Creator marketing is one of the best ways to grow your business using social media. They are social media content creators who has established themselves as an authority in their particular niche with at least 1000 followers who regularly engage with them. You may think that it’s only for ‘big’ businesses; however, creator marketing for small businesses can be an affordable way to kickstart a product marketing campaign, build more awareness of your brand, and reach new audiences.

As a small business, reaching out to creators may be daunting. You may want to know what kind of creators would be right for your brand, and how you should talk to them to get them on your campaign. Below, we have compiled a few steps through which you can bolster your brand recognition and increase traffic to your site with a creator that’s exactly right for you!

Creator Marketing For Small Businesses—What To Do

Here are a few steps you can follow to get started utilizing creators to help grow your brand.

Identify What You Want From The Campaign

The first thing you need to do before starting your creator marketing campaign is to identify what results you want from the campaign. Do you want to create more brand awareness? Are you looking for a long-term creator campaign that is more like a partnership? By identifying what your goals are, you will be able to look for the creators who would fit the campaign. Moreover, you will be able to find creators based on their skill set and experience.

Find Creators On Social Media

The next step in creator marketing for small businesses is to find various creators on social media. One of the ways you can find creators is by looking at your own following. Is someone commenting on your social media? Are they tagging you in their photos? If so, that means that they are already interested in your brand and would probably want to work with you if given the opportunity. Another way to seek creators is to look up relevant keywords related to your brand. You will likely come across people using those keywords with similar content to what you post on your own blog. We suggest you create a list of creators for your campaign and not rely on one or two.

Research The Creator’s Social Media Handle

This is a very important step in influence marketing for small businesses. When you find creators who are somewhat relevant to your brand and have a good following, research their social media handle. Read their posts and identify their voice, their views, their goals, and their style. When you evaluate these things and compare them with your brand, you will get an idea of whether or not the creator would be right for your brand.

Make Use Of Creator Research Tools

Creator marketing is a huge business. In fact, it’s now a $10 billion + per year industry. This means that it is a well-researched and evolved industry where there are various third-party tools that help you create, execute and manage creator campaigns. They can be a great resource in helping you select creators who are eager to participate in brand collaborations.

Comment On The Creator’s Social Media

Before you reach out to the creator with an email or DM, take the time to comment on the creator’s posts. Let them know that you like their content and that you appreciate the time and effort they put into their work. This shows the creator that you have taken the time to view their content and may give you a leg up when you contact them.

Email the Creator

The last step in reaching out to creators is to send them an Email describing your brand, your campaign, and why you’d like to work with them specifically. We highly recommend personalizing the email because an email template suggests that you’ve been sending out these emails to a lot of creators and don’t really care about that creator in particular. A personalized email shows that you’re genuinely interested in working with the creator and have taken the time to evaluate their content before you selected them for the campaign. You may discuss the compensation methods you would have for the campaign and the creator’s availability.

Complete Creator Management

If you can’t or don’t want to take the time to reach out to creators and manage the campaign yourself, PopTribe can do it all for you. As we believe in organic creator marketing, we help creators reach out to you with the products they would like to evaluate. It’s your call whether or not to accept their selection. If you do, they will then be obligated to create content around your product, which will then drive enthusiastic traffic to your site. We take care of all the minutiae involved in creator management, while you reap the benefits of multiple creators singing the praises of your products and brand. Learn more and get started today!