Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective marketing tools that businesses swear by today. In fact, 92% of marketers who used an influencer marketing strategy found it to be effective.

That is because influencers wield immense power and authority in the online world. And they serve as a great medium to drive epic traffic to your site.

According to a survey by Linqia, 56% of marketers use influencer marketing to get traffic to their websites.

Image via Linqia

Increased traffic brings more leads, and a higher number of leads means a higher number of conversions. Not only that, influencer marketing builds greater brand awareness, drives more engagement, and generates more sales.

Another great thing about influencer marketing is that it’s cost-effective. You just need to create a strategy, choose your influencers wisely, and develop long-term relationships with them.

In this post, we’ll discuss 9 hacks to help you create an effective influencer marketing strategy to boost your website traffic.

1. Identify the Right Influencers

The first step towards an effective influencer marketing strategy is finding influencers who are right for your business. They should have a genuine influence over their followers.

Beware of accounts with a long list of fake followers. You need to choose influencers based on their niche, reach, relevance, and authority.

Look for influencers who have a sizeable number of followers on their blog or social media accounts. Check whether their audience is the same as your target audience.

Another thing that you should keep in mind while selecting your influencers is their authority – whether they are experts in their fields and whether their audiences trust them.

Their engagement rate would be a great indicator of how effective their influence is.

Look at how Maybelline is winning with their collaboration with Gigi Hadid.

Image via Instagram

There are many influencer marketing platforms where you can find relevant influencers.

Grin, for example, can help you find, recruit, and engage top social influencers. Their platform gives you complete control over your influencer marketing campaigns.

2. Help Influencers in Creating Fabulous Content

Have you ever wondered what is it that makes influencers who they are?

That’s right. Their content. Content is still the king and it is what differentiates influencers from ordinary people. Influencers create great content that has the power to influence people’s decisions.

According to a study by Linqia, 51% of marketers who are using influencer content say that it outperforms branded content.

Since influencer content is very effective at driving traffic, help your influencers create more engaging and shareable content. Provide them with the necessary resources they need to convey your message effectively.

For example, product samples, their benefits and features, unique selling points, value proposition, or your brand stories – anything that aids their content strategy.

Here’s an example of an influencer’s post that’s informative as well as appealing.

Image via Instagram

3. Encourage the Use of Calls-To-Action

You have seen how influencer content can create awareness and exposure for your brand. But how can you ensure that it definitely brings traffic to your site?

There is no surefire way to ensure that people visit your site. However, you can definitely increase the chances by asking influences to include compelling CTAs in their content.

A relevant call-to-action can prompt audiences to take action or click whenever your brand is mentioned by the influencers.

Check out the prominent CTA in the below post used for promoting Daniel Wellington watches.

Image via Instagram

4. Offer A Unique Incentive to Visitors

Increasing traffic and conversions through influencer marketing is an essential KPI. But, how can you make that happen?

By offering incentives that not only attract visitors to your website but also compels them to move down your sales funnel!

Your incentives should be compelling enough to visitors that they will not be able to ignore them. For example, you can offer special discounts to first-time visitors and free shipping or gift coupons to loyal customers.

Whatever offer you choose to provide, ask influencers to share it on their blogs and social media sites. This will increase your brand’s visibility and inspire their followers to visit your site and check out the offers.

Here’s a great example.

Image via Instagram

5. Make Influencers Your Affiliates

Enter into an affiliate partnership with influencers and share affiliate links or coupon codes with them. Offer a commission per sale/impression generated through them.

This way, an influencer is genuinely motivated to promote your brand and get rewarded for their work. Here’s an example of such a post.

Image via Instagram

6. Influencer Marketing Strategy: Offer Free Products or Services

If you have a tight budget, you can offer free products and services to your influencers. If they like your gifts, they will happily share feedback and reviews on their blogs and social media sites.

This will get your brand noticed by their followers, who may visit your site for more information on your products. This way you not just get free promotion for your brand, but also increased traffic to your site.

Here’s how Boxed Water keeps their influencers happy by sending them free samples.

Image via Instagram

7. Write Guest Blog Posts on Influencers’ Websites

Your influencer marketing should go hand-in-hand with content marketing.

Once you have identified key influencers in your niche, reach out to them and offer to write guest posts on their websites. Send personalized pitches with great topic ideas.

Research the kind of content that resonates with their audience and customize your content to suit their interests. Include relevant links in your posts which can send more traffic to your website.

8. Establish Long-term Influencer Relationships

Always aim for long-term relationships with your influencers. If you want regular traffic pouring in, stop one-time partnerships or transactions. Instead, focus on nurturing your existing relationships with influencers.

There are many ways you can keep your relationships strong and growing:

• Mention influencer in your blog posts.
• Tag them in your social media posts.
• Follow and engage with them on social channels.
• Comment on their blog posts and share them with your audience.
• Invite them to your company events and product launches.
• Use their expert opinions in roundup posts and tag them so that they share it with their followers.

Image via Instagram

Always remember to treat influencers with respect and to thank them for their hard work to remind them that you value their relationship and time.

9. Monitor Progress and Work on Improvements

All of the above influencer marketing tactics will help increase traffic to your site, but things can still go wrong. So track your progress and make improvements in things that are not giving results.

Track your influencers’ marketing efforts using metrics like unique visitors, email signups, page views, shares, engagement rate, etc.

You may want to check the influencers’ performance, their content, and the impact it is creating for your brand.

You may even consider moderating their content to make sure it is clearly communicating your brand’s message.

Comparing and tracking influencers’ work will tell you who is capable of bringing greater engagement and traffic to your brand.

Over to You

Remember, influencer marketing will not bring overnight success. You need to work with patience.

Give your influencers at least three-to-six months to see signs of positive results. Consistent effort and long-term relationships with influencers will bring the desired results.

Let us know what worked for you and what went wrong. And if you have any tips or insights to add, please share them in the comments below.