Influencer marketing has skyrocketed recently, making it a lucrative and attractive career for many. However, becoming an influencer is a challenging task. But with the right strategy and direction, you can achieve your goal. This document will cover how to become an influencer in 15 easy steps.

What Is an Influencer?

Influencers are individuals who have the power to influence the buying decisions of their fans. They are often considered experts in their field, and their opinions and views are reliable. As a result, many brands and businesses rely on influencer marketing to increase their sales.

A person can be called an influencer if he:

• Has the ability to affect the opinions and thoughts of people.
• Uses his influence for commercial purposes.
• Has a decent fan following.

Depending upon the platform influencers use, they can also be referred to as YouTubers, bloggers, Vloggers, Instagrammers, or social media influencers.

Benefits of Becoming an Influencer

Becoming an influencer can open new avenues for you that are empowering and fun. Some of the notable benefits of becoming an influencer are:

• You can make money by promoting products you like.
• You will have your fan base.
• Brands will likely send you free products.
• You can work from home.
• You have a flexible schedule.
• To succeed, you do not need a professional degree.

Being an influencer career can be a side business while you are doing a job or busy with other things.

Challenges in Becoming an Influencer

Although becoming an influencer has many perks, it is more challenging than it may seem. Currently, the competition is at its peak due to market saturation. Since there is no barrier to entry, it is a tempting career for many. Therefore, establishing a loyal fan base may require effort and time. Remember, you can only become an influencer with a decent fan following.

Keeping fans is another challenge you may have to face. You must not promote products solely to earn money, which will harm your reputation. Your fans trust you because of your truthful opinions. Therefore, promoting the right products and brands for consistent performance is critical. A single wrong decision may bring an end to your career. In short, an influencer career is temporary, and smooth sailing is not guaranteed.

Another challenge is that you may struggle with making money from affiliate marketing, as your earnings will depend on your popularity. Unfortunately, many influencers do not make enough to make a living. It is because they fail at attracting an audience. Therefore, you must head in the right direction to make a living out of your influencer career.

Steps to Become an Influencer

1. Choose the Right Niche

The first step toward becoming an influencer is to choose the right niche. You can only make followers if you have the knowledge and expertise in your niche. Randomly selecting a popular niche will not help you. Similarly, choosing no niche means you do not know which audience to target. Therefore, choosing the right niche to make the most of your influencer career is critical.

Consider the following while choosing your niche:

• It should interest you, as you must consistently research and create content.
• It should highlight your strengths to add a personal touch to your content.
• You must possess the proper knowledge and expertise in your niche to earn the trust of your audience and establish your authority.
• Collaborating with brands in the niche should be workable.
• The scope of the niche should not be too broad or too specific.
• It should not be too saturated.

An easy way to choose your niche is to list the things you are passionate about. Once you have the list, select the one you think is more promising. It is unnecessary to focus on a generic category, such as travel, lifestyle, food, beauty, etc. You can also choose something specific, such as Asian cuisine, aerobics, etc.

2. Identify and Understand Your Audience

After selecting your niche, identify and understand your target audience. You need to learn about your target audience to meet their needs. Before you can understand your audience, identify them by:

• Observing what audience other influencers in your niche are targeting.
• Conducting market research with the help of surveys or feedback.

You can only become an influencer if you understand your target audience. Understanding the target audience is beneficial for:

• Choosing the right platforms where you can find your audience.
• Understanding the challenges and concerns of your target audience and addressing them.
• Understanding the audiences’ buying preferences.

3. Choose The Right Platforms

You may use many platforms as an influencer to build your fan base. However, it is not a good idea to use all possible platforms. Instead, choose the platforms where you will likely find your target audience. For example, if your niche is related to clothing or lifestyle, you may opt for Facebook and Instagram. Similarly, if you are a food expert and want to give expert advice on restaurants or food products, YouTube is best suited for you.

On the other hand, podcasts are best for excellent speakers who want to share their views on personal finance, fitness, health, etc. You can host podcast episodes using popular platforms like PodBean, Buzzsprout, and Blubrry.

4. Write a Notable Bio and Add a Profile Picture

Almost everyone will check an influencer’s profile and bio to know more about them. Therefore, you must write an engaging biography to leave a long-lasting impression. You can include your accomplishments, hobbies, and interests to make your bio appealing and notable. Remember to include your email address where people can contact you. Also, have tags on social media accounts on other platforms.

Apart from writing a notable bio, a profile picture is crucial. Profile pictures help you establish your brand. People may not remember your name initially but will always recognize your face. Therefore, when uploading a profile picture, make sure your face is visible in your profile picture.

5. Create a Content Strategy

The next step to becoming an influencer is creating a content strategy. As an influencer, you will have to create content, and your content is what will convert your audience into followers. However, it would be best to have a solid strategy for creating content. A content strategy determines:

What type of content to create

The content you will develop depends on your niche choice and the platforms you use. For example, if your niche is related to traveling, you may host podcast episodes, write travel experiences, and create videos of you exploring different places.

