Influencer Marketing Strategy: What To Consider When Finding Influencers
Influencer marketing, also known as influencer outreach, can be a great way to build your brand across an array of platforms. That being said it can be VERY expensive and if not utilised correctly can massively eat into your budget. Ensuring you have a solid influencer marketing strategy will prevent a disastrous campaign.
Looking for influencers to market your products can seem quite daunting, especially if you have never tried this method of advertising before. Fortunately there are strategies you can put in place to ensure you are on the right track to finding the ideal influencers to work with.
Initial Analysis For Your Influencer Marketing Strategy
Much like the majority of marketing, you will need to put in the research. The real question is where to start? You must know your target audience, or at least have an idea of the demographic that would typically purchase your products. Based on this you can narrow down both the platform and influencer you are going to be targeting.
The Things You Need To Know Before You Start
- Your target age demographic- Are you aiming to target a younger or older market?
- Do they have any common interests- Do you want to target gamers, makeup enthusiasts, book worms etc?
- What platform typically generates a higher conversion rate in your other forms of advertising- a great way to monitor this is to use tracking/reporting tools such as Google Analytics.
- What is your budget? Before you contact any influencers, have a set budget mapped out that you are willing to spend on influencer marketing and establish if this would be a negotiable fee. Different influencers will charge a different fee for their services, depending on their following and how you would like them to present your product. This will not only allow you to segment out the remainder of your marketing budget across other mediums, but will also help filter down the influencers you reach out to based on their following.
- How would you like your product advertised? This is very important to consider. Depending on where and how your product is advertised, it is going to have a very different impact on not only your reach but the amount you will likely be spending.
If we take Instagram for example, there are different placements where in which your product could potentially be advertised, such as in the influencer’s story or on their main feed. Feed posts stay up for a longer time, allowing for a larger reach and typically require more effort. This is due to receiving more editing and the need to be more aesthetically pleasing to ensure both theme relevance and to maintain a professional look on their profile.
Whereas stories are up for a limited time, meaning reach is likely to be lower and they are typically faster to make. With the above in mind, it’s understandable for feed posts to cost more than story posts in most instances.
Finding The Right Influencer For Your Brand
It may seem obvious, but one of the first things you should be looking for is what influencers show an active interest in products relevant to yours and are featuring this in their content on a regular basis.
A great example of this would be a coffee brand looking to promote a new coffee flavor. Seeking out those who regularly post content involving coffee, whether that be them drinking coffee or talking about coffee, would be a great choice to go to.
If they actively follow you and/or feature your products on their social profiles, you’re already off to a flying start. If this is not the case, or you are looking to find new influencers to contact, in an attempt to reach an untapped demographic, you can do this by looking at the following:
- Hashtags: Researching who is posting content on hashtags relevant to your product. In our instance, when referring to our coffee company, we could look hashtags such as:
“#coffeelover” “#coffeetime” “#coffeeaddicts”
- Are your competitors being tagged? Looking at your competitor’s profiles will allow you to not only see who they may be reaching out to, but also the quality of content you could expect to see from potential influencers.
As you can imagine this is likely going to pull in an overwhelming number of results, so it’s important to really use this moment to find the profiles that really fit your branding and aesthetic.
You’ve narrowed down a list of influencers that fit your brand, awesome! Now it’s time to figure out who is right for your budget and who is more likely to reach those who will want to research your company.
Engagement & Connection Is Key
It’s one thing to have a following, it’s another to have a high level of engagement, especially on content similar to your product. If their followers are not engaging with their content, the chances are you are not going to get as much of a response as you would with someone who has less of a following but is great at keeping their audience engaged. Engagement can spark conversation which can result in your product/their post being shared across a larger audience.
Focusing more on the connection they have with their audience as opposed to their following will not only benefit your budget, but the chances are they have built a level of trust and community with their audience. The higher the level of trust, the more likely users are going to respond positively to their promotion.
Influencer Background
Do your research to ensure whoever you are choosing to promote your brand fits your brand ethics and values. Review previous content across all mediums, not just the one you will be pushing advertising on, review comments and if they have promoted brands similar to yours in the past.
Finally ensure their following is made up of real accounts and followers are legitimate- there is no point in spending your budget if it’s not reaching real people!
Keep Track On Who You Plan To Reach Out To In Your Influencer Marketing Strategy Plan
It’s important to keep all of the influencers you plan to contact on record, this way both yourself and your business will remain organised. I would recommend compiling them together on a spreadsheet. This will allow you to easily navigate who you plan to contact and who has been contacted. As well as find contact information, such as business email and social account data.
Influencer marketing can be powerful, when utilised correctly. However it’s important to remember that it is a process and the above is just the first step! Keep an eye out for future content on how you can further build your influencer strategy plan!
