Instagram has become one of the most important platforms for businesses looking to reach new audiences and drive sales. With over 1.4 billion monthly active users, it offers tremendous potential for small businesses to connect with customers. Instagram influencers are especially influential - users with large, dedicated followings in a particular niche. Partnering with the right influencers can take your Instagram marketing to the next level.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore how small businesses can leverage Instagram influencers for promotion. We'll cover:
- The potential of Instagram for small business growth
- Seven effective influencer marketing strategies
- How to identify and partner with nano- and micro-influencers
- Tips for running successful influencer campaigns
Whether you're new to Instagram marketing or looking to expand your influence, read on to discover proven methods for working with influencers.
The potential of Instagram for small business
Before we dive into influencer strategies, let's look at why Instagram is so well-suited for small business promotion:
1. Big and engaged user base
As mentioned, Instagram has over 1.4 billion monthly active users, half of whom use it every day.
This gives small businesses access to a massive audience. Importantly, users are very engaged with the platform - 87% say they discover new products on Instagram.
2. Lower cost than other ads
Instagram ads are visual and attention-grabbing by nature. This leads to higher engagement rates and lower costs per result than ads on other platforms. Instagram cost-per-click averages $0.55, compared to $1.72 for Facebook. The cost per thousand impressions is $3 on Instagram versus $9.80 on Facebook. For small businesses, this difference matters.
3. Built-in features supporting commerce
Instagram has rolled out a suite of features perfect for driving sales. The shoppable posts feature lets you tag products that users can then purchase. Shoppable stickers in Stories enable instant shopping. IGTV supports long-form videos showcasing products. And Instagram Checkout lets users purchase items without leaving the app.
Instagram is packed with small-business-friendly attributes - a vast audience, visual storytelling, affordable promotion, and built-in sales functionality. But influencer marketing takes things up another level. Let's explore some strategies.
Seven ways to promote your small business with Instagram influencers
Influencer marketing harnesses the power of key personalities to drive brand awareness and sales. Instead of promoting yourself, you inspire influencers to share your products and messaging with their followers.
Here are seven impactful ways small businesses can work with Instagram influencers:
1. Optimise your account for search
Before teaming up with others, optimise your own Instagram presence. Complete your profile with useful keywords that describe your business, products and location. Consistently use relevant hashtags that your target audience searches for so people can easily find your posts and profile. Geo-tag your posts and stories to connect with local customers.
Enable clickable links in your bio and posts so users can seamlessly access important pages on your website after discovering you on Instagram.
Pro tip: Leverage influencer content with your own optimised posts. If an influencer shares your product, repost the content or stories mentioned and add popular hashtags in your niche. This spreads the influencer's credibility to your followers.
2. Work with nano- and micro-influencers
Big influencers have over 1 million followers. However, for small businesses, nano-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers or micro-influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers often make more financial sense. They tend to be more affordable to partner with than celebrity influencers. They also frequently post higher engagement rates on their content. They may have a very niche, targeted audience that perfectly aligns with your products, brand, and ideal customers.
3. Organise or sponsor Instagram giveaways
Giveaways garner excitement and user-generated content around your brand while expanding your follower count. Coordinate with influencers to help promote the giveaway contest to their niche audience for additional reach into your target market. Offer freebies, branded promotional products , gift cards, or big discounts off as prizes for even more appeal.
4. Team up with other relevant businesses
Find brands and influencers in complementary niches (not direct competitors) to co-sponsor influencer content and promotions. This allows you to split the campaign costs while exposing each other's products and brands to new potential buyers and followers. Strategically arrange influencer partnerships and content highlights that feature both companies' offerings for a bigger impact.
For example, consider this joint post from REI and Strava. They not only collaborated for mutual promotion but also came up with a challenge for their followers! Isn't it cool?
5. Run Instagram ad campaigns
Instagram advertising complements influencer marketing campaigns. Use Instagram's powerful ad targeting tools to reach the followers of influencers who are already promoting your products through paid partnerships. Or run ads to amplify the reach of influencers' high-quality content that organically features your brand. This amplifies their credibility to larger audiences likely to convert to customers.
