How to leverage influencer marketing to increase your sales?
In the business world we go through different stages, and in each of them we have a concern or rather, a common purpose: to increase sales to continue growing and generate more and more profits.
To do this, you probably use the best known marketing strategies, such as emails, Ads and publications on your social networks, but innovating is never wrong and if you want to see an increase in your sales, you should definitely try the influencer marketing that It becomes more popular and effective among any business with a future.
The biggest challenge to grow a business in any aspect and especially in sales is to be able to attract your potential customers and that the marketing strategy you are using is effective in the audience you are targeting.
Also, today, people are less likely to buy a product or service if you use the typical propaganda or advertising that only says “buy me, buy me, buy me,” where you don’t take the time to show how that purchase could help them. That is, do not connect with your potential customer.
If you focus on using a marketing strategy where a whole audience and the public feel a connection and become more personal than generic, I assure you that your sales will increase without even realizing it.
So here, I am going to show you how you can use influencer marketing in just 7 steps and thus be able to increase your sales in the business you decided to undertake.
What is an influencer marketing strategy?
Influencer marketing is a strategy with which you can spread a proposal for a product or service to the public you want to address, but unlike others, in this case you must choose an influencer, that is, a person who will be the voice to the promotion.
Since social networks are the places where a large part of the population invests their time either from their cell phone or computer, not only businesses or companies have taken advantage, but also individuals who want to open at least a small space in them and find both money and fame.
Therefore, I am sure you must have at least vague knowledge of what an influencer itself is. Now, when we talk about influencer marketing, it’s simply about implementing them or integrating them into your promotional strategy.
The influencers earn money mainly by monetizing all the public they have by advertising several brands and recommending products or services of a specific business.
By using this marketing method, you will be collaborating with a third party that will help you grow and even more importantly, increase your business sales.
Advantages of using influencer marketing for your business
- The public you want to address and is connected to the influencer have much more confidence in him or her, which causes them to be motivated to make the purchase.
- It not only increases sales, but also notoriety on the Internet and among most current media and information.
- It helps you improve customer loyalty, that is, you will increase sales and you can also retain a large percentage of them.
- You avoid making use of Ads and pop-up advertising that more than 55% of Internet users block or omit. With influencer marketing you can dedicate an exclusive content together with the influencer of your choice to promote your product or service avoiding having the opportunity to “skip it”.
- No matter what sector your business is from, you can use it and in any case, it will produce an increase in your sales.
- It is much cheaper because you do not need to pay all the time for the influencer’s collaboration, but to “pay” him through free gifts or tests of the product or service you offer.
- When using influencers in your marketing strategy, it is very likely that you get a good ROI (return on investment) since campaigns or collaborations, as I told you before, are not usually expensive.
- You will easily connect with the millennial generation to which all influencers have access due to their constant adaptation to the latest in the industry.
7 steps to use influencer marketing and increase your sales
1. Know your audience before implementing the strategy
The most common mistake of most businesses when they see a marketing strategy that is practically 100% safe that can help them increase their sales, is to implement it or make the investment in it without even knowing their visitors and audience in general. .
Do not rush; Before you even start planning your business campaign where you will include the influencer, you should make an evaluation of all the clients you have now and mainly, of all the public you want to target.
Understand something, that the strategy is a great one, does not mean that there is no margin for error or that your audience does not receive with open arms the promotion you are trying to make with it.
Influencer marketing is not about paying the influencer and saying, “take care of the campaign,” because no, that is not how it works.
You are the one who must organize what will be done and should be done during this and give the instructions to the influencer to do his magic and help you connect with all your audience that are your future potential buyers.
So focus on doing a study of what your target audience would like to see in your campaigns and implement it in the strategy you have in mind with the influencer you choose.
2. Choose your influencer well
The best influencer for your business is not always the one with the most followers or likes in posts and videos that you upload to YouTube.
Keep in mind that, although I am not telling you to look for an influencer with just 1000 followers, it is not necessary to point towards those like millions of them since there are many aspects that you should keep in mind to choose the right one.
For example, it is important that you look for influencers who stand out in the area or sector of your business.
If you try to sell beauty products, then the logical thing is to look for one that focuses on that topic. You will not do anything collaborating with one who has 1 million followers but his forte is to talk about video games.
Other points you should keep in mind are …
- How do you want to approach your audience? Using an influencer with a sense of humor or one who loves to tell stories? There are many options.
- In addition to increasing your sales, do you also have as main objective to increase your presence and reach?
- What ages comprise the audience you want to target?
