out to an influencer directly or they reach out to you, it’s important to communicate about deliverables, timelines, goals, and prices.

When working and collaborating with influencers, most influencers will have a certain price for their services, but the actual type of content they produce can vary from creator to creator. So if someone approaches you about collaborating with your brand, start by asking them about their content and what they could produce. Influencer agencies may even present you with a custom package on what type of content you can get!

The influencer marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) you want to consider while you decide that the content creator would be a good fit for your brand are; the number of followers a brand has, their average post engagement, number of likes, number of subscribers or average video views. Where the content is going (on YouTube, on Instagram, on a blog, etc.) will ultimately determine which specific KPIs to consider. For example, if it’s going up on YouTube, video views and video play thru would be the best metrics to gauge how engaged their followers are, or if you’re hoping for them to convert sales, you may provide them with an affiliate link

After you’ve determined you want to work with a particular influencer, don’t be afraid to talk about goals and deliverables with them. Both parties knowing what each other’s expectations are can help streamline the creation and approval process. During this stage, you can also go over your schedules to make sure you can be with them on the day of their filming. That way, you can help them execute the plan you agreed upon and make sure they have the best experience possible since they’re promoting your brand.

Influencer marketing for startups can be intimidating. But leveraging influencers already producing content can be beneficial to your company if you’re using influencer marketing to increase brand awareness - they have already earned the trust of their followers. Hopefully, after reading this blog, you feel more comfortable adding this type of marketing into your marketing plan. If you’re looking for other ways you can transform your business, check out our page on inbound marketing and how it can transform your business. 

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