172: Influencer marketing. Alexandra Jimenez explains how to target and work with Influencers

There’s a marketing topic that I know intrigues a lot of you, but that most of you are struggling to work out where to start. And that’s influencer marketing – getting influential people to talk about your business leading to their followers buying from you.

• Where do you start?
• How quickly could it deliver?
• Is it all too good to be true?
• How much budget do you need?

All good questions I hear regularly!

In this episode I have a real-live influencer on the show to tell us more about this world of Influencer marketing.

Alexandra Jimenez is an influencer. She is Editor-in-Chief at Travel Fashion Girl where they teach women how to travel carry-on only for any destination in the world. Travel Fashion Girl is the second highest trafficked travel blog and they have been around for six years.

Influencer Marketing in Relation to eCommerce

Alexandra’s eCommerce site relies heavily on affiliate income, so she doesn’t focus as much on influencer marketing as some other bloggers do. She limits herself to representing a couple of sponsors per year because she runs large price campaigns and wants to embody only the highest quality of brands relevant to her own brand.

Listen to understand where Influencer Marketing stops and eCommerce begins.

What Merchants Need to Know About Influencer Marketing

Many business owners see influencers helping other businesses grow, but don’t understand how to work with influencers and maximize their value. Alexandra stresses the importance of recognizing that influencers are running their own business and have dedicated lots of their time to growing the audience that business owners are so desperate to tap into. It is extremely valuable to invest in the right influencer for your product and to take the time to fully understand who they are and what they stand for in order to maximize and build an organic relationship.

Establishing the Relationship

Start by establishing a marketing budget for your business and asking for the influencer’s rate sheet. It’s good to know what is affordable before putting in the effort to establish much of a connection. There are also niche bloggers who will accept free products in exchange for their marketing services if the product is of high quality and relevant to their brand. The best way to approach these influencers is by emailing them about a product that is likely to interest them according to their brand and asking them for their feedback without asking for promotion or assuming anything in return.

Make Your Influencer’s Life Easier

The more information you can provide, the better. Don’t try to tell them they have to say specific things, but if you can provide the sort of information you would provide on a press release (i.e. imagery, product description, copy), then they will be able to come up with more effective talking points and craft the story with the information provided. When an influencer does decide to share your product, it is wise to share that with your own audience in order to really take advantage of the marketing campaign and make your social media busier.

Listen to learn how to get the most out of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

Some brands want to proof the work of the influencer to a certain extent in order to ensure that they have an effective campaign strategy. Typically this means previewing a blog post before it is published and maybe requesting a few edits and tweaks. If you are going to request proofing, it is a good idea to ask in advance. Regardless, working with influencers requires trusting that they know how to talk to their audience. Research your influencer and “shop around” to really get an idea as to whether their marketing strategies and audience will be appropriate.

eCommerce Book Top Tip

• Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel Weinberg

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…

Tool Top Tip

• Slack
• Coschedule

Growth Top Tip

• Choose one platform (blog, Instagram, Facebook group, etc.) and focus on only one platform to provide value to your customers as related to your product. The more value you can offer, the better.

Interview Links

• Business
• Business – shop
• Instagram
• Facebook