5 Reasons Why Becoming an Influencer is Crucial for Your Business’s Success
It has never been easier to connect with your customers in the digital age; virtually everyone has a smartphone, is a member of at least one social network, and has a digital footprint. This leaves consumers with a ton of noise; for marketers like myself, the challenge is how to cut through that noise.
Differentiating yourself from your competitors can be difficult. There are so many different business consultants, personal trainers, and other experts; how is the average customer supposed to know who is the best option for them? By positioning yourself as an influencer in your niche, you are putting yourself front and center in the shop window—with the shiny dress that everyone secretly wants but so many people are too scared to try on.
- Trust
Showing up every day on social media, offering your expertise on industry-related podcasts, writing guest posts, and giving away your content for free may sound like a lot of effort, but the rewards are real. It is a well-known fact that psychologically, people are more likely to buy from someone they know and trust. Social media is so prevalent that posting multiple times a day gives your audience the sense that you are personable and trustworthy, something that you would never have been able to achieve before the digital boom. By showing up every day, you are subconsciously planting seeds in your network’s heads without them even realizing it. Sending simple messages is an approach used by successful influencers around the world, as they use phrases that you would expect a real world friend to make, such as “How are you today?”. These types of tactics nurture the trust a person has in us and reassures consumers when they are about to make a purchase.
- Building Relationships
Starting conversations every day opens up so many doors for you and your business. While it’s important to target your customers, remember that you are also showcasing yourself to a wider audience. You will be amazed at the different types of contacts you will make, including other keen influencers who are watching your content. Grow your network on a regular basis; respond to people in your niche who are facing issues that you have the expertise to help with. What’s important to remember is that many other influencers have a huge network themselves and have the potential to send you a lot of hot referral leads. These people are your just as much your fans as your sales targets; leverage the relationships you gain for maximum business value.
- Likelihood of Investment
The moneymen care about who you are. You may have heard about Itay Adam, a famous entrepreneur who received an investment of $2 million from a presentation about nothing. This is a classic case of investors investing in the person rather than the product. Potential investors are going to Google your name, so be prepared. If there is a toss-up between your business and a competitor, the investors will choose the founders that are featured regularly in industry-specific publications. Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable investing in someone who had been featured in places like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and TechCrunch? You see my point. To investors, this is social proof and will reassure their gut instinct that you’re the right choice for their investments.
- Credible Data
A solid email list is becoming more and more valuable in 2017; I know entrepreneurs that are rich solely from the quality of their data. Writing an ebook and offering it for free in exchange for an email address has proven to be a well-trodden path. It works for now, but not for long—for EU businesses, at least. In the EU, new legislation called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming into practice as of May 25, 2018. This new practice will require email marketers to only contact those people who have opted to receive messages. The sign-up process must inform subscribers about your brand whenever it is collecting consent and provide the purposes as to why subscribers’ data is being collected. Businesses will also have the responsibility to provide proof of consent when required. If you are a digital influencer, you will have a big following of engaged consumers who want your product or services and will want to hear from you. Future-proof you and your company by building up your subscribers and staying on the right side of the law.
- Exposure
Being an influencer will land you so many opportunities to talk about your brand with zero ad spending. Once you have built up a certain level of influence, I like to call it the “snowball effect”. The more podcasts, public speaking events, and guest posts you contribute, the more lucrative opportunities will become available. You can literally flip the script on the traditional PR model; just from your regular public appearances and guest columns, you will be getting PR professionals coming to you as the “thought leader” in your space. The satisfaction is real, and your business is only going to grow along with it.
The benefits of becoming an influencer in your niche are there for you to wield to your advantage. Just think about all of the social media traffic and opportunities you are NOT receiving on a daily basis because your influencer strategy is stale. This thought alone should be enough to get you out of bed, seizing the day, and following these influencer marketing techniques to start your journey right now without looking back.
