3 Great Ways to Get Top Niche Influencers Behind Your Brand

You've probably been reading so much about influencer marketing lately, you're sick of hearing about it.

It really does work, but it's definitely in vogue right now.

Most of the discussion about influencers focuses on a couple of key types of promotion — namely, shoutouts from Instagram personalities and Youtubers.

But those are really only a couple of the many ways of bringing industry authorities and niche celebrities into your marketing strategy.

There are other ways of doing this, and they might actually work better in some kinds of niches and subject areas.

A shoutout from a fitness blogger is great if you're dropshipping exercise equipment or running an affiliate site about strength training or something.

But what about companies in less consumer-oriented, more technical B2B spaces?

Influencer marketing isn't just for visual and video content.

Things like “expert roundup” blog posts, features in email newsletters, and even old-school print media, can all be great avenues to get influencers involved.

A recent article from Convince & Convert discusses three interesting options you can consider.

Influencer Marketing Through Roundup Posts and Advanced Content

Many marketers associate influencer marketing with roundup or list posts. While this is a form of influencer marketing, it certainly isn’t the only tactic. 

NewPro uses roundup posts as a tool to recruit more influencers and solidify relations with existing ones.

Every roundup post features a call-to-action for new contributors. Industry veterans with titles and clout not currently featured want to be showcased by NewPro because their peers already are.

Dearringer doesn’t stop at roundup posts. He also creates copious amounts of advanced content (guides, ebooks, etc.) by stitching together prudent influencer articles.

For each one, he gives complete authorship to whichever influencer’s content is featured.

This advanced content is shared with the influencers, who in turn promote their new ebook on the NewPro website.

It’s a win-win for all parties involved.

Influencer Marketing Through Newsletters

NewPro’s weekly newsletter, “Your Weekly Cup of NewPro,” isn’t your typical email. It’s kept simple and has a very strategic purpose.

Each week, NewPro chooses three articles to feature: two really good articles from other industry websites and the best-performing NewPro influencer article of that week.

This newsletter serves a few purposes.

First and foremost, NewPro wants to deliver only the best content to its audience.

It also gets the attention of the other industry writers that create great content and entices them to become contributors to the blog.

Lastly, it solidifies relations with current contributors by prominently featuring their work in front of the NewPro audience.

How successful is it? 

This newsletter boasts an open rate north of 30 percent. 

It’s so popular within the industry that Dearringer often gets contacted by CEOs requesting he subscribe their entire company staff.

On several occasions, he’s been sent entire spreadsheets with all the employee information necessary to subscribe them all.

Dearringer described being at an industry non-profit board meeting recently when a conversation about industry content came up.

One guest at the board meeting claimed that if it wasn’t in the “Weekly Cup of NewPro,” she won’t read it.

Unbeknownst to her, the NewPro CEO was right there in the room and is one of the board members.

Influencer Marketing Through Print Magazines and Tradeshows

For the last two years, NewPro has put out an annual print magazine called Modern Plantscaper.

While this company isn’t the first to put out a print magazine, it’s one of the few to incorporate it as part of its sustained and complete influencer marketing strategy.

Each issue features the best influencer blog posts from the previous year.

Dearringer makes sure each contributing influencer gets multiple copies of the magazine to show off their work to peers and other industry folks. 

It has a subscribership of over 600 in an industry that only boasts about 500 significant companies.

At tradeshows, NewPro’s magazine flies out of the booth.

Dearringer described crowds of people around his humble booth wanting a copy of the magazine and wanting to talk about all the cool content NewPro publishes for the industry, all while surrounded by the “big money” booths with little to no action.

These kinds of events are an opportunity for both sales and influencer recruiting, and NewPro takes advantage of both.

You can learn more about less commonly used forms of influencer marketing in the full blog post from Convince and Convert.