10 of the Best Ways to Use Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Brand
If you’re familiar with influencer marketing, you probably already know that it can help you generate more leads, boost engagement, and increase conversions. But did you know that it can also be a very effective way to grow your brand?
In fact, 93% of marketers say influencer marketing can help build brand awareness. And 76% say it can help boost customer loyalty. But how exactly can you work with influencers to grow your brand?
Here are 10 actionable influencer marketing tips to help you get you started.
#1: Build a Network of Influencers to Grow Your Brand
Partnering with a few influencers can be a great way to promote your product launch, drive conversions, or boost engagement.
But a few influencers probably won’t be enough to really grow a brand in a long-lasting way. For that, you’re going to need an entire community of influencers.
By building an influencer network to promote your brand, you can reach a much larger audience. You won’t be limited to a few groups of followers. Instead, you can create brand awareness with various audience groups.
This translates to better brand visibility, which is crucial to grow your brand. The best part about building a network of influencers is that you can achieve the desired results, even if you work with influencers with a smaller reach.
Example: Milton & King
Milton & King worked with a group of 45 influencers to raise brand awareness in the U.S. Their community of influencers generated 158 pieces of content, which resulted in 83,971 direct engagements. They were able to reach more than 980,000 consumers, and the brand also gained 10,000+ new followers on leading social media platforms.
For the influencer marketing campaign, interior design and home improvement bloggers like Brooke Christen, of Nesting with Grace, created home makeover posts in which they used some products from Milton & King.
#2: Create an Experience Around Your Brand
If you want to grow your brand through influencer marketing, you need to focus on more than just promoting your products or services. Sure, you can get influencers to showcase your products in their content, or create reviews or how-to content involving your products. And that can help increase sales.
But the secret to growing a brand is taking your influencer marketing campaigns one step further. Create an experience around your brand, and invite influencers to participate in and share the experience.
The goal is to make your brand come to life through those experiences. The influencers will share their experiences with their fans. Their fans will then associate your brand with a positive experience.
Example: Tarte Cosmetics
An excellent example is how Tarte Cosmetics invited groups of beauty influencers to different holiday locations like Hawaii and the Florida Keys. The influencers shared their experiences with their followers in the form of vlogs, blog posts, and social media posts. Their social media posts were tagged with the hashtag #TrippinWithTarte.
Christen Dominique, an influencer with more than a million followers, was one of the influencers who participated in the Florida Keys trip.
In less than 2 months, Christen’s Instagram post showcasing her experience has already received more than 41,000 likes.
Another influencer, Elnaz Golrokh with a million followers, was part of the Maldives trip.
The Instagram post showcasing the influencer’s experience has already received more than 36,000 likes.
#3: Collaborate with Influencers to Create Original Products
Influencers can help you promote your existing products. But if you want to grow your brand, you can take your partnership further by involving them in product development.
Collaborate with influencers to create original products that will appeal to both your target audience, and the influencer’s followers. When you associate your brand with a top influencer, it can establish your brand as trustworthy and prominent.
Example: Fendi
Fendi, for example, partnered with model Liu Wen to design a new handbag known as the Fendi Peekaboo.
The model, who has 2.9 million Instagram followers, promoted the project through her Instagram account. In just one day, the photo has already received more than 43,500 likes.
#4: Maximize Your Visibility to Grow Your Brand
To effectively market your brand, you need to be as visible as possible. That means you need to use as many social networks and platforms as possible to execute your influencer marketing campaigns.
That being said, you should avoid any social media channels that your target audience doesn’t frequent. LinkedIn, for example, may not be ideal if you’re targeting a teenage crowd.
And if you want to grow your brand, you shouldn’t miss out on using Instagram. According to a Bloglovin’ study, influencers found Instagram to be the most effective platform for engaging their target audience. It is followed by Facebook and then Twitter.
If possible, get your influencers to create content for multiple platforms including blogs and YouTube if they have sufficient followings there. This will ensure that your target audience can see you almost everywhere, which can be crucial for growing your brand.
Example: MVMT Watches
This is exactly what MVMT Watches does to grow their brand. They started out with Instagram, where they already have a massive following. The brand works with Instagram influencers from all walks of life, such as fitness influencer Tim Rodriguez, who has close to 90,000 followers.
The brand also works with micro-influencers and influencers in different countries, and on different platforms. For example, they partnered with influencer SimplyLaura to promote their watches on Twitter.
They’re even on YouTube, promoting themselves through entertainment YouTubers like Jack Douglass of Jacksfilms.
Jack has 2.8 million subscribers, and regularly creates sponsored videos with MVMT Watches. Many of Jack’s videos for the brand, like the one in the screenshot above, get over a million views….
Read the full post on Shane Barker’s Influencer Marketing blog.
