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Curious what an influencer is? Let’s start with a definition. An influencer is someone with the power to affect (or influence) buying decisions due to their authority or public position. Influencers are also content creators, publishing regular reviews, videos, and blog posts to engage their audience and encourage sales. Many influencers are minor celebs, but … Continue reading How to Grow A Team of Influencers (And Why You Need Them)
Curious what an influencer is? Let’s start with a definition.
An influencer is someone with the power to affect (or influence) buying decisions due to their authority or public position.
Influencers are also content creators, publishing regular reviews, videos, and blog posts to engage their audience and encourage sales.
Many influencers are minor celebs, but many stars like Kylie Jenner and Dwayne Johnson, for example, are also influencers due to their-mega popularity and their huge audiences.
Before we get down to what an influencer team could do for your business, let’s look at this growing trend.
Influencers, or content creators, if you prefer, are growing strong, and the worldwide marketing size now exceeds $16.4 billion.
These days, there’s no doubting the impact of influencers.
Research shows that consumers spend more time interacting with influencers, and they find the content ‘appropriate’ and ‘helpful’.
Consumers’ interest in influencers doesn’t end there, though.
Matter Communications research found that most (82 percent) shoppers have purchased, researched, or considered purchasing a product after influencers, family, or friends have talked about it online.
Additionally, according to the study, consumers are most interested in reading posts from influencers about:
Commenting on the study, Matter President, Mandy Maidenoff, said:
“Brands of all sizes are grappling with how to shift or amplify their marketing, PR and social media strategies to adapt right now, and a challenge for many is how to authentically connect with consumers…Our data makes one thing clear: influencer marketing presents a unique and timely opportunity for companies to engage with a thoughtful, nuanced approach.”
I could go on, because there’s plenty of evidence available that shows the impact of social media influencers on brands.
However, why are influencers so popular? It’s quite simple, really.
It’s because a recommendation from an influencer works just like a personal one would, and online, the effect gets amplified.
By providing the power of an industry expert with a loyal following primed and ready to listen to their suggestions, these influencers can drive fast sales from relevant traffic sources, and that’s why influencers are one of my favorite ways to grow a business.
However, this doesn’t mean paying Kim Kardashian to post about your SaaS product. Instead, keep your focus on relevant, accessible influencers who can bring value and growth to your brand. Here’s how you can grow an influencer team for your company (and why you need them).
Let me start off by telling you a story.
I recently went through the dreaded process of getting a new computer for both business and personal work.
Mine was breaking down, it was slow, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I reached out to a bunch of friends and fellow entrepreneurs to get their thoughts on what computers were the best.
A bunch of them suggested getting an Apple, but some said to buy a PC. No real specifics, just general ideas.
I left most of the conversations more confused than when they started.
I did tons of research online, scouring review sites for the best information, and it got me nowhere.
I still hadn’t made a purchase decision.
Until one friend told me to buy the 4k iMac from Apple.
Since my research had gone nowhere fast, I bought it.
Now I use it daily and love it.
The point is:
My friend influenced me to buy this product, and millions of purchases like this story happen daily worldwide, which brings me back to the whole point of this article: Influencer marketing is one of the best ways for marketers to grow their businesses.
I’ve not only found great success using influencers but have also participated in being an influencer.
It’s a great way to share products and content that you love and to get others to jump on board, too, and brands are spending big on influencers. Insider Intelligence predicts spending on United States influencer marketing increasing to $4.14 billion in 2022. Spending will increase from 2023 to approximately $5 billion.
Why? Typical advertising outlets aren’t working as well anymore.
Banner blindness is killing the display advertising strategies that we’ve come to know and love.
People are sick and tired of invasive ads. We see so many every day that we subconsciously tune them out or we block them.
Research shows 67 percent of consumers feel the quality of web advertising is declining, while desktop adblocking increased eight percent to 257 million. Mobile users are tired of ads, too, with the number of mobile users blocking ads increasing by 10 percent to a total 586 million.
It should be clear by now: If you’re relying on traditional advertising to fuel your business growth, these stats should sound alarm bells because it means people don’t want to see your ads anymore! They are annoying, plain, and simple.
That’s why you need an influencer campaign.
PPC display ads are going downhill fast, and I predict the typical advertising streams that once produced your best customers are likely to become non-existent.
You know what that means: If you want to get the word out about your products and develop consumer trust, then that means working with an influencer, to at least some extent.
Here’s another reason to start an Influencer campaign: they help you find a wider range of demographics. Just look at this survey from Rakuten.
It found that the impact of social influencers isn’t only effective at reaching the teenage demographic or promoting the latest trends. Additionally, Rakuten’s study found that seventy-four percent of the parents surveyed had brought an item shared online by a social media influencer.
Why? I’m telling you now that it’s not purely down to trust. It’s because social media influencers build relationships with their audience, turning them into buyers in time.
Even your best display campaigns aren’t going to compare to the minimal effect of average influencer-marketing campaigns, but influencer campaigns are different. People love engaging with their favorite brands on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and more, so it’s not a shock that recommendations from these people deliver results.
I’ve clearly detailed the potential power of launching an influencer campaign. Now, let’s move on to the best tactics to use with influencers to grow your brand?
Popular methods tend to include:
You’ve got some ideas to kick off your campaigns. Are you ready to get started with influencer marketing? Let’s go.
Here’s how you can grow a team of influencers to get your business to the next level.
Setting campaign goals should always be your first step when conducting a new process.
The same goes for building out a team of influencers.
The influencer marketing scene is crowded with tons of famous celebrities who may be tempting to tap into but remember: You need relevant influencers who will drive relevant traffic to your products.
For example, check out beauty and fitness influencer Chanel Delisser. She’s secured partnerships with nutrition company GNC and appeared on TV shows and at conferences.
