Influencer marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon. With around 71% of Australians using social media, it’s no surprise that businesses are fleeing to social media influencers to promote their brands.
1.Reach
Reach is one of the most important metrics to consider when finding a suitable influencer for your brand as it can shape an influencer’s value. An influencer’s reach is the amount of people who potentially view their content. It can include the size of their audience and consumers who view their content via search results and recommendations.
The number of followers doesn’t necessarily guarantee better engagement results; however, a larger reach opens more opportunities for audiences to see their content, thus spreading brand awareness.
2.Engagement
While an influencer’s follower size is important in your search, Engagement rates of an influencer is just, or perhaps, even more significant. Engagements rates is a metric that tells us how consumers are engaging with media content. In an Influencer’s case, it’s an indication of how well their audience is consuming their social media post and from a PR perspective, it showcases Interaction between a promoted post and the influencer’s audience.
Note that engagement rates are relative to the number of followers influencer’s have, therefore, micro influencers can have higher engagement rates compared to larger influencers.
So don’t forget to check the number of likes, comments, and shares an influencer gets.
3.Niche
This may seem like an obvious one but, find influencers that are within your niche! You don’t want mommy influencers to promote your men’s clothing brand.
Start with identifying what market your brand fits into. Are you searching for beauty influencers for your makeup line? Are you a fashion brand targeting plus size influencers?
No matter the brand, always start with scouting famous and popular figures within your industry so they can help spread your brands message and build awareness. Setting up google alerts for market-related terms is a great way to support this type of marketing. This allows you to see instant results for industry keywords and track them over time, you can also see who is publishing content surrounding important topics while browsing related discussion posts and forums.
4.Followed by your competitors
If you’re struggling to find where to look for influencers, try scanning who your competitors are following. Your competitors in the industry are most likely reaching out to influencers to promote their brand.
Creating a list of competitors and sweeping through their following/follower’s list on Instagram is a great place to start when sourcing influencers, especially those within your niche. Clicking through competitors tagged posts allows you scout out influencers who have promoted their brand and may be willing to spread the word about yours.
5.Trust and Authenticity
We can often get distracted with engagement and reach, but let’s remember important elements that are key to a successful influencer campaign: Authenticity and trust.
Authenticity is significant to see how an influencer’s audience reacts to or perceives them. Sure, it may be challenging to point out who’s “real” and who’s not, however, there are a few ways to identify this trait. While scouting for influencers, browse through their feed and see if you get a sense of “realness”, or if the content is genuine, their personalities align with your values and if their followers trust what they share or promote.
It is known that bloggers who usually to promote a smaller number of brands tend to gain more trust from their followers and can appear more authentic. Steer clear from influencer’s who post staged and overly posed content, as audiences may think your brand isn’t worthy of their time.
6.Share the same audience
Influencers for your brand don’t necessarily need to be within your industry, influencers that share the same target audience as your brand can be just as helpful than those who are within your niche. For example, beauty stores such as Mecca and Sephora have no direct connection with clothing brands such as Victoria’s secret, however they may share the same audience: Women.
Working with influencers with overlapping audiences can allow you to reach a wider audience and may be a deciding factor to the success of an influencer marketing campaign.
A complete analysis of your brand’s target audience will help you understand their interests, needs and different brands they follow. This allows you to discover which influencers outside of your industry your audience follows, further connecting your brand’s message with newer audiences.
7.Results
After the launch of your first influencer campaign, measure the results through influencer marketing KPIs (Audience building, engagement and brand awareness etc.) as they will help you identify whether your goals have been achieved. Once your campaign is done, use these results and what you’ve learnt to assist future campaigns.
Why finding the right influencers can be crucial for your brand?
With these 7 factors to look out for when hunting for influencers, you might wonder; why does all this even matter? Why can’t I choose anyone with a large following? Well, it’s because the choice of an influencer is the basis to spreading the message behind your brand. You are choosing the person who embodies the value and meaning about your brand to promote your product, so, choose it wisely. Picking anyone out of the bunch can give undesired results and lead to a communication crisis.
If you’re sending out your products to an influencer with an incompatible target audience, you are risking exposure to a disinterested audience, ultimately consuming your product in a negative manner. Negative reactions towards your brand can also be a result of contacting influencers who are seen as ‘untrustworthy’, even if they’re within your niche and share the same audience. Influencer’s who are inconsistent with their niche market and promote ‘sketchy’ products may expose your brand to audiences that distrust and disregard promoted products, this can eventually lead to a decrease in sales and can likely hinder your brand reputation.
Knowing how to research influencers is crucial and can make or break your public image. Finding influencers well matched with you and your brand’s values can generate a powerful, loyal relationship displayed in the eyes of consumers.
