Marketers have increasingly depended on influencers to help them achieve promotional goals. Whether you want more brand awareness, increased leads, better promotional ROI, or more click-throughs, social media influencers can be worthwhile partners.

Many marketers hope to work with the right influencers to get more conversions, which directly affects their bottom line. Here are eight influencer strategies to boost sales.

1. Know Your Audience

Before you can choose the best influencers to work with, you need to understand your customers thoroughly. This knowledge includes multiple factors, such as:

  • Age
  • Online habits
  • Demographics
  • Location
  • Interests

Without a basic understanding of your target audience, you cannot optimize your marketing plans to meet your goals.

2. Carefully Study Influencers

Before you agree to work with influencers, thoroughly research them to make sure they fit with your brand’s mission and image. Pay attention to multiple factors, including:

  • Organic, natural growth of followers as opposed to sudden sharp rises or declines
  • Quality and consistency of content
  • General online persona

Look at the nature of influencers’ interactions with followers and the public. You want to work with people who are respectful and who encourage conversations. Get to know influencers before partnering with them.

3. Research Influencers’ Audiences

For influencer marketing campaigns to successfully drive sales, you also need to consider who their audiences are.

The followers of influencers with whom you work should already be interested in your niche and often your brand as well.

If your goal is to increase conversions, you want to partner with social media stars who can promote your product or service to people who are already receptive to their messages.

4. Sponsor Giveaways and Contests

Add giveaways and contests to your marketing strategies with influencers. These methods are dynamic yet cost-effective as part of a social media marketing playbook.

They are proven ways to boost consumer engagement with your brand. Examples include asking influencers to encourage people to follow and tag you, to share content about your brand or by you, or to link to your pages in exchange for a reward.

While not suitable for every situation, these methods can help boost brand awareness and spur increased sales as interest in your brand spikes.

5. Pair with Micro-Influencers

Do not be dazzled by influencers with large followings. If you look closer and go behind the scenes, you may find that many of those followers are not actively engaged.

To get your message across to people already passionate about your niche, turn to micro-influencers.

If your digital marketing goal is to increase sales, these are the people who can help you do it by sharing your message with an already engaged audience.

As the reach of micro-influencers is relatively small, you may want to work with a group of individuals related to your niche.

6. Give Exclusive Offers

Trust influencers to deliver exclusive offers to their audiences in ways that stir interest. Humans generally not only want to belong, but they want to be part of something more, something elite.

The words “exclusive offer” urge people to take notice. They also boost influencers’ reputations, as they will be the ones presenting these unique opportunities to their followers.

7. Treat Influencers Well

While having good relationships with influencers may not seem related at first glance to boosting sales, positive rapport is an integral part of social media marketing strategies that produce good results.

Reward influencers and invite them to events and launches. Share their content and form a bond between your brand and their online personas. When they feel appreciated, they are more prone to deliver lively messages on your behalf.

8. Relinquish Some Control

You may be responsible for your overall marketing plan, but when you work with influencers to increase sales, be prepared to hand over the reins—at least partially.

You choose to work with specific influencers because the quality of their copy and the vibrant nature of their digital relationships attracted you as it does their followers.

Therefore, offer guidelines and explain your goals as related to their roles within your marketing scheme, but then let go.

Allow influencers to do what they do best. Share information in a way that excites and draws others to their messages.

Influencing Sales

In the past few decades, the use of influencers in digital marketing strategies has skyrocketed. They bring companies built-in audiences receptive to brand messages.

Influencers can help you earn more money from sales, which is the aim of all successful companies.