Michael Saltzstein | Influencer Marketing
Beauty gurus, travel bloggers, foodies, gamers, industry experts, content creators, thought leaders—all different folks with different strokes, yet they have one thing in common. They’re more than just talking heads—they’re influencers, and they have an ability to inform audiences, bolstering or changing their purchasing decisions. That’s what makes them powerful in today’s marketing landscape, says Michael Saltzstein. Choosing to collaborate with influencers can help your brand, or harm it if not done right.
That said, Michael Saltzstein says these 5 tips can help you pick the right influencer to partner with.
1. Pick an influencer with your goals and objectives in mind
If you’re partnering with an influencer, you need to have a concrete set of objectives and goals that outline the action and its intended effect. Do you want the promoted content to be wholesome? Do you need to use a serious or a comedic tone? That way, you can select the influencer that best fits your brand. Image Source: Relevance
2. Think of your target market
Unlike celebrity endorsements, you can’t just choose any famous influencer to market your product. You need to find somebody that relates to your goods and services—an influencer who audiences might listen to. That way, there’s no disconnect between the promotion of your product and the content they do.
3. Bigger isn’t always better
Sometimes, an influencer with a huge following isn’t the way to go. Michael Saltzstein believes that you need to find somebody who’s close to their community, one who continues to connect and create a conversation with their audience. These influencers often have a small, dedicated fan base. This is also what sets influencers apart from celebrity endorsers—there’s no huge disconnect between an influencer and its followers.
4. You don’t need to stick to just one
When selecting an influencer, whether you’re going big with a macro-influencer or go intimate with a micro-influencer, remember that you don’t have to stick to just one influencer. Oftentimes, these influencers know and help each other out—especially seen in the gaming community. Sometimes, to get the message across, you need more than one person to tell it to bolster the audience’s purchasing decisions, says Michael Saltzstein.
5. Give them a wide berth
Michael Saltzstein says you should let influencers do their thing to promote your product. After all, it’s their fan base that they’re talking to. Give them enough creative freedom and a wide berth when it comes to how should they promote your content. That way, they won’t feel choked or constricted with the content they’re going to put out, allowing for an authentic voice and feel. Of course, you need to still put some slight restrictions to make sure that their content remains on-brand to your product.
What sets influencer marketing from typical marketing strategies is its combined approach of reaching the target market and using an influencer’s reach and their ability to shape, reshape, or—sadly—misshape their follower’s decisions. When done right, the collaboration produces a solid, on-brand content that’s a win-win to both parties. To learn more about influencer marketing and other kinds of marketing strategies, visit Michael Saltzstein‘s website today.
