Tech companies increasingly recognize the power of influencer marketing to reach new audiences and drive sales. Through partnering with content creators, businesses can establish credibility and trust among their target demographic, as well as gain meaningful insights about their customer base.
Influencer marketing for tech companies
In this blog post, we’ll provide tips for influencer marketing for tech companies to maximize results.
1. Establish your parameters
Before you start hunting for content creators, your team will need to determine your budget, as well as who you are trying to reach, where and how.
As a tech company, you may be looking for influencers with a niche audience, not mega followings. Now that you’ve set your budget, establish the who, where, and how of your campaign:
Audience
Who are you trying to reach? For B2B tech companies, your audience demographics may be guided by job titles or interests rather than age or income.
Platform
On what social media channels are you trying to reach them? If you’re selling CSM software, for example, LinkedIn could reach your target audience better than TikTok.
Format
Are you looking for an influencer to create a video tutorial? Live stream? Create text and images? An example: Unboxing a laptop and showcasing its features and benefits will lend itself to long-form video.
Once you’ve determined your budget for the next campaign and how and where you’ll reach your target audience, it’s time to move on to goals.
2. Determine your goals
While “sales” might seem like the obvious answer to “What do you want to accomplish by using influencer marketing services?” don’t limit your strategy to this goal. Instead, consider other campaign goals, which may provide long-term advantages that move customers down the funnel. These might include:
- Lead generation
- Downloads
- Brand awareness
- Website traffic
- Increased social media engagement and followers
- Reputation management
By determining your goals before you look for an influencer, you’ll not only be able to narrow down your search results for a content creator faster, but it will also help your marketing team measure campaign results.
3. Find the right influencer
Being in charge of influencer marketing for tech companies can create its own challenges. You need a content creator who shares some knowledge of your specific industry, who can reach and engage your target audience, and who has the passion and interest to promote your products or services in a way that is both authentic and convincing.
Consider these three methods to find content marketers for your next campaign.
Tap into your company’s social media followers
No one will promote your brand’s products or services like a satisfied customer. Skim your company’s social media followers for customers who already know and like what you offer, then check their social media accounts to determine if any of these promoters might fit as your influencer.
Do they have the right audience? How is their engagement? Does it look like they create original content? Do they have any experience as social media influencers?
Beyond your company’s followers, check for other tech experts who may be talking up your brand, products or services. Marketing tools, such as social listening, can help you find that knowledge brand advocate who simply doesn’t follow your company’s accounts on social media.
Search for industry-specific hashtags
If you have a solid understanding of where your potential customers spend their time on social media, head to those platforms and search for hashtags that represent your products like #WearableTech and #AI or services like #cybersecurity and #AppDevelopment. This may help you flesh out content creators in your industry who are open to partnering on tech-related campaigns.
Once you find a handful of potential influencers, review their accounts to get an idea of the type of content they share, the number and engagement of their followers, their tech-related experience and knowledge, and any influencer marketing experience.
Use influencer software
The fastest way to find experienced, tech-savvy content creators is through influencer software.
The free options, typically databases of content creators, can be helpful for startups and brands with a small budget. The best option is an influencer marketplace: The Creator Marketplace®.
The Creator Marketplace gives creators a place to showcase their work and offer meaningful statistics, and communications tools to facilitate a two-way collaboration.
Beyond giving you access to detailed creator profiles, influencer marketing tools can provide essential services to help you with content mining, social listing, campaign metrics, and integrations with services like Google Analytics.
Savvy tech marketers know that the investment can be invaluable to the future of all influencer marketing campaigns.
4. Measure campaign results
Once you’ve found an influencer, solidified a contract, and launched your first influencer campaign, it’s time to measure the results against your goals. Remember, your return on investment shouldn’t be measured purely in terms of direct sales. Your team should be analyzing the campaign’s success via trackable KPIs.
Think of your first few campaigns as foundation-laying work. With each successful campaign, you’ll see greater results and impact over the long haul.
Influencers:
Looking to partner with industry-leading brands? Create your free profile today.
Marketers:
The world’s biggest brands trust IZEA. Find which of our influencer marketing software or managed service solutions are right for you.
