Today, every brand invests in influencer marketing. They are aware of the reach influencers have and therefore, collaborate with them to promote the products and services offered by them. When an influencer talks about or endorses a product or service offered by a brand, it gains further visibility.
Many companies, across the globe, have seen growth in the sales of their products and witnessed a rise in the demand for the services offered by them after getting influencers to promote them. When brands see results, they get further motivated to explore influencer marketing as one of the tools to market themselves.
When you decide to join hands with influencers to promote your products or services, the first question that pops up in your mind is how much you should spend on such activities. While most influencers charge a certain amount of money to promote a brand, some are willing to accept gifts or goodies in return for the services provided by them.
Even if a brand intends to offer some goodies to the influencer, they need to be sure about the amount of money they would be spending on the same. Because of this, it is very important to chalk out a budget before getting influencers on board to promote your goods and services. While influencer marketing is a part of your marketing budget, it should be seen in isolation as well.
Influencer marketing proves to be fruitful for a business when it is budgeted correctly. If you end up spending more than you should, you might not benefit from it in any way. Investing in influencer marketing could become a loss-making proposition for you. To ensure this does not happen, you must be sure about the amount of money you want to spend on influencer marketing.
When you are running a small business, drawing out a definite budget for influencer marketing becomes all the more important. If you have just started, you would want to be very careful about your expenses and expenditures. Marketing is as important for a small business as it is for a well-established organization. However, the funds must be used wisely and in the right direction.
Here are some influencer marketing budgeting strategies for small businesses:
Be Sure About the Type of Influencer
While chalking out a budget for influencer marketing, it is very important to have a good idea about the type of influencers you want to collaborate with to market your business or brand. You could either join hands with a specific type of influencer or collaborate with a variety of them. Some of the different types of influencers are mega-influencers, micro-influencers, macro-influencers, and nano-influencers.
While mega-influencers prove to be beneficial for certain brands, some businesses benefit by collaborating with nano-influencers. Many businesses opt for a mix of different types of influencers as well. Once you are sure about the influencers you want to collaborate with, the process of preparing an influencer marketing budget will become much easier.
Hire a Professional
A lot of small businesses struggle with preparing an influencer marketing budget. They end up asking each other questions like “How much to pay nano influencers?” and “What would be the right amount to offer a mega influencer?”. To save yourself some time and effort and ensure that you do not make any wrong move, hiring a marketing professional would be a good idea.
A reliable and experienced professional, who is well-versed in the digital media space, will help you finalize the right influencers to collaborate with. They will also ensure that you strike the kind of deals that prove to be beneficial for the influencers and your brand. While getting influencers on board, they will ensure this type of marketing exercise brings good returns for your business.
Check the Number of Followers
When you reach out to an influencer to market or promote your brand, they will quote a certain amount they expect you to pay them. One of the simplest ways to find out whether a particular influencer deserves the amount they are quoting is to have a look at the number of followers they have.
The more the number of followers an influencer has, the higher will be the amount quoted by them. If you are a food brand, you would want to collaborate with food influencers. If two influencers, who have an equal number of followers, are quoting different amounts, you might want to opt for the one who is charging a smaller fee for promoting your goods or services.
Analyse the Engagement
While many influencers have organic followers, some also engage in practices like buying followers or getting bots or fake accounts to follow them. They do this to create a perception about them having a certain kind of following. If you are concerned about your brand getting marketed well, you should refrain from engaging with such influencers as it would result in a waste of money.
To find out whether an influencer has genuine followers or not, you should have a close look at the likes, views and engagement their posts get. If an influencer has a large number of people following them but the engagement on their page is limited, there is a possibility of them not having enough genuine followers. While preparing your influencer marketing budget, you can exclude such people from the list of influencers you wish to collaborate with.
Have Clarity About the Duration
There are times when brands get an influencer to promote a product or service and then, do not engage with them again. Then, there are occasions when brands make a conscious effort to build a long-term relationship with an influencer and get them to market their products and services regularly. The more you engage with an influencer, the higher will be your influencer marketing budget.
While preparing your influencer marketing budget, you need to figure out what kind of arrangement you plan to have with an influencer. Before arriving at a decision, here is something you need to be aware of. A long-term association with an influencer could help you save a lot of money as they might be happy to sign a deal for a longer duration at a lesser price.
