How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand in 6 Simple Steps

Do not index

Consider you've just launched a fantastic new product. You're excited. You've done your homework, created a killer creator marketing plan, and even set ambitious sales goals. But as the days turn into weeks and you still have not made a single sale, your excitement starts to fade. As it turns out, no one knows about your product. This is a common scenario that many brands face when they begin to promote their products. Most people understand the importance of marketing to ensure that potential customers learn about their products. However, few realize that there are different ways to market a product.

For example, running paid ads is undoubtedly one way to get the word out quickly. But what if you could tap into the established audience of another brand or creator to help promote your product? This is the premise of creator marketing. When boosting sales for a product, getting influencers to promote your brand can be far more effective than ads. Not only can influencer marketing help you reach your target audience, but it can also help you build trust with potential customers. This guide will teach you how to get influencers to promote your brand so you can boost organic engagement on your LinkedIn and X accounts.

Megaphone's viral on-demand platform is valuable for achieving goals such as growing LinkedIn and X accounts with organic engagement. The platform connects brands with creators who align with their business goals to help them go viral.

Benefits of Hiring Influencers for Your Brand's Promotion

How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand

1. Boosting Brand Recognition

When influencers create content for your brand, their followers become more aware of your business. This is particularly useful for new ecommerce companies with little to no online following. Working with influencers is also a great way to generate buzz before launching a new product or collection. For example, Athletic Greens partnered with TikTok influencers to promote their nutritional supplements to health-conscious Gen Zers. The campaign was a massive success, garnering over 90.6 million views on #athleticgreens and over 39.5 million views on #athleticgreenspartner.

2. Discovering New Audience Segments

Influencer marketing allows brands to reach niche markets and find new audience segments. For instance, King's Hawaiian partnered with influencers to create a #foodtok. The brand enlisted 16 TikTok creators to produce slider recipes for 'Slider Sunday' using their signature sweet bread. By strategically using hashtags like #mealinspo, the campaign was able to reach new viewers outside of the brand’s typical audience. The key lesson here is to identify and collaborate with relevant influencers whose social following overlaps with the niche audiences you’re trying to reach.

The first step to encouraging sales through your social media? Build an engaged social following with influence marketing. As influencers talk about you and get their audience's interest in your brand, their followers are likely to follow you, too. This will hugely benefit your social media marketing efforts. Partner up on some giveaway campaigns with your social media influencers. The trick of asking people to follow your brand in return for a chance to win a gift will work a charm. After all, everyone loves a freebie.

4. Gathering Product Feedback

You can also use influencer marketing to source feedback on a new product, collection, or specific product feature. Because many influencers engage with specific niche audiences, they’ll have valuable insights into what your ideal buyers look for in a product. Plus, they can share detailed feedback by trying your products for themselves. Feminine hygiene company Thinx did just that.

They invited 25 influencers for a slumber party event in Los Angeles to get feedback on their new athleisure line. Thinx used the information they gathered to launch clothing their consumers would be interested in and grew their sales by giving influencers unique discount codes. This led to $810,000 in revenue with a per-customer acquisition cost of $35.20.

5. Establishing Trust and Credibility

Content that talks positively about your brand can help you build a good reputation and is essential for enhancing brand awareness. As influencers discuss you and endorse your products, you’ll slowly build trust with your target audience. Skin + Me uses influencers and user-generated content (UGC) in its Facebook ads. From people unboxing their products to before-and-after videos showing how their skin has improved after using their products, this is sure to build trust and credibility with its target market.

This tactic has worked so well that customers often post their before-and-after pics in the comments section, showing the improvements they saw in using their products. This just adds to the positive perception of your brand when customers are making purchasing decisions.

6. Driving Sales and Repeat Purchases

Influencers can help increase sales directly as they share discount codes or recommend your product and indirectly as your brand awareness grows. Intimates brand KNIX collaborates with influencers, so custom discount codes drive sales. For example, influencer Hilary Henderson promotes Knix's products via her Instagram page.

By checking the post descriptions, you can grab her discount code,

HILARYHCOMEDY_KNIXLOVE. Every influencer has a different code, so when someone uses it in their online store, it's easy for the team at Knix to know which influencer has had the most impact. Moreover, if your current customers see their favorite influencers share content about your products, they'll feel encouraged to place repeat orders.

