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Choosing Influencers to Work With
When you decide to use influencer marketing to spread the word about your products and services, it helps to know what to look for in an influencer first. You want to work with people who share your values, work with your ideal customer, and are responsive to their audience.
Check Out Their Audience
The main issue for you is whether the audience is an audience that needs and wants what you are offering. While the influencer matters, you want to work with someone honest. The audience is most important because if they like what you offer, they’re going to be more likely to respond.
Study Their Online and Offline Activity
While the influencer’s audience is paramount, you need to ensure that your brand name aligns with people you share values with. If they have activity online that you don’t like, skip them, and move on to the next.
Choose Influencers with Responsive Audiences
Again, the audience is the most critical factor. Look at the comments and engagement under any public information that is being shared. How does the audience respond to the influencer and each other? If they’re responsive and active, you’re going to make more sales.
Choose Influencers Who are Responsive to Their Audience
Also, ensure that the influencer works well with their audience. How do they react to people with questions? Do they respond? This can help you know whether the relationship is mutual or not.
Join Their Email Lists
Another way to learn about how the influencer works with their audience is to join their email list. What types of products, services, and information do they share? Do they communicate often? Do they use a friendly reply address? How do they conduct business?
Participate in Their Communities
Don’t just observe. Seek to engage with the influencers and the audience by joining their communities. Don’t try to make a sale or be intrusive, but do observe and learn how they work so you can build trust with them.
Try a Small Project First
When you realize you like an influencer and believe their audience needs your solutions, go ahead and submit information about working with them on a small project – perhaps a contest or a giveaway for their audience. Influencers love giving things away to their audience, so it’s a great way to work with them.
Consider Working with Multiple Small Audience Influencers Simultaneously
As a small business owner, it can be expensive to work with a celebrity influencer, but it can be even more useful to work with small audience influencers. As long as the creator puts up work regularly and engages an audience, you can be successful with influencer marketing. Working with many at the same time can create a more significant buzz than only working with one.
The most important factors are ensuring that you’re a good match to work together and that the influencer likes your products or service and can portray that truth to their audience.
