In 2017, you’re going to see a lot more focus on micro-influencers, according to predictions by Tap Influence. This shift in focus is mainly because marketers are starting to realize the importance of authenticity, which micro-influencers are known for.

How to Boost Engagement with Micro-Influencers

One of the leading benefits of working with micro-influencers is their ability to maintain authenticity. Although they have a smaller following than other influencers, their followers are people who are genuinely interested in what the influencer has to say. And micro-influencers tend to maintain an authentic voice, even when creating promotional content, which is crucial for building trust.

So working with micro-influencers can help you win the trust of your target audience. In fact, a study funded by Experticity found that micro-influencers’ recommendations can effectively influence the purchase decisions of at least 82% of consumers.

Micro-influencers are also known to have a more engaged audience. So they’re ideal if your goal is to drive more engagement for your brand. Markerly conducted a study which found that regular influencers have a lower engagement rate than micro-influencers. This is likely because most micro-influencers focus on a specific niche. And the people who follow them are typically interested in said niche, making them more likely to engage with the influencer’s content.

Image Courtesy: Shane Barker

Cut Costs with Micro-Influencers

Another major benefit of working with micro-influencers is their cost-effectiveness. Influencer marketing is already considered to be a highly cost-effective marketing channel.

But small businesses and startups with limited marketing budgets may not be able to afford regular influencers for their campaigns. That’s where micro-influencers come in.

While top bloggers may charge you in excess of $1000 for one sponsored post, a micro-influential blogger may only charge you between $175 and $500 per post. And a top Instagram influencer may charge somewhere around $1000-$3000 or more for one image. But micro-influential Instagram influencers only charge around $75-$500 for one image.

This proves that there’s a huge difference in the cost of working with micro-influencers and regular influencers. You could activate multiple micro-influencers for the cost of one regular influencer. So if you’re interested to drive engagement, and build trust at minimal cost, micro-influencers are your answer. To learn more information and tips about micro-influencers, check out the following gifographic.

The post How to Cut Costs and Boost Engagement with Micro-Influencers? appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

These days, seeing influencer posts is becoming pretty common. This is because many brands have seen their potential as marketers and pay them to endorse products or services through posting on their social media accounts.

However, if you are still wary about investing on “influencer marketing,” here are stats that will prove just how it will be a good investment:

1. It’s 129% More Likely For Customers To Buy Something They’ve Seen On Social Media.

A study by Deloitte found out that there is 129% chance for customers to buy something if they see that they are used on social media. This is expected especially if the customer trusts the influencer who posted about the brand.

Influencers mainly focus on posting their contents on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook as these platforms have the most number of users.

According to Statista, as of September 2017, there are 2 billion Facebook users, 1 billion Youtube accounts, 700 million Instagram users, and 300 million people on Twitter. These numbers show no sign of declining.

It’s true that social media has become a great equalizer for Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) to rival large companies. A successful post relies more on relevance than a brand name. It does not simply promote the brand and its products and services.

It is interesting and informative. It piques the interest of the target customers. Luckily, social media platforms have great features that will help you extend your marketing campaign’s reach.

2. 94% Of Brands That Have Used Influencers Believe They Have Helped In Sales.

A survey was lately conducted by a company called Linqia. They asked retailers, companies, and agencies who invested in influencer marketing if it was worth it, and 94% of them answered that it has indeed worked for them.

Influencer marketing entered the business industry at the end of 2015 and exploded in early 2017. This relatively new marketing strategy capitalizes on social media’s reach by paying Internet celebrities with huge followings to promote a brand or product in their social media accounts.

Why is it effective? For one, it makes use of authentic content. Influencers have earned the trust of their followers, and they put their name on the line when they promote a brand.

Thus, followers know they will not promote products and services they have not tried themselves. About 92% of customers trust influencers more than brands. If brands want to drive their message to their target audience, they must find the right influencer.

Another advantage of influencer marketing is its ease of production and relatively lower costs.

It’s gaining lots of popularity among brands that are not too keen on shelling out money on traditional advertising tactics. Even big companies like Amazon has launched their social influencer program already.

3. 60% Of People Read Blogs And Social Media Posts Before Shopping.

Studies show that 60% of customers consider blogs or social media posts that they’ve read before actually buying a certain product. This is not surprising as blogs and social media are the best platforms for consumers to read reviews.

As the world rapidly shifts towards social media, consumers turn to fellow consumers for information before they make their purchasing decisions. This is in contrast to the past when they look at the brands themselves.

If the influencer has already established a name to be trusted, customers will most likely rely on his reviews about products. Visionary marketers should be able to see that social media influencers open a whole new world of possibilities.

They create a new channel to connect brands with their customers more organically. With social media posts, brands can amplify their message by tenfolds.

4. 86% Of The Trending And Most-Viewed Videos On Youtube Were Created By Influencers.

In a 2017 research conducted by the State of the Creator Economy, it has been found that more people visit Youtube annually compared to other social media platforms.

What makes Youtube special is that it offers both visual branding opportunities and attributable traffic towards your website.