7. Generating Unique Content for Your Brand

Creating new and creative ideas is part of the job of a marketer. But it can get tiring having to continuously think of new ideas, especially if you're a small team. Experienced influencers can bring fresh, out-of-the-box marketing ideas to the table. They'll have a new perspective on your brand and can offer creative ways to promote your product - with little effort on your part. To find influencers or manage your campaigns, look at our list of influencer marketing tools ideal for small and growing brands.

8. Collaborating with Cost-Effective Micro-Influencers

Another benefit of influencer marketing - and one your boss will love - is that it can be cost-effective. Running influencer campaigns is 30% cheaper than most advertising and marketing strategies. For this very reason, Doe Lashes‘ founder, Jason Wong, chose influencer marketing over other paid ads for the first 4 months of his brand’s launch.

Jason found that sending a shipment of lashes to micro-influencers would cost less than $10 per shipment. And if he made even one sale from an influencer, he’d break even. If he got 2-3 sales, he’d profit and slowly start gaining traction. This is precisely what happened. One month of influencer marketing led to $2.6K in daily sales by effectively reaching niche audiences!

9. Educating Consumers About Your Product

A non-salesy way to market to potential customers is by educating them on how to use or style your product, depending on what you sell. By thoroughly briefing influencers about your product, you can empower them to create content that engages their target market about your product. Not only does this help grow your sales, but it also encourages customers to create user-generated content featuring your product. This, in turn, gives you more exposure and grows brand awareness.

Take a page from Supergoop's TikTok influencer marketing campaign. The sunscreen brand reached its ideal audience by pairing with influencers in fashion, lifestyle, and beauty niches. Their influencers made creative content that highlighted Supergoop sunscreen's features in a light-hearted and entertaining way. This aligned with the brand's voice and educated the influencers' followers on the importance of wearing sunscreen. They also showed how Supergoop's clear SPF50 differed from the traditional, white-cast sunscreen people are used to.

10. Creating Content for Future Marketing Efforts

Finding time to create high-quality content can be challenging if you’re a small or growing marketing team. You're already busy with product shots, banner ads, email campaigns, etc. Working with influencers means that content is made for you, and you can repurpose it across your campaigns and channels. Brands like Starface, for example, use pieces of content created by their customers to enhance their checkout. Using real people will add a personal touch to your brand's online store, which helps reduce friction when they're getting ready to buy.

However, you'll need to keep track of contracts and image usage rights. If you have content from last year's campaign, it is essential to determine if you have permission to reuse it the following year. Using content without permission can lead to some severe brand damage. Using a tool like Dash, you can set expiry dates for assets. This gives you and your team complete control over your content and helps you maintain your brand's reputation.

11. Collecting Audience Data

Next on the list of influencer marketing benefits is the advantage of collecting data about your niche audiences. As gathering third-party audience data becomes harder, working with influencers can help you source audience data. The more data you have, the easier it is to create better and more audience-relevant marketing content. Your influencer will have data on audience demographics. That’s age, gender, and location broken up into the different social platforms they work on.

They’ll also be able to tell you about the engagement, reach, and impressions their posts get. This will be useful in understanding how well your campaigns are going and whether they resonate with their audience. For direct sales attribution, it’s worth setting up tracking codes to see who’s clicked through to your website and checkouts. You’ll need to give this to your influencer before they start the campaign.

Remember that not all influencers are open to sharing their audience analytics. Building long-term relationships with influencers often leads to them giving you access to their demographic data from social media platforms and any other tools they use. This, in turn, helps you make better-informed, data-driven decisions.

12. Collaborating with Industry Experts

If you’ve good brand authority, your customers view you as the subject-matter expert in your industry. Growing your brand authority will increase brand awareness, and you’ll have a better chance of helping prospects overcome objections. To increase brand authority and focus on enhancing brand awareness, you could interview experts as part of your content strategy, create a podcast, run webinars, and be a guest on other people’s platforms. You could also enlist the help of an expert influencer.

