An increasingly digital landscape is changing the way businesses function and customers make decisions. Clients act more on recommendations from third parties than any brand itself. An influencer can drive traffic to your website, enhance your social media exposure, and help you boost sales through their recommendations. With the fall of outbound marketing and traditional advertising methods, influencer marketing is turning out to be one of the most powerful methods to attract customers.

Influencer marketing has proven to be the fastest-growing online customer-acquisition channel out there, leaving behind organic search, paid search, and email marketing. This type of marketing focuses on people who create high-impact conversations with customers to drive your brand’s message. 81 percent of the marketers who have used influencer marketing have found it to be effective.

To further solidify it's place in the business world, 84 percent of the marketers plan to launch at least one influencer marketing campaign in 2017. Considering that influencer marketing can be effective for your business, it is important to make sure that you keep the following tips in mind to ensure its success.

Find the Right Influencers

Choosing the right influencer for your brand is important. You need to find someone who is interested in your brand offerings, based on their previous posts and discussions.

Think about whether they will represent your brand or not. Look at their social media profiles as well, to evaluate them and check for their credibility. If they don’t have values that align with your business objectives and goals, they will not prove to be a good fit for your brand.

Quality Over Quantity

Don’t select the influencer only based on the follower count. Look at the engagement rates and the type of engagement their posts are receiving. Simply put, don’t ignore influencers who are good but have a small audience.

Influencers with massive followings who can’t reach your brand’s target market will not be helpful to you. If you want to reach the audience on Instagram, choosing an influencer with a smaller fan following but taking amazing photos may prove to be better than selecting a celebrity.

Allow Influencers Their Creativity

Influencers are likable and popular among their audience. You should allow them to create content to promote your offerings as they have a good idea of what will push their followers. They know what their audience likes, how to make them respond and what will lead to better engagement.

What you create might not gel with their audience. So, it is better to allow them to do all the creative work themselves. You can, however, brainstorm and spark ideas with them on how you can deliver your message in the best way.

Maintain Relationships

Many businesses reach out to their influencers only when they need their help, which is not the right thing to do. Maintaining the relationship with them on a regular basis is key to future success. If they feel connected to you on a personal level, they’ll like to work your offerings into their coverage with interest.

Ask them what is working and share your ideas too for improving the engagement. Send them thank-you e-mails and gifts, appreciating them for their contribution. Trust me, it'll go a long way down the road.

Align with Other Marketing Mediums

Just launching an influencer marketing campaign won't lead to success. You have to ensure that your website, blog, and social networking platforms are geared towards influencer marketing. This type of marketing results in brand awareness, which can make consumers check your social media and visit your blogs.

By having interesting and engaging content with attractive images, you can create a good user experience. If you have consistency from your influencer marketing campaign to your website and blog, your audience will consider your brand credible.

Measure Results

It is crucial to measure the results of your influencer marketing campaign to ensure that you have achieved your goals. You can check whether you've been successful or not by considering the mentions of your brand, how many times your content has been shared and how convincingly your influencers have positioned your brand.

Measure your ROI through page views, demand generation, and lead conversions, along with using analytical tools to get an idea of what changes need to be incorporated for maximizing the results of your campaign.