Why You Should Harness The Power Of Instagram Influencer Marketing For Your Small Business

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Instagram influencer marketing is booming. The 2019 influencer marketing market had a value of $6.5 billion globally, according to Statista, with more than 60 percent of US companies using influencers to market their products. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, this type of marketing is also expected to grow to $13.8 billion in 2021.

With this estimation, it is obvious that Instagram offers brands access to a larger audience. When you have the right influencer and proper optimization, you can target your campaigns and get more bang for your ad money.

As a small business, how do you bypass the overwhelming effort and get great results from Instagram influencer marketing?

In this piece, I will walk you through the secret of how you can get the word out about your brand using Instagram influencer marketing. After reading through this piece, you will know how to grow your market and build brand awareness. We will also show you how to create your Instagram influencer marketing strategy, even if you have limited resources and time for your small business.

If you are ready, let’s get into it.

Instagram Influencer Marketing Explained

Everything about the social media world is making real connections. As such, the gateway into your ideal audience’s lives and hearts is influencer marketing. It serves as a visible passage between a powerful marketing strategy and where you are now. Hence, this marketing strategy is relatively authentic, genuine, and without sounding like selling.

Instagram influencer marketing collaborates between a famous Instagram influencer and a brand to develop, publish, and promote brand-sponsored videos and photos. The purpose of this is to establish a positive brand identity for the influencer’s engaged, large audience and expand brand awareness.

What Is An Influencer?

Instagram has five categories of influencers. These influencer types have a massive possibility of generating leads and sales and are critical individuals in their social groups. In addition, influencer posts can create more traction than Instagram ads when compared to them. Therefore, several businesses have seen Instagram influencer marketing as a viable strategy. Our team has classified influencers into some major categories to keep things simple.

Here are some major influencer categories:

1. Mega Influencers

These influencers have about 300 thousand to more than a million followers. They are about one percent of Instagram influencers with the largest reach and are made up of popular celebrities like Cardi B., Kevin Hart, Kylie Jenner, Nikki Minaj, and many more.

2. Macro–influencers

These influencer marketers have about 100 to 300 thousand Instagram followers with the influencer types’ greatest reach. The problem with these influencers is that the potential of targeting a single niche is a big issue since their followings are more diluted and become broader.

3. Mid-sized Influencers

Mid-sized influencers have about 50 to 100 thousand followers. They are slightly less targeted. However, they tend to have a more significantly reliable reach than micro or nano influencers. Businesses can get targeted campaigns with these influencers since they have plenty of loyal followers.

4. Micro-Influencers

Influencers with around 10,000 to 50,000 followers, boast highly engaged audiences and reach more people than nano-influencers. As a result, businesses can get the highest ROI potentials compared to other sponsored strategies by running a promotional campaign with a micro-influencer.

5. Nano-Influencers

This type of influencer has around one to ten thousand followers. However, it is not necessarily bad with the smallest followers on the platform. These influencers boast the highest engagement rate per post and are the most authentic to work with on the platform.

Many social media influencers, including Instagram influencers, have cultivated trust and developed relationships with their followers. As a result, their recommendations can drive audiences to take specific action and sway purchasing decisions.

Therefore, your small business can generate an average of $5.78 with every $1 you spend on influencer marketing.

Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategies

You might come across one or two sponsored posts if you have spent time on Instagram, even though you may well not have realized it. While many sponsored posts are more natural-looking and obscure, others tend to be obvious.

Here are some instances of influencer marketing in the wild to give you an idea of the most common influencer marketing strategies.

1. Influencer Brand Representative Programs

Are you looking to forestall any risk with your campaign? Then, a brand representative program could be the solution.

A brand representative program is like affiliate marketing with Instagram influencer marketing. Get in touch with your preferred influencers, provide them with your unique affiliate links, and agree on a specific percentage for any sales they make.

Furthermore, you can prevent the risk of setting up your campaign by using a brand representative program since you know the price for each sale. Accordingly, you can even scale it by having a network of influencers promoting your brand with an incentive to compete with one another and make sales.

2. Set Up a Review Campaign

People believe someone who has been there and done that than those who only talk about something. So they follow those who can honestly describe the experience they have to them. That is why an honest and genuine review from any of your customers that have tried a product or service tends to be more powerful for generating sales.

Here, get a top influencer to shoot a review video and run a paid ads from their profile after getting their permission. You can get the most by leveraging this form of word-of-mouth advertising.

3. Influencer Campaigns With Branded Content

You can now run a sponsored post from your preferred influencer’s profile with their permission using the new feature on Instagram. Generally, the influencer can develop user-generated content while you boost it even further by putting a few advertising dollars behind it.

The strategy is relatively neat, considering that:

4. Running a Contest Through An Influencer

It can be fun running a contest for businesses, their audience, and the influencers. Furthermore, achieve your business goal by sending out products to one or more influencers. Hence, your business can also get thousands of followers quickly and even get more exposure using these contests.

