5 steps to creating influencer marketing campaigns for your small business

As a small business owner, you already know the power of word-of-mouth marketing. No matter how great your branding or email campaigns, nothing beats your biggest fans singing your praises.

Today, most word-of-mouth marketing takes place online, and referrals spread farther and wider than ever before thanks to social media. In addition to customers sharing your brand with friends and family, you can invest in influencer marketing campaigns, in which trusted figures on social media share your brand with an audience of thousands.

Influencer marketing is a form of digital marketing where brands pay influencers to promote their products or services. Influencer marketing strategies are growing in popularity—and it’s not just for big brands, either: Influencer marketing spend has grown steadily year over year, with United States brands spending $1.95 billion on Instagram influencer campaigns in 2023 alone.

Below, learn about influencer marketing for small businesses and how an influencer marketing strategy can benefit your business. Plus, get tips to launch your first campaign from other local business owners and marketing agencies that have run successful influencer campaigns.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a blend of content marketing and social media marketing where businesses partner with online content creators to promote a product or service in their own words.

Influencers are often bloggers, vloggers, TikTok or Instagram personalities, or other public figures who have an engaged online following. Typically, brands hire influencers to recommend products or services to their followers in the form of sponsored posts, brand giveaways, product reviews, or giveaways and contests.

Influencer marketing is similar to celebrity endorsements, but compared to celebrities, influencers are after relatability. They build audiences with similar tastes, interests, and hobbies, and often encourage their followers to try new products or services.

Influencer marketing is also much more approachable for small businesses, since you can partner with smaller influencers—also known as nano- or micro-influencers—who have a lower budget but are still influential in their specific community.

Benefits of influencer marketing for small businesses

Influencer marketing can be a powerful tool for small business owners to build brand awareness, attract new customers, and create a passionate community of regulars. Customers are more likely to purchase products from people they trust. When an influencer shares one of your products or services, it may result in new customers for your business. These people, in turn, will share your brand with their friends and family members—creating a snowball effect for word-of-mouth marketing.

However, influencer marketing is a relatively new marketing strategy that’s constantly evolving with social media platforms. To determine if influencer marketing is right for you, examine some of the key benefits of influencer marketing for small businesses:

• Establish trust and authenticity for your brand: Influencer marketing campaigns are effective because of the established trust between influencer and audience. Typically, followers view their favorite influencers as authentic, relatable figures, so their recommendations often carry more weight than traditional advertisements.
• Target niche audience segments: Influencers build followings based on their unique lifestyles, meaning no two influencers are completely alike. When you work with influencers, their followers give your small business a new audience to tap into, with different demographics, interests, and past purchase history than your typical target audience.
• Deliver campaign creative: Influencers have a keen understanding of what motivates their audience. When launching a new marketing campaign, they may prefer to generate their own campaign ideas and create their own social captions, videos, and photos—saving you time and money on content creation.

Ready to reach new audience segments and build brand awareness through influencer marketing for your small business? To launch your first campaign, follow these five steps.

1. Discover local influencers in your community

The first step to launching your campaign is compiling a list of potential influencers to partner with. Look for those whose following reflects your target audience, local community, or industry. For example, if you’re a Black-owned beauty business based in Detroit, you might look for Midwest-based Black creators who create makeup looks and frequently try new products. If you’re a landscaping business in California, look for local home renovation influencers seeking help from a pro.

Don’t write off micro-influencers or nano-influencers (emerging figures with a smaller following). While they may have a lower follower count, their engagement rate might be higher—thanks to a growing, tight-knit audience.

Pay close attention to [potential influencers’] audiences. What do they talk about on their page? What’s their niche? You don’t want to work with just any influencer because they have a big following. If you’re investing that time and money into someone, you want to make sure it’s a good match.

— Miriam Fried, owner and head trainer at MF Strong

Hear more: Capitalizing on Trends in Pop Culture & Social Media, Yelp’s Local Business Summit

Follow these tips to find relevant influencers:

• Search popular hashtags: Search location-based hashtags like #PhiladelphiaEats or #AustinSmallBusinesses to find influencers promoting other local establishments. Not sure which hashtags to use? Try a hashtag generator, like TagsFinder, to find popular hashtags in your area.
• Search Facebook Groups: Saturation on Facebook is far higher than Instagram and TikTok, making it difficult for local businesses to establish a footprint on the platform. That said, Facebook Groups are your secret weapon for finding new connections. Search for Facebook Groups in your area to find influencers who post regularly.
• Leverage influencer marketing platforms: Many platforms exist to connect influencers and brands. Companies like BuzzSumo, Upfluence, and HypeAuditor contain databases of thousands of influencers, plus filters to narrow down your search.
• Check out your competitors: Check out who your competitors follow and create a short list of potential influencers to partner with. If your competitors are already doing influencer campaigns, do research on who promotes their products.
• Look for creators who are already talking about your products: Have local influencers already posted about your business? Social media advertising platforms TikTok’s Spark Ads allow you to turn existing, organic TikToks into promoted ads, which can also lead to future partnerships.

2. Launch an outreach campaign

Reaching out to potential influencers is like pitching your business to an investor. Come prepared to sell the influencer on a potential partnership between your respective brands. It’s okay to start with a cold email or direct message, but a warm introduction from a friend, colleague, or vendor can help seal the deal.