The biggest Youtube content creators with the most-viewed videos usually land with big brand partnerships. Google, Disney, Audible, and Motorola are some big brands that have successfully tapped Youtube influencers. Some of the top beauty influencers on Youtube are Jeffree Star, NikkieTutorials, PatrickStarr, and Jaclyn Hill.

Youtube is such an effective advertising platform that even the Youtuber content creators themselves can launch their own merchandise, and it will become a success. Most of beauty product influencers already have their own makeup lines because of the trust they’ve earned from the people who watch them.

5. 63% Of Millennials Prefer Non-Celebrity Endorsements.

Nowadays, celebrities aren’t as effective as endorsers when it comes to the social media platform. Millennials, who are currently the biggest consumer demographic, prefer Youtube over television.

In a study commissioned by Defy Media, it has been found that 63% of people within the age range 13-24 would prefer to buy products recommended by a Youtuber. Only 48% of the respondents said they would buy products promoted by TV or movie stars.

Millennials apparently prefer to see endorsements from non-celebrity bloggers. It may be because they can relate more to influencers because they seem to have normal lives just like them. In contrast, traditional celebrities are simply paid for products they may or may not have used.

Read More: 5 Successful Influencer Marketing Steps to Make More Money

Conclusion

It may seem like a risky thing to spend money on influencer marketing, but these stats should help you make your decision. Now that more and more people are engaging in social media, customers will most likely rely on influencers when it comes to deciding on buying products or services from brands. Just make sure that the influencers you will be spending money on can be trusted.

The post 5 Exact Stats & You Can’t Ignore Investing in Influencer Marketing appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

When you’ve decided to work with influencers for your marketing campaigns, it’s important to go beyond the number of followers someone has on any particular network, and look closely at the engagement rate. That’s critical to determining the value of the campaign, and essential to calculating your return on investment.

Why Follower Numbers Get The Attention?

The larger the follower number, the more influence a person has, right? Not necessarily. Follower volume doesn’t mean anything, especially if the person has purchased followers to make themselves look better. It’s not the quantity of relationships, it’s the quality of those relationships that matter.

Follower numbers are front and center, so it’s easy to draw our attention to them. Getting to the engagement rate takes a bit more work, so it’s the easiest way to gauge whether or not there’s potential to work with a particular user over another. But, just because it’s the easiest metric to use, doesn’t mean it’s the right one to use.

Why It’s Engagement Rate That Really Matters?

Engagement rate tells you how many people are paying attention to what any influencer is saying. Take for instance, celebrity Kim Kardashian. She has 106,039,395 Instagram followers with a 1.75% engagement rate. You’ll pay anywhere from $156,372-$260,619 for a post. That translates to an estimated $0.08 to $0.14 per engagement, with an estimated earned media value of 5x.

She’d be a great influencer for anyone in beauty or fashion, right?

Let’s compare her to microinfluencer Chandler Nehrt She has just 37,587 followers, and an estimated cost per post ranging between $147.88 to $246.48. Not only is the cost per post much lower, making her more accessible to those with limited budget, but her engagement rate is more than four times that of Kim’s, at 7.59%.

You’re paying anywhere from $0.05 to $0.09 per engagement, and have an estimated earned media value of 8.3x. Yes, the audience is smaller, and you’re paying less per post, but you’re getting a much higher return.

If you had the budget to have Kim post something on the lower end of her spectrum, and worked with several microinfluencers with higher engagement rates, either with single or multiple posts, you’ll get more value than from working with Kim, even though her celebrity status may have had you thinking otherwise. That’s why engagement rate matters.

Calculating Engagement Rate

Engagement rates on Instagram are the total engagement received over a certain period (a month, a quarter, a year) of time, expressed as a percentage of the total follower count. Engagements are when a user likes or comments on a post.

The formula is: Engagement = Engagement / Followers

Depending on your needs, you can calculate it based on just the number of likes, or just the number of comments, but any interaction with a photo counts as an engagement.

Let’s take a look at the numbers for Kim and Chandler.

At Kim’s engagement rate, only 1,855,689 comments/likes are coming in on average. That’s a lot of interactions – and way more than Chandler even has in terms of followers.

But, if we plug in Chandler’s engagement rate with Kim’s follower count, you’ll see she’s lacking considerably. At a 7.59% engagement rate, Kim would have to see an average of 8,048,390 interactions on each of her photos.

What’s A Good Engagement Rate?

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of data to support this – and the idea of an engagement rate high enough to invest in for your campaigns will be subjective.

Obviously, the higher the engagement rate, the better for your campaign. However, data from DigiDay^[3] shows that as follower base increases, both the like and comment rate decreases.

This means engagement rates below 0% are low. Rates between 1 and 5% are average; between 5 and 10% are above average, between 10 and 20% is great, and anything higher than 20% is excellent.

As you work with us on influencer campaigns, you’ll find that we focus on quality influencers with higher engagement rates.