A few tips to make your Instagram contest effective:

5. Sponsored Post

Influencers can promote your products and brand through a sponsored post. In brief,  sponsored posts are coupon offers or friendly purchase advice from an influencer to their followers. Here, influencers will show their audience how amazing a product is or even pose with it. Besides, you can easily track your results using a unique “coupon code” for the post when using a sponsored post for any sales objective. With this, it will be easy to measure your campaign’s ROI.

Why Instagram Influencer Marketing Works for Small Business

So far, you know that Instagram influencer marketing is a veritable massive growth asset for growing business on Instagram. Above all, small businesses can reach new audiences, foster brand awareness, and scale their campaigns without blowing their budget.

As a result, your brand will come off as genuine and authentic when you pick and work with the right influencer. Therefore, it is critical to choose influencers with a real passion for your brand or similar brands. With that, you can be a perfect match for their audience. Thus, you will see that it is:

When you start digging into this goldmine of leads and sales, you will discover that micro-influencers tend to be affordable and flexible. In addition, these influencers are more connected to their fans who trust their recommendations and frequently engage with their posts.

Generally, some of the popular ways influencers promote brands are in-person events and Instagram takeovers, apart from sponsored posts that take the majority of influencer marketing.

How Much Does Instagram Influencer Marketing Cost?

Many people will think of Instagram when they hear the word influencer. Essentially, there is marketing where there are influencers. Part of most brands’ efforts is Instagram influencer marketing, especially when targeting specific demographics. Indeed, brands looking to interact with prospective customers will find the platform’s 90 percent of more than one billion users tailor-made for them.

So, how much does Instagram influencer marketing cost?

This cost varies based on a particular influencer’s followers. For example, a nano-influencer may charge about $10 per Instagram post. In comparison, a company may spend about $10.000 for the same post by a mega influencer. Always check if an Instagram influencer has fake followers or not.

Instagram Average Post Cost in 2021

Source: AndrewMcCarty.com

You won’t get the whole story with this mean average. However, it is also essential to note that Instagram influencer marketing’s scale has many significant differences. This aspect, no doubt, attracts brands to the platform. Thus, businesses will indeed find different variances in the influencer marketing cost.

Instagram Package Cost

Source: Later

Brands can expect to pay somewhere around $250 to $750 for 1,000 engagements when using a different influencer marketing pricing model with a bit of well-focused results. Of course, the more followers, the higher the cost is the simple formula that determines the influencer pricing on Instagram.

What to Look For In An Influencer

We get this question a lot of times.

While you can easily find influencers, get the ideal influencers that will increase exposure and revenue for your brand is the hard part. However, that’s the story for another day.

Therefore, getting the perfect influencers is more than looking at the geographic location. Furthermore, you must see the influencer as someone who will build a partnership with your brand and represent your company. Particularly, these individuals will be your company’s spokespersons in their circle. As a result, their followers will connect the things they say about your company.

Therefore, what must you look for in an influencer?

Use some of these traits when looking for your ideal influencers.

1. Creative

Many people see social media as a creative platform where there are endless possibilities. Thus, your ideal influencer for your Instagram influencer marketing is someone who stays on top of the latest updates and edits like a boss. Hence, check if:

2. Tech Savvy

Firstly, your ideal influencer needs to be tech-savvy always to post high-quality and unique content with a theme. These influencers must have their ways of automating posting and editing photos regarding Instagram influencer marketing. Also, check if they:

3. Consistent

Next, creating reliable and consistent content creates a bond between a brand and an influencer for Instagram influencer marketing. Thus, look for an influencer that:

4. Responsive

Lastly, ensure that your influencers stay active on their designated social media channel and never get carried away that they have to post content every day. However, it is vital to consider how well they communicate with you when you contact them for a partnership. Thus, to use them for your Instagram influencer marketing needs, check how:

Therefore, it is critical to understand your business values and goals when looking for influencers. Similarly, another quality that makes up a great influencer is empathy and relatability. Thus, check if they have authenticity and reality in their posts, have sympathy towards other’s experiences, or if their followers relate well enough with them.

How to Find the Best Social Media Influencers for Your Campaign

By the Way, do you know that Instagram has more than 500,000 active influencers? While you can choose from different influencers for your Instagram influencer marketing, they don’t have the same qualities. However, some of these influencers may not be right for your brand, even with their varying amount of reach. Thus, to get the best influencers for your campaign, you need to decide whether you:

Similarly, the next thing is to figure out who your market is after you understand your brand’s goal. Thus, you need to know:

Generally, you will understand your Instagram influencer market better when you perform thorough target market research, including knowing their favorite influencers.

1. Use Google To Find Influencers

Since you know your target market, brand, and goals, you can use Google search to choose from the pool of Instagram influencers. You can start with a general search and look for the relevant, most up-to-date results. Next, narrow your search results by region with the Advanced search section.

2. Check Popular Blogs in Your Niche

Furthermore, popular blogs in any niche will surely get a ton of comments and traffic. Thereby, these blogs may have large Instagram followers, even though they are not your ‘traditional’ influencers.

