Different firms and businesses often use influencers to promote themselves and their products. Commonly you may have seen clothing brands, accessory brands, and such use famous actors and celebrities to promote their latest products. This lends legitimacy to the brand as the target audience considers this an endorsement for the product and brand. Naturally, this requires you to be an established brand and have adequate funds to afford this.
As a small business, you probably may not have all the requirements met. But you can use micro-influencer marketing to promote your business and its products. A micro-influencer is a personality that has 1,000 to 100,000 followers on social media. They will have expertise in their particular niche. They have a small follower base but have higher ROIs than bigger influencers. In Micro-Influencer marketing, you partner up with these individuals and reach out to them to promote your products. This creates a more personalized and humanized message. Here is how you can use it for your brand.
One of the best ways to create awareness on social media is to use hashtags to promote posts. You should create one for your brand where you combine the brand name or the product name with something that people can search for. You will then use these hashtags in the posts these micro-influencers post on social media for maximum reach. These posts can be made easily with PosterMyWall’s small business flyer templates.
A major benefit for using templates is that they make the task of designing a flyer trivial. Most of the structure is there so you only need to modify as per your needs and use them.
The sparkling water brand LaCroix uses the hashtag #livelacroix to promote its products on social media. Any micro-influencer they reach out to for promotion will use this hashtag in their posts, and everything will show up here. Users can see all posts tagged with this hashtag and learn more about the brand and see more marketing materials. So, think about what you can create with your brand.
Use People-Friendly Content
People react better when they see user-generated, human-sounding content because it seems more personal and less detached. Bigger influencers although have better numbers, are unable to properly connect with their audience due to their star power. But a micro-influencer is better able to because, for the audience, they are just another person and not someone larger than life.
You can ask your micro-influencers to use a personal and humanized tone in their content. In essence, it shouldn’t feel like content they made for you on request and something they would have done otherwise anyway.
This influencer made a video for the brand we discussed earlier, LaCroix, and kept a personal tone like she was talking to her followers regularly. She went over why she personally used this product as it was a substitute for alcoholic drinks. It feels more authentic and allows her followers to connect with her and engage with the brand based on her endorsement. You can try this as well.
Tell A Story
Storytelling in marketing captures the audience’s attention and creates conversions. They allow the audience to connect with the message and the storyteller and are almost always better than dry marketing posts. It answers the why and how your product can help an end user and make their lives better.
Let’s take an earlier example for instance where the influencer used the product because she needed an alternative to alcoholic drinks. She found the solution with the product that allowed her to have a non-alcoholic option and still enjoy drinks with her friends. It tells a story; that she felt left out and probably didn’t have a good time when she was out with friends. But with the product, she can now take part in social activities without feeling left out.
You will need to put some extra work in and find a micro-influencer that fits the brand’s story. A scholar would be an ill fit to promote a sports brand, for example. But a trainer would be a better fit.
Final Thoughts…
The world of marketing and promotions is brutal no matter what level you are at as a business. Driving sales and getting more customers is the goal but it can be challenging when every niche has hundreds if not thousands of brands competing with each other. Most people tend to use SEO or PPC advertising but that takes capital and time.
The solution is found in micro-influencer marketing that sets you apart from the competition and delivers personal messages that the customers can connect with. This article goes over some of the strategies you can try in that regard. Incorporate them into your overall marketing plans and you’ll see measurable results over time.