6. Encourage customers to become brand advocates
Every new customer is a potential influencer for your products. Offer discounts, free items, or reward incentives for existing customers who post user-generated content about your business or leave online reviews. Authentic content direct from real, satisfied customers holds more weight with prospects than branded posts or typical influencer marketing.
7. Create Instagram contests
Contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes incentivise users to engage with your brand to win prizes. Contest entries are required to follow your account, tag friends, and post branded content. This builds awareness rapidly. Run contests directly or enlist influencers to help spread the word.
How to identify and partner with relevant influencers
Connecting with the right influencers is critical for effective campaigns. When vetting potential partners, consider these tips:
Verify the legitimacy of followers - While follower counts matter, engagement rates are more telling. Many tools, such as HypeAuditor and Influencer Marketing Hub, analyse fake followers. Prioritise influencers with high authentic engagement.
Review content quality - Study an influencer's posts and Stories. Do they consistently offer value? Is their content well-produced? Are they genuinely passionate about the niche? Quality content earns audience trust.
Ensure content matches your brand - Influencers should share content that is relevant to your products. For instance, a food-selling business would work with influencers who are into foods and related products. Ensure that they have the right audience and that the content fits your niche.
Consider both macro and micro-influencers - As mentioned, micro-influencers have a comparatively smaller number of followers, but these followers are relevant to the brand message. But those with more followers increase your visibility, both for an optimal reach/ relevance ratio.
Vet influencers as business partners - To avoid misunderstandings, it is advisable to set out the details of the campaign, including the expected results, deliverables, time frame, and the agreed compensation in a contract. Set key performance indicators. Clear up rights usage for the branded content. Influence individuals should be approached as business partners.
Some of the available tools include Upfluence, Grin, and AspireIQ; these tools have influencer marketing platforms where you can search, filter, and work with Instagram influencers that are suitable for your brand.
Tips for running successful influencer marketing campaigns
When running influencer promotions, keep these best practices in mind:
Share brand assets - Provide influencers with logos, professional photos, video clips, and graphics to incorporate in compelling branded posts. High-quality assets make the content pop.
Encourage lifestyle-focused integrations - Influencers should seamlessly blend your products into content showcasing their lifestyle. For example, an athlete drinking your beverage at the gym or an artist using your tools for a project. This makes branded integrations feel authentic.
Here, for example, popular fitness trainer Roz Mays shares sports tips in one of her posts. It looks like an ordinary post, but she's wearing a Fitbit sports tracker. Lifestyle integration as it should be.
Promote UGC content - When followers tag your brand or post about your products, re-share their user-generated content (UGC). This shows real customer satisfaction better than company posts.
Measure campaign impact against KPIs - Define key metrics for each campaign, like impressions, engagement rate, clicks, conversions, or sales. Track performance in real-time using UTMs for links and an Instagram reporting dashboard. This informs future influencer collaborations.
Refine partnerships based on results - Consistently analyse which influencers drive the most traffic and sales. Then optimise - double down on the highest-performing partners with additional promotions.
Repurpose top content - An influencer campaign produces visual assets to populate your Instagram feed. Reshare this evergreen content over time for maximum mileage.
Compensate fairly - While some influencers work on a revenue-sharing basis, most require a flat campaign fee. Be clear upfront and pay promptly upon deliverables being met. This incentivises great work and future partnerships.
Conclusion
Instagram provides small businesses with an enormous opportunity to gain exposure. However, there is a step further from simply sponsoring athletes, which is working with influencers. As social media stars with a loyal fan base, influencers turn into brand promoters who help you reach your audience.
Hopefully, this guide was informative and has given you an overview of how to effectively market your small business with Instagram influencers. To be successful, you should focus on finding the right partners, ensuring that branded messages are placed in high-quality lifestyle content, and are measured and optimised.
When executed correctly, influencer campaigns garner the desired attention and engage consumers in meaningful discussions about the brand besides increasing website traffic and sales. Lastly, this success contributes to the small business owner's ability to achieve long-term success.
Copyright 2024. Featured post made possible by Val Razo.