Utilizing Influencer Marketing for Multi-Location Businesses

Influencer marketing has exploded in growth and impact in the marketing world, and it shows no signs of slowing. According to a recent survey, the size of the influencer market is expected to balloon to $24 billion in 2024. Most multi-location businesses would benefit from leveraging influencer marketing to expand their reach and build brand credibility. For multi-location businesses, local influencers can help drive traffic and conversions, but also a dedicated community. Yet, finding the right influencer(s) and measuring the impact of influencer campaigns can be somewhat tricky in a competitive market. If you’re ready to jump into influencer marketing, keep reading!

Why work with influencers?

When influencers first popped onto the scene, there were plenty of skeptics about the enduring impact on brands. However, it’s becoming obvious that influencers are only continuing to gain traction and brands are jumping at the bit to partner with them. Influencer marketing should be part of any comprehensive marketing strategy as there are numerous benefits to partnering with an influencer.

Enhanced engagement: Since influencers are influencers because they have a rapt audience, any influencer partnership is likely to drive better engagement for the brand and the influencer. There is a huge caveat here. If the content is not relevant to the audience, both the brand and the influencer risk backlash.
Increased audience reach: As a brand or multi-location business, you might have a small sphere of influence. Working with an influencer is a great way to expand your reach and get in front of a new audience. That might mean engaging Gen Z or targeting people in a certain geographical region.
Personalization: Most influencers are influencers in a particular area or industry, which can help brands send personalized content that is relevant to a very targeted audience. The more relevant and personalized the content, the higher the engagement and better the impact.
Vetted audience: Not only are you primed to reach a new audience, you are also getting in front of a vetted audience. Most influencers that are selling partnerships have to ensure the quality of their audience and services, meaning you’ll get access to a vetted and engaged audience, not just bots. This can vastly improve the impact of your campaigns.

How to identify relevant influencers in your target markets

Finding the right influencer should be your top priority. Start by building a very clear understanding of your own audience. If you know, for example, what topics in healthcare are most engaging for your audience, you can select influencers that talk about that content or are experts in that area. Additionally, you can take a geographical approach as a multi-location business. Some of our clients have also had great luck with industry-specific influencers.

Next, decide on what type of influencer you are looking to engage. If you are new to influencer marketing and want to try out a test collaboration, maybe a less well-known influencer is a great place to start as they will be more economical and more willing to work with your terms. The more followers the influencer has, the higher the price tag and stricter the stipulations of what they require when working with a brand. According to Sprout Social, there are four different types of influencers:

Mega-influencers: These influencers have over 1 million followers
Macro-influencers: 100,000 to 1 million followers
Mico-influencers: 10,000 to 100,000 followers
Nano-influencers: Less than 10,000 followers.

However, before you seek out an influencer, you have to have a clear picture of what you’re hoping to get out of the engagement and how much you’re willing to pay for certain campaigns or media spots. Leave some room for experimentation and testing, as most influencers will be willing to provide suggestions for things that have worked well with other partners.

Collaborating with influencers to create authentic content

One of the main goals of any influencer marketing collaboration is to create engaging, authentic content that speaks to your audience or solves a problem. Alternatively, you can always send products to an influencer and ask them to give an honest review. However, some of the most impactful campaigns are thoughtful, without being overly salesy. Find an influencer that will work with you to craft compelling content to achieve your objectives. They will most likely have a preferred content medium, but you can always confirm with them that you can repurpose content in order to get even more value from your collaboration.

Measuring the impact of influencer marketing

As with any marketing campaign, be sure to set clear objectives and metrics for measuring the success of the influencer campaign. These goals should also be clearly aligned with your broader marketing and organizational goals, rather than just ad hoc campaigns. Do a bit of research before reaching out to influencers to see what kind of budget you’ll need in order to achieve those goals.

Spending $10,000 to generate 500 leads might not be a bad deal if you can prove a high ROI or it leads to direct sales. It really depends on your brand’s goals. Multi-location businesses might consider pooling resources across some locations to work with a bigger influencer or run a bigger campaign. Yet, sometimes a nano-influencer collaboration, which is estimated to run between $10 to $100+ per post, is all you need to meet your initial goals.

Some of the most common metrics used to measure the impact of influencer marketing campaigns include:

Reach and impressions: These are two useful metrics that tell you how many people have seen your content (reach) and how many times your content was shown (impressions). And, while it doesn’t tell you if anyone read or interacted with your content, it’s a good indication of audience size.
Engagement: This counts anyone that liked, commented on, or shared your content. It’s a very useful statistic as it indicates if your content resonate with your audience. If people are willing to engage with your content, it’s a great indication that they might be willing to follow your brand or make a purchase.
Audience growth: One of the main objectives of brands seeking out influencer marketing is to grow their current audience by engaging a new demographic or enhancing the one they already have.
Brand mentions: How many times your brand is mentioned across social media channels can be useful if you’re hoping to build brand awareness.
Traffic: It can be useful to know how many people visited your website or a landing page after an influencer post, especially if you are interested in increasing conversions.

Influencer marketing is a fun, creative pursuit that many multi-location businesses should be leveraging. With a little experimentation, an investment in influencer marketing can go a long way!

No matter where you are in your influencer journey, MDG can help. We’ve worked with countless multi-location businesses building strong influencer marketing strategies that convert and deliver on business objectives.