One of our customers, Forthglade, does this well. As a dog food brand, they know their customers only want the best products for their furry friends. So, in addition to providing lots of tips on their blog, they work with different types of influencers like Dr. James Greenwood on their social media platforms to provide accurate, expert advice on how to look after and care for your best friend.

13. Developing Brand Ambassadors

Another key benefit of influencer marketing is the opportunity to build long-term partnerships with your content creators, leading to increased brand awareness. If they try out your products and genuinely love them, they’re more likely to post about them organically and recommend them to friends and people outside their following.

Just look at this case study from Grin, who helped an online brand, Inkbox, create an influencer campaign to build a community of brand ambassadors. They got 70+ creators to post about their products across different marketing channels. This, in turn, created a 40% uptick in unprompted creator posts. If you can cultivate genuine connections with your influencers, you can turn them into loyal brand ambassadors.

14. Strengthening Your Online Community

Online communities are fantastic places for like-minded people to connect, chat, swap tips, and share advice on particular topics. Communities mainly flourish on social networks, which makes them a great place for brands to build connections with their customers. (Look at big brands like Gymshark and GoPro to see what we mean.) But creating a sense of community isn’t easy.

You must establish a loyal customer base, a good online following, and an emotional connection with your audience. This is where influencers can help. Take Lick, a UK-based paint brand. They took a slightly different approach and encouraged their Director of Interior Design to be their ‘internal’ influencer. Having this regular face show up on socials is essential in building a strong bond with their community.

Amie, Head of Social Media and Creators at Lick, says: “It's nice for our community to know that there are real people at Lick, like Tash, who’re there to give our decorators help and advice. This is important for our brand values as well. It's also given us a unique way to lean into video content across our key platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Plus, Tash creates the colors, so who better to tell our community about them than the person who makes them?

15. Targeting Quality Leads

As we mentioned, 82% of brands say they see better ‘quality’ leads from influencer marketing campaigns over any other campaign, especially when targeting niche audiences. That’s quite an impressive stat, and after learning about the influencer marketing benefits in this post, you can see why. By partnering with influencers who talk about your specific niche, you can reach a loyal audience that’ll be genuinely interested in your products.

How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand in 6 Simple Steps

How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand

1. Use Megaphone

Megaphone is a powerful tool for businesses looking to connect with creators and influencers. This viral on-demand platform is designed to boost your online presence authentically and organically by connecting you with influential creators in your niche. Using Megaphone, you can grow impressions, followers, and leads without relying on paid ads. Key features include:

A sophisticated engagement network,

A private engagement pod service (coming soon),

Diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).

Megaphone caters to startup founders, marketers, emerging creators, and ghostwriting agencies seeking to amplify their digital footprint and social proof. Our complex matching algorithm ensures you partner with your field's most suitable and valuable creators. Go viral today with our viral on-demand platform.

Finding the right influencer is crucial to your social media marketing campaign’s success. While Kim Kardashian may have over 75 million X (formerly Twitter) followers, they may not be the ideal audience for your office chairs. Instead, look for niche influencers who already align with your target audience. “Small businesses should start by defining their audience,” said Maggie Winter, owner of MK Consulting. “Look for influencers who already align with that audience, whether through shared values, interests or demographics.”

After identifying ideal social media influencers, you must connect with them. This is where many marketers get ahead of themselves. Too often, they ask influencers to work with them before building a relationship. Depending on their level of ame, influencers can receive hundreds or thousands of daily requests for content mentions and brand relationships. They must know who you are before you ask them to check out your product. Building influencer relationships takes time, but it’s worth it. Here’s how to get started:

Follow the influencer on their social media accounts.

Share the influencer’s content.

Comment on the influencer’s blog posts.

Ask the influencer questions.

Join the influencer’s online conversations.

Get on their radar so they recognize you and your brand when you pitch a partnership deal. Give yourself at least two to three months before you move the relationship forward.

Mariana Delgado, marketing director at DesignRush, emphasized the importance of investigating an influencer’s follower engagement level, not just their follower count, before reaching out. “Look for real influencers with genuine engagement rates rather than those with inflated follower levels that do not translate into meaningful engagement,” Delgado advised. “A smaller influencer with an engaged and committed following usually adds more value than a huge influencer with a passive audience.”

