How Influencer Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Influencer is brands working with people of influence. They use their trusted following in order to team up with them and provide them with their product or service, in order for them to tell their followers about you. It’s a modern-day Word of Mouth marketing.
• Influencer marketing isn’t just about massive celebrities as anyone can be an influencer, as long as they have influence. Those that have a niche, often have large influence over a small audience.
• The most common places people have influence over are Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Podcasts.
• There are three types of influencers – Micro, Micro and Celebrity influencers.
• Macro influencers have 100,000 followers, and whilst they’re not as expensive as Celebrity influencers, they will still cost. Micro Influencers have over 1,000 followers and a hold a really strong relationship with their audience. They tend to be niche specific and are dedicated to their content. They often have a higher engagement and conversion rate.
• When it comes to costs, they will be affordable, or may not charge at all as long as they are receiving the benefit of a product.
• If you get leads or followers from an influencer, they tend to be really relevant.
• There are a number of laws that surround influencer marketing.
• Although they mainly lie in the hands of the influencer, you need to ensure you are doing your due diligence to ensure they are following the rules that have been set for them.
• In order to find an influencer to work with, you need to know who your customer is as otherwise, they won’t be able to talk to the people you want them to talk to. You need consider what size influencer you want, what platform you want them to be on, what they will be posting, what hashtags they might use, what is their main demographic and are they seen as an authority.
• To find influencers you can look at hashtags, things that are trending at the moment and those that are authors or speakers. It does take time, but it is worth it. If you’re looking to put budget into it, there are platforms you can use to find influencers for you. These are BuzzSumo, Social Bakers and Tracker.
• When you are looking for fakes you need to consider whether they have consistency when it comes to their engagement and likes. You may also want to look at whether or not their posts are consistent. Another thing you need to look for are odd number, meaning the number of people that page or profile in comparison to the engagement. If someone has 40,000 followers and they’re receiving 100 to 200 likes, the chances are they have bought followers. You may also need to look out for the frequency of spammy comments.
• When reaching out to a blogger you need to follow them and engage with them in the run up to your pitch. Once you have built up that relationship, you might want to consider DM’ing them to put your face or your brand even more directly in front of them. Once you have done that, you should introduce yourself to them. Whether you do this via email or send a video DM, you need to ensure your pitch is perfect.
• When writing your pitch, you need ensure it is personal. Take a look at their profile and mention something that you love in the introduction of your email. Explain the benefits of working with you straight away, as this will give them a clear idea as to whether or not they want to continue reading. Once you have done this, you need to share your ideas with them. Finally, give them a call to action.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

When working with influencers you shouldn’t be looking at how has the most followers, but instead who has the best engagement, whether or not they are a great fit for you and if they reach your target audience. Although numbers are great, everything else is much more valuable.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• A Little Introduction to The Podcasts Name Change 00:30
• The Basics of Influencer Marketing - 10:00
• Why Should You Use Influencer Marketing - 14:10
• Laws Surrounding Influencer Marketing - 16:00
• How to Find an Influencer in Your Niche - 17:11
• How to Spot A Fake - 19:34
• Reaching Out To A Blogger - 26:00

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode

BuzzSumo

Social Bakers

Trackers

Guidelines for Social Media Influences

Transcript below

Hello there and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. Do you know what? I start every episode saying that and I sit here right before I’m due to start thinking, what sall I say today and I literally say the same thing every single week. But it’s really interesting. And now going off on a complete tangent by the way, it’s about just being natural I guess. And I guess naturally, that’s what I would say and if I tried to start it saying anything else like hey there or how you do it or whatever, it wouldn’t be me or that isn’t how I’d speak. And I try and imagine how I’d speak if someone was in front of me and I guess that’s different, isn’t it? So it’s hard to relate that one but anyway I apologize that I literally stopped the podcast exactly the same way and pretty much finish it exactly the same way, every single week. But honestly it is a bit hard to think of something and the other thing I do sometimes is I go and listen to other people’s intros because as you know, I am a big podcast fan and I listen to lots of podcast myself.

But again same thing, if I tried saying what they say and I end up sounding like James Wedmore or one of the other amazing people that I listen to instead of myself. So I will continue to do the same if not slightly boring now intro and then we’ll just get straight into it. So that’s the only bit that’s the same.

