Word of mouth has always been an extremely influential marketing tactic. With the popularity of social media over the past decade; however, the concept of “word of mouth” marketing has progressed to “word of screen.” As a society, we follow and obsess over complete strangers who share images of wondrous travel adventures or even savory dishes from must-visit eateries. Why do we do this? Because of FOMO: fear of missing out —wondering where that cool place is or from where that amazing eggs benedict originated. Enter the power of social media influencers.
With the phenomenon of FOMO at an all-time high, top-tier influencers expect compensation ($$$) for the visibility they bring; but not all clients can afford to pay for this kind of exposure. So, the question arises, how do you navigate this influencer landscape with a client who does not have a budget to pay influencers?
A client recently presented us with the task of determining a creative and effective way to plan an influencer event without the budget that most influencers require.
There are millions of influencers out there, with a majority of them falling into our client’s target audience. Yet, the ones with the highest following require the biggest payouts. Without a budget, we couldn’t focus on attracting a wide-ranging list of social media influencers. We had to be much more selective. How? By focusing on a key segment of the client’s customer base and looking at the influencers that speak to that segment specifically.
So, we narrowed down our target audience and found a niche category that had its own type of social media influencers we could target. This approach, coupled with the right messaging and offerings, led us to securing a long list of influencer attendees, resulting in a great event and a very happy client.
When it comes to influencer relations – you don’t have to be completely focused on the numbers. While the general goal behind any strategy should be visibility, also consider the root of what you are trying to achieve. Is it authentic and personal connections with your target audience? That is exactly what you are able to provide when you narrow down your audience targets to specific key groups (vs the world), then go after the influencers that reach just those people with curated content that carries weight with those followers.