4. Research the Influencer’s Expected Compensation

Typically, the bigger the influencer’s audience is, the more likely they will expect monetary compensation for product promotions. Learn each influencer’s rates. You'll likely be rejected if you pitch them with a free product offer, and they expect $500 a post. Nano-influencers content creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers may be more likely to promote your product without monetary compensation, depending on their engagement levels and niche.

You can offer reciprocal shout-outs if you have a large following on their favorite platform. You promote the influencer to your followers, and they do the same. Another option is to negotiate a smaller upfront fee plus a performance bonus.

For some context about how influencers expect to be paid, consider Influencer Marketing Hub’s State of Influencer Marketing 2024 report, which revealed that 49.6 percent of brands pay influencers based on a sales percentage, 24.1 percent of brands compensate influencers with flat payments, and 19 percent use a product-level payment structure, in which influencers are paid based on the specific product they promote or the number of units sold.

5. Create the Perfect Pitch to Your Influencer

After you build the foundation of a solid relationship, it’s time to pitch your idea to your social media influencer. Take a personalized approach that shows you’ve done your research. Here are some best practices for pitching a social media influencer:

Offer to Update the Influencer’s Outdated Content

This tactic lets you contact the influencer to point out old statistics or broken links. Tell them you have new content that could replace obsolete content, and emphasize that I appreciate what the influencer does and want to help them have the latest content.

Create Exclusive Content for the Influencer

Exclusive content is a surefire way to get an influencer to notice you. Influencers like to share popular content such as infographics or videos. As a bonus, you’ll build links to your website from an authoritative domain.

Write a Guest Post for the Influencer

Guest posting is another popular tactic for building product exposure and helping you get links back to your site. When you pitch a guest post idea, research the influencer’s blogs and subject matter. Keep your post relevant to the influencer’s niche and audience interests.

Send the Influencer Product Samples

If you sell physical products, ask the influencer if you can send samples for them to review and discuss. Ensure that the product aligns with their interests and maintains a high-quality standard to make a positive impression. Everyone loves a freebie, so this tactic has a high success rate.

For the best results when you’re pitching an influencer, keep the following tips in mind:

Keep your communication concise.

Focus on how your idea can help them.

Discuss how your product can be helpful to their followers.

Show that you’ve read their content and are familiar with their posts.

Ask if they’d like to see my content or product instead of making assumptions.

6. Finalize the Influencer Relationship with an Agreement

If the influencer agrees to work with you, it’s time to formalize the arrangement with a legal contract that spells out all obligations and guidelines. It should include the following information:

How many posts or mentions they’ll make to promote your product

The promotional timeline

Which platforms will they use to promote your brand

The content format they’ll use, such as video or photos

How much money you’ll pay

How many products will you provide

If there will be reciprocal shout-outs

Any cross-promotions you’ll conduct

Aesthetic and branding guidelines

Limitations or requirements for using my logo or brand name

Whether influencer content about my brand will need pre-approval before it’s published

Although there are influencer contract templates, it’s best to have a business lawyer review your contract before you send it to the influencer. Ensure the contract is fully executed (signed by the influencer and your company representative) before you begin the promotion.

Winter advised businesses to be as explicit as possible when negotiating the contract. “Be clear on deliverables,” Winter recommended. “Outline expectations, including types of content, posting schedules and tagging requirements, but also leave room for the influencer’s creativity. They know what resonates with their audience.”

Collaborative Marketing

How to Get More Views on Tiktok

Content Creator vs Influencer

How to Increase Social Media Engagement

How to Increase Brand Awareness on Social Media

Why Storytelling is Important in Marketing

What Makes a Video Go Viral

Social Media Content Creators

Creator Partnerships

Instagram Collaboration

Where to Find Influencers to Promote Your Brand

How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand

Use Megaphone to Find Influencers in Your Niche

Megaphone is a viral on-demand platform designed to boost your online presence authentically and organically. Our software connects you with influential creators in your niche, helping you grow impressions, followers, and leads without relying on paid ads. Key features include a sophisticated engagement network, a private engagement pod service (coming soon), and diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X-spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).

