The demand for influencers who have the necessary credentials to get behind your brand and make a genuine difference to your marketing is still rising, and the most influential boggers, vloggers, and celebrities are often over-subscribed with invitations to publicize products online. To secure the influencers you really want, you need to stand out from the crowd and attract their attention; in other words you have to market your product to the people who you want to help you advertise your brand.
Quality
Quality is the keystone to effective influencer marketing. This applies to your brand, your product, and even the influencers you partner with. Your brand needs to not only look appealing and unique, but it needs to fulfil expectations. A substandard product or one that doesn’t match the description won’t be viewed favorably by anyone, whereas a top quality product, one that not only fulfils expectations but exceeds them, is likely to have your chosen influencers looking for more of your products in the future.
Business reputation
It’s always easier to establish relationships with an influencer if you’re well-known as a business yourself. Endorsing a big name brand gives valuable exposure to the influencer and raises their profile further too, so both parties benefit. If you aren’t well-known and are looking to get established, you have to use other means to attract the attention of suitably influential patrons. Being able to demonstrate the integrity of your business is a good start. For example being able to show you have investors who believe in your business, and that you’ve created a company that is building a sound reputation, even if it’s in its infancy.
Security
It’s also a good idea to be able to show you have safe and secure systems in place to protect customer data. There are so many stories about data being stolen or lost by even the largest names in business. Today, data security is a major concern for all consumers, including influencers. Influencers don’t want to be associated with a company that’s not secure, and news about security breaches in a business they’ve endorsed would be most unwelcome. You can ensure your system’s security by using an IT support service to manage your internal IT, and the best way to protect your website is to use a managed hosting service like Onyx that takes care of all your security for you and provides a higher level of security than you could if you managed your site yourself.
Selling yourself to an influencer involves the same marketing tactics as selling to your target market:
- Find the right people
- Know what they want
- Provide them with a product that fulfils their needs
- Show them why your product is the one they should go for
The more high-profile an influencer you can find to promote your brand, the more you’ll gain as a result in the increased sales and exposure, so it’s well worth investing time and effort into attracting the right people to promote your products. This research is key to find quality influencers, rather than accounts who merely bought followers and likes.