Okay, I hope you’ve had a good week. And if you listened to last week’s episode I talked all about the fact in the intro anyways it was an interview but it talks all about the fact that I’m changing the name of the podcast. And I’ve got a couple of questions to ask you before I change it. Now the name has been decided and I apologize if you’re not keen or if you’ve got a point of view. And normally, I’d be so happy to hear it. However, I literally have tried to decide a new name for what feels like months and have messed around and have come up with every kind of name I could think of and now I’m settled on this. So it’s going to be this because if I start thinking again then I’ll change your mind again and it will just be a nightmare. So the podcast is going to be changed and is going to be called Marketing That Converts. And the reason I’m changing it as I said before is very much down to the fact that the podcast covers so much more than just social media.

However the key bit in this for me was the words ‘that converts’ because that’s the thing that I really want us to focus on. That’s the thing that I love so much about what I do and about the world that we’re in right now is that we can actually see what is working and what’s not working. So my aim is to always give you stuff that will work and that will actually result in customers or followers or email addresses, whatever it might be. So hopefully Marketing That Converts kind of covers it off.

And also I’m going to let you in on a bit of a secret that this is now the new name for several other projects that I’ve got going. So we’re going to have Marketing That Converts The Podcast, Marketing That Converts The Academy and Marketing That Converts - 90 Day Focus.

So basically the way that my business is gonna be structured is that my free content is my podcast and other free content that I put out there but that’s going to be the thing that everybody can have no matter what their budget, what access they need or anything. They get to listen to the podcast every single week. And I hope my aim is that obviously I add value to you every single week. Then the next step up is going to be The Academy and I’m yet to actually fully decide on the details of it. But basically what the Academy’s going to be is a membership. And that membership, God I feel really nervous talking about this isn’t it really funny like I feel like now I’m saying it out loud on the podcast.. It’s absolutely real and I need to get my backside in gear and finish it because we are putting it together as I speak. But I’ll carry on sorry I got almost a little bit emotional there which is ridiculous. So yeah the Academy is going to be the membership and the idea with the membership is, I’ve got so much good stuff to teach you. I teach you sort of a teacher kind of not the minimum but the the most I can get away with in a podcast. So I try and give you really good value but the membership is about taking it a step further. It’s about deep diving into actual things, going through physically step by step but not just going through in more detail but giving you videos where I talk you through things, giving you workbooks, giving you checklist and all those things that you can physically go and do it yourself. The other reason I’ve chosen membership is because the world that we’re in changes all the time. Social media, digital marketing, the platforms, the rules, the amazing technologies that we’ve got they change all the time. So for me creating courses or a big massive course of all of this just wouldn’t work because literally day one it could be out of date.

The other thing I love about the membership model is the fact that I get to help you ongoing. So you get to come into a community with me where I’m there in the group and I am going live a couple of times a month and I’m helping you and teaching you and you get to ask questions. And that for me is the best bit. Because the training is great. Giving you advice is great. But I love it when I’m able to sit and talk to people and say, ‘What do you do? I would do this for you. Or what I talked about there, I’d probably tweak it this way for your industry or your business.’ So I’m really excited about the thought of spending time in a more community led environment with a load of you guys where we can sit and I can help you take all the cool stuff we talk about on the podcast. Take it that next step further. So that’s going to be the academy and then for those of you that want to really kind of ramp up and do it quicker and want more of my time and a smaller group then the 90 Day Focus is going to be exactly that.

It’s gonna be a 90 day program where we work in a very small group, no more than say 15 people in a group and we will have some really cool stuff. So you’ll get a one to one call with me at the beginning of the 90 days where we talk through what your objectives are for the next 90 days not just from a marketing perspective but also from a business perspective. And then what we’re going to do is we’ll have a weekly calls with just that small group. You and I will then have a monthly catch up call where again we jump on a zoom call and we review what you’ve done. We set your goals for the following month. And then at the end of 90 days, we then have another call see how there’s 90 days went. And obviously if you want to sign up for another 90 days then great. We’ll do that as well.

But the 90 day focus is really aimed at much more focused smaller groups and more in-depth work. So I am excited about these. I don’t want to keep going saying I’m super excited about this program because I’m so tired of hearing people say that. And I think maybe because the industry I’m in, I hear that a lot because I hear a lot of people selling a lot programs but I am genuinely excited to help people. That’s what I’m excited about. So I can’t wait for those programs to be up and hopefully have some of you guys in there and I can help you more closely and we can really push your business forward.

