This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Every business, once in a while, gets a chance to be unwillingly promoted by a local fan, famous person or celebrity. And that doesn’t have to be done intentionally. The results are just awesome and are introducing the crowd to a product or service worth trying.
If we think about why this happens, it can hardly be explained. But the best way to define this is as ‘some kind of connection’ that people share with influencers – or in other words – experts in specific industries.
In 2017, influencer marketing is done intentionally. Companies pay influencers to write or mention them on their blogs, in their videos or shoutout to them on their social pages. Since these people have the authority and essentially a large base of fans following them, the results are nothing but a win-win for both the company and the influencer. From actual clicks to products to purchases or subscriptions – the end result is traffic – in fact, loads of it pointed to the company’s website.
A question that most of you have at this point is…
How To Kickstart Influencer Marketing And Drive Traffic To My Website?
To make use of influencer marketing, you don’t need an influencer from the very start. Instead, you need to know what type of influencer you need and how that profile would eventually help your business.
There are tons of influencers out there and a lot of them are very good at making people think – while others are great at making people take action or buy. If you want to drive traffic to your website, you should definitely contact an influencer with a large base of fans. To make sure that traffic is targeted, that ‘somebody’ has to be linked with your industry or niche. Only that way, the traffic will have a better chance in converting.
If you are wondering where to look at for ideal influencers in specific industries, social media can be a great start. Doing social media monitoring will get you a grasp of the best brand advocates – just like researching for hashtags or checking out the industry-related blogs and their reviews via Google.
The next thing you need to do is make certain that you explain the main benefits and features of your product or service to the influencer – so that he or she understands them well and is able to present them to his (hopefully later yours) audience.
Now, during this you will need to engage with your influencer personally and exchange ideas and possibly content across your platforms. For example, you can do a guest blog on their website as a company – and they can do the same on your website. If any kind of price is involved in this project, you should fix it from the start.
And if you are still questioning the idea of influencer marketing, keep on reading.
Why Influencers Are Great In Driving Traffic – And Why Every Business Desperately Needs Them
We all must face the fact that long gone are the days when consumers trusted advertisements. They don’t ‘fall easily’ in the hands of the media nowadays – or trust everything they see online. Same as that, they don’t trust people who push their products or services to them – just like they don’t trust a new guy they meet at a cocktail party.
However, the people they see and engage with in their everyday lives are essentially a group of people they can trust. Especially the ones that are known as influencers in an industry. Now, an influencer in the fashion industry can be a fashion blogger – and an influencer in the sports industry can be a sports TV journalist. It is easy to spot them and find them.
The reason why they are able to drive so much traffic, though, is simple. Because of the loyalty of their audience, its number and the focused posts on a specific industry – they are able to make people believe that a product or a service is really good – even if it actually isn’t.
The fall of traditional outbound marketing is the one that got businesses to a point where influencer marketing is the only way to succeed online. Luckily, the technique has exceeded a lot of expectations and was found to be an effective one.
A Final Word
Since a lot of people understand it and even more of them actually engage with it, influencer marketing has definitely reached its peak nowadays. Just think about it…
Would you rather trust an advertisement of a skin product – or a model with great skin reviewing it on her social media profile?
You just got your answer. Everyone loves influencer marketing – and it is a technique with amazing reach and great conversion.