Now, I’m sure Delisser will excuse me for saying this, but she’s not a household name. However, that didn’t stop her from getting 1 million plus followers or getting sponsorships and invites for major events.
The point is, that it makes absolute sense for health-related companies to team up with Delisser.
Her Instagram account advocates a healthy lifestyle, she’s talking to the type of people most likely to buy these products, and she’s got a massive following.
Then there’s the engagement with her Instagram followers. Each post attracts hundreds, if not thousands of views and plenty of comments, so any health company teaming up with Delisser knows she’s got a keen audience ready to engage.
In other words, they make the ideal pairing.
Think about it: If you sell SEO services, using Justin Bieber to spread the word probably wouldn’t do much for your brand besides draining your marketing budget.
The type of influencer you choose will have a huge impact on your success, so it’s imperative that you pick one in your niche or who embodies your audience.
Here’s a basic template that I’ve used to set concrete goals:
Influencer campaign goals
According to Later.com, there are several ways to prospect for influencers, You could:
You could also check out databases and marketplaces. However, these often cost money to use or access, so if you can circumvent them, you can cut costs dramatically.
On the other hand, manually searching for influencers is time-consuming. So if you have the extra money in your budget to spend on marketplaces and databases, do it.
If you don’t, you can still find great influencers on your own.
Start by heading to Google and conducting a basic Google search like “mobile app influencers:”
This should turn up some basic results and round-up style list posts like this:
Start reading through these posts and scouring the influencer profiles, like this one featuring Benedict Evans:
Many of them have social links to each person, background information on their career and influencer history, and even aggregate data like their total social following.
You can start a spreadsheet on Google Sheets to keep track of their information and rank them in order of importance.
Another great way to prospect for influencers without using databases or marketplaces is by searching directly on the social media platforms you want to use.
For example, if you want your campaign to focus on Instagram marketing, start by searching for the top Instagram influencers.
You can do this by searching for the following hashtag on Instagram: “#ad:”
Why? Because all influencers are required by law to make it clear that their post contains an ad for a product or service, that means that you can easily see millions of posts by top influencers with this hashtag.
Start by browsing the photos for related products, services, or influencers who look like their lifestyle would fit your product for promotion.
It’s a great way to find influencers who are already in the game.
For example, if you have a mobile application based on photography, you could target this influencer, who already takes incredible, scenic photos:
Your photography-based mobile app would be a perfect fit for this influencer because it directly fits the brand image.
Click on the influencer’s profile and check out the rest of their photos:
Inspect their follower totals, their engagement on every post, and even their website.
Ensure their brand image aligns with your goals and always check for highly-engaged audiences.
Simply repeat this process multiple times for your niche to find the best influencers on your own.
If you don’t have time to do this yourself, consider using a service.
Here’s how to do that.
There are hundreds of sites that focus solely on connecting marketing companies and brands with the best influencers.
Consider businesses like Tribe, TapInfluence, Upfluence, and more to help in growing a team of influencers.
These marketplaces often cost money to use, but some offer free trials that work for your basic needs before you have to make a decision.
They are great for initial prospecting without having to spend money right away.
I use them all of the time to conduct fast research on various influencers and their historical data.
TapInfluence allows you to browse tons of different influencers and see instant data and pricing:
The influencer platform Tribe works with top brands such as Mcdonald’s, Olay, and Lego and works with the following categories:
Upfluence pledges to take your influencer campaigns to the next level and enable you to work with twice as many influencers. The platform gives you plenty of features, including a searchable database across multiple social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook, and influencer profiles.
If you want to start working with influencers, just click on the red ‘Get Started Today’ link.
Content promotion and growing a company have never been more difficult, but times are changing, and you can’t underestimate the impact of influencers.
Consumers are tired of invasive ads and don’t always trust businesses. They do, however, trust influencers. Why? Because people trust them and their recommendations!
Thankfully, it’s not time-consuming or difficult to build a team of influencers, and they are one of the best ways to drive countless sales.
I’ve personally used influencers to grow each one of my businesses. They are great at what they do, and influencer marketing allows you to put your marketing strategy on autopilot.
Start by setting your campaign goals. You can’t have a good campaign without a perfect plan in place.
Next, manually search for influencers that relate to your brand or product. It’s a great way to save money.
Lastly, try tapping into existing marketplaces that are designed for influencer marketing and find the ideal person for your influencer campaign.
These will help you automate your marketing and save tons of time.
How has the impact of social influencers helped your brand?
Laylo is on a mission to empower hundreds of thousands of creators with the marketing tools to manage and grow their businesses. Today, a creator has to focus on everything from content creation to fan engagement to scaling their business lines. Our products and tools allow creators to focus on the content creation while we handle the rest.
We’re building a next-generation marketing platform complete with drop campaigns, cross-platform messaging, landing pages, and link tracking –giving creators the power to own and activate their fanbase.
Laylo now powers over three millions drops per month across music, podcasting, sports, fashion, gaming, among other categories. Notable customers include Sam Smith, Dixie D’Amelio, Kodak Black, Miles Teller, The Black Keys, and the Friends With Benefits DAO.
We’ve also established strategic partnerships with companies including Acast (podcast distribution), Fevo (sports and entertainment ticketing), Sound.xyz (music NFTs), Hoo.be (link-in-bio), CD Baby (music distribution), and Voice.com (NFT art collectibles). In the last year, we’ve rolled out integrations with Instagram, Spotify and some of the largest Web3 Wallet providers.
As a product engineer, writing code and building beautiful user experiences is just one part of your job. You’ll also talk to users, get involved with design, and develop your own opinion on what needs to exist in the world. Then you’ll move with urgency to make it happen.
What will you do?
You’ll work with a small engineering team to build mission-critical tools for creators.
