Recruiting influencers for your San Diego brand is a fantastic low-cost marketing tactic but one that potentially has a huge reach. But how does partnering with San Diego social media influencers support and progress your brand awareness and brand voice? Get the right partnerships between your brand and influencers and your brand could fly.

What is an influencer?

A term coined to describe exactly what it is – someone with the ability to influence the behavior and opinions of others, many of whom could be your consumers.

At one time, San Diego advertising gurus used celebrities to expand the influence of their brand, a practice that is still common today with commercial and infomercials for all kinds of products and services.

With the star of social media glowing ever brighter, ‘ordinary’ social media users who are personal brand savvy themselves, are building a following from like-minded people around the globe.

And when their followers and fans are your customers, it makes sense to harness their appeal alongside your brand.

Over 75% of consumers say that their purchasing decisions are influenced by the influencers and accounts they follow across a range of social media platforms. get this relationship right, and both you and the influencer could extend reach and for you, increase sales.

But is it just a case of throwing money at it, assuming that whatever an influencer says about your brand will draw in the crowds? Or is there more too it?

Step by step guide to recruiting the right influencers

1. Summarize your brand

You know it well and so you need to marry your brand, what it stands for and so on, with the right social media influencers.

The first step in the process is to write down five words that describe your brand. Against the backdrop of knowing who your key audience is, you have the beginnings of searching for people online who use products or services like yours, sharing the details with their followers.

Marketing is a constantly evolving process but by engaging with influencers you are adding another dimension to your brand – instead of being just an entity, working with influencers will give it a ‘human touch’ or face.

2. Search online for potential social media influencers and start a conversation

Either you or your social media team will need to start the process of scrolling through Instagram and other social media platforms to see who is engaging in work that could be a bridge to your brand.

Remember, influencers don’t have to be mega-influential – sometimes, the ‘smaller’ sphere or influence is just as beneficial as someone with a million followers hanging on their every word.

There is no set formula for starting a conversation with influencers however you may decide to;

• Create a list of potential influencers and email or direct message them with an invitation to partner with your brand. Ask them to make contact if your ideas are of interest.
• As you push your brand on a certain platform with posts and adverts, you may find influencers contact you directly.

Influencers have their own brand voices and personalities so you don’t want to change that but you do need to choose wisely. Check out their other posts and blogs – are there controversial topics and opinions that may prove damaging to your brand, for example?

3. Define an influencer budget

There are many, many brands who regularly contact influencers who think that the possibility of working with their San Diego company is compensation enough for an influencer. The rebuttals – many of which end up online – by influencers can be damaging as they are comedic.

But there is a lesson here: influencers and bloggers are personal brands, sometimes doing it for a living and that means they charge for others to a. use their time and b. to market stuff to their followers.

Again, there is no set structure with each influencer often having their own terms. It is, however, important to build in influencer marketing into your marketing budget.

The more popular someone is with a wider and bigger reach, the more you can expect to pay. On Instagram, someone with 3,000 to 20,000 followers would expect in the range of $65 to $250 dollars a post.

At the other end of the scale, an Instagram follower with 5,000 followers or more, expect to pay $1,000 a post.

Does influencer marketing work? Is it working for your brand?

It is essential to measure success when partnering with influencers but here’s the rub: it is not an approach that will yield results overnight. If you expect this, you will be sorely disappointed.

But it is important to see steady growth not just in sales but in extension and reach. Key metrics you could use are likes, comments and new followers on your own social media profiles. And of course, if your goal is more sales, then sale figures are your go-to metric.

Is influencer marketing the right fit for your brand?

Get the right influencers partnering with you, and this style of marketing could potentially be a winner for any brand, irrespective of their sector or industry. There are various tools you can use to find and engage with influencers, but also to monitor how far-reaching any posts are, as well as whether they can deliver what they say they can.

It is a marketing channel that allows you to stay relevant. Millennials follow on average between four and eight influencers online and so tapping into what is genuine interest in what you are offering is surely worth more than a quick glance.

Working with influencers is also a way of remaining relevant. We live in such a fast-paced world that sometimes, stay up-to-date with opinions, behaviors and moods can be difficult. In effect, when you create these kinds of partnerships, you are connecting with people who are partly responsible for these changes.

Start the drive now to find San Diego influencers who can not only cement your brand’s position but also extend your reach, possibly breaking into new markets too.