- Are you looking for someone who is self-taught and collaborates with the creation of the campaign or someone who is dedicated to following instructions?
- Have they mentioned in any of your publications a product or service you offer?
- Other more superficial aspects such as gender and the appearance of the influencer.
When you are in the search and you are choosing several influencers until you find the right one, you will realize that you are crossing out that long list and although it takes some time, I assure you that you will find the one that fits your business perfectly and will make your sales increase.
3. Build a relationship with your influencer
Don’t just dedicate yourself to paying the influencer with whom you will collaborate, rather, try to make it feel part of the project rather than a simple means to achieve your goal.
The more you develop the relationship with your influencer, the better the collaborations will be and can even be encouraged to help you create the content you will share about your products or services.
To do this, you must also be willing to make an investment that will not be within the budget that includes your collaboration in the campaign.
If you want to establish and build a good relationship, make sure you also help them in other aspects. For example, making a promotion in your networks of theirs and the content they share in them.
If any of them sell a product or offer a service, nothing will cost you to try it and you can even develop a better strategy where you can combine what they offer with what you want to sell. A couple of comments and likes in your posts can also help you a lot.
The more that relationship is strengthened and strengthened, they can create higher quality content.
4. Create content that fits with your influencer
Yes, the campaign is mainly about your product or service and the purpose is to increase sales, but if you want to approach them in a more natural and not forced way, then try to mix your content with that of the influencer.
When I say “mix” I mean that you try to make a promotion of what you offer without appearing to be an advertisement so that the audience you are going to decide to make a purchase.
To do this, be sure to see the content that the influencer creates and shares and so, when he shares the video or creates the publication about it, be friendly and the audience does not avoid or ignore it because it is a collaboration to advertise.
You should not abandon the objective of the entire strategy at any time, but keep in mind that to create the content you should not only think about what YOU would share in your networks when dealing with your business, but also what the influencer shares and make what you have in mind, get the attention of your followers.
5. Do not think of influencer marketing as a means only to sell
The main reason why business sales decrease more and more when using traditional marketing strategies is because every advertisement they see is the only thing they invite to do is buy. Your audience knows that you just want to turn them into constant consumers.
Think about it for a second, when you put up a billboard or use another traditional method, the only thing that indicates the promotion is what the product or service does, but not information that can help them.
On the other hand, with the influencer marketing, the influencer with whom you collaborate will not be dedicated to saying what the product is for and in the end, giving a poor excuse as to why they should buy it. No, that is not what he will do.
By creating content to use this strategy, in addition to promoting your product, you will also be creating valuable content where you share information that your audience appreciates.
And although making this type of content will take you a little more time and effort, it will ensure the trust and interest of the public.
It is likely that many do not buy to see it once or twice, but without a doubt, it will arouse an interest that will eventually lead them to buy.
6. Do not stop using and planning other marketing strategies
Now that you know influencer marketing and know that it is one of the best strategies to increase the amount of sales in your business, that does not mean that you should focus all your efforts on it and dedicate yourself to using only this method.
To continue increasing your sales and maintain them, you must rely on the others you used to use before implementing this.
Mainly because these strategies have lasted a long time in marketing thanks to their effectiveness, which although it is not as fast or massive as influencer, they still help greatly in making your business more visible and generating more and more sales. So you should not stop making a plan in each of them.
In addition, you cannot rely solely on a single method that, for any reason or difficulty that may arise, may cease to function or show a decrease in its effectiveness.
7. Keep a record and follow the path of everything
Finally, digital marketing in general allows you to keep track of everything that happens regarding the strategy you are implementing.
It is even easier for influencer marketing to be aware of the statistics and improvements in your visibility and sales because you will not only be observing those of your business, but also those of the influencer when sharing content about your products.
This is a step that is not limited only to implementing the strategy, but to everything related to your business and it is possible to do so if you use several tools or programs such as Google Analytics.
With this, you can observe in detail in what you can improve and which characteristic is predominant.
You don’t necessarily have to sit every day for hours and keep track, but you should check your statistics at least once or twice a week. Remember, time is money and the faster the better the aspects in which you are lacking, the faster you can increase your sales.
The influencer marketing brings many advantages for your business and not only in sales, but in the overall growth of this.
But do not forget that while it is a great strategy to grow fast, you must implement it step by step. Invest the necessary time and do not despair if it takes a little longer than it would normally take you to campaign using another strategy. Your patience and effort will bear many fruits.
Do you already use this method to increase your sales? Tell me how was your experience leaving a comment below.