Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one form of marketing that enables businesses to collaborate with individuals who have a rather large following to increase brand exposure. More local brands are tuning in to trusted online sources & personalities for guidance than ever before. “Influencer marketing increases brand awareness, thereby driving more traffic to your website. Local businesses can benefit greatly from partnering with local influencers to promote their brand and drive sales” (Conrad, 2022). Now let us discuss why influencer marketing is effective for local brands.
Effectiveness
Influencer marketing for local businesses helps get the names out there of small businesses that the public may not have otherwise even known existed.
“Local influencers are ideal for local businesses because the majority of their followers will live in the same area” (Local Fluence, 2020). Influencer marketing is also a big step towards building social engagement along with sales for local businesses. Local brands looking to get into influencer marketing need to first research the best influencers for their brand, decide on a budget and what product or service they would like to promote, and then determine the best influencer marketing platform, nowadays the best influencer marketing platform is Instagram, with about 79% brands considering it the most important platform for their business. Local marketers should look to influencers with a following of 10,000-50,000 whose followers are concentrated in their community to get the most value.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has many benefits such as increased social media following, product feedback, gained credibility, increased sales, and a chance to crack into a new market all while getting high-quality content one can repurpose across other marketing channels. By local brands working with influencers, they also gain access to new audiences at a fraction of the price of traditional marketing banners.“Influencer marketing is also a cost-effective way to generate more engagement by leveraging their social media following. It allows you to use the influencer posts as a part of your content strategy by linking them in your feed” (DiNardo, 2021). Influence partnerships help local brands grow in a way that’s aligned with their brand values while increasing their bottom line. Overall influencer marketing is beneficial to a local business because of its flexibility and immediate exposure.
Sources:
Conrad, S. (2022). Keep It Local: Influencer Marketing for Small Businesses. Retrieved on January 26th, 2023 from https://grin.co/blog/influencer-marketing-for-small-businesses/
DiNardo, S. (2021). Everything You Need To Know About Local Influencer Marketing. Retrieved on January 26th, 2023 from http://www.bonnevillebayarea.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-local-influencer-marketing
Local Fluence. (2020). Benefits of Local Influencer Marketing. Retrieved on January 26th, 2023 from https://business.localfluence.com/benefits-of-local-influencer-marketing/
