Influencer marketing has boomed over the last couple of years. In 2022, it grew to a $16.4 billion industry, continuing to thrive after the rising popularity of TikTok.
As social media is such a dominant part of our lives now, with 4.8 billion people using it around the world, adopting some form of social media marketing strategy is important to remain up-to-date and present in the eyes of your consumers.
Influencer marketing is the perfect way to achieve this, sharing your content with their already formed loyal follower base – and if chosen correctly, these will be potential customers who you are targeting with your marketing efforts.
As an extremely saturated market, it comes with the benefit of having lots of influencers to choose from, but also the drawback of there being so many it can make it a difficult choice.
With these 10 tips, finding the right influencer for your campaign will come with much more ease, and as a leading growth partner, we would be able to support you at every step of the process when setting up your influencer marketing campaign.
1. Determine your target audience
For any marketing strategy, understanding your target audience is a vital factor.
When deciding on the best influencer for your brand, knowing about your customers and their interests will lead your research into finding the most appropriate person to represent your brand.
Who are they most likely to follow? What content do they enjoy consuming? Which platforms do they use the most?
Finding these things out will assist your search in discovering who the best influencer would be for your social media marketing campaign.
2. Research the influencers within your niche
There are so many influencers to choose from now, especially with it being such a developing industry.
Simply choosing an influencer with a large following count who doesn’t relate to your product offering or brand at all will not then resonate with the influencer’s following.
Understanding your niche and then finding influencers who match this in terms of content and following will result in much more successful social media campaigns.
3. Evaluate the influencer’s following
A high follower count doesn’t necessarily mean that the content will be received by that many people, or that the engagement will reflect this.
It is more important to discover how an influencer’s content is reacted to, if their followers are engaged and receptive to the content, and whether they share your content.
Then, look at the demographics. Are these people who would be interested in your product or service? Would you market to them in other ways?
Once this research has been conducted, it will become clearer which influencers are more suited to your brand.
4. Influencer engagement rates
As mentioned, looking at how engaged an influencer’s following is with their content is pertinent to revealing whether you are likely to receive results with this influencer.
Do their followers like, comment and share their content? If it feels flat, stagnant and unappreciated, this is a sign that the influencer will not benefit you.
Your goal will revolve around the content being shared by an interested audience, sharing positive opinions about your brand creating a snowball effect of increasing brand awareness.
5. Checking influencer’s authenticity
The risk with influencer marketing is that their content can seem overly promotional and potentially untrustworthy, particularly if they are advertising brands that do not resonate with their style of content.
Therefore, researching their content and whether it comes across as genuine and authentic is key to understanding whether your brand would fit with their content offering and style of content.
A company that specialises in finding brands the perfect influencer, such as Influencer Matchmaker, will be able to source someone who reflects your product offering genuinely, with a full overview of the industry and influencers with poor engagement rates and poor authenticity.
6. Checking their previous brand collaborations
When deciding on the perfect influencer, looking into their previous collaborations will give further insight into their content and success rate.
Have they worked on similar campaigns? Were these received well by their audience?
This can also help with inspiration and feed into your strategy with what went well and what didn’t, helping to lead your campaign to success.
7. Influencers with storytelling skills
With social media content, it can be quite difficult to tell a story through a small snippet of information.
Therefore, when doing research into their content, consider how well they connect with their audience and naturally discuss brands, and think about whether you would be happy for this style of content to talk about you.
Perhaps through their storytelling abilities, they can evoke emotions in their audience, connecting with them in a more human way that encourages trust and interest.
8. Audience demographics
As mentioned, an influencer’s audience is important, for these are mainly the people who would be receiving content about your brand.
This means looking at the demographics of their followers, considering age, location, gender, and then further information such as interests.
With audience demographics that match your target audience, promoting your brand will thus be shared with your desired group of people who are potential customers.
9. Evaluate the influencer’s reputation
As with ensuring an influencer’s content appears authentic, researching their reputation is also another factor to consider.
If they have been involved in any controversies or scandals, this could they negatively reflect your brand if you worked with them.
Look into their history and how their name is received in the media to confirm the status of their reputation.
10. Negotiate the terms of collaborations
After all the above steps have been completed to find the perfect influencer for your social media campaign, the follow up is just as important.
Creating the terms of the collaboration and agreeing on them is vital to ensure both parties are happy with the contract.
This entails deciding on the deliverables, the type of content, the platforms used, a timeline of expectations with deadlines in place, and any other necessary points to make about the campaign.
Looking for the perfect influencer?
At Champions, our team of social media experts can help source an influencer to truly reflect your brand, as well as create a campaign that delivers successful results for your business.
Contact us today and we can discuss your needs and requirements for your influencer marketing campaign.
Influencer Matchmaker has all the connections
As a creative influencer marketing agency, Influencer Matchmaker specialises in matching brands with the world’s top influencers and celebrities.
Get in touch today and see how the team can help and support at every step of the process when setting up your influencer marketing campaign.