• by Maria Bailey , Columnist, August 31, 2021

“I need influencers to post about my product.” I hear this statement more than a dozen times a week.  With thousands of brands engaging with millions of social media influencers, the strategy of working with influencers needs to be much more refined.

Brands likely have very specific goals behind why they want to work with influencers, whether it’s to drive sales on Amazon or generate downloads of an application.  Just as each of these goals are very different, so is the approach to using influencers. 

Brands needs to align their engagement with influencers with the goals of their campaign. Fortunately, there are many ways to engage influencers that can maximize your budget and allow you to reach your goals.  Here’s seven tactics to try.

Pinterest: Millennial moms use Pinterest to find solutions.  Most influencers promote their Instagram content on Pinterest, but few brands ask them do it for paid posts. Pinterest is a great place to promote toys, party supplies, food products and anything else that serves as a solution to an everyday mom challenge, for example.

Live events:  Use influencers to host Instagram Lives from your social channels or theirs.  It’s a great way to give a voice to your brand and demonstrate how to use your product in everyday life.

Amazon Lives: Using influencers to host Amazon Lives is a great way to send their followers right to your product pages.  It allows your brand to benefit from the influencer bringing her followers into your store.  Find influencers with a strong Amazon Affilliate business model and ask for past sales data to ensure it’s the right partnership.

Digital gift guides: Engage with Influencers who have published digital gift guides, especially if you are a holiday gift or toy brand.  Placement is very affordable and the content stays relevant and live on the influencer's feed throughout the holiday season.

Offline sampling: Influence transcends the online world if you select the right influencer.  If they love your product online, they likely are willing to share it with friends and followers offline.  When engaging with influencers, ask them about offline involvement in the community such as community clubs or local athletics.

Content or photo creation: COVID shut down many brand photo shoots, but helped those brands realize that content creators can produce great stock photos. Use influencers to produce photos, videos or articles that can be used on your website, emails or social channels.  In many cases, the quality is as good as professional photo shoots, less time-consuming and less expensive.

Offline media: Many influencers have side gigs on local television or radio or produce a podcast.   Don’t overlook having those influencers carry your message offline and deliver it to larger communities on different platforms.  

Engaging influencers is so much more than a single Instagram post.  Getting to know the depth of an influencer’s community and how to maximize your partnership should always be the first step in your influencer marketing strategy.