How To Work With Local Influencers

FREE GUIDE: How To Grow Your Local Instagram Following

Do you open your Instagram app every morning and feel like your growth has gone stagnant?

You're showing up and consistently posting and even engaging with locals.

But you're not seeing a huge tick in new followers or sales.

One way we can build momentum and create buzz around our businesses is by partnering with influencers in our local community.

You've likely seen other businesses working with influencers, but maybe the whole thing just seems overwhelming. Maybe you don't even know where to start, you're not sure how to find them, what to say, or how to go about any of it.

Over the next few weeks I'll have videos coming out all around:

• how to find local influencers
• how to approach them
• things to look for in choosing the right influencers
• how you can start working with influencers to reach more people in your local community.

Today, I'll give you a general overview of what working with an influencer looks like. This actually happens to be my area of expertise and I think I'm in a really good position to share about it because I come from having the experience on the influencer side and the business side.

Today, I'm going to share from the influencer perspective.

So as you may know, I started my blog Southern Flair over 11 years ago here in Baton Rouge. It's a Baton Rouge lifestyle blog where I help women live their best life right here in Louisiana. I cover things to do locally, highlight local businesses and introduce my readers to cool local people. I'm perfect for local businesses to partner with because they know my audience is their audience.

Many influencers have large followings with people ALL over, but it's likely they still have a local following within that following. This is something you could always ask the influencer to determine if it's a good fit or not.

SIDE NOTE: BLOGGER VS INFLUENCER

I'll use blogger and influencer interchangeably.

But here's the difference: a blogger has a physical website that they create content for. Influencers are people on social media (usually Instagram, YouTube or TikTok) who have larger followings and people follow them for what they post.

Bloggers are for sure influencers. But influencers aren't necessarily bloggers.

HOW INFLUENCERS WORK WITH BRANDS:

Influencers work with brands and businesses in many ways. This could be:

• Instagram posts
• Giveaways
• Instastory posts
• Blog Posts
• Videos
• Product Highlights/Product Placement
• Events
• Affiliates/Promo Codes

The ways are endless!

You need to decide what your main goal is when partnering with an influencer.

For example, if your goal is brand awareness and to grow a local following, you could partner for an Instagram giveaway, blog post or Instastory post.

(I have a video all around how to host an effective giveaway here.)

If your goal is to get direct sales or bookings, then you could offer the influencer a promo code to share with their audience.

If your goal is to bring in foot traffic, you could host an event with the influencer.

TEST + EVALUATE

If you partner with an influencer and give them a promo code and not very many people take them up on it, just be curious about why?

Was the offer not compelling enough?

What the messaging off?

Was the influencer's audience not the right people?

No matter what your results after working with an influencer, always evaluate it:

• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• What can you improve next time?

TO PAY OR TRADE:

Do you have to pay influencers?

It depends.

There aren't any regulations or set rates.

Influencers set their own prices, and some may even be willing to work with you in exchange for your goods or service.

I recommend making an offer to the influencer. This gives them the opportunity to counter and negotiate.

You can also request their rate sheet or media kit up front. These will typically include their pricing, demographics of their readers, their online stats and number of followers.

MY OPINION:

I'll be honest here: I typically don't work for trade.

As a blogger, that's my business and how I make income. I've put in over 11 years and thousands of hours building up my own skills, building and nurturing my audience and creating that relationship with them, creating content, investing in myself to learn - it's a business.

Just like you sell a service or a product, the content creation is the service that's being provided by the influencer.

Content creation is a service.

It may not look like it takes a lot of time to post that one picture or film that Instastory, but what you don't see are the years of hard work that have gotten them to that point that you would benefit from working with them.

START WHERE YOU ARE:

If you don't have a budget, then offer trade with the influencer until you can gain some traction and build your budget. The worst they say is no to trade. And that's totally fine.

When you find the right bloggers to work with after some experience and trial and error, it's likely you'll find yourself wanting to pay them because you know you'll see the return on your investment.

I have multiple local businesses who I work with over and over. And they pay me every time. Because every time they invest with me, they end up making way more than they paid me to begin with. So it's a win for all of us.

PATIENCE IS KEY

I'll teach you over the next few weeks how to find those perfect partnerships, but I do want to say that patience is key to working with influencers and just like anything else there's a learning curve and things to test.

Don't give up after one round.

Don't come into expecting amazing results.

Come into it with a sense of curiously and be willing to invest in influencers and in your business without that instant gratification.

Know that you are planting seeds and people are seeing them even if people aren't getting out their credit card the day they see your collaboration together.

THE LOCAL INSTAGRAM FORMULA

If this is resonating with you, and you want to get your Instagram feed in tip top shape before you start partnering with influencers, then I invite you to grab my Local Instagram Formula workbook -- for only $27.

My client Heidi was feeling burned out and honestly wasn't loving her time on Instagram. But she went through the workbook and said it was the GOLD she needed to give her the inspiration and push to start creating content again -- with more clarity and purpose.

Grab it here.