Read More: The Benefits That Influencer Marketing Can Offer Your Business

While follower count does play a role because even lower engagement rates on high volume means more eyes on your content, it’s not the only thing to consider as you choose influencers to work with.

Remember, you can leverage microinfluencers on any social media platform, not just Instagram.

We can help with Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat influencer campaigns, too.

The post Follower Numbers & Engagement Rate – What is Vital to Influencer Marketing? appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

It is not easy to reach to customers through the existing digital marketing strategies, given that 47% of customers on the internet use ad blockers^[1] and only 14% of them remember an advertisement.

Amidst this competitive clutter, it is essential to stand out from the crowd. Influencer marketing empowers your company with a more effective online marketing strategy, leveraging your sales and enhancing your reputation.

Influencers and bloggers incorporate social media as one of their most powerful tools for reaching their followers. They socialize with readers, create blogs for them, mentor them while they purchase goods, and keep them tuned to the brand. It is important to keep track of statistics and correctly mold your influencer marketing strategy.

Here are five steps for developing a successful influencer marketing platform.

1) Defining The Objectives Of Your Campaign And KPIs

The success of an influencer marketing campaign depends on your goals. Businesses need to be specific about what they want to accomplish and be consistent in their efforts. Integrating an influencer marketing program will strengthen your business, but you need to focus on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to keep track of your progress.

This is very beneficial when you are assessing your ROI in the long run. Successful influencer marketers adhere to their goals and focus on their strategies.

While most marketers think that celebrity endorsements will increase sales, the truth is that celebrities only influence 3% of customers^[2]. This clearly reveals that influencers within the audience can significantly mold their perspectives.

It is important to note that branching out into other areas in the middle of your marketing campaign will not yield much benefit. Remember, influencer marketing is a process and it takes time for the results to show themselves.

2) Determining The Profiles Of Your Ideal Influencers

While determining the profile of your influencer, you need to choose a personality that is connected to the industry. You would also expect the influencer to have authentic social media connections and have an engaged audience.

The tone of the influencer, image, intensity, and style should be relevant to your customers. The voice of the influencer should resonate with the image of your brand. Your target group should find the persona appealing, and the writing style should keep customers engaged.

One of the greatest mistakes businesses tend to make while strategizing is opting for a celebrity with a massive following, without evaluating their connections. In any business, targeting plays a key role in marketing your product.

Your influencer may have millions of connections, but are they connected to your product? The demographics, age groups, and purchasing power of their fans should be assessed while determining your influencer profiles.

3) Choosing A Niche Market

While developing your influencer marketing strategy, it is crucial to choose a niche market, rather than targeting a wide range of customers. Moreover, your influencer should be a familiar name in that particular niche. 70% of teenaged YouTube users rely on the opinions of influencers^[3], rather than celebrities.

Hence, you should focus on a particular niche when you plan your strategy. For instance, influencers who specialize in posting video game reviews on YouTube have established connections that you can reach out to, but only if you want to focus on that specific niche. It is always wise to opt for a single market rather than reaching for a star.

Stick to the niche for a little while and see the results. Engagement is one of the most important metrics used in assessing the effects of your influencer marketing strategy.

Remember, micro influencers in a specific niche can be more effective for your brand than bigger influencers who do not focus on any niche in particular.

4) Ensuring Optimum Performance Of Every Service

Your program needs to be equally effective across the areas of function and design. From determining your influencer to formulating the campaign, the entire process should be free of hassles.

While implementing your strategy, you need to keep track on your returns. A successful business must focus on numerous details while formulating and implementing their strategy. Statistics and analytics are gathered and can be used to determine the success of your campaign.

Business leaders are concerned about the extent to which an influencer can help. Around 71% of online customers are more likely to buy a product when it is referred to on social media.

Today, you will come across dozens of potential influencers. They operate on well-known platforms, and come with millions of followers. It is important to evaluate the effect of each influencer on your customer’s preferences.

5) Evaluating Your Outcome

You must now evaluate the outcome of your influencer marketing campaign after executing it. Be consistent with the evaluation process, revisiting every KPI to assess the effectiveness of the campaign.

You can learn from the results obtained from the initial campaigns and implement them in subsequent ones. Businesses need to adapt to market conditions and tweak their inputs accordingly.

For instance, you may find that posting blogs at a particular time is yielding better results, so schedule the campaign at the best time to maximize its impact. Keep improving your program based on the statistics and reports generated through this process.

A statistic revealed that Facebook is the most powerful social media platforms used by influencers, and that Facebook posts influence 19% of online purchase decisions today. Developing a successful influencer marketing platform requires an in-depth understanding of the industry.

Read More: 5 Successful Influencer Marketing Steps to Make More Money

You need to understand that online customers are overloaded with information, coming in from many different channels. With a strategic influencer marketing platform, you can bolster your business and achieve greater success.

The post Just 5 Steps and Create a Successful Influencer Marketing Platform appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Interacting with these types of influencers is no easy task as many gatekeepers expand the gap between your message and the influencer’s ear.

Enter micro influencers who have smaller but very targeted and loyal audiences. These are the influencers you need to find to take your business to the next level.