When to create and post your content

For example, you may create content at least once every week and post it over the weekend for better coverage. This decision of when to create and publish content depends on your audience’s demographics and the platform you use. For instance, posting in the morning for podcasts may give you maximum coverage. Similarly, if you are using Twitter, you must frequently post, i.e., 3 to 4 times a week.

You can find social media trend reports online to determine the frequency and best time to post on various platforms.

Where to post your content

You may use multiple platforms for building your followers. For example, you can post visual content on YouTube and written content on Facebook.

How to communicate with your audience

For instance, your content must have a professional touch for a personal finance blog. While for a food blog, your communication can be informal.

6. Invest in Tools and Software

Influencers invest in tools that assist them in creating professional content. For example, you may require tools for various tasks, such as:

• To edit videos, images, and record screens, you can use Movavi. You can also use it to convert multimedia files into different formats.
• To create infographics, social media posts, presentations, posters, and flyers, you can use Canva or Visme.
• For stock images, you can use Shutterstock and envato.
• For graphic designing, you can use Adobe Photoshop.
• To generate content ideas and discover the most popular questions about a topic, you can use BuzzSumo. You can also use it to find influential authors, influential YouTube channels, Twitter influencers, and relevant Facebook pages.
• For social media engagement and analytics, you can use sproutsocial. It offers an all-in-one social inbox for monitoring and connecting with messages across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp.

7. Be Regular and Consistent in Creating Content

You must keep your followers engaged through your content for better relationships with them. If you do not create and post content regularly, you will lose your followers and cannot expand your audience base. In addition, to become an influencer, you must cover all relevant events that are taking place in the industry, such as product launches, festivals, and trade shows.

An excellent way to be consistent is to create content in advance, scheduled for posting at a later time. You can use tools like sproutsocial and Planoly to plan and schedule your social media content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

8. Promote Your Content

Becoming an influencer is a challenging task requiring much time and patience. In the beginning, influencers struggle with attracting traffic and making followers. However, promotion is essential for letting people know about you. You can try multiple ways to promote your content, such as paid advertisements.

9. Take Part in Discussion Forums

Discussion forums allow you to establish authority and gain people’s trust. Regularly participating in discussion forums is ideal for those with a low budget for promoting their content. Discussion forums can bring traffic to your profiles on different platforms, increasing your fan base.

10. Respond to Followers

As soon as you post content, your audience will start communicating. People will write comments, ask questions, and give feedback. You must respond to your audience to build a relationship with them. Try to respond to every message, even if it is criticism. However, as your audience grows, it may become difficult to respond to every message. You can hold Q&A sessions with your audiences in such cases. Remember, retaining followers requires influencers to be in constant touch with them.

11. Host Contests and Giveaway Rewards

An effective of engaging your audiences and widening your fan base is to host contests and giveaways. You can give away free hampers to reward your audience for tagging their friends and family. Similarly, contests are also helpful in attracting and generating traffic to your profile. Followers are likely to tag their friends in contest announcements so they can participate, many of whom are likely to convert into followers.

However, contests must be exciting and motivating for maximum participation. Additionally, mention the rules and deadlines clearly in the description. Lastly, announce the winner on the specified date.

12. Go Live

Although going live is not essential to become an influence, it would help you succeed as an influencer. You can only build a loyal fan base if your audiences connect with you. Give your followers a virtual tour of a festival or any other event to keep them engaged and feel valued. Most social media platforms allow users to go live and connect with their fans.

13. Follow Other Influencers

Networking with other influencers helps you gain knowledge, and you also get support from them. Start by taking part in conversations through comments on their posts. You can appreciate their work or ask questions. Soon, they will recognize you, and you two will build a connection.

You can use many tools to find and reach influencers in your niche, such as NinjaOutreach. It is a great tool to discover influencers on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube and to automate your outreach campaigns.

You can also connect with influencers by participating in events in your niche or industry, such as trade shows, conferences, festivals, and workshops.

14. Create An Influencer Media Kit

Although you can become an influencer without having a media kit, it is good to have one to leave an impression on your clients. The media kit is a digital document you will present to your clients to showcase your personality and capabilities. It introduces you to your clients and tells them about your personality and work as an influencer. Media managers often use it to compare different influencers and choose the right one.

A good media kit can significantly enhance your chances of successful collaboration. I would recommend including the following in your media kit:

• Bio, including your name, location, values, interests, passions, etc.
• The number of followers on each platform.
• Your engagement rate.
• Your audience demographics such as age, gender breakdown, and location.
• Past collaborations, partnerships, and campaigns.
• Contact information.
• Pricing information

15. Approach Brands for Collaboration

After reaching a reasonable number of followers, reach out to brands for collaborations and partnerships. Start by listing brands you want to work with within your niche and then send them emails, including your media kit. Remember to mention why you want to work with them.

Another way to attract brands for collaboration is to tag them whenever you mention their products. As a result, they may approach you if you have a high engagement rate and a good number of followers. However, you must mention your contact details in your bio to make it easier for brands to contact you.

Conclusion

Being an influencer can bring many advantages, such as fame, money, and free products. However, out of many, only a few people succeed as an influencer. Most people jump into this career without proper planning or strategy. It is, therefore, critical to follow the above steps to become an influencer.