Business owners naively think that influencers are like endorsers, models, and celebrities. But influencer marketing is more than about paying a popular social media icon to endorse your brand. Influencers curated their content for a long time. They aren’t just out there to get paid. An influencer has a brand, too. And that brand needs to benefit from promoting yours. Otherwise, your relationship is doomed from the start.
Though many business owners and marketers understand that their companies need influencers, what most of them still don’t get is how to choose the right influencer for the job. Though Bretman Rock has 14.9 million followers, his content is not for everyone. He may be chummy with Rihanna, but not everyone will agree to the kind of content he produces.
Working with a Marketer
You cannot do this on your own, though you spend so much time reading blogs and watching YouTube marketing videos. If you want your business to succeed, you have to invest in professional marketers. Find a digital marketing company that specializes in your industry. They will draw up a plan for you. They will also help reach out to the right social media influencers.
Defining Your Goals
So the first thing you have to do is define the goals of your brand. What do you want to achieve by partnering with an influencer? Do you want to gain more followers, engage the audience more, or raise awareness about your brand? You will choose the influencer depending on the objectives you set for the brand.
Finding an Influencer Criteria
Influencers come from different categories. Some of them are mommy bloggers while others are into technology. Food, beauty, fashion, and travel bloggers are among the most popular. What is your brand about? If you sell kitchen appliances, you probably need to work with a food and mommy blogger. They are the ones who have the most authority to speak about your product.
Picking the Influencer’s Brand
What kind of brand does the influencer have? Do their own brands speak of or complement your own? Browse their feeds. See if the visuals and messages they created in the past will be relatable to your audience, too. If you want to sell children’s clothing, you need mommy bloggers, right? But, mommy bloggers have their own categories. Some are a bit comedic. Some are fashionable. And then, some offer practical parenthood tips. Who do you think will best represent your brand?
Identifying Their Audience
Your influencer marketing strategy will only work if you pick the influencer with an audience the same as your brand’s. You need to make sure that you share the same market. Are you selling do-it-yourself loot bags for kids’ parties? What kind of audience do you need? You need an audience of mommies who are also into DIY-ing stuff. Your brand may not work with an influencer who is targeting career women and working mothers.
Getting Insight into the Influencer’s Engagement Metrics
So you’re eyeing an influencer with about 200,000 followers. You think this influencer will bring the right audience to your brand. But here’s the question: are this influencer’s followers engaged? Do they like, comment, and share the posts? You need to find out the influencer’s strengths and weaknesses before you make curated content for the page.
Investing in Social Listening
What is social listening? Take time to process and identify the influencers who are already fans of your brand. Do they use the products? Do they talk about it on their posts? Follow some of your target markets on social media. Which influencers are they following? Were they influenced by someone before to use your brand? This will easily match who your brand’s target audience is in line with. Make a list of the names of these influencers and prepare to reach out to them.
Communicating with Them
Choosing the right influencer for your brand is more than just about the content they post on their pages. They have to understand your brand, too. They have to believe in it. The best way to determine that is to meet with them (whether in person or virtually). You can get a good feel of these influencers by talking with them and finding out more about them.
Ask them about the past campaigns and whether they’ve dealt with bad ones in the past. How did they go from there? Did they learn from these mistakes? You want an influencer who stands for the same values as your brand. Otherwise, it will be very confusing for your audience to align yourself with people who do not share the same values.
In such a large market of digital influencers, it is so easy to make big mistakes. And when it comes to influencer marketing, one small mistake can cost your brand thousands of dollars. Picking the right influencer is as critical as developing products that your customers will love. It requires careful research and well-informed decisions.