Finding and Targeting Influencers on Instagram
Digital marketing has continued to grow in interesting ways over the last decade. Content marketing has become more important than ever with specific types utilizing influencers. Brands have started to work with relevant influencers of all sizes in order to convert on sales, leads, and for branding purposes. An influencer is a person whether they are a blogger, social media personality, or Instagrammer that has a specific target demographic. Tapping into the right influencer’s audience can yield a great ROI in terms of a marketing campaign. Finding the right influencer can be a full-time job in itself as follower numbers can be full of fake profiles. Below are tips that will help a company find the right influencer on Instagram to help with a digital marketing campaign in various ways.
Use Outreach Techniques that Will Get Your Brand Noticed!
Influencers that have built a community of followers on Instagram can be tough to get into contact with. A low-quality outreach technique can seem more like a spam email than a business proposal. Standing out during this pitch can be important as some influencers are extremely selective with the brands they agree to work with. Email outreach can be extremely easy if an influencer has a business or agent email listed on their social media accounts. Social media outreach pitches should be limited. These can seem desperate to followers to constantly ask influencers publicly to work with the brand.
Research Their Personal Life
The personal life of an influencer could come up with a checkered past. Nobody should be defined by their past but if they have had issues that directly contradict the values of the brand, pass on this influencer. The personal lives of a person can allow those to know whether they can provide real reviews on a product or if their endorsement means anything. Arrest records should also be looked up as certain offenses can be extremely damaging to a brand partnering with an influencer.
Other Relevant Partnerships
Taking a look at brands that are usually associated with your company’s target demographic can be essential. A person that consistently has brand partnerships with related products can generate quite a few sales/leads through one social media/blog post. Podcasting can be a very important tool in influencer marketing as it is the preferred form of content for a growing number of consumers. Searching hashtags that generate website traffic or convert via leads/sales can also yield the influencers you should want to work with. The engagement is important as well so the comments along with responses on popular posts should be investigated as well. Picking an influencer outside of your company’s target demographic is a recipe for disaster. Relevant visits to a company’s website or sales page are far more important than visits of those outside the brand’s customer demographic.
Thorough Social Media Sweep
In today’s digital age it is more common than ever for old tweets or social media posts to become a point of contention. This could be something that was said that could be deemed offensive. With social media dating back over a decade, the posts could be insensitive in today’s climate but were accepted in the past. Thorough sweeps of an influencer’s social media accounts and comments associated with their names need to be dug up. Companies investing in an influencer do not want a PR nightmare occurring. Finding out about an affiliation with a hate group can result in that investment being a waste.
Platforms that Connect Influencers and Brands
Finding a platform to connect with influencers as a brand can save a copious amount of time. The platforms that have done the best outreach and have helped connect brands/influencers need to be researched. A platform that is right for one business might not be the right choice for another. Look at the pages like that of “Meet the Team” as this can show the connections to large marketing agencies the staff might have. The more connections that the staff has, the more access that they have to influencer channels that help clients convert. Finding the right micro influencers on Instagram or Instagram will be far easier when numerous are utilizing a specific platform.
Tips for finding the right platform:
- Platform provides statistics of each influencer on previous campaigns completed through this platform.
- Platform has the demographic the brand is looking for. Some will specialize in different types of influencers so understanding this is essential.
- Look at the various options to see which have similar influencers are more reasonable prices. Some of these websites/platforms can charge a larger fee than others.
The influencer marketing niche is only going to continue to grow. New individuals are building strong personal brands daily. Finding the right influencers can take research and a look at their following. The loyalty of the following needs to be high-quality as influencers that have followers that do not trust them can provide little to no ROI. Do not compromise on the quality of the content for a sponsored post. An engaging post is as important as the influencer publishing it on one/all of their platforms.