They have no gatekeepers and appreciate every share they get. While macro influencers also appreciate when people share their content, it’s harder for macro influencers to interact on an individual level with the people in their audience.

Where Can We Find Micro Influencers?

Micro influencers aren’t as pronounced as macro influencers. They tend to cluster around the macro influencers and macro influential brands. You can find them in the comments on other people’s blogs, but there’s a better way to find them.

Micro influencers usually make guest appearances on macro influencer shows and podcasts. If I want to find micro influencers, I look no further than influential podcasts and guest blogs. I go on the EOFire Podcast to see who John Lee Dumas recently interviewed.

The majority of his guests are micro influencers. They have large, loyal, and targeted audiences, but they don’t have millions of followers. If you email them, you have a much higher chance of getting a response and building a relationship.

After looking at the latest EOFire episodes, I’ll head over to Jeff Bullas’ Blog. Jeff is rapidly approaching 1 million followers across all of his social networks, and his blog gets 400,000 monthly views. Many of the blog posts on his site are from contributors. Virtually all of these contributors are micro influencers.

The podcasts and blogs will be different for each niche, but when you find active podcasts and guest blogs, you’ll find many of the micro influencers in your niche.

How Can We Build The Relationship?

Micro influencers don’t get as much attention macro influencers. That is to your advantage. Any email you send to a micro influencer is much more likely to get a response than emails you send to macro influencers.

But how do we build the relationship? What do we say in the email?

While there are many reasons to send an email to a micro influencer, the best emails boil down to one of two ingredients:

1. Praise — When doing research for my blog posts, I prefer to mention micro influencers over macro influencers. Micro influencers are much more likely to see that you mentioned them, and some will even share your content. If I choose to mention a micro influencer’s article, I tell them how much their article impacted me. I prefer to request an optional share over being pushy.

2. Opportunity — Micro influencers want to grow their audiences and gain more visibility. Most micro influencers will be more than ready to jump on an opportunity to do so. My favorite way to build relationships with people is to invite them to become guests on the Breakthrough Success Podcast. Most of the people I ask end up becoming guests on the show. What follows is a 30-45 minute conversation, and if you spend that much time talking to someone, you’ll probably have a healthy relationship at the end of that conversation.

How Can We Preserve These Relationships?

Micro influencers will take more time to respond to their audience than macro influencers, but micro influencers also have a lot on their respective plates. Micro influencers usually wear many hats and don’t have a team to delegate tasks to. Many of them work alone.

That means you need to make every effort to strengthen the relationships you have with these influencers. Don’t just email them when you need help.

Be willing to give. Share their content on social media and tag/mention them so they get notified about your post. If you find an article that you know would benefit one micro influencer, send that article over to the micro influencer. Comment on their content.

Read More: Get 6 Incredible Ideas For Micro-Influencers To Reap Your Business

Micro influencers will respond to those types of interactions. Some of them will follow suite. They’ll share your latest blog post without you reminding them, leave a comment, and tell people about you.

Your ability to preserve these relationships is dependent on your willingness to follow-up with your existing relationships. Don’t bother building new relationships if you can’t leverage and build upon the relationships you’ve already built.

What are your thoughts on building relationships with micro influencers? Where do you go to find micro influencers? Do you have a question? Sound off in the comments section below.

The post Micro Influencers: Find, Connect, Preserve and Grow appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Recently someone called me a “micro influencer.”

Was I being flattered or insulted?

The term sounds like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.

“Micro” means small and therefore sounds insulting. However, to be called “an influencer” is the height of complimentary.

This article will explain the difference between micro influencers and macro influencers and explain which is better.

What Is The Difference Between Micro And Macro Influencers?

Are you into the numbers game? That’s how you’ll discover who is a micro influencer and who is a macro influencer.

Micro influencers have anywhere between 1,000 and 999,999 followers.

Macro influencers have 1 million followers or more.

These are internet followers. They could follow the influencer on social media, their blog, or their website.

Why Micro Influencers Are Better For Marketing Than Macro Influencers

Should we even care about the difference between micro influencer marketing and macro influencer marketing? Does the difference even matter?

My answer is a resounding “Yes.”

1. Micro Influencers Are Better For Marketing Since It’s Easier To Generate Links From Them.

If you are a blogger or a marketer, you need links from people with strong Domain Rankings. Getting these links to your site will boost your SEO and get your products and services visibility in search engines.

Both types of influencers have those rankings or they wouldn’t be considered influencers.

In order to have any hopes of getting a link from influencers, you need to cultivate a relationship with them.

Who are you going to try to build a relationship with the micro influencer or the macro influencer?

Macro influencers have far more followers than micro influencers. They need to respond to comments from their followers, arrange webinars for them, coach them, thank them for links and social shares…

Micro influencers are still influencers. They still have a decent Domain Authority ranking. If they link to you, your SEO will still increase.

Of course, a link from a macro influencer will be more beneficial, but they may be too busy to even answer your email requesting the link.

