Is Your Content Ready For an Influencer?

Is Your Content Ready For an Influencer?

Influencer marketing is when a company uses influential people, whether it’s a popular social media personality or a famous person, to endorse a product or service or share promoted content. The concept isn’t new – celebrities have endorsed products for decades. However, the focus has shifted to having knowledgeable influencers who specialize in a niche market promote relevant content.

The appeal is obvious: when influencers in your industry talk to their audiences, they’re addressing people who are far more likely to be interested in your products and services than the general public. Influencers are also seen as more trustworthy than a business when it comes to marketing material. This probably sounds fantastic, but you shouldn’t approach an influencer just yet. Complete these steps before talking to an influencer and starting this type of campaign.

Prepare Your Website

Image via Flickr by influenZia

What will happen after an influencer shares your post or talks about your content? You need to think about how to handle the subsequent increase in traffic.

First, make sure your site can handle an increase in traffic. Depending on the server you’re using or the software that’s hosting your content, you may need to expand to ensure your website won’t go down due to people coming from an influencer’s page to your business’s site.

Second, make sure your site is easy to navigate. Check all links to ensure you don’t lose potential customers because of a broken URL. Then, go through the purchasing process from the customer’s perspective and consider whether this final step of the sales funnel is easy and intuitive.

Finally, think about other types of content your audience will want when they come from an influencer’s page. Will the influencer’s content simply inform readers about a problem in the industry, linking to your site to find more information? Or will the influencer talk about a specific product or service and link to your page? Consider whether you’ll need to provide users more information once they land on your page or if they can go straight to shopping.

Update Your Social Media Accounts

If your audience is active on a social media channel, make sure you have a presence on that site to manage users who will search for your content where it’s convenient for them. Also, consider building a presence on sites that potential influencers use. For example, if you want to approach someone to talk about your content on Twitter, it will help if they can link to your business’s Twitter account directly.

Check for Consistency

A final important step is to check that your branding is consistent everywhere potential customers could interact with your company. You’ll also need to think about the language the influencer will use and confirm that the way they’ll talk about your products and services is honest and natural yet consistent with your branding.

Influencer marketing is incredibly powerful, but it’s important to confirm that your business is prepared for an uptick in traffic. Follow these steps to get the most out of your investment in an influencer.