If you've heard of the keyword "influencer" but aren't sure how to go about it, maybe it's time to dig a little deeper. In times of crisis, it can be useful to think of new ways to increase your brand's visibility. First, why would your startup want to try influencer marketing? Far from being your primary marketing business, influencer marketing can be a useful "addition" to your online campaigns. Being recommended or mentioned by a prominent online personality is a way to get noticed by a new audience, as well as bypass traditional ad blockers. Plus, if done right, your startup can look more authentic, human, and trustworthy. To help you get started with your first influencer marketing campaign, we've put together some handy steps to get you on the right track. 1. Define your audience: As with all marketing campaigns, the first step is to determine who you want to target and "influence." This could be the same profile from your regular marketing campaigns or a new subset. For example, if you are a B2B startup in the automotive sector, perhaps not a typical corporate client, with this campaign, you can try to target the professionals working in this company, only on LinkedIn. 2. Set goals: what do you want to achieve with an influencer marketing campaign? Set your goals, such as increasing your brand awareness with more followers on social media or directly converting hot leads into paying customers. Keep in mind that you may need repeated campaigns for high impact, just like any other marketing activity, so keep your KPI numbers realistic. 3. Determine your budget/offer: what will you offer influencers in exchange for their services? Determine the appropriate budget for their influencer "level" (as mentioned above: mega, macro, micro or nano), as well as whether you intend to give your product/service to test or any discount for their followers. Weight with your KPIs and what you want to gain from the campaign so you don't end up at a loss. 4. Your dream influencer profile: we hope that you have now defined most of your dream influencer profiles (e.g., micro-influencers, artificial intelligence experts, on LinkedIn). Keep in mind that macro influencers tend to reach more people, but micro or nano influencers will appear more authentic. 5. Create a shortlist: Create a list of 30 - 50 potential people to work with. Keep an eye out for fake accounts, check if the comments on their posts are real, their engagement rate status, and if they are suddenly receiving a spike in followers. The latter may suggest that you have purchased fake followers or "bots" and can be verified on a website such as the Influencer Marketing Hub checker. It's also important to check the "sentiment" of comments and reactions with their posts: are they mostly positive, neutral or negative? 6. Create your campaign: Forget the perfect commercial photos and videos you're used to. Influencer marketing is all about showing real human stories and personal experiences behind using a product or service. Most influencer marketing content involves a positive review of your product or service, so think about how you want to present it to your audience (blog posts, social media posts, live stories, discount codes, etc.) and how much control you want over the content/ the language they use. 7. Present and negotiate: Make the first contact with your list of influencers, spell out the terms of your proposal very clearly: who you are, what you offer, timeline, post types and number, hashtags to use, tags, who owns the final content and compensation. Chances are the influencer will try to negotiate a bit, but make sure you're clear about what a compromise isn't. Don't forget to make a short contract to sign. 8. Check your pre-campaign metrics: Before starting a campaign, keep track of all your current metrics (number of followers, website visitors, number of weekly sales, etc.) so you know where to start. Likewise, set up tracking links (if you've never done this before, Google has several sources) or unique discount codes for each influencer, so you know which influencers are generating the most traffic.

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