Discover Boating’s Boost Your Business Series: Influencer Marketing 101
Discover Boating is providing PR and marketing insights to help guide your business on the latest trends and how they can positively impact your bottom line. The first post in the “Boost Your Business” series is about influencer marketing, why it’s important and how you can implement it into your marketing plans.
Influencer marketing isn’t a new buzz word, but its popularity has been growing over the years, with 86 percent of marketers using this strategy in 2016 and many doubling their investments this year, according to eMarketer. In a world full of cluttered ads, it isn’t a surprise audiences are turning to influencers more and more for entertainment, beautiful imagery and genuine recommendations, tips and ideas.
Whether an influencer is a blogger with a large fan base, social media personality or both, influencers are one of the best tools in a marketer’s toolbox for generating awareness and sales. For example, a recent study states businesses generate $6.50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing.
Want to implement an influencer marketing plan that will work for your business? Here's some tips to help you get started:
Influencer marketing isn’t a new buzz word, but its popularity has been growing over the years, with 86 percent of marketers using this strategy in 2016 and many doubling their investments this year, according to eMarketer. In a world full of cluttered ads, it isn’t a surprise audiences are turning to influencers more and more for entertainment, beautiful imagery and genuine recommendations, tips and ideas.
Whether an influencer is a blogger with a large fan base, social media personality or both, influencers are one of the best tools in a marketer’s toolbox for generating awareness and sales. For example, a recent study states businesses generate $6.50 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing.
Want to implement an influencer marketing plan that will work for your business? Here's some tips to help you get started:
- Define your goals. Whether it’s creating authentic content, driving website traffic or increasing your social media engagements, make sure you outline your main objectives before executing a program.
- Influencer profile. What type of influencer do you want to promote your brand? Do they like the outdoors, are their photos high-quality, do they have strong engagements and who is their follower base? It doesn’t have to be someone with millions of followers, either. For example, Sperry used micro-influencers (ones with smaller, but very engaged follower bases) to help promote their “Odyssey Awaits” campaign last year, according to AdWeek.
- Discover influencers. How do you find these influencers? Depending on if it’s a blogger program, Instagram influencer campaign or both there are organic ways of finding influencers through your own research, plus there are several companies that can help, including: Tinker Street, Linqia, TapInfluence, Influence Central, Curalate Explore and many more. Check out this Inc.com article on more influencer marketing companies that can help fuel this type of program.
- Measure results. Make sure to set KPIs for measurement and check in on your program to ensure it’s delivering on the goals you set. This way you can analyze the data and make improvements for the next campaign or optimize an ongoing one.
Read more in this Social Media Week blog post. Stay tuned for the next Discover Boating Boost Your Business post on Instagram and Facebook best practices.
For more social media know-how, check out Discover Boating's "Social Media 101" articles on GrowBoating.org.
For questions about Discover Boating’s PR and marketing campaign, please contact Colleen Richardson at [email protected].
For more social media know-how, check out Discover Boating's "Social Media 101" articles on GrowBoating.org.
For questions about Discover Boating’s PR and marketing campaign, please contact Colleen Richardson at [email protected].