Top 5 Influencer Marketing Tips for Start Ups

Influencer marketing has always intrigued me. While starting up my company Obie and Co in 2017, I quickly realised the importance and attention this form of marketing had on the retail industry.

Being a lean start up in Melbourne, Australia selling beach slides was always going to be tough ask. So my business partner Robbie and I posed the question, how many people can we get our product in front of… for FREE? I was on a bloody mission.

I hunted down anyone and everyone. Spending hours upon hours emailing influencers personally. I was new to the game and wanted to connect. While MailChimp and similar tools would have been more productive, I believe the personal connection and transparency that was coming from my end of the laptop helped us in the long run.

Responses were generally warm and the declines weren’t as cold as I had pictured in my head. My attitude shifted towards work mode. The more I put in, the more I got out. After months of constantly reaching out and engaging we managed to secure 100+ influencers to post for product. All bloody legends, all a pleasure to work with.

Through my experience I wanted to document my journey to hopefully one day help others at a similar starting point.

So here are my Top 5 Influencer Marketing Tips for Start Ups.

Provide Flexible Authenticity

When working with social media influencers you need to provide value. Not just in terms of money and exposure but freedom. Freedom to be authentic.

There is a certain level of trust between influencers and their audiences in order for them to be effective, so there’s no point stripping away their personality to tailor your campaign.

Have looser plans around your deliverables and absorb ideas your influencer might have.

Build Long Term Relationships

You’ve done the hard work and nailed down the perfect influencer for your brand. The last thing you want to do is ship them your product and never hear from them again.

You need to follow up.

Going above and beyond is crucial when building an influencer relationship.

Know Your Customer

Before you go out contacting your influencers you need to figure out your perfect customer.

Don’t Close Your Eyes and Swing

You need to determine what metrics you will use to measure success.

Are you looking for

Or even a combination of all these things.

If you want to delve deeper into metrics, Sorilbran Stone wrote an excellent article on this. Check it out below.

Explore Micro

30% of consumers are more likely to buy a product recommended by a non-celebrity blogger. Consumers are not stupid, do not treat them that way.

The biggest advantage of micro influencers with an engaging audience is that the trust and attention is there. While macro influencers might gain a lot of attention, the trust is a lot harder to attain.

Find a micro influencer in your niche community and engage. Numbers matter but authentic influence matters more.

About the Author

Lachlan Bradford is the Founder of Lach Shoots, a content subscription service helping small to medium business excel in the digital world.

Lachlan is also Co-Founder of Obie and Co, an Australian Slides company.

Related posts:

Every day hackers infect more than 30,000 websites in the world. On the internet we see websites hacks as we have seen sex epidemic in the 80s. Nobody uses basic protection. That is the main reason…

At least one-third of the country is under shelter in place orders. We know why. We are all trying to flatten the curve. However, this means that we all have a lot of time at home. Mind you, some of…

alone is a word that has so many meanings, definitions and/or feelings surrounding the concept… [if you like, you can always look it up in the dictionary] Subjective at best from an individual…