Best Practices for Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is based on the simple principle of word-of-mouth publicity but through the right people referred to as influencers. The job of a marketing company and influencer marketing is to identify such key influencers and rope them into an active marketing campaign for their products.

How does this work?
The advent of the internet has made it very easy to find online influencers. In this case, influencers refer to users who use a product and then talk, tweet, Facebook or generally blog about a particular product online. Marketing companies promote their products through a four step process in which they first identify the influencers. For example, popular products like Kraft are very commonly used by food bloggers. However, when a famous personality like Martha Stewart uses Kraft and blogs about it, she becomes an influence. Martha is a famous personality and now, savvy marketing companies prefer to pick simple bloggers and online personalities to promote their products. This is done by doing a Google search or by using internet search companies to find prominent online personalities that use a product.

Once the influencer is identified, the product company first markets to the influences to increase awareness of their product with the influencer. This is done by reaching out to the blogger or online personality and educating them about the product through online meetings, training sessions and even by recruiting them to be brand ambassadors. Marketing is then done through the influencer to his or her base of online followers. This immediately increases the exposure of the product, the influencer and the company. Once this step is complete, the company ties up with the influencer and actively markets to customers.

Tips to find online influencers and recruit them
Marketing companies use several different procedures to make the process quick and simple. They identify influencers by recognizing their social media reach. The influencers are rewarded for their work and they are encouraged to cultivate their database of readers or followers. By being personal and interactive with influencers, they can be encouraged to market personally to consumers. Companies also tailor make projects to suit the influencers style and personality and this ensures a better sales process.

Overall, influencers are encouraged to market products to their specific reader base. These individuals have influence over a specific subset of customers and these customers are more likely to purchase products recommended by influencers.