Remember the last time you visited a new city or explored a new destination? Who did you reach out to find out the best spots to visit and the best eateries to try?
The answer for most people is — the locals.
People reach out to locals to get the best insights, know the best places to visit and find the most interesting foods to try. And that’s the power of a local influencer.
Region-specific businesses that need to get the word out about their new product or service can leverage local influencer marketing to reach their target audience and increase brand awareness.
This article covers everything you need to know about local influencer marketing, why you should work with local influencers and a step-by-step guide to executing a local influencer marketing campaign. Let’s go!
Why should you work with local influencers?
If local influencers don’t have a lot of followers, should your business collaborate with them? Here are six reasons why brands work with local influencers!
When traveling to a new city, you reach out to the locals and ask them for recommendations of things to do and places to visit.
Well, local influencer marketing works the same way too.
Local influencers live in the same place and have similar interests as your target audience. They are considered normal ordinary people who share content and their experiences in an authentic and genuine way.
Most local influencers are nano and micro-influencers — with followers between 1000 to 100K — but they have an engaged audience. So, your prospects are more likely to relate to them and their experience.
Dunkin Donuts renewed sponsorship with NHL and launched a campaign #phillyrunsondunkin, partnering with several local Philadelphia influencers.
Look at this post byKelley Gallowayas she reminds Philadelphia Eagles fans to grab the $1 deal from their nearby Dunkin.
Dunkin focused more on collaborating with nano and micro-influencers and gave them the creative freedom to create the type of content they wanted. Look at this creative and artsy post byRié Victoria Aoki, showing her personal touch to the content.
For local businesses, providing a friendly experience to customers is a top priority. You need to show your prospects the experience they will have when they visit your store.
Local influencers will create content focused on personalizing their experience with your brand.
Suppose you are a new salon that has opened up in the suburbs of Chicago. In that case, local influencers can help spread the word by creating content around visiting your salon, their experience with your services, and showcasing videos and photos of them getting a haircut or any other service.
Bedrock Real Estate did a fantastic and out-of-the-box influencer campaign to encourage real estate purchases in the Detroit metro area.
The company collaborated with Big Sean, a celebrity rapper born in Detroit, to create an award-winning video, “Anthem of Us,” highlighting the beautiful people and vibrant culture of Detroit.
And to personalize the campaign, the company collaborated with local citizens, influencers, and businesses — most of whom promoted the videos to their own followers. Because of these local micro-influencers, the campaign was a massive success on a regional level.
Local influencer marketing campaigns focus on showcasing authenticity by doubling down on things that are important to locals.
Many local influencers are actively engaged in the community and are part of many networks. This gives them a special position where they meet a lot of businesses at conferences, local events, and other community activities.
People are more interested in what these local influencers have to say about their experience because they bring a level of authenticity to their content without sounding like it came directly from a brand or business they are collaborating with.
A great example of a local influencer focused on providing authenticity in her content is UK-basedGeorgette Olaiya, whose account is dedicated to plants, gardening, and plant care.
She collaborated withThe Stemand showed off their products to her relevant and niche audience.
If you are living in a particular city, you will want to keep updated on new eating spots that pop up, new clothing stores that open, and other new immersive experiences.
And that’s exactly what local influencers do for your brand. They give your business the most visibility in front of an audience that matters the most — your local customers.
Most local influencers are also niche-specific, creating content around lifestyle, beauty, skincare, food and cooking, or DIY house tips. So, their audience is highly specific and is actually interested in these niches.
Canadian ski resort Sun Peaks collaborated with local influencers to increase awareness and attract more people to visit their ski runs, seasonal festivities, and other winter attractions.
Look at this post by Canada’s top adventure photographer,Callum Snape, showcasing the resort’s natural beauty.
A huge benefit of working with local influencers is that it is economical compared to working with celebrities or macro-influencers.
In some cases, local nano and micro-influencers will feature your business in exchange for a freebie, a discount, or an affiliate code from where they get a commission. Some local influencers are also willing to collaborate with your business in exchange for an all-expenses-paid experience or travel.
Working with local influencers will save you shipping costs to deliver your products. You can also ask them to come by your store and create videos and posts without spending a lot of money.
But if you want them to create entire social media posts and videos to talk about your business and your products, make sure to have a proper budget set aside to pay them.
Gopuff, American consumer goods and food delivery company, collaborated with London-based micro-influencers when they launched in the region.
Look at this post byMeet The Sons Family, introducing Gopuff to their audience and encouraging them to place orders with the promo code mentioned in the post.
Pro-tip:If you want quality content, make sure to pay for it. An influencer brings their audience with them, and your business should be willing to compensate them fairly for their services and the exposure your brand gets from their posts.
You can get authentic and personalizedinfluencer-generated contentby collaborating with local influencers.
Send products to local influencers and use their photos and videos in your social media posts and ad campaigns. This is especially effective if you want to get recognizable ad creatives for a local area.
You can also invite local influencers to try out your products or services and get some behind the scenes content that you can later use on your website and social media posts.
Look at this post byGymsharkwith their brand ambassadors, highlighting them in their social media collateral.
Is local influencer marketing only for small local businesses?
You might assume that local influencer marketing is only for region-specific businesses. That’s not the case.
Huge enterprises, fashion and beauty brands, and multi-national companies collaborate with local influencers when they plan to launch their products or stores in specific regions.
Let’s look at Bolt and how they collaborated with local influencers when launching in 18+ countries all over Europe and Africa.
6 steps to creating a local influencer marketing campaign
Now that you know how brands can take advantage of local influencer marketing, let’s look at the six steps you should follow to create your campaign.
The first thing you have to do is determine specific goals and campaign objectives. Yourcampaign KPIs should be action-drivenand give you and your team proper direction.
Setting objectives will determine everything, including which influencers to work with, when to start, what type of content to create, and who to target.
Your influencer marketing campaign KPIs will largely depend on your business goals and the maturity of your influencer marketing program. For example, KPIs will be different if you’ve just started testing the influencer marketing waters compared to if you are scaling your efforts.
Your KPIs can be divided into the following categories:
How do you find the influencers who reach audiences in your target city, and create content relevant to your products?
I’ll show you how you can use Find Me Creators, a nano and micro influencer database tool, to do just that.
Let’s take an example. Say you’re a skincare brand looking to launch a physical store in Illinois. Here’s how you could use Find Me Creators to search for TikTok influencers who have posted hashtags related to Illinois.