You can find influencers for nearly any niche on social media. Head to the social media platform where your target audience is most active to get started. Then, search for relevant hashtags and accounts to find potential creators to partner with. Here’s a quick breakdown of how to find influencers using different social platforms:

Instagram

Search hashtags like #sponsored, #ad, or niche-specific tags (#TechInfluencer, #FitnessBlogger).

TikTok

Look at trending videos and use TikTok’s Creator Marketplace.

YouTube

Search for product reviews and unboxing videos.

Twitter/X

Check for industry leaders using advanced search.

Find B2B influencers in specific industries.

Check Competitors for Influencer Partnerships

Find out which influencers your competitors are working with. Start by checking sponsored posts in your niche to see those creators. Then, see if they’d be interested in promoting your brand.

Use Google Search to Find Influencers

A simple Google search can yield valuable results. Search “Top [Niche] Influencers 2024.” This will show you relevant lists and articles with multiple creator recommendations. Next, check industry blogs for influencer recommendations.

Facebook and Reddit both have active communities where you can find influencers. Start by joining groups like “Influencer Marketing Hub” or “Brand Collabs” on Facebook. These groups often have posts from creators looking for partnership opportunities. You can also browse Reddit communities (r/InfluencerMarketing, r/socialmedia).

10 Examples of Brands Using Influencer Marketing

How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand

1. Miro: Influencer Marketing to Promote Templates

Miro partnered with inBeat Agency to launch an influencer marketing campaign that targeted a niche audience to promote its templates. The campaign featured various influencers, including Shyvee Shi and David Pereira, who created collaborative content across multiple platforms, including Instagram and LinkedIn. Each influencer demonstrated how specific Miro templates could be effectively used in various professional scenarios.

Results

The campaign boosted engagement on social media platforms by showcasing the practical uses of the templates. It also increased conversions, as more viewers were motivated to try Miro’s solutions for their needs.

2. Fiji Water: An Influencer Marketing Success Story

Fiji Water’s influencer marketing strategy shows how targeted partnerships can significantly amplify brand visibility and engagement. Their collaboration with fitness influencer Danielle Bernstein, known by her blog handle ‘We Wore What,’ is a prime example. She had more than 150,000 followers at that time. Together, the brand and the influencer launched the ‘Bodyworewhat’ campaign, featuring eight-minute free workout videos. In these videos, Bernstein demonstrated various exercises while emphasizing the importance of hydration through Fiji Water.

Results

The campaign inspired over 2000 user-generated content, enriching Fiji Water’s social media presence. The brand hashtag #FijiWater saw significant usage, with over 190K Instagram posts reflecting the campaign’s broad reach and engagement.

3. Mogo.ca: Targeting a Niche Audience for Financial Literacy

Mogo.ca collaborated with inBeat Agency to launch an influencer campaign to boost financial literacy and promote its services. The campaign featured Carter Sullivan, a popular YouTube creator with over 100,000 subscribers. It was centered around a sponsored video in which Carter shared her journey toward becoming debt-free.

This narrative resonated with viewers seeking financial guidance. The footage also integrated the brand’s recent initiative of offering 1% cashback on purchases made with the Mogo card into the members’ Bitcoin rewards account. The video also included an affiliate component, encouraging viewers to sign up using a specific referral link provided by Mogo.

Results

The video captured significant attention and achieved over 4,000 views, a strong figure in engagement rates. Through Carter’s storytelling and the strategic placement of the referral link, many viewers were introduced to Mogo.ca. This enhanced the brand’s online visibility, web traffic, and potential customer base.

4. Greenpark: Competing Against Giants with Influencer Marketing

Greenpark launched a strategic influencer campaign with inBeat Agency to raise brand awareness and attract new users for their recently launched app. Faced with competing against industry giants with substantial budgets, the campaign focused on creating distinctive, high-performance UGCs with micro-influencers in various niches.

They collaborated closely with a creative director and strategist to develop innovative concepts, compelling calls to action (CTAs), and scripts. These assets aimed to deliver a superior consumer experience and stand out in a crowded market with better CPMs.

Results

It helped the brand achieve a 300% increase in marketing spend efficiency, maximizing the reach and impact of each dollar spent. The campaign also drastically reduced the Cost Per Install (CPI) by 70% and multiplied daily app installs by six times.