As one of our first engineers, you’ll build entirely new products from scratch and make important architectural decisions.
You’ll be responsible for planning, organizing, and executing entire projects end to end, from idea to launch. To do so, you’ll have to work closely with design, operations, and (of course) creators.
You’ll help build the foundation for Laylo engineering standards, tooling, and processes.
Creators are the most visual people on the planet — you’ll build a user experience that is both visually stunning and easy-to-use.
As we grow, we’ll build up an engineering team around you.
We’re looking for someone who:
Cares about creators and wants to build something meaningful. The tools we create will empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, and we take that responsibility seriously.
Enjoys all aspects of building a product from scratch. You love talking to customers just as much as making technical decisions.
Understands the importance of both speed and quality, and the trade-offs of choosing one over the other.
Has 3+ years experience with frontend development, preferably with hands-on experience with React, Typescript, and Apollo
Familiarity with mobile responsive design and component architecture are a plus
Wants to join a tight-knit team — we work on solutions as a whole engineering team. If you love working on the end-to-end product experience, you’ll love working here.
About Us:
Our founders met while building competing consumer startups. We’ve launched multiple products across consumer and SaaS and talked to thousands of fans and creators in the process. In 2020, we realized one of the biggest pain points creators have is reaching and managing their fanbase directly.
We went through Y Combinator in summer 2020 while building that new product and after seeing really strong early traction, raised our seed round in mid 2021.
Right now we’re a small team that’s based in Los Angeles but working from home. We’re hiring remotely in North America.
We have a strong written documentation culture, leveraging Notion to share ideas and record processes and learnings. We try to do as much as possible asynchronously to move quickly and efficiently.
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At Paper.li, we highly value the power of content in all forms and the importance of building an outstanding personal brand. That’s why we launched The Personal Branding Playbook, where we share a proven method …
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Are you struggling to get more clients for your accounting business?
You’re not alone.
A study by Hinge Marketing found accounting and financial service firms were the slowest growing of all professions studied.
While the tech sector grows at an 18 percent median rate, accounting business slogs behind with a growth rate of 9.3 percent.
However, this doesn’t mean your accounting firm is doomed.
The difference between low-growth and high-growth businesses in any sector is marketing.
How so?
Marketing is what develops the all-important know, like, and trust factor. Clients can find you through social media or blog posts, learn more about you, and decide you’re the best accountant for the job.
In short, the better you get at marketing your services to the right people, the more you can squash industry-standard growth rates and boost your profitability.
Shopping online isn’t only for eCommerce businesses.
Fifty-three percent of consumers conduct online research before making a purchasing decision. If you don’t have a digital presence, you’re leaving money on the table and creating a barrier between you and your potential clients.
With 2.14 billion digital buyers, there’s a huge pool of people you could tap into by having a digital presence for your CPA business.
Besides the earning potential, advertising your services online has other benefits like:
Ready to take your CPA marketing to the next level? Here are some of the best ways to grow your brand awareness, attract the right customers, and scale your accounting business.
Because so many buyers turn to Google to conduct online research before purchasing, a website is no longer a “nice to have.”
It’s a must.
An SEO-optimized website does three things:
Sick of cold emailing tactics or leads who have no intent on opting in for your services?
By going all-in on SEO and targeting keywords your potential clients are using, you can attract the right customers (who are ready to sign a contract) straight to your website.
Not sure what SEO is or how to do keyword research? Check out my ultimate SEO guide, which takes you through absolutely everything you need to know to get your CPA business on the front page of Google.
When someone is knee-deep in research mode, a professional-looking website goes a long way in the decision-making process.
With a strong call-to-action (CTA) on your homepage, you can stop people from leaving your site without scheduling a call, or filling out a form to find out more.
Here’s a good example:
Notice the “Get Started” button. It’s above the fold (meaning you don’t have to scroll to see it), and it encourages visitors to take action.
If you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see another CTA to schedule a call.
Want help setting up a CTA? Use one of my eight foolproof CTA tactics.
Once your website ranks for the right keywords on Google (i.e., words and phrases your customers are using), it tells the user you’re an expert and creates brand awareness.
When someone sees you as an industry thought leader, it establishes trust. This sets up one of the natural laws of business: People do business with those they know, like, and trust.
When it comes to marketing for CPAs, creating a blog is an incredibly effective tactic.
Why?
Your blog posts will rank on search results.
When you’re ranking on the first page of Google, you get more visibility, website traffic, and qualified leads. For your customers, blogging is beneficial because it answers their questions, gives them quick wins, and helps them find solutions to their problems.
It’s a win/win for everyone.
How do you start writing blog posts that end up on the first page of search results?
First, you need to do keyword research to understand what problems your audience is trying to solve.
Take the keyword “hiring an accountant for taxes.” Here are some blog posts from CPA firms on the first page of Google.
By using blogging like these CPA firms, you can identify the challenges your clients are facing and create blog posts that add value and convert visitors into clients.
Keyword Research Resources:
Next, you need to write your blog post and optimize it for search.
What does this mean?
According to a user’s query, there is a formula search engines use to understand the content and decide where it should show up in the results. By following basic on-page SEO principles, you can make sure your blogs are optimized for ranking on the first page of Google.
SEO Blogging Resources:
Do you have a LinkedIn profile?
Out of the 774 million working professionals using the platform, you probably fall into two camps:
However, LinkedIn is more than a social media network. It’s one of the best places to connect with your potential clients and land work.
Eighty percent of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is the best place to find leads.
Follow these steps to spruce up your LinkedIn profile and start attracting paying clients to your CPA business.
Yup, SEO extends beyond search engines.
You want to make sure your profile is optimized with keywords your potential clients use to find you.
The better your LinkedIn SEO, the higher up you’ll appear on search results.
