We are already in 2023! Now, it may be time for a refresher course on a few marketing details that could make or break your next campaign. A new quarter coming up signals a new opportunity to implement unique campaigns and we want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your influencer efforts. Picking the perfect influencers are the key to setting off an unforgettable campaign!
The formula may seem simple right? Find influencers with a ton of reach, add them to your campaign and the results should be through the roof! In some cases this may be true but let’s hold a magnifying glass to this theory and define what it really means to find the right influencer!
Let’s start with a quick crash course on the types of influencers!
Types of influencers
#1 Micro-influencers
Micro influencers are the most like average folk as it gets when it comes to the influencer ranking order. They usually sit somewhere between 5,000 and 100,00 followers. They’re often the most easily accessible and more likely to have a niche channel with a dedicated and invested audience.
#2 Mid-tier influencers
Mid-tier influencers are often the most desired because with around 100k to 500k followers they have reached a point where they are producing great content on a regular basis while still maintaining a loyal and passionate following!
#3 Macro-influencers
Macro-influencers have around 500k to 1M followers and are starting to hone in their chance at stardom! They’ve usually been in the social media game for sometime now and offer top tier expertise to their followers as well as next level professionalism to marketers looking to collaborate!
#4 Mega-influencers
Lastly we have the mage-influencers! These are the real stars of social media. Macro-influencers typically have over 1 million followers and are the celebrities that set the trends and have the ability to create incredible demand for a product!
How To Spot The Right Influencer!
The most important component to a successful influencer marketing campaign is picking the right influencer. Finding the perfect influencer for your brand shouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world. But, considering there are over 3 million people worldwide who consider themselves influencers (as of 2022) it may not be as easy as you think!
Relevance
It’s the most obvious element to consider when shuffling through your influencer rolodex. It’s important to work with influencers that compliment your brand, not contradict! A quick way to cut the confusion is to go to the influencers social pages and imagine your product placed in the lineup of other brand promotions. If it fits seamlessly with the other posts, then you may be on the right track, if not then it’s to close the door with that particular influencer. If you’re a vegan company promoting plant-based products and clean alternatives to junk food, it would be counterintuitive to collaborate with an influencer that constantly works with brands that are polar opposites of values! Not only is it confusing to your audience, but it also shows that you aren’t as in tune with your message as much as your audience would hope!
Audience
You have a desired audience in mind, this is the audience you want to see your products the most because it will have the greatest resonation with them! A deep dive into an influencers audience can ensure that your product will end up in the right hands! Look at the audiences’ demographics, what they post, their location, essentially anything that can give insight into what they may like or dislike. This gives you the best chance to get your message to the right audience.
Content Quality
So you found an influencer that is relevant to your brand and has an audience that matches your consumer profiles, but what about the content itself? Bottom line question you want to ask yourself is if their content is up to par with your campaign goals. You should be spending your budget on high quality, engaging content! Their content is essentially a representation of your brand, so it’s imperative to ask yourself a few questions before signing the dotted line on an influencer. Is their content of consistent quality, is it creative, is it engaging? All crucially important factors to weigh when working with influencers!
Engagement Rate
An influencer could have a massive audience, but could be putting up terrible numbers in engagement! It could be a bummer to feel that you have found the perfect influencer with an incredible following only to find that their audience just isn’t feeling their content. Engagement rates tell us how much an influencer’s audience interacts with the content they put out. You’ll want to find an influencer that has high engagement for obvious reasons.
We want to mention that engagement can work both ways! Lucky you if you found an influencer that has an engaged audience, but you might’ve struck gold if you found an influencer that interacts with their followers. