Influencer marketing has become a hot topic to bring in more attraction to not only for a brand, but for events as well. Event organisers have picked up in recent years that “micro-influencers” and thought leaders on social media can have a big impact on ticket sales.
There are several questions that need to be asked to determine how to get these influencers, so this week, we are discussing what steps to take for implementing influencer marketing into your event or conference.
What do you want to achieve?
If you are a small business that is looking to create online buzz, awareness is probably your first goal for influencer marketing. This route to generating awareness is engaging influencers to create content or stories that feature your brand and/or event. Doing so will help create a digital footprint that you need for building awareness.
Word of mouth is consistently seen as the most trusted form of advertising, and influencer marketing can be utilised to help build brand advocacy in the long run. As opposed to engaging a paid content creator to send out the content, think about exclusivity and enable them to build long-term content that tells their story about your brand and event.
For creating real brand advocacy, existing clients or influential connections should included in your influencer marketing strategy. Be sure to get them to attend you event as well, as opposed to keeping them on the peripheral. Get them to share their own experiences of your event to see the impact it can have on future ticket sales.
Who do you want to work with?
There are three levels of influencers:
- Micro-influencers – these influencers are known for having a good mix of reach and engagement and are wonderful content creators. They tend to have a social following between 1,000 and 100,000.
- Macro-influencers – These influencers have more reach than micro-influencers, but the engagement correlation is often less. They tend to have a following of over 100,000.
- Celebrity-influencers – with a following of over 1 million, this is a very popular option for brands with a large budget that wish to aim high.
Once you know what it is that you want to achieve, and who you wish to work with, there are two main ways to find the influencers you want. The first is to use a paid platform that will help you identify influencers that you know will work well with your campaign. The advantage of a platform is that they often bring in all social media platforms into one place. There are also niche platforms that focus on one specific channel such as Twitter.
The second option is social listening and hashtag tracking. This is definitely a good route if you are looking to engage with consumers and influencers who are already engaged with your event or business, or even if they are engaged with a competitor.
Look at what people are saying and use social listening to determine their influencer potential. Influencer marketing is an extremely powerful tool when an existing consumer or brand lover is transformed into a brand advocate. Once you have found the right influencers for your event, it is then time to reach out to them in the correct way.
Reaching out to for Influencer Marketing
Influencer outreach is essentially you trying to sell your event to an influencer, and you want to get them excited about it as well. It’s important to reach out to them in the best manner so that they will want to reach back.
When it comes to emails, think about who it is you are writing to. Read their blog thoroughly, find out what they do and don’t like in an attempt to build a personal connection. Look through their social media – how do they usually promote things? What do they get up to n a day to day basis? Comment on the little things you have noticed to start a conversation.
Be sure to follow them on their social media and leave a comment here and there before you reach out to them in a professional manner. Engage with them so that when you do decide to reach out, they are already aware of who you are and are more likely to respond to your email.
Don’t use templates. An influencer will spot this a mile away. Make sure that your format is not the same as everyone else when it comes to your outreach efforts. You want to stand out, not have your emails sent to junk!
Use their first name in the subject header and be sure to focus on the benefits your influencer will get from creating a partnership with you. This could be either a payment, a free product or even attendance to the event. Make sure your email is short, you are trying to get their attention first, and then you can discuss the details later.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing can be an extremely handy tool for event organisers and promoters, and the fact that social media covers a range of platforms means it is accessible for just about any shape or size of event.
A bonus of having an influencer at your event is that their content will be screened on your Twitter Wall on the big day. Doing so will encourage your attendees to take part in the conversation, giving your event extra exposure. Get in touch today for more information.