Anyway, I realize that possibly sounded a bit like sales pitch which I apologize for because I’m really keen not to do the kind of uncomfortable sleazy selling nuts which I hate. Anyway but I want to explain where Marketing That Converts comes from and the how it’s going to look across the brands and what it’s all about. So hopefully you quite like that name. But the question I have for you, God I digress so much there, the question I had for you initially was when I get my new intro and actually recorded because obviously I have one for the podcast. Do I get a British accent? Or an American accent which I have currently? Or do I just do it myself and get someone to put some cool music behind it? Or do I have not one altogether? I have noticed quite a few people don’t one altogether so I’d be interested to see what you think on that one. Also in terms of the actual day it changes over. I’m not entirely sure it’s coming. The branding is done and obviously now I need the sort the intro and outro out I’d like to know your opinion but I will make sure that I do lots of marketing across all my platforms. If you are happy to share then I would appreciate that and appreciate you so very much. If you could do that just because I’m really nervous to change the name because I don’t want people to think that A. It’s a different podcast or B. I’ve gone away or whatever they might think. So I’m going to be putting together some marketing materials that basically promotes the fact that we’ve changed names and nothing’s changed. So if you are happy to help that would be awesome. And like I said if you keep an eye on my social media you will no doubt see some stuff on there and be able to share that in the coming weeks.

Okay, let’s get on with today’s episode. So what we’re talking about today is a solo episode. No interview just me rambling on in your ears and today I’m talking about influencer marketing. Now I know some of you out there on potentially lots of you are going to go, “No, that’s not my bag or Teresa, I’m not some big massive brand. I can’t afford to bring on the Kardashians and promote my products.” That’s cool because I don’t want to talk about that kind of influencer marketing. I want to talk about influencer marketing in a way that you can use it for your business and that it might help you in your business and it might be not what you think influencer marketing is. But I just want to throw a couple of concepts out that just in case either A. You are working in marketing and you want to think about it or B. You have your own business and you think, is there a way that I can do this?

So let me start by looking at some of the basics for you and giving you a bit of an overview about influencer marketing itself. So basically ensure influencer marketing is brands working with people of influence. They use their trusted following in order to team up with them and provide them with their products or service. And that person obviously talks about it on their social media following. And basically it’s like a modern version of word of mouth marketing. So whereas in many many many years ago, you would ask your friends who do you use for this or what you do for this. We’re now looking to influencers to recommend products and services to us.

Influence marketing isn’t just about those big massive celebrities as most people might think is the case. Anyone really can look at doing influencer marketing if they are of influence and you can work with people of influence, it doesn’t mean they have to be a celebrity. And actually when you work within a niche, it works really really well. And the main platforms that you’re going to be looking at on this are things like Instagram and Twitter are probably the most well-known ones. But it can still happen obviously across Facebook and YouTube and it’s rising in podcasts.

So when you talk about influencers I think about three types. We have a micro influencer, a macro influencer and a celebrity influencer. So let me start with the celebrity influence because I’m fairly confident that most of you aren’t looking at celebrity influences. Awesome, if you are obviously. But I would say for the average business out there, celebrity is probably a little bit out of their reach. So celebrity influencers tend to be people like the Kardashians they have over millions of followers and they have a vast audience, huge reach. They’re very professional when it comes to being an influencer and they tend to work with massive brands because they’re very expensive to work with and I guess when you think of influencers maybe that’s what you think of.

Now a macro influencer tends to have over 100,000 followers. They have a large audience but it tends to be in an established niche and they have had experience working with brands and the likelihood is it will cost as well. So they’re kind of in the middle and I for instance have you know Jenna Kutcher or someone like that on Instagram then I would say Jenna Kutcher is a great example of a macro influencer.

And then the last one is the micro influencer which is where I want to focus because this is where I think that actually you could properly look at using this for your business. Now a micro influencer has over a thousand followers but obviously they tend to stay under that hundred thousand follower mark. So that literally can be two three four thousand followers or 15-20,000 followers. They have a really strong relationship with their audience. They tend to be niche specific so they tend to be working within a particular area which is why it’s so great for working with micro influencers because they’re following might be a lower number but actually they’re really dedicated. They’re really interested in their content because they are more niche. They do tend to have a higher engagement and conversion rates and often they are cheaper or in some cases they might be free. They might not charge to actually put something on their post. It might be that they are happy enough just to receive the product of good at no cost in order to then post about it.

So for me, looking at micro influencers is a great way in order to think about how you could use this potential if your business but I want you to think about how it can benefit the business. So influencer marketing is on the rise. Now I just want a quick note to this that obviously there are a lot of influencers out there or people out there I should say that would call themselves an influencer that aren’t. In the agency side of the business we manage a Gin client and we get a huge amount of requests for free gin from people who claim that they are gin influencers and you start digging a bit deeper and I promise you they’re not and it’s probably not worth collaborating with...