Follow these tips for successful influencer outreach:

• Do your research: Research the influencer’s feed prior to pitching them. Show them you understand their target audience, content, and past collaborations. For example, you wouldn’t ask a podcast creator to promote your product in an Instagram Reel, or a Tiktok creator to make a plug on LinkedIn.
• Write a personal message: Template emails help save time and energy, but they aren’t for everyone. When you reach out to an influencer, customize your emails and explain why you think a partnership would be mutually beneficial.
• Come prepared with a scope and budget: A fruitful partnership requires both sides to submit their terms and non-negotiables. Before your first meeting, outline your half of the agreement, including your desired content format, marketing budget, and deadline. (Remember this is a negotiation, and you may need to be flexible on scope or budget.)

Pro tip: Some influencer marketing platforms like Upfluence and HypeAuditor also allow you to send personalized emails to influencers directly through the platform.

3. Brainstorm content ideas that resonate with your target audience

Content creation is a highly creative process. Many influencers will typically draft their own captions and create their own visuals for each campaign. However, this doesn’t mean you should take a backseat to influencer marketing. Just as influencers know their audience, you know your products or services better than anyone.

To help streamline each campaign and build powerful influencer partnerships, submit your own ideas for each campaign. Include the following in your creative brief:

• Talking points for each product or service: What do you want influencers to mention about your product or service? For example, if you own an HVAC business, write down the major benefits of regular AC maintenance and the risks of going without.
• Invitations to visit your business: Influencer collaborations are more effective when an influencer truly believes in the product. Find time for them to come and experience your business as a potential customer. For example, if you own a local boutique, invite influencers to your store to try on clothes—and if it’s in your contract, you can even film these excursions for content.
• Success stories and case studies: The right influencers will want to show the depth of your services by sharing real testimonials or case studies. For example, if you own a wedding planning business, share stories of when your team saved the day for a couple or brought a dream wedding to life.

4. Create long-lasting partnerships with influencers

Just like loyal regulars generate more business than one-time customers, repeat partnerships are more beneficial than one-off collaborations. Think about the influencers you follow: If they post a product once, you may not take notice. However, if they continuously rave about a product or frequently incorporate it into their routine, you might eventually make a purchase.

Consider these tips to turn influencer collaborations into lasting partnerships:

• Experiment with different types of content: Everyone absorbs information in different ways, so don’t be afraid to experiment with the medium. If a sponsored post doesn’t pan out, consider conducting a giveaway, doing a special discount code, being featured on the influencer’s stories, or collaborating at an event.
• Allow content creators to create: Each influencer has their own tone, personality, and aesthetic that resonates with their audience. While you may provide a few talking points, give them the freedom to put their own creative spin on each post. Remember, no one knows an influencer’s audience better than the influencer themselves.
• Know when to cut ties: Not every influencer will transform into a lifelong brand ambassador for your business. If a collaboration doesn’t produce results, it’s perfectly acceptable to cut ties and save your budget for a more beneficial relationship. Write exit parameters in your contracts in case this situation arises.

Reach out to people who are already talking about you. If you’re a restaurant, and you have some influencers in your local area who are coming in all the time, see how you can partner with that influencer. Can you invite them to have their own dish on the menu that their followers [could try]? Those kinds of partnerships are another way to inspire community that [doesn’t require] spending thousands of dollars. Partnerships that are individualized, creative, and community-focused are a great place to start.

— Erica Spitzley, host of Marketing Happy Hour

Read more: Crack the social media code with the hosts of Marketing Happy Hour

5. Monitor metrics to move potential customers down the sales funnel

The real power of influencer marketing is connecting your brand with potential customers who were previously unaware of your business. Influencers provide you with a highly engaged pool of qualified leads, but it’s your job to convert those leads into paying customers.

To determine whether an influencer campaign is working, monitor key metrics like website traffic, brand mentions, and social media follower growth. Ultimately, conversion rates, or sales directly attributed to the campaign, will be the most important in determining a campaign’s cost-effectiveness.

To ensure each campaign is cost effective, leverage these tips for converting leads:

• Keep your website up-to-date: If an influencer promotes a certain product, but that product isn’t available on your ecommerce platform, you could miss out on potential sales. Ensure your website is up-to-date and give any influencer-endorsed products or services top placement.
• Consistently review engagement metrics: Meet with influencers regularly to review metrics for your campaign. They can share engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares), while you can share website traffic and SEO rankings from Google Analytics. Together, you might find ways to tweak and improve your campaigns over time.
• Claim your business on Yelp: As more people hear about your business through influencer marketing, it’s likely that they’ll be searching online to learn even more about you. Claim your business on Yelp to take control of your page and keep all of your business information up to date. Plus your Yelp Page is a place where customers can write reviews and share photos, helping you keep the momentum going.

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Reach new customers with influencer marketing for your small business

Influencer marketing is a mutually beneficial partnership between brands and influencers, where businesses pay influencers to promote their products and services on social media.

To establish lasting partnerships with local influencers, business owners can use influencer marketing platforms to discover micro-influencers and write customized outreach emails. Once you partner with an influencer to create engaging content, ensure cost-effectiveness by monitoring key metrics and keeping your website and Yelp Page up to date.

Learn more by exploring how social media can help scale your business.