What is Influencer Marketing?

So, you’re here hoping to make sense of what influencer marketing is without being overwhelmed with detailed nonsense.

But before we get your brain electricity firing, I have to break some hard news to you.

There are two types of groups in the influencer marketing landscape.

The first hopped onto these social media platforms and got content cracking while everyone thought it was madness. Hello, these early adopters are today’s social media influencers.

The second group are the rest of us that did nothing but watched social media explode in our faces. Our denial made us try to do it on our own. But we soon realized that it’s too late and we missed that ship.

If you’re reading this, you fall into the second group. Tough stuff.

Influencer marketing exists because of you – so don’t miss this ship, okay?

Do you have an affiliate program but struggle to recruit reliable affiliate marketers? Then register your merchant details to start connecting with leading bloggers and social influencers in your industry.

So, What is Influencer Marketing?

If you’re a late social media adapter, the biggest problem you have is that you have no audience – other than your parents, best friend, and your dog.

No audience = no one knows you, what you do and what you sell.

Influencer marketing is when you partner with a popular personality or brand on social media to tap into their audience and enjoy the benefits. This partnership usually involves payment or product giveaways.

Influencers are 21st Century badass royalty. So if you can’t beat them, join them – or in the case of influencer marketing, use them. Think of social media influencers as friends with benefits.

The Network Effect and Influencer Marketing

Now, let me give you a bit of insight that will blow your mind and make you realize just how valuable influencer marketing can be to you.

I’m sure you’ve heard that popular saying that you’re the average of the five people in your life. Psychology experts say that if you’re looking for a new opportunity, you’ll likely not find it within your immediate network. Simply because your current network is filled with people like you with similar circles.

Interestingly, they say that your opportunity lies within that distant contact. If you’re looking for a new job or new business, you’ll have better success reaching out to people out of your close circles.

So the lesson here is that if you’re looking for something that you don’t have, you’ll need to reach further out of your immediate network. Sometimes it’s just that one contact that you need to blow up your opportunities.

Introducing influencer marketing. Your solution to tapping into a potentially huge opportunity circle.

The impact of reaching out to an individual or brand out of your circle, but most importantly in circles where your target audience lies could place your business in the spotlight.

Now imagine the ripple effect of your business’ awareness in the right network circles?

Are you thinking about setting up an affiliate program for your business? Then try out the 30 days free trial of LeadDyno and we will guide you every step of the way!

5 Reasons to Try Influencer Marketing

1.  Reach Your Target Audience

Why labor yourself and reinvent the wheel when someone out there has done all the hard work and all you need to do is tap into it? The benefits of tapping into, let’s say, a social media fitness influencer is that they have invested (a lot of time and resources) in building a niche audience and it takes partnering with the right influencer to reach your target audience.

2.  Get Social Proof

One of the common barriers to conversions is social proof. When you’re out in town and looking for a restaurant, would you walk into one with no people? You’d likely go to a restaurant that is buzzing with people because that is a psychological signal that “it must be good if people are there”.

Same for your business. More buzz will give your business the social proof to interest your target audience. If a social media influencer mentions your brand, people will take recognition because “it must be good if they’re talking about it”. Right?

3.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Benefits

Influencer marketing involves popular online profiles promoting your business and sending them to your website. These inbound links to your website make it more valuable to Google. And from an SEO point of view, all these links will bump up your search engine ranking.

The key though is to get valuable and relevant inbound links – so the more valuable and more relevant the social media influencer, the better your SEO results.

Great news if you’re subscribed to LeadDyno ‘cause your merchant listing includes a sweet inbound link directly to your website.

4.  Low-Cost Marketing

Can you imagine the cost of celebrity endorsements? Well, thankfully, influencers are not exclusive to celebrities. And thankfully you don’t need millions of dollars either.

Phew!

All you need is to find the perfect influencer match for your business and from less than 100 bucks, your business marketing could explode. Low-cost marketing doesn’t get any better than that.

5.  Grow Your Social Media Following

If you have the dedication and patience for years then, by all means, go ahead and build your social media following organically. If you don’t then save yourself the hassle and speed up your following with influencer marketing.

Imagine what would happen if an influencer asked their one million following to visit your social media page? The results will definitely beat that random 3 followers per week that you’d get otherwise.

Cool, I’m Ready to Go All In with Influencer Marketing

See now why influencer marketing is such a fad? It’s amazing how just a single post in the right hands will super-charge your business into a network of possibilities that would not exist otherwise.

If you’re ready to go ahead with this baby then it’s time to match your business with influencers in your niche. A great way to start is by creating an affiliate program. An affiliate program will get you all set up with great marketing material but also an automatic commission system.

LeadDyno makes this so easy – you can be set up in a matter of minutes. Another cool thing about LeadDyno is that you’ll be listed on our affiliate network – reaching potential influencers in your niche.

Give influencer marketing a try – for a low-cost marketing solution, you really don’t have much to lose. But just imagine the benefits that will come along with the perfect influencer marketing partnership?

Ready for more action?  Then check out Part 2 of this series:  How to Find Influencers.