Whether it’s status updates, sharing business news, or writing thought pieces, creating content on LinkedIn is a powerful lead generation tool.
You can tag your posts with hashtags to boost your reach, and the more engagement it gets, the more the algorithm will push your content out to a wider audience.
By increasing the number of eyes on your posts, you increase your chances of leads finding your profile and reaching out.
LinkedIn Marketing resources:
Writing not your style? Are you a better speaker?
Then create a content marketing strategy around YouTube. With over 2 billion monthly users, people come to the platform to learn, get inspired, or have fun. What makes YouTube such a lucrative platform is this: The content is searchable on Google.
In 2016, the search engine giant bought the video-sharing site and has integrated the platform with search results.
Like Google, SEO also plays a part on YouTube.
To see success on the platform, you need to use the same keywords your audience uses to search for you. Consider using keywords in these places:
These views turn into leads and are an excellent way to grow your brand awareness and establish trust with your audience.
Bonus: Once you hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time, you can sign up for the YouTube partner program and start earning money from your uploads.
YouTube Resources:
Google My Business can help your CPA business gain more visibility in local search results. According to a study by BrightLocal, 84 percent of searches are discovery.
That’s a lot of opportunities for your next client to find you. Let’s say someone searches “CPA in New York.” If you’ve set up your Google My Business page correctly, it will show up in search results like this:
These cards make it easy for people in your area to find you, contact you, and become your next customer.
All you need to set up your profile is a business name, location, and category. Once Google authorizes it, you’ll start showing up on local search and Google Maps.
Your customers will be able to leave reviews, add photos, ask questions, save your listing, and see important information like your contact details.
In the above example, Miller & Company has put “CPA of NYC” in their title and made their description “accountant in New York City.”
Again, this is SEO. These keywords help Google understand your listing and show it for the correct search results.
To learn how to set up your Google My Business account, optimize it for local SEO, and what mistakes to avoid, check out these resources:
While building a presence on YouTube and LinkedIn are solid marketing strategies for CPAs, those platforms could close down tomorrow.
If that happens, you’ll lose access to your audience.
The solution? Building your email list.
Create a lead magnet and use it to entice your website visitors to subscribe. Your lead magnet should focus on a problem your audience wants to overcome and present a quick win.
For example, if you help freelancers with their tax you could make a checklist for how to prepare for tax season. At the end of your lead magnet, include a call-to-action to hire you for those that want to skip the admin and let someone else handle it.
Other types of lead magnet ideas include:
Once you have people on your email list, you can nurture the relationship and promote your offers and tips via a weekly or monthly newsletter.
The best way to market your CPA business is with digital marketing. It’s cheaper than traditional marketing and helps you attract your ideal clients with ease.
If you don’t have the time to manage your marketing, yes. A marketing firm can help save time and tweak your marketing efforts to improve ROI.
Yes! With most people turning to Google to answer their questions and find companies to solve their problems, a digital presence is necessary.
It depends on the size of your firm, location, and how much money you can allocate towards your marketing, as well as what platforms you want to use and the results you want to achieve. You can do it yourself and spend very little, or invest thousands (which may generate thousands more in revenue.)
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As you can see, digital marketing is no longer a “nice to have” for accounting firms.
The digital world is more important than ever before. Approximately 6 billion people have smartphones, which means your next customer will most likely come from Google rather than a traditional ad in the newspaper.
Follow these marketing tips for accountants, and you’ll learn how to create content that attracts your ideal client, creates value in their lives, and sets your firm up as the go-to expert.
Which of these accounting marketing tips are you going to implement in your business?
Twenty years ago, I had no idea we would be talking about eSports marketing. eSports was somewhat of an underground industry coveted by the most loyal fans. Today, eSports is a booming industry ripe for the taking by smart but strategic business owners who understand their audience.
eSports is the projected 1,790 million dollar industry taking hold of Millenials. It’s competitive gaming where groups assemble teams and play against each other as they would in any other sport. They hold tournaments, and many professional gamers have large followings on gaming platforms like Twitch.
Until recently, only brands like Red Bull and others associated with gaming were able to get in on eSports marketing. Things have quickly changed. Now, you have businesses from all niches, including Mercedes and Coca-Cola, wanting to get in on the action. Is it the right fit for your business? It might be.
Why would a B2C business want to choose eSports marketing over another strategy? First, marketing in eSports allows you to reach a dedicated and engaged audience. The people who follow eSports are invested in it; they interact with professionals from the industry, and they take the sport seriously.
Second, the cost of advertising is still relatively low due to the lack of competition. There aren’t many ads, and many of the big-name competitors haven’t reached the market yet, which means there are opportunities for smaller businesses to come in and display ads at a low cost. How do you use it?
Now that you understand the power of an eSports marketing strategy, you need to know how to implement it. In the following sections, I’ll break down actionable steps you can take to promote your business to the eSports market.
Investing in an in-game ad can be a unique, but powerful strategy. This is one sure-fire way to separate yourself from the competition, gather precise data about your audience, and help increase your brand awareness.
Keep in mind that the depiction of the average gamer isn’t always accurate. People think that gamers’ ages skew much younger than they do. There are a lot of stereotypes, but the average gamer is actually 34 years old, owns a home, and has a family. Plus, more and more women are gaming, as well.
Another advantage of in-game advertising is there are a number of display options.
The example above from the Madden football game from EA Sports shows a GMC ad as if it was a real game. In the NFL, companies often sponsor certain segments of the game. In this case, the auto manufacturer GMC sponsored the “moment of the game,” which is a highlight of the best play of the game.
You can also display your ad on virtual billboards and sidelines in games such as Madden, FIFA, and MLB The Show which are all part of the eSports world.
