Why Every Startup Should Invest in Influencer Marketing — And How to Do It Right
People don’t listen to brands anymore. It’s the harsh truth that all brands need to understand. The voice of a consumer versus the voice of a brand is 10x more effective in this time and age with technology and social media on the rise. If someone says “This brand is great, I used it!” versus a brand saying “I’m good, use me!”, the former will get more attention because it’s seen as ‘genuine’. And what brands don’t realize is that the later they jump on the bandwagon of influencer marketing, the more standstill their brand resonance will be in the future in a world where the digital space is quickly taking over.
Of course with that being said, your industry and product category also plays a large factor as to whether influencer marketing strategies will work for you, but I’d confidently say that 80% of the time, it will. (psst, your employees can also be ‘influencers’ of your brand!)
Here’s what I’ve learned from managing influencer marketing end to end for my global startup.
Authenticity is key to accelerate your new brand in this modern age
Gone are the days where new brands can simply put out an ‘out of home’ billboard and expect eyeballs immediately. Millennials and Gen Zs spend almost 3 hours / day on social media, and the making use of the digital world has been on the rise for brands to stand out.
Now, influencers vary in different scales, from nanos to mega influencers, but what’s critical to look out for is their relationship with their audience. Authentic conversations and high engagement is what you’d want to look for from an influencer if you’re looking to build your brand awareness in that manner In a framework, this will be considered as the resonance of the influencer for your brand. Pro trip: You may think working with big-time influencers will help you make the mark, but if their concept/style/personality does not suit your brand type, the content produced may not necessarily click with the audience.
I’ve worked with several mega influencers so far, and what I’ve learnt is every one of them is different and you cannot expect them to be producing cookie cutter content basis your brief. And because of that, depending on style, concept, down to vibe and storytelling, some influencer partnerships will work out better than the others. All about experimentation and learning from each partnership. They can have millions of followers but if the content produced doesn’t stick, it simply won’t work out well.
Expand awareness to your potential target audience pool through the influencer’s audience
Reach is another critical part for any new brand to get your name out there, and this has worked immensely for the brand I’ve been working on. As a new brand/startup, you wouldn’t have big budgets to spend on performance or paid marketing. Hence, one of the smartest ways to start getting your name out there is through working with these key opinion leaders of respective industries. They have a say, people are willing to listen to their opinions and follow their recommendations because they have established credibility with their audience. This is the advantage influencers have over brands, especially one that’s just getting started.
Once you’ve found some influencer partnerships that clicked, you will see that your brand searches organically will increase over time. Key metrics such as brand searches, organic search and direct traffic are all lagging indicators of the partnership’s success. Keep these partnerships close because their audience reacted positively to your brand and content, which also means there is now potential to do more — repeat collaborations, brand ambassadors and more can come into the picture for the right partnerships.
Here’s a quick checklist I’ve put together on how to get started on Influencer Marketing from scratch for startups:
Determine your overall objective of why you need influencer marketing & what is your available budget to start with. This is important because this sets your plan on how you will then work with influencers.
Identify key metrics you’ll be tracking with these partnerships. Conversion typically does not work, I would not recommend that. I’d go with reach, engagement rate, and # of followers as a starting point to evaluate and assess the content’s performance.
Search online through available platforms (or not!), I’ll be sharing a list of platforms and methods I’ve used in my next article, so look out!
Shortlist 30–50 creators you’d like to reachout to depending on scale you’re looking for. Geographical presence of the creator’s audience should also be a part of your criteria depending on where your product/niche is focused at.
Craft an elevator pitch for your brand, and start doing outreach through available platforms (this can be through email, social media etc). Don’t expect overnight replies, give it a few days, and gently nudge if you’d like to follow up.
Once a connection is made, do see that you keep the partnership tailored to them according to their style, concept and general branding, and how to rightly match them with your brand’s needs
Discuss all aspects of the plan authentically, from budget alignments to concept and timelines — influencers are humans as well and should be treated with respect.
You will start to identify a few top voices for your brand — and these are the opinion leaders that you’d want to think about doubling down further with them for additional partnership collaboration opportunities.
Conclusion
I hope this quick sharing helps any new aspiring startups who’s looking to start making a dent in their respective industry. There’s no perfect way to handle influencer marketing because we’re really all humans, but these methods and perspectives have helped me push my brand into the category in an accelerated manner, making use of authenticity, reach, and resonance as the key guiding pillars.