Therefore, a link from a micro influencer is better since you may not even get a response about a link from the macro influencer.

2. Micro Influencers Are Better For Marketing Since It’s Easier To Generate Social Shares From Them.

I have frequently linked to social media influencers in my articles. I’ve shared the articles with them on their social media site of influence and asked them to share.

In contrast, content creators have often emailed me asking me for social shares. I’ve actually seen templates designed for the purpose of emailing the influencer to ask for social shares.

In my opinion, this isn’t necessary since it’s easy to request social shares on social media sites.

Look: When I want to request a link from an influencer this is what I write on Twitter:

[a short blurb about my article, the link to my article, “Please Retweet,” feat @the influencer’s Twitter name]

This accomplishes several things. First, there is no extra effort or time involved since I’d promote my article on Twitter anyway. Next, research shows if you spell out the words “Please Retweet,” you’re more likely to get retweets.

Also, by reading this, the influencer learns that I’m looking for retweets. Finally, all the influencer has to do is click the retweet button. There’s not the time involved that responding to my email would take and then sharing on Twitter. Twitter notifies me that they’ve retweeted my articles so they don’t have to write me back to tell me.

I’ve done this with micro influencers and macro influencers. I find this technique effective with the micro influencers.

First, the macro influencer often doesn’t respond, or they’ll just click the “like” button and not retweet. Once, an underling in a company with a great many Twitter followers explained he wasn’t allowed to share my article.

As I indicated, I’ve never had a problem with micro influencers. On the contrary, I’ve formed relationships with them in this way on social media sites. They have become my social media followers and many have even guest posted for me.

If you follow these techniques with the micro influencers, your social shares will increase and so will your reach. As your exposure grows, your email list will grow and you will experience greater marketing success.

3. Micro Influencers Are Better For Marketing Since They Try Harder.

Micro influencers aren’t macro influencers yet. They still are trying to try to enter those bigger leagues. For this reason, their content is often higher-quality than macro influencers. The latter group has already “made it” and often are content to rest on their previous successes.

This extra effort may include being visible on new social media sites or trying cutting-edge techniques.

Your brand will thrive if you’re affiliated with influencers with innovative strategies.

4. Micro Influencers Are Better Since The Engagement On Their Social Media Sites And Website Is Higher.

People who follow macro influencers realize they won’t have time to write them back, so they often don’t even bother to try to comment on their posts or ask questions when confused. For this reason, many macro influencers have resorted to putting chatbots on their sites. Yet, many people find these automated greetings offensive.

5. Micro Influencers Are Better Since It’s Easier For Brands To Work With Them.

Do you know that Instagram influencers have so many followers they can charge $75,000 per Instagram post?

Knowing this, brands on a tight budget won’t approach those influencers. Therefore, micro influencers actually have a better chance of monetizing.

Read More: Micro Influencer Marketing Is the Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, now you know the answer this article’s introduction posed: Is being called a “micro influencer” an insult or a compliment? Clearly, the person labeled me with a complimentary term. I may not have one million followers, but I’m happy to be a micro influencer.

The post Why Micro Influencers Are Better For Marketing Than Macro Influencers? appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Reaching out to influencers and starting the dialogue is not as difficult as it seems. You need to create a reason for the dialogue and determine your goal.

What’s Your Goal?

Do you want influencers to share your content, become guests on your podcast, or something else? Determining your goal will improve the dialogue because you’ll have clarity. Having clarity is the first step towards meaningfully achieving your goal.

What’s In It For The Influencers?

Once you determine your goal, your next step is to determine what’s in it for the influencer. Remember that influencers are people too, and some of their in boxes are stuffed with messages like yours.

They get plenty of emails that ask them to share content or to be a guest on a podcast. By answering this question in advance, you can write an email that sets you apart.

When I ask influencers to become guests on the Breakthrough Success Podcast, I make it clear what type of exposure they’ll get. I mention right away that I have over 500K social media followers, over 10K email subscribers, and almost 70K students on Udemy. My potential guests know that this episode will be seen by a lot of people.

I also establish the credibility of my podcast by mentioning some of the guests from past episodes. If you are just launching your podcast, just focus on your audience size and how many people you’d spread the message to.

If you don’t have a podcast, there’s still plenty you can offer to an influencer. A popular tactic to reach out to influencers is to mention them in one of your blog posts before reaching out. You can then tell the influencer that you mentioned him/her in the blog post and ask for a share.

Influencers, just like anyone else, are more likely to share content that they got mentioned in. If you mention five influencers in all of your blog posts, and you reach out to all five of those influencers, you can start generating massive traffic.

How Do I Get Them To Notice Me On Social Media?

For some influencers, an email isn’t enough. While the above tactics are the most effective for getting a desirable response, there are other ways to reach out to influencers…and get them to notice you.

We can’t do everything or be everywhere at once. This is a popular lesson that gets repeated time and time again. While you can’t be everywhere, you can be everywhere to someone. In this case, that someone is an influencer.

If that influencer tweets, start liking, retweeting, and responding to their tweets. Like and comment on their Facebook posts. Repin their pins, and comment on their Instagram pictures while you’re at it.