Dynamic ads in eSports are unique because they are only seen by viewers, and not the players. This presents an opportunity for you to reach a highly targeted audience because you know and understand the demographics of the people watching the sport. Much of that data is easily available to whoever wants it.
For example, the popular eSports game, “League of Legends” uses dynamic ads in one of their battlefields. As players move through the battlefield, they’ll continue to see the game as-is. Meanwhile, viewers of the game are seeing advertisements increasing brand awareness for those who advertised.
To implement an ad like this, you’ll need to contact the advertising and public relations teams of whatever game you want to advertise on. This is where the research and knowledge of your audience comes into play. Certain games have different audiences.
For example, I’ve provided the names of a few different games in this article so far. We talked about Madden and League of Legends. These two games have a completely different audience with unique interests. It’s up to you to understand these games, even if you don’t play them, because that’s how you’ll target the right people.
Like any other industry, there are influencers. This strategy opens the door to more possibilities because you can piggyback on the following and audience of the influencer across a variety of platforms. If the influencer is on TikTok and Instagram, you’ll be able to take advantage of that audience as well.
One of the reasons influencer marketing and gaming go hand-in-hand is because it’s engaging. These professional gamers actually talk to their audience, they engage on Twitch, they talk during their streams, and their audience respects them.
Streaming has become social media for eSports, so by partnering with an influencer and getting them to promote your brand, you’re increasing brand awareness and also using the respect the gamer has earned to boost your brand.
One great example of this is Bang Energy drinks. You’ll find these everywhere throughout the eSports world, but the advertisements seem so natural. It could be as simple as a gamer drinking it with the logo facing the screen for an hour. It brings awareness to the brand and influences the people who love that gamer to support it.
Partnering with an influencer could be as simple as getting a shoutout during live videos. There’s no cut-and-dry way to implement influencer sponsorship. You need to reach out manually to big names in the industry until someone gets back to you.
Another eSports marketing strategy is to sponsor a team. What does that mean exactly? It means that you’re responsible for some of the team’s expenses in exchange for the publicity. Companies that sponsor teams often get their logo on uniforms or the teams agree to consume their product exclusively whenever they’re on camera.
As you can see in the above image, Red Bull, Puma, and Twitch are all sponsors of this team because their logos are on the uniform.
This strategy is popular in sports of all kinds (even Little League) and is used to drive brand awareness. Will anyone see that shirt and immediately go out and buy a case of Red Bull? Probably not, but you’re keeping your brand fresh in the minds of people who purchase the product and that’s what larger companies pay for this type of advertising.
If you’re a smaller company, I wouldn’t recommend this method because people may not know who you are. An ad where you can briefly describe your product or service would do better. The companies that advertise this way are already well known and want to remind consumers that their favorite brands support eSports.
Static advertising is the opposite of dynamic advertising. Rather than changing, these ads remain in the game forever and display to both players and the viewers. There are a few different ways for this to work.
One strategy is with fictional brand advertisements. Think about “Buzz-Cola” from The Simpsons. Even though they call it a different name, we all know what reference they’re making so it serves its purpose.
You don’t have to choose such a subtle ad though. Some games such as racing games will display full billboards of ads for real companies. These static ads do not change no matter what happens in the game, and generally don’t require an internet connection.
Games like Fortnite, for example, have constantly changing dynamic ads because they are played online. A static ad would not require a connection and would likely be found in a story mode that is played offline.
To get your brand in the game, you’ll have to contact the marketing and public relations department—-and you’ll also need a pretty hefty budget. It takes a long time for development, and there isn’t a solid way to measure the results of a static ad, since you can’t track impressions.
Advergaming is one of the most extreme eSports marketing strategies. This is when a game is specifically created with the intention of promoting a brand or product. Do you remember when Burger King came out with “King” based games for the Xbox years ago?
If your brand uses advergaming, you’re putting your business front and center. However, there are a few clear concerns with this strategy.
First, for you to have any success, the game has to be fun to play. If the game is a flop, no one will play it and you might as well have flushed the money down the drain.
Second, you’re relying on the marketing and promotional efforts of the company. Chances are, you’ll only be able to get a smaller engineering company to sponsor your game.
Third, it’s going to cost a lot of money and take a lot of time because you’re producing a game from scratch. There’s probably a reason why Burger King only did this once.
The target market is men between ages 18-34 and primarily people located in Asian-Pacific countries. These individuals make up as much as 57 percent of eSports viewership. In recent years, female eSports viewership has increased quite a bit, with 20-30 percent of the audience made up of women.
According to esports.net, dynamic in-game advertising is the most affordable route, because you’re paying per 1,000 impressions. The price depends entirely on the game, niche, and target audience.
Static advertising can cost anywhere between 25,000-50,000 dollars depending on the game. The cost is so high because it requires the creator of the game to actually develop an in-game advertisement for your brand from scratch.
Advergaming is the most expensive option and can cost as much as 500,000 dollars depending on the game, target audience, and extent of the advertising. You’re essentially producing a game from scratch that is built around promoting your business.
Total, brands spent around 364 million dollars on eSports advertisements and sponsorships in 2020, and that number is expected to increase to 634 million by 2023. As demand increases for advertising space, so will the price.
The main types of eSports marketing ads are dynamic ads, static ads, and advergaming. These ads require you to work directly with the creators of the game rather than the eSports teams. If you’re working with the players and teams involved with the sport, you’ll likely do influencer marketing or sponsorships.
All brands could benefit from some form of eSports marketing. It’s just important for you to use the right one for your business and goals. For example, a small business without a ton of reach wouldn’t likely benefit from endorsements and sponsorships because people don’t know who you are. Instead, you’d want an ad that allows you to describe your offering.
If you’re considering hiring an eSports marketing agency to help you, why not see what we can do for you? eSports is a booming industry among both young and old generations.
Keep in mind that younger generations are finding entertainment in different ways. Streaming continues to grow, and, as a result, these people enjoy watching their favorite streamers the same way that older generations liked watching their favorite talk show host.
To be successful, you need to take advantage of growing marketing trends, and eSports is right at the forefront of it all.
How do you plan to take advantage of eSports marketing? Do you think it’s all hype?
If you’ve found yourself reading this blog, you’re probably interested in the idea of a membership site. These sites are not to be confused with paid subscriptions, which refer exclusively to a financial model that binds users to its pages.
Netflix, for example, is the classic example of a subscription website: a platform that users gain access to via a recurring fee. On the other hand, membership sites refer to platforms that offer gated content only accessible through, you guessed it, membership.
These sites can be paid, free, or operate on a tiered basis, depending on the site’s intent as a whole.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the benefits of membership sites, share how to build out gated content for members’ eyes only, and share our top three favorite membership sites.
There are many benefits to creating a membership site, including building your community and monetizing your content.
Below, we break down the three biggest benefits of building a membership site structure.
Everyone wants to be considered an expert in their field. At times, however, achieving this can be much easier said than done.
One surefire way to establish yourself as an expert is to offer invaluable content that fills holes in your industry’s general knowledge base. These assets can come in the form of white papers, infographics, blogs, podcasts, and any other form of consumable content.
When these content assets are available via a membership-only relationship, you not only drive demand for your content, but you also firmly establish yourself as an industry expert, given consumers’ willingness to engage with your gated site.
When you commit to building a membership site, you’re not just building a transactional environment; you’re building a community.
Your audience has agreed to participate in your membership site given their shared interest in your product or topic.
Foster this community by providing them with unique offerings and benefits, as well as giving them a place to interact with one another. Whether your membership site is paid or free, you have a unique group of active members with shared interests ready to engage.
This community-building also serves you in the long run, as you’ve created a base of followers with whom you’ve built trust and goodwill, making them that much more likely to interact with your products and offerings in the future.
With each new member and content asset, your website becomes increasingly valuable. The more content you create, the more you have to offer to prospective community members.
While traditional digital models will operate on one-off sales of products or services, your membership site has the potential to acquire cumulative value that increases over time.
If we’ve convinced you of the benefits of the membership site, the next step is breaking down how to actually build one. This section will discuss the three steps for building a membership site that keeps users coming back for more.
Before delving into the actual work of building out a membership site, you need to establish your membership model. In this step, you must first decide if you’re charging your members. If you are, you must determine how much and at what frequency.
This assessment of pricing should include researching how much competitors are charging and what they are offering. Sometimes, forgoing the fee may be worth the lost revenue as it provides a slew of qualified leads.
After establishing pricing, look to your buyer personas to establish what would drive value for your consumers. These value drivers don’t necessarily have to fall into the realm of content; they can include offerings like free shipping or points for purchase. Regardless of which route you choose, ensure that your offerings align with what your audience finds valuable.
If you’re offering exclusive content through any model, it better be just that: exclusive. When potential members hand over a fee or offer up their personal information, they better receive something of value in return.
Here, revisit your buyer personas to determine what content assets need to be created to ensure that your members find value in your site.
Now that you’ve established your membership model and built out your members-only content, it’s time to find the right platform to make your site a success. If you’ve built your existing site on WordPress or Squarespace, there are plug-ins that can make this step super easy.
If you’re not using these platforms, you can choose a third-party provider to enable the membership site for you.
Regardless of which platform you use, your membership site should include the following features:
While there are a lot of membership sites out there, we’ve broken down a few examples that really hit the mark. These include both recognizable names and lesser-known membership sites that provide value to their respective audiences.
Everyone wants to spend less to go further–and that’s what this membership site lets members do. With curated flight offers, this membership site enables users to score flights on the cheap, opening their horizons and closing their wallets.
Offering members up to 90% off flights, the big takeaway from this membership site is the customizable offerings. By providing each member with flights that align with their respective travel interests, Scott’s Cheap Flights creates a personalized experience for members they can’t help but return to.
If agate doesn’t leave your jaw agape, this site may not be for you. If rocks rock your socks, this membership site should be bookmarked in your browser. Members subscribe to a paid model for certification courses, articles, and a thriving forum.
Here, too, much can be learned about growing a membership site, particularly within a niche market. By offering their members content that speaks specifically toward the needs and interests of a specific group, the International Gem Society keeps their members coming back for more.
This membership site is for all the would-be food bloggers out there, as the name suggests. Powered by the expertise of two successful food bloggers, this membership site offers users a forum, as well as course content.
If you’re considering building a membership site, take notes on this forum. Lively and interactive, a community truly is formed on the discussion page of this membership site.
Determining whether your membership site should be paid or free depends on your goals. If you aim to monetize your content, you should subscribe to a paid model. However, if you’re simply attempting to gain credibility and establish yourself as an expert and thought leader in your field, a free subscription may be right for you.
The content you build on your membership site should be specific to your audience. Provide content that of value to your target audience, offering them assets they can’t live without.
These offerings can include infographics, white papers, blogs, podcasts, and other assets that fill holes in your industry’s knowledge base or offer utility to your members. Again, constantly return to the question: What will my members truly value?
Building your membership site doesn’t mean you have to be an expert coder. Sites like WordPress and Squarespace offer plug-ins that can help you migrate your existing site to a membership model. If your platform doesn’t offer plug-ins to streamline this process, consider hiring a developer to help you include a members-only section of your site.
The benefits of membership include creating income, building a community, establishing yourself as an expert, and monetizing your content.
Whether you’re looking to monetize your content or simply solidify yourself as an expert in your field, creating a membership site can add inherent value to your brand.
For a truly successful membership site, however, you must have a clear understanding of your audience. By establishing who you’re trying to reach, you can better identify what they’re trying to reach by subscribing to your membership site.
From there, build out a reserve of content that you can serve up to members at a predetermined cadence to ensure that your offerings live up to their expectations. By setting a cadence, you establish a reliable exchange, further building trust in your site and ideally growing your base.
What’s the best example of a member site you’ve seen?
Getting more customers in today’s competitive world is nearly impossible.
Search engine optimization takes months to drive any measurable traffic, PPC costs tons of money and is often difficult for the average marketer to run without hiring an agency.
Referrals are great, but you can only generate so many of them.
The reality is most marketing tactics require tons of effort and months of planning before you see results.
Most of us can’t wait that long for results.
So, what do you do?
You take advantage of nano and micro-influencers.
Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to drive sales.
In fact, according to BigCommerce, 17 percent of companies spend over half their marketing budget on influencers.
But most people can’t afford celebrity influencers like Kim Kardashian.
Thankfully, you actually don’t want to use influencers like that.
You want smaller, niche-focused influencers called “micro-influencers.”
Here are what micro-influencers are and four ways to use them to gain customers.
It’s no secret that influencer marketing is already a booming industry.
The growth of influencers and social media platforms is astounding, to say the least.
In fact, influencer marketing is a tactic I’ve used countless times to build my brands and companies.
Promoting when you have no followers for growth is tough.
That’s why influencers come in handy.
They provide instant promotion of your product or service with amazing conversion rates.
It’s one of the best ways to drive big sales.
All types of companies and brands take advantage of it.
So, what is a micro-influencer? How does micro-influencer marketing differ from typical influencer marketing? Why should you focus on micro-influencers and not ordinary influencers?
Well, let’s start off with some basic definitions.
Micro-influencers are pretty much exactly what they sound like.
They are hyper-specific influencers who have lower follower counts in a given niche. They have intensely engaged audiences, yet a relatively low (below 25k) follower count.
Major celebrities are not micro-influencers.
They have millions of followers.
Accounts with less than 25,000 followers are generally considered micro-influencers. They often have very active audiences. Furthermore, nano-influencers have followers in the thousands.
The data proves that nano- and micro-influencers are successful.
Markerly studied over 800,000 Instagram accounts, each with over 1,000 followers. They analyzed how engaged their audiences were in comparison to major celebrity influencers.
They found that as the follower count increased, like rates dropped significantly.
They also found that comments and engaged users decreased as followership increased:
This means that the more followers an account has, the fewer likes and comments they get (relative to the follower count.)
So using influencers who have millions of followers might get you less bang for your buck.
On top of this glaring data, they also found that Instagram influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers earned likes at a 4 percent rate. In contrast, accounts with over 10,000 only achieved a 2.4% like rate.
The big-ticket celebrity accounts with over 1,000,000 followers only got a 1.7 percent like rate.
Experticity studied big groups of micro-influencers to see what power they held.
Here are two of the incredible statistics they uncovered:
So micro-influencers have more conversations about buying recommendations than macro-influencers. At the same time, they hold greater power when driving actual conversions.
If you think you need millions of followers to grow your brand, think again.
Nano and micro-influencers drive more engagement and hold better recommendation power.
So it’s time to stop wasting money on expensive influencers who aren’t driving engagement or traffic.
Here’s how you can find micro-influencers and four ways to use them to gain more customers.
Before we jump into the ways you can use micro-influencers to gain more customers, you need to understand how to locate these people.
Finding the right influencer is critical.
It can make or break your campaign.
If you select the wrong influencer in the wrong niche, you risk wasting money on a failed campaign that won’t grow your business.
Fortunately, there are a few tools we can use to collect influencers and begin the process of outreach.
My favorite tool is HYPR.
It’s an analytics-based tool that allows you to find data on tons of different influencers in any given niche.
It’s also free for over 100 searches.
Most of these tools cost tons of money, but HYPR gives you free searches and detailed reports.
To get started, create your free account.
Once you’ve made it to the dashboard, it’s time to search:
Once we’re here, we want to set some search filters based on the data we covered earlier.
Remember: influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers earned likes at a 4 percent rate, while accounts with over 10,000 followers only achieved a 2.4 percent like rate.
For micro-influencers, we want to focus on accounts in the 1,000 to 10,000 following range.
To do this, select the following ranges as your minimum and maximum:
Next, type your niche category into the keyword search engine at the top:
You can select up to five different interests to target.
Next, you want to refine your audience based on typical demographics of your customer base:
Remember, micro-influencers work because they are specific, niche audiences that are hyper-engaged.
So, focus on as many narrowing filters as you can to get a better conversion rate.
Once you’ve searched, you can click on any of the given influencers to start inspecting their profile and data:
HYPR gives you a ton of free influencer data that can help you decide who to use for your next campaign:
Once you’ve created a list of influencers, start reaching out to them.
These micro-influencers will help you drive tons of growth and gain more customers quickly.
Now, here are four ways to use these micro-influencers to gain more customers.
Campaign-specific hashtags are one of the best ways to spread brand awareness and drive sales.
They allow niche micro-influencers to connect easily with your brand.
For example, check out how sparkling water brand Lacroix does it:
They work with tons of micro-influencers to promote their products and gain more customers.
You’ll see that the influencer in this photo has barely over 1,000 followers:
But that specific micro-influencer gets tons of interactions, which makes the partnership worth it.
And on top of that, Lacroix runs dedicated hashtag-based influencer campaigns:
They send out free products for promotions to these influencers and get tons of traction on Instagram.
If you click on any of these influencer posts, they almost all have fewer than 10,000 followers:
Why do they work?
It’s because they’re genuine and authentic.
These people truly live the Lacroix lifestyle and embody the brand image.
