Influencer Marketing for a small business can sometimes feel a little out of reach and unachievable. Often, when business owners think of influencers, they are thinking of celebrities with thousands of followers on social media. However, what some businesses tend to forget is that influencing has been going on for hundreds of years, before social media even existed.
Influencing before social media
Before social media, businesses would rely on traditional marketing strategies such as radio, print and billboards. These channels would offer businesses the opportunity to portray a message to their customers to influence them in their decision to purchase from them or use their services; and they still do today! However, as humans, naturally we trust other humans; putting word-of-mouth marketing on a pedestal.
Before social media, we would trust that if our next-door neighbour John had a great experience with his Window Cleaner, we might be influenced to use the same Window Cleaner, and this is how businesses thrived for years. Although social media has impacted our choices to buy from certain companies, word-of-mouth marketing still has a positive effect for small businesses today.
Thriving online without “influencers”
Today, businesses thrive online through electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). This form of marketing can be free for businesses when it comes to posting your business in Facebook groups or online forums. A great local example is We Love Reigate, where often potential customers are looking for recommendations for various products and/or services. This can give great exposure for your business and encourage your current or past customers to sing your praises in the comments. You can also encourage your customers to leave your business a Google or Facebook review, these are free of charge and will help to boost your business profile. Your profile will be strengthened over time as your business starts to collect more reviews, and gradually eWOM will start to take shape.
Another way of encouraging eWOM might come at a slight cost but is certainly worth the money. Online reviews using providers such as Trustpilot will give confidence in your business through reading 5-star reviews from past customers.
Are the influences in our daily life more impressionable than influencers online?
Are you influenced more by the people in your life compared with influencers online? As humans we care about what our nearest and dearest do and think, so often subconsciously we are influenced by them in more ways than we care to comprehend. For example, as children we are influenced by our parents or care givers which impacts our accent and behaviour. As adults, we might be influenced by our friends to go to a certain university or purchase a property in a certain area. There is a psychology to influencing that runs deeper than just online influencers.
Although we might be influenced more by real people in our lives, there is a whole world of influencing taking place online that is explored by businesses every day.
Nano-influencers vs Micro-influencers – what does it all mean?
The difference between a nano and a micro-influencer is simply determined by the number of followers they have online. By definition, a nano-influencer is someone with an online presence of between 1,000 and 10,000 followers whereas a micro-influencer has between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
To work with such influencers, there are several ways you can reach out to them, whether that be directly through social media, via their email addresses or even through an agency. Whichever way you choose to approach an influencer, remember that they will charge a fee for their services, and this will vary depending on their following, engagement and reach.
As a small business, investing in influencers can be worthwhile, but there are a few questions you should ask yourself before you approach them:
1. Do your values align?
When it comes to working with an influencer, it is important that your values align. As soon as your chosen influencer starts posting about your brand with the hashtag “#Ad”, their followers will instantly know if they’ve accepted the brand opportunity because they believe in it, or because they just needed some extra cash. For example, if your chosen influencer is into environment friendly products and is a vegan with a nut allergy, but your business sells peanut butter sandwiches in plastic containers, these are two pairings which will stick out like a sore thumb. It’s important that influencer partnerships are authentic and true, otherwise they run the risk of looking cheap and fake.
2. Does this influencer work with anyone, or are they unique?
You need to establish if your influencer is frequently posting adverts on their social media accounts, or if they rarely post adverts. On one hand you might think if an influencer is posting adverts regularly that they might be more inclined to accept your offer to work together which is a fair assumption. However, just because they are consistently posting adverts does not mean that they are working from a commercial perspective. Followers can become immune to influencers who are constantly posting adverts about small brands, they become uninterested and so this could be a wasted investment. On the other hand, if your influencer rarely works with brands and doesn’t post many adverts, their followers will understand when they post an advert with a brand, it’s because they their values truly align.
3. How much engagement and impressions does your influencer frequently have?
This question is extremely important because it tells you how many people your brand could reach and how many people will engage with the post. Anyone could be branded a nano or micro-influencer by buying followers, but without knowing the facts when it comes to engagement and impressions, you could be sliding down a slippery slope and wasting your time and money. Although nano and micro influencers will have less followers than a macro-influencer, their audiences should be highly engaged so their engagement rates should still be high.
4. Does your influencer have a community that you are trying to target?
It’s worth noting that often influencers have communities which are very engaged with the content they are posting and can have a huge impact on sales when they work with brands that they genuinely believe in. If your business is looking to tap into a community which you typically might not be able to reach because of the size of your business following, working with an influencer who already has this community at their fingertips is certainly worthwhile. For example, if you have a gardening tools business it would be worthwhile reaching out to an influencer who has a gardening focused social media account because they will certainly have a community of engaged gardeners looking for new tips and tools to use on their garden.
5. What is the estimated ROI? Is your investment going to be financially viable?
ROI is one of the most important factors to consider when it comes to investing in an influencer. If you are unlikely to see a significant return on your investment straight away, it's worth considering if there are other benefits that can outweigh the cost. For example, if you choose a nano-influencer, you could be tapping into a highly engaged audience with a specific topic or interest, instead of pushing the boat out with a macro-influencer with thousands of followers and low engagement. Nano-influencers can have high engagement rates from their community, which is often related to a niche - so the initial cost could eventually prove fruitful further down the line.
To summarise, influencing has been around for decades before social media existed. As a business owner it may be tempting to get caught up in the online world of influencing believing that you need to jump on that bandwagon too. It’s important to remember that people trust real people, and sometimes spreading the word through eWOM can be just as, if not more effective than using influencers online. Using influencers at a local level who care about the business they are promoting through word-of-mouth marketing is an authentic way to influence others to buy your products or services. However, if you are going to choose the online influencer marketing strategy, you should consider asking yourself the above questions to ensure that you are making the right choice for your business.