Influencer marketing has taken off, big time. All you need to do is look at the Google Trends Data to see how important it is for brands to begin using this type of marketing. This used to be the domain of PR, but now content marketers need to be using it in order to build their links and gain attention. A couple of reasons behind the rise are:

• The use of ad blocking, which has become a lot more popular with home users.
• Google’s authoritative links

How to Go About Influencer Marketing

First off, understand that you are not going to get something for nothing. You can’t reach out to influencers and simply ask them to feature you for nothing in return. You’ll need to make a pitch to the influencers who have caught your attention and begin working on building a long-term relationship.  Before you pitch, begin conversations. Follow their activities online, follow and talk to them on social media and read their content and get to know who their audience is. It’s important for you to find the right people that will connect with you and your brand.  Find the right match to save yourself time and investment down the road.

Email your chosen influencers and offer them something of value, be it a free experience, products, sponsored posts and so on.  The emails need to be personalised to each influencer, find out their names, point out articles or videos you’ve read or watched and been impressed by and then go on to talk about the opportunity. Remember, even the newest bloggers and vloggers require some kind of payment in return for their work. Also remember that the newest influencers can suddenly become one of the most popular ones out there.

What Not to Do!

• Don’t ask the influencer to work for free
• Don’t ask the influencer to hide the fact that this is a paid or review article or video. Bloggers and vloggers have to disclose if they have received any type of payment or a ‘free’ product in return for the feature. Both parties can experience penalties for failing to disclose their interests.
• Don’t provide the influencer with pre-written content, trust their skills and don’t ask to read the content before publishing.
• Never ask for Page Rank – it’s dead! You can ask for DA, domain authority, the size of their social communities, monthly traffic averages and so on.
• Don’t offer social shares or affiliate schemes as an alternative to payments.

Begin building a database of reliable and appropriate influencers to collaborate with. Don’t forget to build those relationships, thank your influencers on social media, share their content and continue to be appreciative of their hard work.