How to Monetize Your Passion With Influencer Marketing
Have you been working on a project for a while with no signs of financial gain? Have you switched projects for a better chance of success? Tried a few things but they don’t quite work? Are you frustrated or do you feel like giving up? This happens to lots of aspiring entrepreneurs at one point or another, but don’t get bogged down because you can follow your passions and be successful at the same time.
Doing something you are passionate is just about everyone’s dream, but few succeed at it. You may have great ideas and fantastic delivery but getting all of this to make money can be like getting blood from a stone; however, the solution is at your fingertips and it lies in influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on specific key individuals instead of a huge target market audience. It identifies individuals that have influence over potential buyers. These influencers may be buyers themselves or they may be third parties. They exist either in the supply chain (manufacturers, retailers) or may be value added influencers such as academics, journalists, professional advisors and so on. Influencer marketing is based on a theory that the majority of people are influenced by second-hand information and opinion leaders.
Influencer marketing is comprised of four main activities. These are:
- Identifying influencers and ranking them in order of appearance.
- Marketing to influencers to increase awareness of the firm within the influencer community.
- Marketing through influencers which increases market awareness of the firm amongst target markers.
- Marketing with influencers which turns influencers into advocates of the firm.
Influencers that will be targeted by influencer marketing are those such as bloggers and social media experts. These kind of influencers have the following attributes:
- They are activists who get involved with their communities, political movements, charities etc.
- They are connected, influencers always have large social networks.
- They have impact and are looked up to and trusted.
- They have active minds with multiple and diverse interests.
- They are trendsetters who tend to be early adopters and leaders in markets.
Do you fit the profile of an influencer? You have a fairly well-known blog and a large social media following. So how do you become an influencer? First, establish yourself in a specific market. Brands will seek you out and start sending you products to try and then blog about or mention in social media channels. You can also engage the services of a company like Find Your Influence, which connects influencers with brands.
If you’re not sure what kind of niche to establish yourself in, all you have to do is look at what you’re good at, what you spend most of your time doing, or what you’re known for.
Once you’ve established yourself in a niche, begin creating unique and relevant content. Your content should entertain, enlighten, educate, or solve a problem. Your content needs to be unique and you should seek an angle that is different from all of the others influencing in your niche. Create a buzz around your brand by setting up a consistent content publishing schedule.
After creating unique and engaging content, start disseminating it. You should have a presence on as many social media channels relevant to your niche as possible. Keep a consistent tone across all profiles.
You also need to be real. Get your face out there and use your own name. Nobody wants to engage with a robot. Along with that, use every opportunity you can find to connect with others in your niche. Attend industry events, offer to guest post one somebody else’s blog, book speaking engagements.
And once you have established yourself as an influence, offer the little guy a helping hand. We can help you with local SEO services as well as national SEO services. 🙂
