How can Small Businesses Benefit from Influencer Marketing?


Abhinav Girdhar
By Abhinav Girdhar | Last Updated on March 3rd, 2024 6:29 am | 5-min read

Influencer marketing is the most talked-about topic for everybody these days.  It’s easy to see why influencer marketing is taking off Businesses all over the world engage influencers to help them promote their products. About 83% of global consumers say digital advertisements interrupt their online experience. To avoid such obstacles, you need to change your approach. Alternative methods such as influencer marketing could be just what you need to reach today’s advertising- hostile consumers. In this blog, we will discuss what influencer marketing is and how it impacts the small businesses.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placements from influencers, people and organizations possessing a supposed expert level of knowledge or social influence in their respective fields. Influencer marketing is a hot topic these days and major businesses all over the world engage influencers to help them promote their products.Myths associated with Influencer Marketing

What small businesses should know about influencer marketing?

Influencers, unlike celebrities, can be found anywhere, they can be anyone. A large number of followings on social media make them influential. For instance, an influencer can be a very popular chef on Instagram, or a cybersecurity blogger who tweets, or fashion photographer, or an affluent executive on LinkedIn. Influential people exist in every industry; you just have to find them. As said before they are recognized by their hundreds of thousands of followers. However, the key difference between celebrity endorsements and influencer marketer for small businesses is that influencers are often very far from being celebrities.

How to find the right influencer for business?

Brands turn to influencers with highly engaged audiences. The easiest way of finding the right influencers for your business is to look for the ones who are already talking about your business. Hashtags make content accessible on social media platforms, so search for hashtags that may be relevant to your brand. Google Alerts is another method to help you find influencers. When looking for influential bloggers for your business, read through their posts to ascertain if fit your business needs. Influencer marketing platforms can also help you find the right influencers for your business quickly and easily. The choice of influencers can make or break your brand. So make it a point to consider your marketing campaign goals and choose your best influencer accordingly. Don’t always look for influencers with a high number of followers. It is not necessarily that the influencer is actually influential. Check their engagement rates, engagement quality, followers, and the other parameters discussed above before you collaborate with them. Use the following tips to find the right influencer for your business:
  • Plan your goals before you start
  • Know your audience and plan your influencer campaign
  • Find your influencers related to your business
  • Get in touch with your influencer
  • Get ready and negotiate with your influencer
  • Produce and approve content
  • Publish the content
  • Track and measure your results

What are the benefits of influencer marketing?

Social media is having more and more effect on people’s purchase and buying habits. Around 19 percent of the total population is being influenced by their purchasing decision by social media.  Another benefit of influencer marketing is that using it can help your company target a specific audience. Over 70 percent of marketers say that influencer marketing helps them reach a targeted audience. However, it completely depends on the influencers a company works with, and who their audiences are. If you own small business influencers can really be very helpful. Influencers with about 10k to 50k followers have very high engagement rates. Listed below are some of the benefits of working with influencers:

#1  High Engagement

An influencer who has a large number of engaged followers has a high engagement rate. A high engagement rate implies that the followers are interested in your content and are enjoying it. If the number of engaged followers compared to the total number of followers is too low, it indicates that their followers aren’t very engaged. So you always need to evaluate the engagement rate of your potential influencers. As per studies, the engagement rate for micro-influencers on Instagram was about 3.6 percent while macro-influencers only managed to get 1.5 percent.

#2 Niche Audience

As the size of the audience is fairly small, their followers are more likely to follow them just because of their interests. Only those who are actually interested in what the influencers post on social media will follow them. This gives you a chance to reach out to the main target audience for your brand.

#3 Cost-Effective

One of the biggest advantages of influencers for small businesses is that they are extremely cost-effective on the other hand celebrities endorse your product at a very high price. This is very important for small businesses, which usually are limited to budgets.

#4 Increase in Customer Base

Social media is becoming a powerful medium to buy products. Influencers drive traffic to a product website and help in increasing sales. Influencers are actually valued by their followers and their support for your brand to increase brand loyalty.

#5 Increase Brand Awareness and Engagement

Influencers have a massive reach to a large number of followers which can help you reach the audience that you cannot reach on your own, even by paying for regular ads. If you find the right influencer for your niche product, they will get you segmented traffic.

#6 Increase your Customer Database

Getting customer signups is a long-term strategy and businesses want to keep in touch with the customers. Influencer marketing campaigns finally end up increasing your brand loyalty and brand trust. They also help you establish brand trust and demonstrate domain authority.

#7 Achieve Exceptional Returns on Investment

Influencer marketing has proven itself capable of delivering stunning results with a cost-benefit model. Given this substantial potential return, thoughtful investments into influencer marketing can really deliver worthwhile returns.

#8 Take Advantage of Social Sharing

The possible audience reach on social media is unlimited. By partnering with influencers that are brand-appropriate and command followings with overlap to your target market segment, start thinking beyond just immediate brand exposure when it comes to influencer marketing strategy. Influencers can have millions of followers.

Myths associated with Influencer Marketing

  • Influencer marketing requires huge budgets
  • Influencer marketing is for big companies
  • Influencers only associate themselves with big and well-known brands
  • It is a one-time campaign
None of the above points are true. Small businesses can leverage influencer marketing to its full.Myths associated with Influencer Marketing

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is here to stay but as a small business, you need to be careful about the way you plan your campaign. Influencers marketing has changed a lot is likely going to be completely different a few years from today. This blog will help you get started with building your plan, but like any social platform, it is important to be ready for changes. Success varies from brand to brand so don’t worry if you fail as it might take time to achieve your target goals. Now if you want to convert your profile into a Social Media App try it out with Appy Pie's free social media app builder. Appy Pie’s Social media app creator can help you build a social media app for Android and iOS users, and experience all benefits of networking with your registered users.

You May Also Like:

Take a deeper dive into the digital ecosystem and start expanding your business with these helpful resources:

Related Articles

Abhinav Girdhar

Founder and CEO of Appy Pie