How to Collaborate With Influencers When Running a Small Business

For small businesses, influencers have recently become an essential tool for reaching a wider audience and building trust. Small businesses, in particular, can benefit from influencer collaborations as they offer an affordable way to promote products or services. If you’re running a small business and wondering how to effectively collaborate with influencers, here’s a brief, comprehensive guide to help you get started.

Define your campaign objectives and goals

The first step in any successful influencer marketing campaign is defining clear goals. What do you hope to achieve through this collaboration? Whether you’re aiming for brand awareness, increasing website traffic, generating sales or maybe launching a new product? Understanding your objectives helps you select the right influencer and decide on the type of content to create, while setting measurable goals ensures you can track the success of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Identify the right influencers and build authentic relationships

Choosing the right influencers for your business is critical. Focus on finding influencers whose audience aligns with your target demographic. It’s not just about follower count – engagement is key. Micro-influencers, who typically have smaller but highly engaged audiences, can be a great choice for small businesses due to their authenticity and close relationship with followers. Look for influencers whose values and niche match your brand, whether that’s fashion, beauty, wellness or tech.

Also, research their content style, tone and past collaborations to ensure they’re a good fit for your brand.

Influencer collabs work best when they stem from genuine relationships. Instead of immediately reaching out with a pitch, take some time to engage with their content. Follow them on social media, like their posts and leave comments to show your interest. A more personal connection also fosters a more authentic collaboration, which resonates better with their followers.

Offer value to the influencer and be clear about expectations

When collaborating with influencers, remember that they’re not just advertising your product – they’re also creating content that their audience values. Offer them value that feels worthwhile. This could be in the form of your product or service, exclusive discounts for their followers, or even a special behind-the-scenes experience. If the collaboration involves payment, ensure that the compensation reflects the influencer’s efforts and audience size. You can classify them as either micro-influencers or macro-influencers to start with!

Being transparent about what you expect and offering them something of value (whether monetary or product-based) strengthens the relationship and motivates influencers to promote your brand genuinely.

Be specific about what you want from the collaboration: what type of content should they create (Instagram posts, stories, videos, blog posts, etc.)? What is the timeline? How frequently will they post? Define compensation – whether that’s a flat fee, a commission on sales or a product exchange and agree on terms beforehand.

Let influencers be creative but still monitor and track results

Don’t forget to allow influencers the freedom to create content that aligns with their personal style. Influencers know their audience best and would like to create content that resonates with their personal style. This creative freedom can make the campaign feel less like a paid advertisement but more like a recommendation from a trusted source.

Once your campaign is live, it’s crucial to track its performance. Keep an eye on key metrics such as engagement (likes, comments, shares), website traffic, conversions and sales. Many influencers provide analytics on the content they create, so use this data to evaluate the success of the campaign.

And finally, try to foster long-term collaborations with the right influencers

Instead of viewing influencer collaborations as one-off projects, consider building long-term relationships and involving the best influencers in multiple, ongoing campaigns. Consistent partnerships with influencers can help solidify your brand’s presence and credibility. Influencers who genuinely love your products or services can become loyal advocates, which is invaluable for small businesses. Moreover, you can negotiate further costs and reduce them with multiple campaigns spread across the year or over different seasons.

Collaborating with influencers can be a powerful and cost-effective marketing strategy for small businesses. With careful planning and the right influencers on your side, you can take your small business to new heights and reach a wider audience in an authentic way.

Author: Karolina Króliczek is the founder of PR Insight, a Polish PR agency in London and the first Polish-British digital PR and SEO content agency.