A small business constantly works towards making its presence felt in a crowded market. In the initial days, especially, a small enterprise has to work extremely hard towards gaining visibility or creating awareness around what it does. For a small business to become big, gaining the trust or confidence of consumers is very important.
Even if a small business has limited funds at its disposal, it has several marketing options or devices to choose from. One of the best marketing options for a small business is to invest in influencer marketing. It refers to the type of marketing practice in which businesses collaborate with social media influencers to promote their products or services or build a brand out of their business.
Contrary to what some people think, big businesses are not the only ones investing in influencer marketing. Several small businesses opt for it and benefit immensely from it. A certain degree of flexibility is there in this form of marketing. If you have a very small marketing budget at the moment, you can try and find micro influencers and collaborate with them. When you have a bigger marketing budget at your disposal, you can look for mega influencers or macro influencers.
These days, a lot of brands and businesses go for ‘influencer shopping’. They collaborate with an influencer on a particular campaign and then, look for another influencer to join hands with. What they don’t realize is that building a long-term relationship with a set of influencers would prove to be much more beneficial in the long run than forging short-term alliances. If you are a small business, you should consider building a long-term association with influencers.
Here are some of the ways in which a small business can build a strong relationship with influencers:
Look At Them as Collaborators
Just like the employees in your company are expected to propel its growth forward, influencers help in promoting your business. In a lot of ways, they do the same thing that the marketing team in your company does.
It is important to treat influencers with a certain level of dignity and respect. You must consider them to be your faithful collaborators who are offering a lot of value to your business. If you treat them well, they will reciprocate and wish to be associated with you for a long time.
Be Fair with Payments
When you promise to pay an influencer a certain amount for collaborating with you or for promoting your brand, you must honor it. A lot of times, influencers refuse to collaborate with businesses or brands as they were not paid or a part of the payment was not released.
Before you decide to collaborate with an influencer, you need to be sure that you can pay them what they are asking for. You must also make it a point to release the payment on time or as and when you promised to.
Be Sure Transparent About Your Intentions
If you wish to build a long-term association with an influencer, you should convey the same to them. Sometimes, businesses collaborate with a brand on a particular campaign and when they reach out to them after a few months for another collaboration, they realize the influencer is working with their competitor.
Whether you find micro-influencers and collaborate with them or choose to work with mega-influencers, you should let them know if you are interested in a long-term partnership. Once they get to know this, they will also show their interest and take things further.
Find Influencers with Organic Following
These days, a lot of influencers tend to have fake followers. A lot of influencers ‘buy’ followers or create fake accounts to follow them to build an impression about them being extremely relevant on social media.
If you want to build a long-term association with influencers, make sure you are following those who have an organic following. You can use certain tools or hire the services of a digital agency to check whether an influencer has organic followers.
Make Them See the Benefits
When it comes to influencer marketing, businesses, and influencers benefit equally. If you are keen on building a long-term association with an influencer, you must let them know about the different ways in which they will benefit by working or collaborating with you.
Apart from the money you will be offering them, you have to give an influencer a few other reasons as to why should choose to collaborate with you on a long-term basis. You could offer them to be the face of your brand or give them some shares in your company.
Work Towards Building Credibility
When your small business enjoys a lot of credibility, you can expect influencers to get attracted to it. Even if you are running a small business but have managed to earn some respect and credibility for it, influencers would want to join hands with you.
If your business makes products or services that have not been liked by consumers or have been involved in illegal or fraudulent activities, you will not find too many influencers interested in collaborating with you. This is why building credibility is a must.
Build Genuine Friendships
When a bunch of individuals work in a professional environment over a period of time, they end up becoming friends. Similarly, if you collaborate with an influencer on a campaign and forge a friendship with them, the chances of building a long-term association with them increase.
When a bond of friendship develops between you and an influencer, working with them becomes much smoother. This could lead to a collaboration for a standalone campaign getting extended to a long-term association.
Stay True To Ethical Codes
Every business is expected to adhere to some ethical codes. A company truly thrives when it maintains certain standards of responsibility, accountability, and professionalism. Over a period of time, a small business builds a name for itself by following certain principles and ethics.
When you engage with an influencer, you have to be ethical in your practices. Apart from exhibiting a high degree of professionalism, you have to act responsibly, cooperate with them, live up to the trust they have placed in you, and fulfill all the promises made. Doing this will go a long way in ensuring that you manage to build a stable and long-term association with them.
