How to Get Instant Traffic with Influencer Marketing

Updated December 2020

Creating a new website, or taking your current website and building/growing your organic traffic can be difficult.

However, with Influencer Marketing, if you do it right, you’ll get instant traffic to your site and you’ll increase your followers / subscribers.

Thanks to COVID-19, the move to online for most markets has been accelerated, and finding the right way to reach your audience is more important than ever.

Thankfully the avenues for Influence Marketing have been evolving just as rapidly.

Influencer Marketing: Blog Posts

Blog posts are still popular and they will be for a long time. Here are some tips on building an audience and gaining website traffic immediately using Influencers as a driver.

Roundup Posts

Roundup posts are a great way for a new blog to generate immediate traffic. If you have an established blog it’s a great way to generate MORE traffic (and relationships).

A roundup post is basically mini interviews with “experts” on a specific topic set in a blog post format. You reach out to influencers in your niche (or associated niche) and have them answer a question or two.

You then create a dynamic and useful post and have them help you promote it.

• Unique Topic – You should be well versed in your niche, this means you know where content is lacking online. What’s a question you would love to see answered? What type of a blog post would you bookmark and refer to later as a reference? If you come up with this topic (or many) you’re ready to move on.
• Create a List – Google makes it easy to create a list; add those you know of (authorities in your niche or associated niche) and use Google to find the rest. These are individuals who have an audience and are respected.
• Email – Provide your topic concept and identify the length you’d like it. I recommend 50-100 words. Short and to the point. They also do not need to explain the question or topic, just a response.
• Create the Post – Create your post with correct on-page SEO, great User Experience and make it interesting and useful.
• Outreach – The idea here is to get those influencers to share the newly created post. Give them suggestions on what to share and where to share it. THIS IS THE REASON YOU’RE CREATING THIS TYPE OF CONTENT: To have influencers send traffic to your website.

Example Titles for Roundup Posts & Questions to Ask

1. When starting a blog, what’s the one thing you did wrong that you would do differently today? Title: 40 Expert Tips on What to Avoid When Starting a Blog
2. Cooking for those that don’t eat gluten… What’s your favorite dinner recipe? Why do you like it? Title: Top 50 Gluten Free Dinner Ideas (with Recipes)
3. What do you do to be productive? Title: Vetted Tips on Productivity (what you can do right now to improve) 

Link Roundups

Doing a link roundup is similar (but easier) than a Roundup Post. It consists of YOU writing up a list that links out to examples (posts that further describe your topic).

Think of this as a super useful resource. If you were a website designer who constantly struggled to find good Stock Photography, would you bookmark this page?

• Keyword Plan – Decipher where content is lacking. Use Keyword tools if necessary. Create a post concept that focuses on one specific topic.
• Create a List – Your list will include the article link, an excerpt that you’ll rewrite and contact method for the producer of the content you’ll be linking to.
• Pre-Promote – Let the author you’re linking to know when you’ll be linking to their content (when your post goes live). Give them a heads up and attempt to get them thinking about promoting your post.
• Create the Post – Create a post focused on a specific topic. For the post, you’ll want to include the following:
  • Effective, attention grabbing title.
  • An explanation of the post. Why is it important and who can benefit? Focus on a target audience. Write to them.
  • Titles explaining each point. Expect visitors to scan, great titles will help capture attention and keep them on the page reading more.
  • For each point, include: (your excerpt explaining the point, a brief explanation of who wrote the content you’re linking to, a picture of that person, their name and title and a link to their blog post on the topic).
• Promote – Reach out again to those that you’ve linked to and let them know it’s live. Request they promote your content. Give them ideas and play to their needs. Help them understand how this will be a benefit to their audience.

Guest Posts

Don’t discount the effectiveness of creating quality content and giving it to someone with a much larger audience than you. It’s tough letting go of all of that hard work but it’s worth it.

When you create a guest post on another, more popular blog, you get immediate access to that audience.

If it’s a really great post, they’ll want to see more and they’ll head over to your site, maybe even subscribe, bookmark and share.

• Find Blogs – Locate blogs that will accept guest posts and create a list. If there’s a blog that hasn’t had a guest post, include them in your list and outreach anyway.
• Create an Email Template – You’ll want to provide examples of previous work. You’ll want to provide them with a few ideas on what you’ll provide to their blog. Ask their input and let them know how great they are.
• Create the Best Posts – After you’re accepted, write the best content you can. Write to their audience and make the content useful and full of purpose.
• Content on Their Site – When your post is live on their site you want to make sure that you’re getting: links to your site and a bio (hopefully with social links included).

Influencer Marketing: Social Groups

If you’re wanting to get in front of a large audience quickly (on social media), groups are where it’s at.

Members of these groups like your niche already (pre-vetted) and they may even have a large social following of their own. Currently with Groups on FB and Group Boards on Pinterest you can bet most of the content being added is being seen.

Use that to your marketing advantage.

Pinterest Group Boards

It’s simple: Find group boards and add your content there. Pinterest has a way of making great content blossom.

A phenomenal pin will have exponential growth and can lead to huge traffic gains on your website.

