If you’re a small business owner, you may wonder if it’s worth investing in influencer marketing. After all, you probably don’t have the same budget as big brands do. Influencer Marketing can be an excellent strategy to increase your small business website visits, boost your sales, or expand your brand’s reach on social media. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of influencer marketing strategy for small businesses, and we’ll also give you some tips on how to get started.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that involves working with individuals with a large social media following to promote your brand or product. These influencers can help raise awareness of your business and drive traffic and sales to your small business website. Typically, content creators on social media focus their material on subjects relevant to your company’s market, values, and communication style. They can frequently provide more value to businesses with niche audiences.
Content creators come in all shapes and sizes, from those with millions of followers to those with only a few hundred. It’s essential to keep this in mind when choosing an influencer to help promote your brand.
Types of influencers
Nano-influencers
These are social media users with a small but engaged following. They typically have 10.000 followers or fewer.
Micro-influencers
These are social media users with a slightly larger following than nano-influencers. They typically have between 10.000 to 100.000 followers.
Macro-influencers
These are social media users with a large following. They typically have between 100,000 to 1 million followers.
Mega-influencers
These are social media users with an enormous following. They typically have over a million followers.
Every influencer has a different amount of followers on each social media platform. That’s why choosing which platform you will use in your influencer marketing campaign is essential.
What are the best platforms to implement influencer marketing?
The most popular social media platforms for influencer marketing are YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. However, you can use many other platforms, including Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok. Choosing a platform that makes sense for your business and where your target audience is most active is essential.
1. Youtube
Youtube is considered to be a trusted source of information. People tend to watch Youtube videos when looking for product recommendations. On this platform, Youtube influencers have a high engagement rate with their followers, and influencer marketing can be very cost-effective.
2. Instagram
Instagram is a visual platform perfect for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle businesses. This platform has high engagement rates, and users frequently scroll it to discover new products.
About 93% of US Marketers used Instagram as a platform for influencer marketing in 2021.
3. Facebook
Facebook is the largest social media platform, with over two billion monthly active users. This platform is perfect for businesses that want to target a wide range of demographics.
4. Tiktok
TikTok is a relatively new social media platform but has quickly become one of the most popular, with 1.4 billion million monthly active users. This platform is perfect for businesses that want to target Gen Z.
6. Snapchat
Snapchat is a visual messaging app with over 229 million daily active users. This platform is perfect for businesses that want to target younger generations.
7. Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging platform with over 321 million monthly active users. This platform is perfect for businesses that want to target BtoB or communicate in real time.
Big companies have implemented influencer marketing, getting, most of the time, great results. However, these businesses count on a big budget and can often hire macro and mega influencers.On the other hand, for small businesses, the context can be slightly different regarding the budget and the type of influencer they can choose.
Benefits of influencer marketing for small business
Small businesses can target a specific niche audience more quickly and can often get more value for their money by working with nano and micro-influencers. Small businesses can also establish personal relationships with influencers, leading to long-term partnerships.
Some of the results you can get by using influencer marketing are increased brand awareness, higher engagement rates, more traffic to your small business website, improved SEO rankings, and leads and sales generation. If you are a small business owner, you should consider using influencer marketing to reach your target audience. It can be a great way to improve your brand awareness and generate leads and sales.
There are many benefits of influencer marketing for small businesses. However, as with any marketing campaign, there are also some risks.
Risks of influencer marketing for small business
Small businesses may have a limited budget for influencer marketing campaigns and have some difficulty finding the right influencer to work with.
The main risk of influencer marketing is that you may not see a return of investment. That’s why it’s essential to carefully choose an influencer who aligns with your brand and has a proven track record of promoting similar products or services. You should also have realistic expectations about the results you’ll achieve from your campaign. Another risk is that the content created by the influencer may not be up to your standards. This is why it’s essential to brief the influencer on your brand guidelines and what kind of content you’re looking for.
Conclusion
Overall, there are many benefits of influencer marketing for small businesses. However, it’s essential to carefully consider the risks before launching a campaign. Influencer marketing isn’t the exception when it comes to measuring the success of your campaign after making any marketing effort. Measuring is critical since it helps you understand what works for your brand strategy and what you should improve or change. Measuring your results is primordial to tell if influencer marketing is the right option for your small business.