They are down-to-earth, real people.
Accounts with over 1 million followers may seem like a cool way to promote your brand. But at the end of the day, their engagement rates are lower than that of micro-influencers.
On top of that, they likely are major celebrities who don’t embody your brand.
Follow in Lacroix’s footsteps by creating your own hashtag-based campaign.
You can start a hashtag with your company name in it to drive tons of branded traffic and explode your customer growth.
One of the best user-generated content campaigns I have ever seen used a batch of micro-influencers.
In January of 2015, the Hawaiian Tourism board took micro-influencer campaigns to a new level:
They leveraged the power of micro-influencers in a way that revolutionized Instagram marketing.
Here’s what Vince Soliven, the executive creative director of the campaign, said about it:
When you have a social media star who is ‘a regular person,’ it bridges the gap for the consumer. If this person is having this experience, it’s not fabricated, it’s not the result of some crazy $5,000 photo shoot. They got that with a GoPro. Maybe I could have that experience, too.
Hawaii’s “Let Hawaii Happen” campaign generated 100,000 posts in a single year.
On top of that, the campaign reached 54% of all U.S. travelers!
The cherry on top: 65 percent of people who saw the campaign said that they planned to visit Hawaii in the next year or two.
They did this by leveraging local Hawaiian micro-influencers like Lindsey Higa:
They focused on influencers who connected to their ideal vision and brand image.
Despite being a boring tourism board, they were able to generate incredible traction and drive high amounts of interest in travel.
One of the key reasons that they found such success was because of user-generated content.
They didn’t merely post pictures on their account.
They allowed influencers to post pictures for them, suggesting authenticity and boosting their credibility.
In fact, 93 percent of consumers find UGC to be an influence when making a buying decision!
On top of that, UGC can increase your campaign conversions by 29% on average.
Thankfully, it’s not hard to start leveraging UGC in your campaigns.
Buffer does it all the time:
User-generated content may be the “ace in the hole” for your next micro-influencer campaign.
Focus on creating great connections with your influencers and using them to position your brand with a trustworthy image.
Sponsored posts are similar to UGC in that you focus on getting the influencers to post the content on their own accounts.
These posts drive up engagement and create a more authentic brand vision.
They also allow your influencers to make detailed videos or content pieces surrounding your product.
This publicity reinforces your brand to the audience and gives you valuable traffic and interest.
You can see this all the time on Instagram:
They are on YouTube, too:
Sponsored posts are one of the most common ways to leverage a group of influencers, and it works great for micro-influencer campaigns as well.
One of the best ways to do this is by reaching out to your desired influencer and offering to send them free products in exchange for honest reviews.
If you already have influencers that you work with, it’s even easier. Depending on your campaign contracts, you can simply ask them to post sponsored content!
It’s no secret that influencers hold significant power to drive conversions.
People trust them, and they will trust what they recommend.
Use this to your advantage by having your influencers create sponsored posts for your brand.
Storytelling increases conversions. There’s no doubt about it.
A few years ago, when I was starting to ramp up my blog, I was struggling to get visitors.
My blog posts were great. I was posting consistently, but the blog wasn’t compelling users to stay.
So I started to personalize it by telling stories with my content that people could relate to.
Here’s what happened:
In just a few months, my traffic started to skyrocket.
I found the growth I never knew I had access to!
The same goes for micro-influencer marketing.
Storytelling drives conversions naturally because people begin to care about you and your brand.
For example, check out how American Express uses influencers to tell stories:
They connect a boring consumer product to the desires of nearly every human: travel, exploration, and fun.
The influencer doesn’t merely post a sponsored post saying “AMEX is the best!” Instead, they use a story to craft why AMEX fits the influencer’s life.
It helps people bridge the gap between a boring product and developing the need for that product in their daily lives!
Ultimately, they are much more likely to understand why they need it.
To start using storytelling, inspect your preferred influencer platform. Look for specific micro-influencers who already have a story.
For example, do they love to travel?
Are they a popular niche micro-influencer?
The goal here is to find influencers who fit your brand story.
For example, let’s say your brand donates part of the sales it makes to charity. In that case, find someone who travels the world volunteering and helping third-world communities.
If your brand gives computers to underprivileged kids, find an influencer who works with similar groups.
Telling a detailed story with your marketing is one of the best ways to drive sales and gain more customers.
I’ve personally used it on my blog to gain more clients and scale growth.
I even use it on social media when I share personal posts:
It helps connect people to your brand in ways that sponsored posts and UGC simply can’t.
It’s another level of influencer marketing that gives people inspiration, purpose, and a reason to love (and talk about) your product.
Be sure to incorporate storytelling into any micro-influencer campaign you run.
Driving more sales and landing more customers is a grind.
That’s especially true in today’s world where every niche and subset of that niche has a competitor.
There are countless businesses just like mine and just like yours.
So how do you compete? How do you drive sales in such a difficult environment?
Well, most people turn to SEO or PPC.
However, SEO takes months to start bringing in reputable, quality traffic, and PPC is a nightmare when you have other things to focus on.
So what do you do?
You start investing in influencer marketing.
Specifically, with micro-influencers.
It’s a growing niche within the influencer-marketing space that is seeing a huge return on investment.
Start by scouting micro-influencers. HYPR is one of the best tools you can use to compile a list of micro-influencers to utilize.
Remember, influencers with fewer than 10,000 followers will net you the best bang for your buck when it comes to engagement.
Next, use campaign-specific hashtags. That’s one of the best ways to use micro-influencers to drive tons of growth.
Take advantage of the buying power that user-generated content can give you.
Create sponsored posts to spread awareness quickly.
Finally, get your influencers to tell a story with their posts. It’s one of the best ways to connect users to your product.
How have you found success using nano- or micro-influencers in your marketing strategy?