Build a Great Influencer Marketing Plan that Works
Identify Your Goals
What do you want to accomplish with your influencer marketing plan? Be specific. No plan will be effective and productive (or profitable) without specific and measurable goals. Goal examples may be to increase sales of ABC product or to grow your lead list by 10%.
Look at Your Existing Content
Before you write another word or start researching and engaging with influencers, review your existing content. Does it represent your brand? Does it offer value? If a noteworthy influencer were to read your blog and/or social media page today, would they be impressed? Would they want to share your information with their followers? Would they comment and engage? If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know,” then it’s important to remedy that before you begin reaching out to influencers.
Review Your Content Marketing Plan
Look at your content marketing plan and evaluate whether it’s positioned to help you communicate your brand and to reach the right people. With an eye toward connecting with influences, evaluate…
What – What you’re publishing. Does it offer value to your audience? Would influencers (yet to be determined) find the content valuable?
When – When are you publishing your content? Does it match the content consumption cycle or pattern of your audience? Does it support your product/service marketing timeline? There’s a lot that goes into planning content marketing and aligning it with launches and promotions. Review your plan and make sure your goals are supported.
Where – Are you publishing content on the most effective channels and platforms? Again, keep social media influencers in mind here. Where is your audience and where are the industry influencers? Are they on Facebook, for example, or LinkedIn?
Identify Your Influencers – Research!
Once you’ve identified goals, and your content marketing plan is in line with your goals, then you can look at who you may want to connect with online. This research step is important. You want to make sure that you identify influencers that market to your audience, that have an engaged following, and influencers who will be willing to build a relationship with you. Look at what they publish, how they interact with their followers, how active they are online, how large their audience is, and who they’ve endorsed in the past.
Follow Through and Track Results
Finally, begin the relationship building process. Follow identified influencers online. Engage with them. Share content and comment. Provide value and stay on top of their online activity. Be timely and relevant. As you begin to pitch to influencers, track your results and adapt your plan and strategy as you go. Influencer marketing can be a tremendously effective marketing tactic. Start with a plan that puts you in the right position to succeed.
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