Promoting with Influencers: A Guide

Testimonials have been a staple within marketing for decades upon decades; it would only make sense that testimonials would extend into the digital sphere.If you’re not promoting your content with influencers, you’re not getting the most out of your investment in that content. We are told so much about content marketing being the future; however, the majority of what people talk about stops at what happens when we write it. How to write it, how often, what the headline says. However, we don’t talk as much about what to do after we hit post.Here are some benefits of and tips about promoting with influencers. Get Straight to Who You Want to Target Influencers are a great immediate channel straight to the customer base that you desire to get to. It’s a great way to target customers by specific interest by using informationyou have about their fans. Their reach is obviously important, but even more so is who fills the makeup of that audience. Instant trust The appeal of testimonials continues here – you get a direct way to connect to your customers via a person they already trust. But even further than the original style of testimonial, you get to connect to the customers on the very platform that they connect to their fans in the first place. Find the ones that fit your goal To do some outreach in a way that is a bit more scalable toindustrial strength social outreach, check out tools likeFollowerWonk, by Moz. It’s such a simple platform that allows you to input in a keyword, andFollowerWonkmatches you with influencers who have that keyword in their bio or description. It also gives you the option of showing Social Authority. Social Authority shows you not only how many followers aTwittererhas, but the type of followersand the influence that their followers have. For example, if a person has a celebrity follower, their Social Authority skyrockets. Then, gain the attention of the influencer through a variety of ways:

• simply share their stuff. Unsurprisingly, people love it when you share their things. Even big names often keep an eye on where theirstuff is being commonly shared. If you’re sharing that stuff a lot, there is a chance they’ll take note).
• comment and get involved in the community. Comment on blog posts, answer questions and polls, provide valuable information such aserrata or a broken link.
• attend events that they promote. We forget the power of off-line networking. Often, it’s faster, and easier to make a connection with people.

Create an ‘ambassadorship’ This is an ongoing connection toa social mediapersonality or blogger. This is a popular relationship for Mom Bloggers, who often demonstrate their brand ambassador relationships proudly on their site, because they believe in the message of the product. The success of this relationship relies on full disclosure to the public; the relationship of the blogger to its readers often relies on their real personality andrelatability. Their open promotion of the product, it is believed, is mainly due to the fact that they really do enjoy the product. The testimonial seems honest and transparent. Many bloggers will ask to receive samples of the product to test out Try a guest post Guest posting has gotten a bad rap in a past few years, mainly because there have been so many instances of abuse of the ability. However, as long as you are playing along with Google suggestions, you won’t get any problems with it. Steer clear of guest posting on sites that have a low domain authority, since that link or promotion on that site can actually harm your site or its reputation. Instead, develop relationships with blogs that have a great reputation and a loyal community, and ask about a guest post. Sometimes blogs require a fee, some are contributor-based and do not. Know the rules within the individual platform Some places, such as blogging communities, social media platforms, or on Google, it is greatly discouraged to not let users know of the commercialrelationship of the material.Google does not take well to guests posts with clear promotional intentions doing business under the table. If you’re doing it via guest posts and ambassadorships, your best bet is to put it all on the table, even if it does out you. . To truly gain control of your marketing presence and to take control of your campaign’s ability to go viral, it’s crucial to have a hand in more than just producing the content. The way you choose to interact with influencers is up to you, and best practices vary upon the goals of your campaign. But it is always a best practice to keep promotion of your blog articles, your whitepapers, and your content, as a crucial part of the discussion and of the content marketing strategy.