Tips for Choosing the Right Influencer for Your Brand

Let’s face facts. Whether they mean to “influence” or not, influencers have a huge impact on what people buy.

Everyone knows that people on Instagram and other social media sites are paid to advertise certain products. And if you find a “good” influencer, they will only advertise products they truly stand behind. These are the people who drive the most sales.

But how do you find a ‘good’ influencer?

A marketer’s job is to create (or facilitate the creation of) the copy, images, videos, and strategy behind a product or brand on social media. An influencer is the one who endorses the product or brand so that their following, people who like their content and trust their opinions, will consider buying it. Sometimes, widespread influencer campaigns are simply designed to get you to see the product over and over so that it comes to the top of your mind whenever you’re thinking of that good or service. Other times, influencers may offer a special discount just for their followers who buy the product. But whatever the strategy, a well-crafted influencer campaign can often make or break a product launch.

Finding good influencers

Finding the right influencer should be a top priority when considering this route for marketing your new product, service, or brand. There are a few factors you should consider when seeking out the right influencer.

1. Are they relevant?
2. How is their engagement?
3. What reach do they have?
4. How often do they publish content?
5. Are they authentic?

Read on to learn how these factors impact the success of your future influencer campaign.

Are they relevant?

Take a look at the potential influencers’ content and see if the style and messaging align with your brand messaging. If one of your top priorities is finding someone who is environmentally conscious, you might not want to choose an influencer that does massive “haul” videos promoting consumerism. Look for someone a little greener.

How is their engagement?

Engagement refers to how much the influencers’ audience interacts with their content. As a rule of thumb, the higher their following, the lower the engagement will be (but they will have a greater reach).

If you’re a relatively new, smaller product, you’ll want to find a few smaller influencers with great engagement if your product requires some discussion. If your product is pretty straightforward you might want to go with an influencer with lower engagement but higher reach.

What reach do they have?

The easiest way to measure reach is to simply take a look at the influencers’ follower count. Although, you’ll want to get some behind-the-scenes stats from them (like engagement) to ensure their follower count is real. Many “influencers” will buy fake followers to make their accounts seem appealing, but their posts may have a super low level of likes or below-average engagement for accounts of their size.

Consider where their audience is, too! If you are a more visual brand, like a food brand, a large following on Instagram or Pinterest might be more valuable than one on Facebook or Twitter.

How often do they publish content?

You’ll want to follow your potential influencer for a while to check out their posts and stories in your own feed. If your potential influencer is posting incessantly, it might not be appealing to the audience you’re looking to attract. On the flip side, if they post once in a blue moon, you might not reach the people you’re looking for. Try to strike a good balance here.

Are they authentic?

Okay, okay, we know you’re paying for this person to post about your products, so a bit of authenticity will automatically get thrown out the window. But you should try and find someone who already uses your product or would be very interested in using your product and get them to try it for a few months before posting about it, as part of your influencer agreement. This way, if they use and love the product, their testimonial will be more believable and trusted!

Conclusion

Regardless of your niche, you can partner with influencers to create high-quality, authentic content that is expected by your audience while promoting your brand.

Influencers exist on platforms other than Instagram, too. Try finding folks with loyal followings on other platforms depending on your target audience, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and anywhere else people gather online.