Liking and sharing will get the influencer’s attention, but nothing is more powerful than leaving quality comments and responses to their content. So many people are willing to like, fewer people will share, but almost no one is willing to leave a comment.

That’s why you’ll see the Instagram pictures with thousands of likes but only a few dozen comments. If you frequently comment on an influencer’s content (that in some cases, you would have consumed anyway), immediately positions you in their frame of mind.

When it comes time to ask the influencer for a favor, they’ll remember you from all of the likes, shares, but most importantly, comments, that you leave on their posts.

How Do I Continue The Conversation?

Some influencers will respond to your emails while others will respond to your comments. A few will even respond to both. At this point, you have a conversation.

The way you continue the conversation depends on how the influencer responds. The rule of thumb for continuing a conversation is to think of the conversation with someone offline.

If they weren’t interested in your idea, you wouldn’t just blow them off and not write back. You would thank them for considering your idea or use another approach without being too pushy.

If the influencer is interested in continuing the dialogue on social media, asking questions and sharing additional insights will continue the conversation. When you ask a question, the influencer needs to answer it.

If you share an additional insight, the influencer will elaborate on that insight and maybe offer some of his/her insights.

If the influencer agrees to be a guest on your show or to share your content, provide them with the next steps.

What’s The Most Important Thing For Me To Remember?

Influencers are people. The moment you treat them like people instead of opportunity-bearers, you’ll have more success.

Also, don’t stop interacting with any influencer. There is no end-goal with influencer relationships. Sure, you may want them on your show or to share your content, but you need to continue the dialogue.

Read More: 3 Must Know Ways To Fight Negative SEO & Protect Your Site

Follow-up with influencers you haven’t been in touch with for a while. Just check in and keep those relationships healthy. You may need them in the future, and they may need your help in the future.

The post How To Reach Out To Influencers And Be In Touch With Them appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Increased competition is forcing businesses to turn to more innovative mediums for online product promotion.

Social media has sparked the new concept of micro-influencer engagement, which has disrupted the online marketing sphere.

Micro-influencers are individuals with a significant social media following who help businesses reach their desired target audience by promoting their products at nominal prices. How do they do this? Micro-influencers:

1. Rock The Social Landscape – One Campaign With Multiple Benefits

Micro-influencers help small businesses reach millions of customers quickly with minimal cost. Because their relationship with end-consumers is private, they tend to be more successful at influencing users to buy a particular service or product.

Micro-influencers generate 22.2% more follower conversations about purchasing suggestions, making an engagement with them an attractive option for a brand brands.
As experienced authorities in their niche with huge fan followings, end consumers consider their voice to be a knowledgeable one.

They are master marketers with the potential to explain product characteristics from a consumer’s point of view, making a business’ investment in micro-influencer marketing to be the best bet.

Businesses benefit greatly from micro-influencing campaigns.

2. Help Reach Larger And More-Focused Audiences

Micro-influencers command authority over their followers. They also have strongholds in particular segments, which can help businesses reach a targeted and niche-specific audience.

Micro-influencers provide an affordable way to reach these audiences as a result of their large follower counts.

These followers fulfill the goal of reaching a targeted audience on a massive scale. And because these influencers are considered subject-matter experts, they are often followed by prospective buyers for their advice, making the micro-influencing campaign significantly more beneficial for businesses seeking buyers.

3. Promise Higher Engagement

The micro-influencer community consists of an engaged audience ready to listen, discuss and accept suggestions. Because micro-influencers are better at one-on-one follower interaction, the relationship helps build trust and maintain high engagement rates when compared with other mass-market advertising campaigns.

Micro-Influencers help by getting inside buyers’ minds and using their authoritative influence, fan following and communication skills to engage buyers in a much more positive and effective way.

They have the ability to make target audiences aware of specific products and their benefits. This engagement results in improved sales figures and revenues.

4. Help Improve Sales Figures through Referrals

Micro-influencing drives a brand by getting referral sales. Per a recent market survey, customers have 83% more chances to buy through a referral source.

And since micro-influencers have such a massive fan following, they serve as trustworthy referral sources for businesses.

Their followers believe they have personal relationship with the micro-influencer, which means they trust offers shared by the micro-influencer. This results in them becoming a great medium for driving referral sales.

5. Help Develop Brand Loyalty And Create Upselling Opportunities

Micro-influencers have a great rapport with their followers. They are amazing at maintaining relationships, which is an important aspect of the modern-day sales process.

Today’s buyers are focused on buying products from trustworthy sources and micro-influencers play an important role in this decision. They are a reliable resource for a buyer, which means they can help brands develop brand loyalty in the long-term.

Playing on the relationship with their end-consumers, they drive brand loyalty among followers and offer businesses a great opportunity for upselling exclusive and complementary products among the target audience.

6.Help Maximize ROI From Marketing Campaigns

According to industry reports^[1], every $1 invested in influencer-marketing results in a business return of $6.50.