3. Use Instagram Influencer Platform

The market has several influencer platforms, and each of these platforms has its pros and cons. Subsequently, these platforms have done the hard work for you, and you don’t need to sift through several influencers. Hence, you will have information about your influencers’ niche industries, demographics, and more. Some of these platforms are:

The Most Popular Types of Content from Instagram Influencers

Your brand will certainly be spoiled for choice with different Instagram influencer marketing strategies when your company decides to go with influencer marketing. Here are some of the popular content types from influencers.

1. Brand Ambassador Programs

In particular, influencers have taken Instagram influencer marketing to the next level with this content type as brand ambassadors to many brands. Hence, using these products alone is enough to promote the product to their followers.

2. Videos

Similarly, videos have become more popular on Instagram since the platform has stories. Influencers use videos to capture their audience’s attention to stay longer on their posts instead of scrolling through quickly.

3. Trending Topics

Even though content like this can expire quickly, Instagram influencers use them to boost engagement and interaction with your brand by tapping into what is trending at the time. Additionally, using this content type is an excellent opportunity to make the most of the top hashtags.

4. Behind-The-Scenes

Instagram influencers give their followers a behind-the-scenes look into your brand, which is a perfect means of showing your business’s human side. They do this to show all the work that goes into making the product or service and making genuine human connections with them.

5. User-Generated Images

Influencers share images to their followers about your brand to show that you care about them and their thoughts about your brand. When you get your happy customers to promote your brand, you can imagine the massive promotion for your business.

Best Practices for Working With Instagram Influencers On a Campaign

So far, are you getting the essential information you need to get started with your Instagram influencer marketing? If yes, you are ready to take the plunge and start getting your share of the massive leads and sales.

Before you get into the game, I want you to take your time and read through some of the best practices for working with Instagram influencers.

1. Be Nice

It would help if you were polite and nice as a brand that intends to work with an influencer. Also, ensure you have a tone of professionalism in your conversations, messages, or emails.

2. A Proper Introduction Is Vital

It is critical to introduce yourself to your chosen influencers. You must do a proper introduction to build a relationship and engagement with them. Essentially, the best means of communication with influencers is email. Ensure to compose a personalized and professional email.

Before sending any mail, go through their pages and check out some of their content. Engaging with their content will make you create a personalized, compelling message for them.

3. Prepare All Required Contracts and Drafts

You will need to prepare necessary legal matters and paperwork when you have found your ideal influencer. Make sure the influencers understand your marketing expectations from the partnership. You may even provide the influencers with a written agreement or a contract. Develop a brief that will contain the FTC guidelines, payment terms, budget involved, things to avoid, brand’s goals, objectives, and more. Then, you and the influencers can agree on the best marketing results when you prepare a plan.

4. Consider Working With a Marketing Agency

You can consider working with a digital marketing expert or a marketing agency if you wish to get help to implement your influencer marketing plan. The agency will ensure that your budget and effort will be used effectively by preparing an effective influencer marketing strategy and plan. They will help you get the best influencers and even contact the influencers on your behalf. They will respond to their messages and work on the whole strategy implementation.

If you do not know about influencer marketing, avoid doing it. Instead, have experts handle the work for you or learn more first.

5. Ensure Timely Payment

Many influencers require payment in exchange for recommendations, exposure, and publicity. Therefore, ensure to fulfill the fixed payment schedules.

6. Handle Feedback Effectively

You must monitor your Instagram influencer marketing strategy progress regularly. Use some of the various metrics to ensure that you achieve quality results. Listen to the influencer if they have any negative feedback for you and decide on the required changes.

Instagram Influencer Marketing in 2022 and Beyond

With a new year comes a different slew of marketing trends required to mark the coming year ahead. However, Instagram influencer marketing continues to be a powerful tool for brands to boost their marketing and sales even with various content formats and emerging trends. With billions of dollars worth as a marketing platform, influencer marketing is effective in promoting brands.

Instagram influencer marketing tends to be the ideal choice for many brands because of the following reasons.

The future of Instagram influencer marketing looks promising with the current conditions prevailing. Therefore, influencers and brands can expect some of the above trends and prepare for them.

Instagram influencer marketing is the future because the medium appears as a promising advertising channel as many consumers become increasingly opposed to traditional advertising. Brands can enjoy different benefits from influencer marketing in revenue, credibility, engagement, and enhanced visibility. In addition, influencer marketing is not as expensive as exhibitions, trade shows, and paid advertising.

With a more streamlined and regulated influencer industry, more businesses are formulating always-on campaigns as they make it their marketing’s mainstay. Essentially, those ready to adapt to the evolving industry trends and standards will benefit from Instagram influencer marketing’s opportunities.

Conclusion

Understanding your business’s values and goals is critical when embarking on an Instagram influencer marketing journey. It is also vital to take the time to find influencers and establish criteria for those that fit your brand. These steps are crucial since these influencers will be representing your brand as an ongoing partnership.

Ultimately, Instagram influencer marketing is a massive playground for brands and marketers. With so many options, you will easily find the potential candidate who would fit your bill. You will never fail if you take a professional business approach with your influencer marketing efforts.