Instagram Influencer Marketing for your Small Business
Just because your business is small doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from using Instagram Influencer Marketing as a marketing tactic. We are growing in an ongoing technological environment where utilizing Instagram Influencers is an effective and vital marketing tool.
What is Instagram Influencer Marketing?
Summary: Marketing on Instagram involves endorsements and product placement from influencers.
An influencer is someone people like and trust enough to affect their purchase decision because of their relationship, knowledge or position with their audience. Anyone who can use their position to market products is an asset for businesses to collaborate with to achieve their marketing objective.
Your choice of influencer will depend on these objectives:
- Increasing Brand Awareness
- Generating Leads or Sales
- Increasing your Instagram Followers
Micro-Influencers are Effective on Instagram
For small businesses, we recommend this type of Influencer as they have their niche in the social media world. Micro-influencers have tens of thousands of followers but haven’t crossed the 100k mark just yet. Your business can work with micro-influencers as they are:
- Affordable and have higher levels of engagement.
- Potential of converting leads, connecting with audience members, and boosting brand awareness.
- Offer a specific and narrow target audience as they have a smaller but dedicated follower amount.
As a result, micro-influencers can recommend a product because of their trustworthy and reliable reputation. A study by ExpertVoice found that 82% of consumers reported that they were highly likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer. Furthermore, Chris Gonzalez, CEO of Gnack, stated that micro-influencers average organic engagement two-to-five times more than those with 100,000 followers on Instagram. Evidently, Instagram influencers with 10K – 100K followers see a 2.4 percent like rate, compared to 1.7 percent for those with 1M – 10M + followers. We can observe that micro-influencers help achieve long-term growth and more valuable conversion than celebrities.
Ways to Find Micro-Influencers for your Small Business
- Look at your own social media followers. List and find people who have 10,000 to 99,000 followers.
- Use local bloggers – a perfect way to reach a certain geographical region. For example, Google search ‘Fashion blogs in Gold Coast.’
- Search hashtags on Instagram. Choose a keyword that is relevant to your business and go through the images and profiles.
- Go to real-life events! Your local art gallery, go to Sunday markets, or is there a concert coming up? Networking is vital.
- If you already have some influencers in mind, say you’ve seen somebody on a local TV channel, you can use a public records search tool to find their social media accounts and email.
I found Micro-Influencers, Now what?
Campaign-Specific Hashtags
An opportunity to increase your followers is to create a contest/giveaway and use a branded hashtag that is linked with your business. Now, get an influencer to participate and choose the winner to generate buzz!
User-Generated Content
Repost content from micro-influencers who connect with your ideal vision and brand image. Make sure to ask for permission and give credit. By doing this, you are not merely posting your own images but creating a relationship with the influencer, who builds a trustworthy image.
Sponsored Posts
Send your product to them for honest reviews or tutorials! Influencers who post their own images create authenticity and boost credibility. Give influencers their own promo code and the freedom to be creative. You can repost and show customers other people have used your product.
Master the Art of Storytelling
Have your influencers share a story that goes beyond a review. This is perfect for the bloggers you have found. An influencer can explain how your product gives them value or improves their way of living. Share their story to connect with your customers.
Live Video and Events
Invite an Influencer to your store, restaurant, cafe, etc. They can share your location on their Instagram and give their users a live, in-person review.
Product Development
Influencers thrive off being creative, so why not bring them into your product development process? They become more personally tied to your product – which is key to building trust!
Instagram Influencer Rates
A good starting point is the one cent per follower rule. For example: $100 per 100,000 followers. Although, these factors need to be taken into consideration:
- Number of followers
- Amount of engagement
- Fit of the advertisement with your brand and their following
- Number of posts you want
- Type of post (photo, video, audio, etc.) + Amount of effort they need to put in
- Where will the ad be promoted – Will you be cross-posting?
Influencer Marketing Hub made a tool you can use to estimate the cost per Instagram Post, Average Engagement Rate, and Estimated Media Value for Micro-Influencers vs Celebrities
The average Instagram account has an engagement rate of 3%.
However, you can also offer these incentives other than cash:
- Exclusive event passes
- Promotion of their social media profiles and website
- Early access to new products or Limited product samples
- Free trials
- Discounts
- Gift cards
Tips when you work with an Influencer
No Influencers are created equal. Make sure you keep your product or service on top of your mind with your target audience in choosing an influencer.
- Partner with influencers who are likely to buy your product. Ask yourself: Do they fit my brand personality?
- Consider looking for someone with whom you can build a long working relationship.
- Look for genuine engagement by analyzing comments. This will help you know about fake accounts that buy followers/likes.
- Search for word-of-mouth reactions or reviews. What reputation does this influencer hold?
- Set KPIs to measure the success and results of your campaign
Related:
Do you have experience working with Influencers? Comment below for advice you may have!
