Good marketing doesn’t always come with an expensive price tag. In this age of SEO and social media, small businesses can hold their own against competitors and big businesses as long as they have the right strategies in place.

Given that the influencer marketing industry is on track to reach $16.4 billion in 2022, one of the most effective ways to promote your business and boost conversions is to invest in influencer partnerships. 

If your company hasn’t fully embraced this type of partnership yet, this article will explain why it’s worth your while. We’ll also share four ways you can get the most value out of influencer marketing. 

Without further ado, let’s start with the basics.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a subset of social media marketing that involves working with influencers to promote and endorse a brand’s products or services. This type of marketing typically takes place on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. 

There are four main types of influencers that your marketing team could work with:

1. Nano influencers. These are influencers who have the least amount of followers (up to 10,000) but the advantage of higher engagement rates. 
2. Micro influencers. These influencers have an audience of between 10,000 and 100,000 followers — many of whom are highly engaged.  
3. Macro influencers. These influencers have an audience of between 100,000 and 1,000,000 people. Because the audience is bigger, engagement rates tend to be lower.
4. Mega influencers. These are larger-than-life influencers who have essentially reached celebrity status with 1,000,000 followers at minimum. 

Your marketing team could potentially partner with influencers from any of these tiers, but keep in mind that not every partnership is a smart partnership in the short- and long-term. No matter how many followers an influencer has, the engagement rate and ROI has to be worth the marketing spend at the end of the day.  

There are many different factors to consider when forming influencer partnerships, so as a marketer for a small business, here are four strategies that can help you get the best results.

4 strategies for small businesses

1. Start small, analyze the results, and then go all in.

Whether you have a small or large marketing budget, every marketer’s mindset is the same: To only invest in the processes that work and eliminate the processes that don’t. And this is something that you find out by looking at A/B tests, engagement analytics, and other data. 

Businesses are investing more in influencer marketing than ever before, so the big question is: “What is the best way for you to incorporate influencer marketing into your small business’s growth strategy?”

As a general rule, it’s best to start out small and not jump right into the mega influencer pool. Form a few meaningful and strategic partnerships, monitor performance on social media, and then re-evaluate your strategy.

2. Always look for audience overlap.  

You could partner with a nano influencer or a macro influencer, but either way, one of the most important partnership requirements is audience overlap. 

Most influencer marketing campaigns are designed to reach a wider audience, improve brand reputation, and convert a large percentage of social media users into customers. But in order to do this effectively, your partner’s followers have to match up with your own audience.

If there is a good audience overlap, the influencer’s followers will likely be more receptive and interested in engaging with your business. If there isn’t, your campaign probably won’t generate the results you want because the partnership isn’t relevant or engaging to the followers.

3. Reduce spend and boost engagement with micro influencers.

Audience overlap is crucial, but another key thing to look out for is a potential partner’s current engagement rate. If you partner with an influencer whose audience is engaged, there’s a better chance that your campaign will receive a lot of engagement too.

When comparing the four main influencer tiers, micro influencers stand out as the ones who have the highest engagement rates in campaigns. Specifically, statistics have shown that campaigns led by micro influencers are 6.7x more effective than macro or mega influencers. 

But why?

Well, even though micro influencers have a smaller audience, their followers tend to be highly invested and engaged in their content. Not to mention, “smaller” is relative given that you’re still reaching 10,000 to 100,000 people. 

Whether you’re new to influencer marketing or not, businesses of all sizes benefit from partnering with micro influencers because of the engagement potential and the fact that it’s a more affordable alternative to macro and mega influencer partnerships.

4. Take advantage of resources like TikTok Creator Marketplace.

Once you have a good idea of the type of influencer you want to partner with, the next step is to find and connect with them. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources out there that will help you facilitate outreach and then establish new partnerships.

One of those resources is TikTok Creator Marketplace (TCM). 

Every month, there are 689 million active users around the world who use TikTok — and this amount is expected to grow even more in the coming years. For your small business, this means that you can use the free TCM platform to work with established TikTok creators and connect with part of that audience. 

Even if TikTok isn’t your primary social media marketing channel, TCM can help connect you with influencers who probably have a large presence on other social media platforms as well. This resource is one of many you can take advantage of, but a big perk with this one is that it’s completely free (as of now). 

By following through with the strategies outlined in this article, you can start integrating influencer marketing into your business’s marketing plan in meaningful and sustainable ways. And as your small business grows, you can always bring more partners into the fold and adapt your strategy. 

Mackenzie is a copywriter at Soundstripe, a stock music company that provides filmmakers, creators, and advertisers with non copyrighted music such as royalty free lofi hip hop music (and many more genres). 

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