Forget About Influencers—Here’s How to Find Brand Advocates | All Business

Most people are familiar with influencer marketing—the concept of using popular social media influencers to help promote your business. Working with influencers can sometimes be beyond a small business’s budget. That’s where brand advocates come in.

What are brand advocates?

Brand advocates differ from influencers in several important ways. The influencer’s goal in promoting your product or service is to make money for themselves or grow their follower/fan base. The relationship is transactional: If you stop paying them, they stop promoting you—it’s that simple. Brand advocates, however, aren’t in it for the money. They’re regular customers who want to tell others about your business because:

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How To Get Influencers To Promote Your Product | AllBusiness.com

For promoting a brand, influencer marketing has become a key tool for digital marketers. So how can a small business find influencers and what are best practices to get them to promote your brand and company? From ensuring that your product aligns with the influencer’s brand to making them the protagonist of your compelling story, 14 entrepreneurs and marketers share their best advice.

How to get influencers to promote your business

1. Turn to influencers in compatible industries

“To find influencers to promote your product, you need to find people in similar industries who have similar target audiences. For instance, if you’re a healthy food and beverage company, it makes sense to partner with an Olympic athlete. Or, if you sell products for the home, then a partnership with a well-known interior designer would be a good fit. Create professional relationships with compatible influencers and it won’t be a hard sell for them to promote your brand.”

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Influencer Marketing May Be Losing Its Influence | Business

“How to take a pic worthy of an Instagram influencer,” OnMilwaukee reported last week. “We asked Dallas influencers to explain what or whom they are influencing,” posted the Dallas Observer the same day. A few days later, Olivia Jade, beneficiary of the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, announced she’d be leaving the University of Southern California to become a full-time influencer.

At this point, it’s safe to say that influencer marketing is no longer the secret sauce it once was. There’s also some indication that the power of influencer marketing has peaked.

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