As influencer marketing continues to grow, so does the pool of potential influencers you can choose to work with. In many ways, this is great for brands. However, it also makes it increasingly difficult to find the perfect match.
In this article, we are going to give you some top tips on how to define and find the best influencers for your brand.
What is an Influencer?
Before we dive into some of the top tips for finding the best influencers for your brand, it is worth defining exactly what we mean by the term ‘influencer’.
Of course, we are all familiar with ‘influencers’, especially in a social media context. But what actually makes an influencer an influencer?
There is a big clue in the title. An influencer is simply someone who holds influence over others. This could be over a small group of people, or a huge audience of thousands, if not millions.
In many ways, everyone's an influencer. Even if you just have influence over your immediate family and friends, you can consider yourself influential. However, when it comes to finding influencers to represent your brand, you are specifically looking for those who have high levels of influence over your target audience.
Typically, the term ‘influencer’ when used in the context of influencer marketing refers to an individual who can influence the buying decisions of their audience on social media. These types of influencers are often categorised by their audience size:
Types of Influencer
Nano Influencer (1k - 10k followers)
Micro Influencer (10k - 100k followers)
Macro Influencer (100K - 1M followers)
Mega/Celebrity Influencer (1M+)
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
Tips for Finding Influencers for Your Brand
Whether you are looking for a small number of nano influencers to help create compelling content or seeking out a macro influencer to become the face of your marketing efforts, below we provide you with some tips for finding the very best influencers for your brand.
Start by Defining Your Goals
All too often brands start working with influencers just because they feel they should. This approach is usually an expensive mistake that doesn’t return great results. Instead, you should always start your influencer search by defining exactly what it is you are trying to achieve.
Influencer marketing is a tool that should be used to help you achieve your overarching marketing goals. Knowing your goals will impact the type of influencers you search for.
For example, if your goal is to create lots of high impact content then seeking out several highly creative nano or micro-influencers would be a better strategy than working with one mega influencer. Similarly, if your goal is to become seen as an industry leader then working with a small number of industry ‘heavy hitters’ will likely be a smarter move than picking smaller, lesser-known names.
Know Your Audience (and the influencers)
There are several reasons you may decide to work with influencers, but by far one of the biggest benefits is being able to access their audience in a compelling and engaging way.
However, a considerable amount of effort can be wasted if you find influencers who don’t share your target demographic. For example, if your target audience is typically females in the 18-23 age range, then working with an influencer who is primarily followed by males in the 30-35 age range can be a waste of time.
TIP: Just because an influencer is within your target demographic, doesn't mean their audience is. This is why when you find a relevant influencer for your brand, it is crucial to audit their followers.
Explore Social Platforms
A good place to start your influencer search is on social media. Here are a few ways you can use social platforms to find influencers:
Explore hashtags, such as those relevant to your brand
Explore communities and groups relevant to your niche
Explore competitors’ social feeds
Research current/past interactions between potential influencers and your brand
TIP: Although competitor social feeds can be a good place to start your influencer search, you must also consider how it may look when you work with creators who have already partnered with your competitors.
Let Them Come to You
Influencers are increasingly becoming professional in their approach to brand collaborations. In turn, this means that many of them are also becoming proactive in finding the brands they want to work with.
Making it clear to influencers that you are looking to collaborate makes it easy for them to reach out directly to you. To do this you may decide to post about opportunities for collaboration on your social feeds or even create a special page on your website for influencers to get in touch.
This approach can work well to find engaged influencers but is also usually very slow. It can also create extra admin work having to sort through the good and bad applications.
Influencer Marketplaces
Influencer marketplaces are much as they sound. Typically these work by allowing you to upload a request for interest in collaboration and then influencers can apply for the opportunity. They also often allow you to search for influencers based on your requirements.
This can be a super speedy way to find influencers to collaborate with your brand. Although these platforms are great for finding influencers, they don’t offer you the expertise needed to assess whether they are the best fit for your brand or goals.
Leverage Talent Agencies
Working with talent agencies like LOVE Management is a smart way to tap into professional and well-managed pools of influencers. The teams behind these management companies are experts in helping match brand requirements with the influencers best suited to meet them.
Outsource
Working with an influencer marketing agency such as The Blogger Programme is a smart way to tap into vast networks of influencers, as well as all the knowledge and expertise you need to run successful influencer marketing campaigns.
Unlike talent agencies who can offer you access to the best talent they work with, influencer agencies will search various sources for the best matches to your campaign requirements.
Finding Influencers for Your Brand: Summary
It is clear that there are several ways you can go about finding the very best talent for your influencer marketing campaigns. Each method sees a trade-off between time investment and financial input.
For example, searching for influencers on social media is free, but very time-intensive. On the other hand, working with an agency can be more costly but will ultimately be considerably quicker and provide better results.
Using a combination of several of these methods will help you cover all your bases in your influencer search.