Once upon a time, in the early stages of starting my business I was trying to get new customers. In this instance it was brides I was after. I took a deep breath, I wrote a cheque (not even kidding, an actual cheque) for 3k and took a full page add in a leading local bridal mag (full disclosure this was like 7 years ago). Guess how many customers I got?
Zero.
Actually zero. Not even kidding. I remind myself of this epic fail every time I hear someone complain about having to pay a few bucks for social media exposure.
What does this have to do with what is an influencer? Nothing. But if your anything like me and wasted countless dollars on old school marketing and you’re reading this, you really need to know;
What is an influencer?
- A person or thing that influences
- A person who has the power to influence many people, as through social media or traditional media.
- Influencer marketing; is a form or marketing in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole.
Macro vs Micro
This is a massive discussion which I delve deeper into in here. But to some it up:
Macro- influencer – is your big wig. They have 10k plus followers, many in the hundreds of thousands some even millions. This use to be the popular choice for business partnerships but resent research now suggests their message can become diluted by such large, broad audiences and expensive.
Micro- influencer – They’re passionate about what you do and personally invested in it. They provide authentic promotion, have 10,000 or fewer followers and don’t have agents; many are happy to talk about brands in return for just a free sample otherwise a much more reasonable fee, often around $150 – $300 for a sponsored post.
Why you need it?
Like it or not traditional forms of advertising are no longer effective. Consumers hate advertisements, so much so you can even install ad block software on your devices now. It’s like a no junk mail sign but for your computer.
Consumers love real life experience
It’s like you see a dress you like but it’s on a perfectly air brushed model so meh, who knows what it’s actually like?? A little bit of online stalking and you can easily dig up a bunch of real life chicks, just like you, in the dress. What’s not to love about this? It’s the new advertising so time to adapt.
By using an influencer you can
“choose your audience”
An engaged and hand picked audience specific to your market and demographic and you can speak directly to that audience via your audience.
Brilliant right? What this all means is:
Larger return on investment
No more wasting 3k on an add in a magazine (shudder). Case studies now show that influencer content generates ROI investment that is 11 times greater than traditional ad campaigns (tapinfluence.com)
How to find an influencer?
That’s where we come in. At B Directory you have access to a whole community of bloggers and influencers and member only opportunities presented by them on our jobs board. We make it real simple. And if you don’t see anything you like, we’ll find one for you.
Sounds good yeah? Well you can sign up or find out more here.
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Elsa Mitchell
Elsa Mitchell is the co-founder of B Directory, providing outside of the box solutions for small business, to help supercharge their growth. One of the ways they do this is by connecting business, bloggers and influencers to create the right online partnerships. B Directory also provides training and management of marketing services to help ease the overwhelm facing small business today.
Elsa’s ability to provide guidance to B Directory clients is underpinned by her extensive business background. Over ten years ago she established her own salon in the beauty industry, which is now a popular and successful operation. Further to this, Elsa is also the Marketing Director of her family business in the building and construction industry.
Elsa’s success in the customer service industry has allowed her to identify solutions and strategies surrounding bricks and mortar sales and building a positive team culture. A skill set she now is able to utilise to educate her B Directory customers.