What is influencer seeding and how can you use it to scale your business?

If you are looking to buy a product but not quite sure about it, what would push you to make the purchase? A random advertisement or a friend demonstrating the use of the product? The friend, of course! And that is the principle that influencer seeding banks on - sending products to multiple influencers who then share their reviews of the product with their loyal followers, who then make their purchase decisions accordingly. The word ‘influencers’ here can mean bloggers, celebrities, social media stars, industry experts, customers or even non-competing brands. So, if you are a business owner or marketer wanting to find out what influencer marketing is all about, here we outline why influencer seeding works and how to execute it in a way that helps your business reach new heights.

Influencer seeding, specifically through Instagram, has been gaining a lot of popularity with digital marketers recently, and reports suggest that the hype is real! Especially for industries like cosmetics and apparel, influencer marketing has shown phenomenal results. Why is it so great, you ask? Here are five ways influencer seeding is better than other forms of digital marketing and helps your business grow:

1. It helps get the word out - fast! Influencers have large and engaged audiences, and by choosing the right influencers, you can reach your target audience in the most effective way. One big example is that of Pantene’s partnership with Jada Pinkett Smith, who shared the brand’s message with her audience of 1.23 million people at that time.
    
2. It is much more cost effective than other marketing tactics. Sending one free product to an influencer can translate into hundreds and thousands of sales, since there is an engaged audience which would much rather listen to a popular figure on their feed than an annoying advertisement that pops up in the middle of a YouTube video they’re watching. According to grin.co, for every $1 spent on influencer seeding, brands get about $5.2 in revenue! The money saved by using affiliate marketing can then be better utilized elsewhere.
    
3. You can get more in depth feedback from both the influencers themselves and the customers through comments and messages on an influencer’s post. Customers find it easier to engage with a person they feel they know, as opposed to a brand or business that is relatively impersonal. The feedback gathered through this exercise can help you grow better and bigger.
   
   
    
4. It is budget friendly - you can choose the type and number of influencers according to your budget. Working with even a few influencers, but the right ones, can do wonders for your business. A great example is that of Daniel Wellington watches - starting off with a small budget, they sent watches to a few influencers, but the campaign grew exponentially in just four years through affiliate marketing only! Don’t know how to pick out the right influencers? Get help from an affiliate marketing agency like Influencer Hub.
    
5. It is pretty simple to execute! Here’s all you have to do:

How does the process work?

The first and perhaps most important step is to identify the most appropriate influencers for your target market and product segment. Beware of fake profiles and make sure you pick our ‘real influencers’. Find people who are relevant to your product and whose opinions are known to be trustworthy amongst followers. Do remember to check that the values of the influencer are in line with that of your brand - a simple way to do this is to stringently go through past posts, statuses, website content etc. These are people who are representing your business - just as much as working with the right influencers can help boost your business, choosing the wrong influencers can seriously harm your business.

Once you have an initial list of influencers, you should shortlist those with most engagement and the most overlapping target audience. The more the engagement rate, the more the chances that your product will be noticed and talked about. Next, figure out how to best approach your chosen influencers, keeping in mind that influencers receive a lot of collaboration requests and they may not say yes to you! You can ensure that they choose to work with you by developing a cordial relationship with them, sending them your most ‘instagrammable’ products and offering them a little something extra - perhaps a special discount code for their followers? If you have the option, you can choose to work with an influencer marketing agency, which essentially carries out the process of vetting influencers, maintaining a good relationship with them and helping you out throughout.

How you choose to collaborate is also an open choice - you can send out something free, you can get the influencer to post sponsored content (that is, you pay for them to post your message), you partner with an influencer to create content together, you host contests and giveaways together, or you affiliate with influencers, giving them a share of the revenue that is generated due to their pull over their audience. Which option you choose depends on the kind of product, the influencer’s personal preferences and your budget allowance.

Although the process of influencer seeding might be time consuming (unless you get a reliable social media marketing agency to do it for you!), it is definitely worth the results. Once your influencer seeding campaign goes live, make sure you record all metrics, sales and feedback, in order to gauge how successful your collaboration was, or what you should change in the future to get even better results. Thus, with influencer marketing you can effectively reach large audiences and quickly scale your business, in a relatively low budget. Head on to our website to find the perfect influencers for your business now!