Boost your brand visibility and drive more sales by partnering with Instagram influencers

Have you ever partnered with an Instagram influencer to get more eyes on your products?

If not, now may be a good time to start. Research shows that influencer marketing is the fastest-growing channel for customer acquisition and pays $6.50 for every dollar spent.

If you’re not familiar with Instagram influencer marketing, it simply means partnering with an influencer so they post a photo about your brand.

When that happens, you get to put your product in front of that influencer’s audience. Done right, this can result in a massive amount of engagement and sales for your business.

But what’s the best way to partner with Instagram influencers? And how can you run your campaign in a way that drives results?

Let’s go over the steps.

Set your goals

Before you partner with Instagram influencers, ask yourself this question:

What do I want to accomplish with my campaign?

For example, you might be looking to drive traffic to your website or Instagram profile. Or you might want to promote one specific product line.

Getting clear on your goals upfront will allow you to design a campaign that helps you meet those specific goals.

Identify the right influencers

Now, you might think that that you should just partner with the most popular Instagram influencer possible.

However, that’s not necessarily true.

It’s much more effective to partner with an influencer whose audience includes your target customers – even if their following is on the smaller side.

For example, if you sell athletic clothing for young women, you might consider partnering with a fitness influencer, like this one:

This would work because her following includes young women who are interested in fitness – so they’d also likely be interested in buying the athletic clothing you sell.

Remember: the closer the influencer’s audience aligns with your own, the better your results will likely be. That’s why it’s important to narrow your target audience down as much as possible before you pick your influencer.

Also, make sure you pick an influencer who regularly get good engagement on their posts. That way, you can feel confident knowing your post will get lots of engagement too!

Reach out to the influencer the right way

Let’s face it – no one wants to be on the receiving end of a random sales pitch. That’s why you should build a relationship with the influencer before you pitch your campaign idea if possible.

Leave some comments on their photos, and build a genuine connection with them. Chances are, they’ll recognize you when you reach out and be more receptive to working with you as a result.

Once you’re ready to pitch the influencer, you’ll need to find their contact information. Often, influencers will include their email address in their Instagram bio, like this:

If you can’t find it there, see if they have a link to their website in their bio. You should be able to find their contact information on their site somewhere.

If all else fails, you can send the influencer a direct message on Instagram and ask them for their email address.

Once you have their contact information, you’re ready to reach out via email.

Open your email in a way that builds rapport with the influencer. For example, you could compliment one of their recent photos.

Then, briefly let the influencer know who you are and give them a few relevant details about your brand.

After that, you can simply ask the influencer if they are accepting sponsored posts and let them know that you’d like to work with them.

If you get a response, great! You can move forward with the collaboration and work out all of the details of the campaign with the influencer.

But don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a response. Follow up a couple times, and if you still don’t hear anything back, consider partnering with a different influencer.

Collaborate the right way

When you’ve found an influencer to work with, nail down all of the important details before they publish their Instagram post for your brand. For example:

• What date and time should they post?
• Should the photo just feature your product, or should the influencer be featured in the photo as well?
• Will you be allowed to re-post the influencer’s photo on your website and other social media accounts?
• What details should the photo caption include?
• How and when will you pay the influencer for the campaign?

Of course, the details you need to work out will depend on your specific campaign and relationship with the influencer. Think about everything that needs to be planned in advance so you can prevent miscommunications and make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

Also, when the influencer posts their photo about your brand, interact with it! If customers are asking questions about the featured product, you can jump in and answer those questions to get more brand visibility and help increase traffic to your Instagram account.

And keep in mind that your campaign doesn’t have to be restricted to one post and one influencer.

You can partner with one influencer for a longer amount of time and have them create a series of posts over a couple months. Or, you can partner with multiple influencers for one campaign.

After the campaign, take some time to revisit your goals.

Did you meet them? What was the ROI of your campaign?

Analyze your results, and use what you learned to adjust your Instagram influencer strategy in the future. Who knows – you might just be able to get an even better return on your investment next time you try influencer marketing!

What do you think – will you join the 60% of marketers who plan to boost their influencer marketing budgets? Share your thoughts in the comments below!