Micro-influencers have a significant fan following which awards them the opportunity to associate with a lesser-known brand rather than the established mediums of large influencers. This means micro-influencers can create a better ROI over both the short and long-term.

The cost associated with micro-influencer audience engagement is significantly less than with any other medium. Micro-influencer marketing is one of the most promising mediums for start-ups and businesses seeking to maximize their ROI from a marketing campaign.

Read More: 12 Influencer Marketing Strategies on Social Media

Conclusion

Micro-influencers usually charge as low as $100 for reaching out to approximately 10,000 niche-specific followers, which is quite less than any other medium available for business marketing.

As a result, micro-influencing has become one of the best choices for long-term business promotion and advertising at an affordable cost.

The post Get 6 Incredible Ideas For Micro-Influencers To Reap Your Business appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

So you spot the popular kid at the school across the yard. He knows everybody, he’s on the running team, and he’s the captain of the football team.

Every teacher thinks he’s an all-star and most students want to be him, or be with him, even if they secretly pretend they despise him.

The thing is you know that just by being his friend or by being associated with him in any way; it’s going to boost your visibility and credibility.

Star status by association, all you’ve got to do is incentivize him to allow you into his circle.

Stop! Don’t Make The Same Mistake As Everybody Else.

Everybody’s keen to tell him how great he is and how everything he does is special (I know it’s enough to make you feel sick). So hold back on showing another compliment up his…

See, the thing is, you can feel reassured that one day he’ll probably be unmarried, overweight and alone from being too self-absorbed and obsessed.

You’ll be able to check him out on Facebook and agree to yourself that maybe being the biggest influencer wasn’t such a personal desire at school.

But you’re still here and desperate at this stage in your life to maximize this opportunity to increase your visibility and status.

So What Can You Do To Influence The Influencer?

You challenge them!

Yes, challenge them.

Why? Because they are attention adrenaline junkies, and by challenging them you’ll spark their interest, and motivate them to engage with you.

So How Do We Do It?

Well, you don’t just smack them across the face with the back of your glove and say ‘Sir, I challenge you to a duel!’ Although that sounds like it could be fun.

You propose an opinion or a way of thinking that either is an adaptation of their thinking or that it questions or challenges the way they currently do things.

So just to be clear, you’re not recreating the wheel here, you’re just asking could it be made from a better material, or even suggesting what that may be.

You want to create a race across hurdles that you know the influencer can jump, but they’re just high enough to make them work for it.

You’re setting them a challenge that can make them feel good about themselves without actually going up to them and saying ‘you’re soooo great’ and looking like all the other wannabes.

So What Is the Point of All This?

You get the influencer engaged in meaningful dialogue; they gain a positive experience, feel challenged and can solve a problem.

You, on the other hand, have shown yourself to be unlike the rest. You have shown that you have status and are willing and able to play in the big league.

You’ve also started to get a whole lot of people looking at you to see what you’re going to do next.

This is the beginning of becoming the influencer, yourself!

How Do You Come Up With This Master Plan?

You research! Pick the key influencers in your sector/industry.

These Three Tools That Can Help You Identify Them

1.Followerwonk

Followerwonk^[1] A great tool from Rand Fishkin^[2] that will help you find compare and analyze relevant Twitter accounts.

2. Klout
A free tool that will give you a ‘Klout Score,’ the better the score, the more influential the person. What’s your Klout^[3] score?

3 .Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo^[4] has some limited free features. Otherwise, it is a paid tool, which offers more than just a place to find key influencers.

It can inform you on what’s being shared, what’s trending, back links and some additional extra features.

Here’s three more that can transform your community management and engagement taking it to the next level:

But be prepared for the price tag that comes with them! Only the real marketers need apply…
1. Sprout Social

Social media management tool^[5] created to help businesses grow their social media presence.
Really good brand monitoring, social analytics, reporting capabilities and follower management and best of all you can try it for a month without the need for card details.

2. Synthesio
Synthesio^[6] is a machinery that takes conversations from the social web and converts them into information that can fuel smart, data-driven decision making across your business.

It has user-friendly modules, easy to set up, use and optimize. It’s a great tool for real-time listening, monitoring and reporting. Free trial available.

3. Crimson Hexagon
Social media analytics^[7] platform that helps brands uncover insights from social data that drives strategy.

We’re talking a top product with serious social listening and influencer identification tools.

Really good analytics and monitoring capabilities that are far superior to that of the cheaper options available.

Free trial available.

Whatever you use, it’s important to track what information, ideas, and original content your influencers are sharing; you can then start to build a picture of what they are discussing and of their view point. It’s with this; you can start to build your challenge.

Think About These Three Things!

1.What’s their opinion on specific key industry subjects?

You can then use these opinions and viewpoints to drive the creation and implementation of your challenge.

2.Are they a champion for a specific cause or body?

Not only will this give you additional content and information they’re sharing, but it will also guide you to the things that matter to them.

It will also provide you with additional platforms for you to join, communicate and engage with these key influencers.

3.Where do they spend most of their time online and via which channels do they share original comments and views?

