Influencer marketing is an excellent way to improve your internet presence, but you’ll have to be careful about the way you approach the situation. In the past, Google has penalized websites for inauthentic influencer marketing efforts. Buying links may seem like the easiest way to go, but search engines are catching on much faster than they used to. A great influencer marketing strategy will always start from the ground up, and you’ll need to come by your links honestly. If you want Google to work for you, you’ll need to play by their rules.
Get to Know Your Influencers
When you contact influencers out of the blue, some of them may agree to work with you. Be wary. Most influencers who are willing to help you boost your campaign without getting to know you expect to be compensated immediately. These people can’t always be trusted. Instead, take some time to get to know the influencers you’re eyeing. Follow their content for a while and build an honest relationship.
Find a Mutually Beneficial Situation
There’s nothing worse than picking an influencer whose audience has no overlap with your target market. You’ll have gone through a lot of effort with very little to show for it. Social media goes a long way in every kind of internet marketing, and connecting with your influencers on social media will help you find influencers who will also benefit from you. Since most people cross-post between their websites and social media profiles, it’s easy to view and interpret an audience’s reaction to a particular piece just by reading social media comments.
In a mutually beneficial situation, everyone is getting what they want. You’re getting customers from influencers, and influencers can provide their audience with helpful content they’d love to see.
Think Long Term
Thinking long-term will allow you to maintain consistent relationships with the influencers you amass while also helping you gain clout with similar influencers who would love to work with you. Building these ongoing relationships will allow you to grow alongside your influencers. Often, this can lead to you dominating your brand’s relations within its niche. Similar influencers will look to you when they’re looking for an opportunity when they can see a track record of your successes.
Always Use Original Content
Original content is vital in any SEO venture. Google will identify duplicate content and look right past it. So when building links with your influencers, create original content for their sites. All you need to do is shape your content writing strategy around the vibe of the influencer’s website, which isn’t necessarily difficult to do. If you’re having trouble generating ideas, you can always contribute an edition of an influencer’s scheduled themed blog posts with a few small tie-ins that incorporate your links.
Be Generous
When you’re making connections with influencers, you’re doing it so that you can ultimately ask them for something. One of the best things you can do to cement these connections is to offer far more than you intend to take. Send product samples and provide discount codes for the influencer’s readers. Promote the influencer in any way they choose. If you make the deal so sweet that they’ll be a fool to say no, they’d be a fool to turn you down.
Don’t Wait Around
The courting process is going to take a while. If you know you have a big release six months ahead, you need to vet your influencers immediately. It takes a bit for deals to be made and relationships to be cultivated. By putting things off until the last minute, you’re minimizing the impact you intend to make. If you don’t have your crucial links ready right away, you can direct readers to an informational page that will eventually become the area to which you’re trying to generate links. They’ll find your placeholder content and be able to explore it before everything else is ready.
Put Your Best Foot Forward
You know your end goal is to get links, and your influencers aren’t strangers to this process. They know you’re going to want something, and they don’t want to feel as though they’re being used to get it. So don’t hit them over the nose with generic emails. Instead, show that you’re taking a genuine interest in the influencer’s work. Never send anything that came right from a template, and demonstrate that you understand the influencer’s value long before you ever create a proposition.
There’s a huge difference between strong influencer relationships and haphazard influencer relationships. Ten quick deals will never have as much longevity as a single arrangement that’s been wonderfully constructed. So take your time with your influencers, and make sure everyone gets their piece of the pie.
Kate Thora is a part of the creative marketing team working at Up hours, a constantly growing business directory. Kate is also a huge fan of dancing and singing, which allows her artistic soul to thrive. Follow her on Twitter @katethora1
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