How to find and use the right Influencer for your brand

Marketing is always evolving and changing and Marketers are constantly having to readjust their approach to stay current, especially with the latest trend- finding the right influencer.

It can be tricky knowing how to effectively and successfully work with an Influencer whilst keeping your brand true to itself and genuine, after all, there are a wealth of Influencers to choose from, but where do you start? Which Influencer do you know who to go with, what do you get them to say and what to pay them? Some of the top Influencer accounts earn $1million per paid Instagram post, and on average, an Influencer who has good engagement with their followers will be paid $10 per 1000 followers. The majority of brands can’t afford that, but still need to use and find the right influencer Influencers. With that in mind, here are a few pointers to help keep you on track…

Keep the post relevant and of top-quality

Brands that choose to work towards finding the right influencer and tap into their market must do so wisely and consider their options:

1. Set enough time aside to find the right Influencer as “67.6% of marketers consider finding relevant Influencers their largest Influencer marketing challenge”
2. Check who’s already following them and think, are they your type of customer or will your message be wasted
3. Review their images as really bad photos are a massive turn off to audiences

Think through what you want to be said

To make the most of your paid post, brands and Influencers should stay on topic and listening to what their followers are saying and always be appropriate:

1. Keep your chosen Influencer talking about what they’re used to and what their audience knows them for, but do stay consistent with your brand, style and voice
2. Listen to what their audience is saying. Keep them engaged and get feedback and use your Influencers knowledge of their followers
3. Try to create the content in partnership with your Influencer so you can pick up their tone of voice (which should already be similar to yours) and mould a story and message that feels real to your audience at an appropriate time e.g 3 am local time might not be the best for those talking about cooking shows, but it might be a good time for those providing advice on how to drift off

Stay on trend and be original

To be authentic, you and your Influencers need to be just that; be yourselves, be human and do what you love in the way that you love:

1. Put your audience first and think of the content they would like to see. You’re onto a winner if your chosen Influencer already has them following them
2. Try to keep the posts simple and familiar to what the Influencer already posts and don’t get them to say something ‘unnatural’ to their regular posts. Like you know your audience, they know theirs
3. Discuss with them the type of message you want to get out and allow them to empower your audience to tell your story for you. Keep your posts fresh and original and don’t copy others or repeat previous posts

Beware of the obviously fake posts

Considering how many Influencers are out there, finding the right influencer can be tricky as it’s natural for a large number of them to be doing it wrong or producing posts that are seeming fake or obviously paid for:

1. Partner with real people, not fake Influencers as their followers will likely be fake too, after all 84% of Millennials don’t trust traditional advertising and prefer more authentic and real looking endorsements so will follow the ‘real’ looking Influencer
2. When finding the right influencer, watch out for those after “a quick cash grab or sponsored advertising”. Good Influencers won’t simply accept your draft post without wanting to know more about your brand or product- if they’re not interested in your product, it will come across to their followers
3. Check out the picture history to ensure your products fits with their long-term lifestyle e.g models with 3-day old stubble talking about beard oil might not fit vs someone with a full grown beard, but, they might be more suited to talk about shaving kits to help keep that stubble looking trim and tidy

An example of a clearly paid for post was shown by Influencer Scott Disick’s post on May 2016, he partnered with Bootea and put a paid for Instagram post out… but forgot to edit what he typed- he ended up writing “Here you go, at 4 pm est, write the below. Caption: Keeping up with the summer workout routine with my morning @booteauk protein shake!”.

Don’t always pick an Influencer with the highest number of followers

Not only is it often very expensive to partner with an Influencer with a high number of followers, but more often than not, it’s wasted money:

1. Brands need to work hard finding the right influencer for them, and not follow a craze or popularity contest as those with higher numbers tend to charge more per post at it may not be financially worth it for a brand
2. Do check who is following the Influencer and check their quality as the number of followers or likes is not always the best thing to look for, as these ‘followers’ could have been bought
3. Those with top numbers tend to use high-end products, and if your product is more affordable, is it realistic they use your product in real life? If the answer is no to you, it’s the same from their followers.

It can feel like a minefield finding the right influencer and partnering with them and it can take a lot more time and effort than initially considered, but brands need to remember to stay authentic to themselves and be genuine as that’s what the correct Influencers will want too.

It’s not always about going with the highest number of followers, but more the best representation for your brand. Finding the right influencer and partnering together with someone that you feel would actually use your product on their own accord is a great start, but remember to keep the message on trend and natural to your brand, and your chosen Influencer.

If you want to know more, simply get in touch and organise a free 30x minute consultation call where we can discuss your digital marketing needs and make it work FOR you, not you work for IT.

Photo credit: Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash