At the very beginning of human evolution, transacting businesses were way simpler and less complicated. The most common medium of exchange was via trade by bata—which was basically the exchange of goods and services.
But as humans started to advance, and civilizations started to erupt, there became an alarming need to establish measurable means of value that can easily be transported and traded with.
And that eruption has continued up till this present day, which has given rise to complex systems of running a business. There is one thing though, that can’t be overruled no matter the amount of technological advancement. And that is the need for marketing.
That is why we are going to be talking about steps to take in becoming a successful marketing influencer.
Define your goals
There is a popular saying that; “you cannot achieve what you cannot conceive.”
In other words, you cannot reach a destination if you don’t have a destination in the first place.
That is why there is a need for a clear and concise picture of your target. How else will you be able to measure the rate of your success, financially, structurally and socially?
Heck, we live in a world that demands social proof of success, so it won’t be a bad idea to make a list for yourself and people around, because like it or not, you might be going into business for yourself, but the reality is that most people will only associate themselves with names and brands that have become a socially accepted household name. Below is a list of goals worth considering.
- Financial goals
- Social goals
- Brand goals
- Structural goals
- Outreach goals
- Time frame
- Lead generation goals
- Fiscal goals
Make a budget
Have you met anyone who wants to build a house and doesn’t first make an estimate of how much it is going to cost him or her to erect that structure.
The same goes for any marketing campaign. You have first to draw a plan with a very precise budget. Now, It doesn’t mean you can’t give your budget the room to breathe—and by that, I mean put your budget within a scale. But you need to have a figure or an average to work with.
Having a budget doesn’t only help in saving cost and easy propagation but helps to put excesses in check, and ultimately prevents you from deviating from your proposed track.
Collaboration
Humans are inter-dependent beings, both socially, structurally and arguably anyway you choose to look at it.
And if that is the case, who’s to say you shouldn’t take advantage of that by carefully researching and investigating the potential people you would like to work with, in order to achieve your influencer marketing goals.
A good example of such people worth considering when setting out on your influencer marketing journey is a micro-influencer.
These are basically people that adore your products and are will to work with you in influencing potential clients within their various industries.
Create guidelines for your collaborators
This is naturally the next step that comes after you have determined people you are going to work with, as it is essential for these micro-influencers to have a clear understanding of the terms and conditions to your processes so that both your interests can be at par at achieving your desired goal.
A marketing campaign without a proper guideline is like going on a journey with a car with a clear intention of the destination in mind but without a map or GPS system to help in locating the place.
Set of rules laid out to be followed does not only help you in getting to your destination faster but also helps to keep the quality of your ad campaign in check—in terms of quality control.
Select the medium of your campaign
Carrying out a marketing campaign without first properly evaluating and choosing your medium of execution is tantamount to failure—like the popular saying goes; “failure to plan is planning to fail.”
There are various modern means of carrying out a marketing campaign which may include but is not limited to; email marketing, social media marketing, networking, sales letters, white papers, product reviews, case studies, etc.
Some of the mediums of establishing an influencer marketing campaign have upsides and downsides to them, depending mostly on your budget and how fast you want results— you will have to make a proper evaluation in order to ascertain which will be most suitable for your needs.
Launch your influencer marketing campaign
Enough of the studying and evaluation, at this stage, you want to go ahead and launch your program. The reality is that many people spend a lot of time at this stage of the marketing process.
It is hard-wired into our system that failure and mistakes are a bad thing and should be avoided at all cost. Which is not our fault; it is how our educational system and society is structured.
But every seasoned marketer will tell you that at one point or another, even after extensive planning and thorough research, they still ran into some problems along the way which was unprecedented.
The reality is, you can never be prepared enough. Just do your due diligence, and prepare extensively, after which you go ahead and take the leap.
Promote and distribute
After the launch of your marketing endeavours, the next thing you want to do is to promote your campaign with an insurmountable amount of zeal—vehemently.
Some like to use the word “passionate” to describe the tenacity and consistency involved in the promoting of their goods or services.
You have to be sure that your marketing campaign has an extensive reach in order to get through to as many people as possible.
That was why I said earlier that you have to decide which medium you want as this plays a huge role in the amount of audience you will be able to reach, and more so your target age group.
Social perception
After your marketing content has gained traction, and you now have a lot of followers, you then want to go ahead and start fine-tuning people’s perception and opinion about your business or brand and what it stands for in relation to the community.
Like we talked about earlier, people are generally social beings and as such will make judgements and conclusion based on the general feeling people have towards your brand.
So the easiest way to capture peoples attention positively is by giving them something back in return. For instance, by contributing to some community that has suffered from a natural disaster, or launching a “cure AIDS campaign” alongside your already successful influencer business will create a positive public opinion of you.
Evaluation
It is important at this stage to take a holistic look at your marketing campaign and make a detailed assessment of where you are—making reference to the goals we talked about earlier.
There is a slogan very often used in business, which states that “what you can’t measure you cannot control.”
If you can’t accurately measure the rate of your marketing progress, how then do you expect to be able to control any part of your business, especially the financial part?
As an influencer, it very crucial that you are able to calculate all the intricacies of your campaign precisely.
In conclusion
It is one thing to attract an audience, but it is entirely a different ball game to keep them.
I’m sure you have come across the phrase “CONTENT is king.” The quality of your content goes a long way in determining if you are going to have consistent and regular followers.
Which is why on a final note, content is one critical area that you want to pay attention to, as this new age of digital media has provided an influx of information that people are now very impatient and weary of contents that are not useful.