5. Topicals: Creating Unique Content with Influencers

Topicals, a trailblazing skincare brand, marked its third anniversary with a distinctive influencer trip to Bermuda. For this, they invited a diverse group of 18 influencers, including reality TV star Dami Hope, esthetician Sean Garrette, and lifestyle creator Ishini Weerasinghe.

In line with modern content trends, Topicals collaborated with influencers to tailor content that resonated with their audiences. This included multiple formats, such as GRWM and ASMR videos and highlights from events like dinners. In addition, using specific hashtags like #TopicalsTakesBermuda and #TopicalsTurns3 helped them amplify the campaign’s reach.

Results

The influencer trip generated 3 million impressions across various social media platforms, showcasing the campaign’s extensive reach and impact. Topicals also experienced a notable increase in their social media following, with 5,000 new followers added to their TikTok and Instagram accounts.

6. Soylent: A Micro-Influencer Strategy

Soylent faced the challenge of promoting its new product lines while enhancing its content strategy. To address this, it hired 10 micro-influencers via inBeat Agency who were closely aligned with specific lifestyle interests relevant to its target audiences, which include outdoor enthusiasts, hikers, and gamers.

Their campaign centered on promoting the products and generating a robust content calendar to sustain the brand’s marketing efforts over time. This allowed Soylent to tap into the trust and credibility these influencers have built with their audiences, which made the product recommendations feel more personal and genuine.

Results

The campaign captured over 5 million impressions and illustrated solid reach and engagement. This helped enhance their online presence and sales while notably reducing CAC. The Soylent and inBeat Agency collaboration produced over 50 reusable content assets, providing the brand with a rich material library for ongoing marketing efforts.

7. Prose: A Scalable Influencer Approach

Recognizing the necessity for consistent, high-quality content to fuel their media-buying budget, Prose collaborated with inBeat Agency and established a scalable micro-influencer recruitment process. This was designed to generate top-performing user-generated content weekly to ensure a steady supply of fresh, impactful advertising assets for the brand.

8. NordVPN: Leveraging Macro-Influencers on YouTube

NordVPN has effectively used the power of influencer marketing on YouTube, with a strategic focus on macro-influencers, to enhance its brand visibility. Almost 85.3% of its social traffic originates from such campaigns, as its ambassadors include some of the biggest names on the platform.

For instance, Mayuko Inoue seamlessly integrated NordVPN into her content, like her “day in the life” videos, which led to significant engagement. Similarly, the company capitalizes on “limited-time offer” campaigns, with influencers posting links that direct users to a purchase page.

Results

Influencers like PewDiePie have produced sponsored content for NordVPN, reaching monumental viewership. Individual videos have achieved over 5 million views and more than 11,000 comments. Overall, the campaign strategy has sponsored 598 videos, which resulted in 5.7 million likes, 91.5 million views, and an astounding reach of 2.2 billion.

9. Bluehouse Salmon: Educating Consumers with Influencer Marketing

Bluehouse Salmon, known for its sustainably raised, sushi-grade salmon, sought to enhance its brand distinction and educate consumers about its unique product attributes. The company opted to leverage influencer-generated content for this purpose by focusing on creating educational and recipe-based posts. This strategy aimed to engage seafood enthusiasts across social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok through collaborations with influencers via inBeat Agency.

Results

Over 500 unique educational and culinary content assets were successfully produced, enriching the brand’s digital offerings. The campaign achieved a consistent monthly increase of over 3,000 followers and noted a dramatic 1900% rise in follower count over 12 months. This significantly expanded Bluehouse Salmon’s digital presence and market reach.

10. La Roche-Posay: Influencer Marketing at a Major Event

La Roche-Posay, a renowned clinical skincare brand, leveraged its role as the official sunscreen partner of the US Open to engage in a high-visibility influencer marketing campaign. At the event, the brand set up an interactive skin-scanning machine that assessed sun damage and recommended the brand’s sunscreens to people. Influencers, including Jae Gurley, were invited to experience the products firsthand and share their experiences through TikTok videos. This strategic approach aimed to educate and inform a broad audience about the benefits of La Roche-Posay’s dermatologically approved skincare products.