Influencer marketing is the buzzword.

With good reason.

50% of purchases happen because of influencer recommendations.

Online, visitors whizz past ads as if they don’t exist.

Influencer marketing is what you need to get your brand out before customers.

Here we have listed four ways to help you with that.

Pull Close Influencers Who are Your Customers

One of the best brand promotion tactics is to work with influencers who are already your fans or customers.

The benefits?

They can tell your story from the perspective of an average customer.

The fact a brand doesn’t need paid partnerships with influencers is more potent than you may give it credit for. It plays at a subconscious level with the audience. It’s so genuine— its impossible to replicate.

People would be left with the impression that your brand provides quality, which is a kind of promotion itself.

Airbnb has got it nailed down to an exact science.

When they found Mariah Carey (singer, artist, song-writer) had booked one of their properties, they promptly reached out. Deals were inked and Maria posted a few photos of the place she was staying at.

Results? 45000 likes and tons of comments.

They repeat this with every influencer who becomes an Airbnb guest.

One of the hardest steps is getting someone to like you. From there it’s baby steps. If an influencer is a customer, there’s your shot at building an authentic relationship. Such relationships can prove to be game-changing for your business.

You might not know it but there could be influencers already using your service. Find them.

Another target to reach out to are influencers who may or may not be customers but are talking about your brand.

Them talking about your brand without sponsorship is a big indicator that they’re ripe for the plucking.

Discovering these influencers is easier than ever. Be attentive to who is tagging you in their posts. Use social listening tools like BuzzSumo and Mention to discover untagged brand mentions. These social media listening tools will open doors you never thought would open up.

Use Micro-Influencers

In the crowded world of influencers with big follower numbers, you shouldn’t miss out on micro-influencers. The number of followers they have is far fewer. That doesn’t make them any less effective. Neither does lower follower numbers translate into lower engagement.

The millions of people big influencers have as followers may only be casually swiping through.

The average Joe trusts someone who’s like him. This helps forge stronger connections with your audience. Micro-influencers try harder to create valuable content. What they create gets viewed as a result.

When budgets are stretched thin, working with a few of these influencers can be a downright cost-effective solution.

We would advise targeting micro-influencers with 500 to 5000 followers. Working with a number of them is a reliable tactic that offers a huge chance of reaching bigger audiences.

Here’s an example.

You can find micro-influencers in virtually all industries from entertainment, sports, fashion, and more. Kaikatsu Club from Japan launched a virtual reality feature enabling their customers to play VR games while enjoying their favorite drink or meal.

Wanting to go a step further they decided to rope in Enakorin. Enakorin’s a popular cosplayer and TV personality in the anime industry, meaning he may not be popular all around Japan but has an engaged community going for him. Kaikatsu Club and Enakorin teamed up to spread the word about this new VR entertainment platform. All said and done, the Club got a big boost in customer numbers.

Tell a story, Your Brand’s

How successful you are, when trying to connect and build a relationship with your audience, can often boil down to the brand image you build. Knowing how to do it right can make a significant difference in how quickly you succeed.

When you want to sear your brand in the minds of your audience, you should tell stories.

Why?

Sharing stories creates an emotional connection and builds interest in your brand simply because audiences love good storytelling.

In N Out’s brand story is what transformed it from merely another driveway restaurant to a go-to travel spot. Supposedly, they have a secret menu that promises never-before-seen dishes.

Regulars to In-N-Out inform others about this hidden menu that sparks interest and creates virality.

It’s a good story that patrons love telling. It has become an integral part of the customer experience and continues to attract fresh customers.

Telling brand stories becomes even more powerful when you hire an influencer to tell your story.

Use Relevant Hashtags

The last on the list, yet a highly-effective tactic for increased brand visibility is using relevant hashtags on social media. Relevant tags attract customers as they are pointing right to what they are searching so if you want to boost up the number of your followers. Don’t think twice about this.

Finding the most effective hashtags takes time, but it pays off too. With the right hashtags, you improve discoverability. You boost engagement rates, as audiences would relate to what you are posting.

It can seem too much. Don’t be stressed out yet. You’re not confined to only one hashtag. Mix a couple of them up and wait for the response. If that combination doesn’t work well, go for another. You can come up with a unique hashtag for your brand as well.

There are tools like All Hashtag, Ritetag, Instavast Hashtag Generator among others that automate the process.

So how is it an influencer marketing strategy?

When you find hashtags that work, share those with influencers. It’s like putting what already works and making it 10x better.

Conclusion

Not every marketing technique works flawlessly. But, these tactics we listed above can increase how many people you reach with influencer marketing. Once you reach the right demographic thanks to the key marketing strategies, it is highly likely you will get better results.

To sum up:

• Mirco-influencers have a significantly greater impact on people than influencers with a horde of followers.

• Influencers sharing authentic stories on social media platforms related to your brand will result in effectively reaching large audiences. It’s the magic formula.

• The right hashtags take you before the right people. Test them. Use them wisely.

George is a writer at Referral Candy and CandyBar, two customer referral and loyalty marketing programs that drive referrals for you.