• Group Finding Tool – PinGroupie allows you to find groups on Pinterest by search. Add your keyword and look for the right group.
• Follow the Group
• Request to be a Contributor – You’ll need to first check the group’s instructions in the description.
• No Instructions? – That’s okay, you’ll need to first build a relationship.
• Comment on the Creator’s pins.
• Open a dialog between you and them (on social, their site, or any other method).
• Share their Pinterest Posts.
• Added as a Contributor  – Now’s your chance to take your beautiful images and content and put it in front of an audience. Your content on Pinterest may create a life of its own, which means more traffic to your website.

Facebook Groups

Think of a large Facebook group as an influencer. The Admin down to each and every member of the group.

They’re getting notifications and they like to use the internet (they’re a member of a FB group).

They may even be your target market or have a popular blog and social following of their own.

• Answer Questions – Be useful and help individuals with responses to their questions.
• Comment – Show encouragement and invoke conversation.
• Provide Knowledge – If you know something is true, useful and on topic, share it. People will respect you for it.
• Share – Provide experiences and use your content. Careful: if you are new, don’t expect a positive response every time. Try to first build up relationship before you jump in with your own linked content. And ensure it’s relevant and wanted.
• Show Off Accomplishments – If you’ve done something amazing, share it. If you’ve been given an award, let them know. Be smart.
• Build a relationship with the Admin(s) – Figure out what their goals are and help them achieve them. Be an asset to their group.

Other Types of Social Media follow this same pattern. Influencer Marketing is all about establishing real relationships with other users. You can’t do this work at half measures, and expect to see results.

It requires real concerted, focused effort.

Influencer Marketing: Nano and Micro Influencers

Not all markets have huge recognizable names. In fact, the more specific your niche, the less likely it is to have a Kim Kardashian.

Not to mention most can’t afford to use such a giant name.

But worry not dear friend. There are many smaller, more niche focused influencers.

Welcome to the world of “micro-influencers”.

What is a Micro-Influencer and why do you need them?

The Influencer market is a massive booming business. And it’s only going to increase.

In fact, Influencers have probably been the biggest seismic shift in Digital Marketing since online ads became a thing.

Trying to promote your business or service when you are new to market is really challenging, and influencers can make all the difference.

In fact, we’re confident in predicting that most company’s influencer marketing budgets are to to continue to increase sharply.

Ready for a sobering statistic? Revenue by Instagram Influencers reached $5.24 Billion Dollars in 2019!

That’s a lot of money, and companies like MacDonalds and Nike wouldn’t be spending if it wasn’t effective.

But a Micro-Influencer is exactly what it sounds like, a hyper specific influencer who has a lower follower count than the major influencers out there.

What you’re looking for is someone with a very engaged audience, yet a relatively low follower count (we recommend under 50K followers).

So this should completely eliminate celebrities from your outreach list.

Nano-Influencers have even less, generally under 10K followers.

In a study of Instagram accounts, Markerly discovered that as follower count grew, the user engagements (such as “likes” or “shares”) dropped precipitously.

So where was the sweet spot? Markely estimated that Influencers between 10K and 100K offered the absolute best combination of both broad reach and user engagement.

Their study also revealed something remarkable. Micro-Influencers engage in 22 times more conversations than the average person when they recommend a product.

That combined with the fact that 82% of customers said they were “highly likely” to follow the specific recommendation made by a Micro-Influencer.

But the best part? The cost.

Not only do Micro-influencers have tremendous power over purchasing habits, but they will cost you a fraction of what you would pay a celebrity, and they will have a meaningful impact on your brand.

With social media Influencer Marketing, size definitely matters, just not in the way you might expect. Great things come in small packages.

How to find Micro-Influencers

Here-in lies the rub of this particular style of Influencer Marketing. Finding the right Influencer is crucial, but can be challenging.

If you choose the wrong person, or the wrong niche market, you risk burning money without seeing results (thankfully you won’t be breaking the bank, but wasted money is wasted opportunity).

Here are a couple of methods for finding the right people to contact:

• Social Media Engagement – If you aren’t already engaging social media in your market, then what are you even doing? Facebook Groups, Twitter, look for the people that others respect. Or, you can just ask, who do people consider the expert in your market?
• Online Tools – There are several online tools (some paid, some free) like HPYR or Grin can work wonders, and save you a lot of time and energy.
• Twitter Hashtags – It may seem silly, but find the most liked tweets with a hashtag related to your market. If a Twitter user consistently has popular tweets, then you may have found your person!

Conclusion

Influencer Marketing is not going to go away. In fact, it’s only going to get bigger.

COVID-19 has accelerated the rate of growth for Digital Marketing, and has really laid bare the gaps in many company’s marketing plans.

But more importantly, driving sales through your website can be a huge grind.

How do you differentiate yourself from all of the other countless businesses in your niche in the massive online marketplace?

Most poeple turn to Google Ads or an SEO Strategy.

But managing Google Ads can be a nightmare. Google seems to have specifically made their platform difficult to parse unless you’re AdWords Certified (like we are).

And SEO takes months before you’ll start bringing quality traffic to your site.

So what’s the solution? Invest in Influencer Marketing.

More specifically, Micro-Influencers.

Seriously, you’ll thank us later!