Working with social media influencers is an exciting way to reach new audiences, grow brand awareness, and sell toys and board games faster. A strategic marketing plan can help you to find the best way to connect with new audiences and spread the word about your toy or game in a way that yields a higher return on your investment, or ROI. Here are five ways to get your foot in the door when marketing toys, games, and related merchandise with the help of the influencer community.

Work With the Right Influencers

When crafting a strategic online marketing campaign, it is critical to work with the right influencers. Each influencer has a specific tone, image, and set of values, and you should ensure that this melds well with your brand. Working with an influencer with a ton of followers won’t be beneficial to your product if their audience is not the same as the audience for your product.

For example, toys and board games for younger kids could work well with mommy bloggers and other family influencers, while products aimed at teens and younger adults would find a relevant audience with influencers of that age group. On the other hand, an influencer family with only girls would work well for toys and games that are for girls or non-gendered, but would not be a great fit for brands that are marketed exclusively towards boys.

Share Your Product

Share your toy or game with influencers by sending them free samples so that they can use the product first-hand. Ask them to write reviews and post images of them or their families playing with the toy or game. Influencers have built up trust with an audience over time, and their audiences are therefore more likely to trust these kinds of reviews.

Appeal to Values

Once you’ve found the right influencer for your marketing campaign, think about ways you can appeal to the values of your potential customers. For example, board games can evoke feelings of spending wholesome time with family, while customers of video games and toys for older kids may want to feel like they will be providing a valued and appreciated gift to their kids and grandkids. Work with influencers to find ways to appeal to these values via images and content.

Create Interactive Content

Online video and social media platforms make it easy to build content that truly engages audiences, allowing them to interact with the content and product. Influencers can create and post behind-the-scenes videos that allow the audience to feel like they have special access. These platforms are also perfect for launching competitions and giveaways, which are a great way to reach new audiences.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

Social media is at the cutting edge of marketing, so it can be easy to lose track of what is hot now versus what is viewed as passe. Stay up to date with the latest trends to ensure that your brand is able to stay ahead of the social media curve.

Influencers are an important part of any strategic marketing campaign for your board game or toy merchandise sales.