They may have good followings across a variety of social media channels. But where is their voice and where are they sharing their views?

It is important to target them in the place they are most likely to engage and respond to you.

It’s with these three answers that you’ll be able to structure your engagement strategy.

Don’t just think that the bigger the influencer the better the opportunity.

We are now seeing a trend that micro influencers in specialist niche areas with a small hardcore following can be more valuable than the stage talking, Theatre filling, public speakers.

Ultimately you want to achieve a nice mix and maybe just targeting three influencers to start with to test your knowledge and research and to see what level of engagement you get, is a good place to start.

The important thing to remember is that this is not a one shot approach.

It begins with research and then starts with challenges, which will create engagement, which you then need to convert to meaningful dialogue.

Once you have their attention, it’s important to stay engaged and committed to the conversation and to continue to challenge and engage with the influencer and their community.

See More: Influencer Marketing: Top 7 Reasons Why It’s the Future

Remember, This Is Important:

You don’t need to win the challenge; you just need to keep up with the competition.

That will be a big win in itself, and from there forwards you’ll be building your communities and waiting for others to come and challenge you.

Get em, kid!

The post What Can You Do To Get Associated With An Influencer? appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Influencer marketing can involve a celebrity, a blogger or even someone in a community that has gained the trust and respect of everyone that is involved in the community. While the general idea of influencer marketing involves utilizing a person, many companies have also had a lot of success by utilizing another brand that can help them thrive in their own industry.

Influencer Marketing In the Real World

Any kind of business can utilize influencer marketing to grow and gain more authority in their industry; thus leading to an increase in customer engagement, customer interest and sales, which is usually the main goal of such a campaign. Before we look at how influencer marketing can help your business thrive, let’s take a look at some real world scenarios where this type of marketing strategy has helped businesses become more popular.

Styld.by is a collection of denim-based apparel that is now worn by millions of people around the globe. How did they become so famous? Influencer marketing, of course. This is actually a really great example of influencer marketing as the company did not only get one or two influencers involved but thousands. They feature a series of snapshots on their website where they showcase their influencers wearing their clothes. They have gained the influence of singer Xriss Jor, art director Mirjam Flatau, as well as many famous bloggers, photographers, and models.

Other examples of brands that used this marketing technique to increase awareness of their own brand:

• At the Warner Sound Festival, Nikon teamed up with Warner Music Group to showcase their camera offerings during the festival. Thanks to the team up and influence by Warner Music Group, the company’s hashtag trended for the entire weekend on Twitter.
• Sephora, trusted brand in the health and beauty industry, was able to increase their brand awareness by starting a new platform that provides any person the ability to offer unbiased reviews. After starting the platform, they sent sample products to famous beauty bloggers and asked them to do an honest review on their platform about the samples they received.

The True Power Of Influencer Marketing

The examples above can offer you a clear overview of just how powerful influencer marketing can be for your business. While these examples all focuses on brands that are already popular, the marketing strategy can be utilized by any type of business – big or small – to increase brand awareness and to increase sales. Even some smaller companies have utilized the marketing strategy as part of their marketing plan in order to get more people to trust in their brand and buy their product or services. This means that no matter what type of business you are running, adding influencer marketing into the mix can definitely hold many benefits for your company.

One of the best things about this type of marketing is the fact that influencer marketing works for any type of business in any industry. If you take a quick look online, you’ll notice that there are blogs that specializes in just about every industry and niche you can think of – many of these blogs are very popular and has thousands of people following them daily for updates. To give you proof of what we mean, let’s look at some popular blogs in different niches:

• Freshome – Interior Decorating & Architecture blog. This blog has more than 1.9 million followers on Facebook and over 200,000 followers on Twitter.
• Nerd Fitness – Physical Fitness blog. This blog has over 90,000 likes on its Facebook page, 13,400 followers on Instagram and more than 28,000 subscribers on YouTube.
• WP Beginner – WordPress tutorials and training. This blog has a combined total of 600,000+ subscribers on their various social media channels.

• Smitten Kitchen – Cooking blog. This blog has more than 500,000 likes on Facebook, over 100,000 followers on Pinterest and thousands more followers on other social networks.

While these are only four examples of popular blogs, they should give you a clear idea of the fact that there are famous blogs in every industry you can think of. This means that, no matter what type of business or website you have, there are an endless number of opportunities available to you if you open up to influencer marketing. Even one single post or mention by a famous blog in your niche could mean that millions of people will notice your blog and will potentially visit your website to learn more about your brand.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is seen in our everyday lives. Celebrities promoting branded products, brands collaborating to increase each other’s exposure and fashion bloggers snapping themselves in the latest designer wear. No matter what type of niche your brand is in, by utilizing influencer marketing, you can boost your exposure and sales significantly. Influencer marketing, however, can be a difficult task if you’re not sure how to do it the right way. In such a case, contacting a digital agency that specializes in this kind of marketing strategies can help you succeed without having to learn anything yourself.

The post The Benefits That Influencer Marketing Can Offer Your Business appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.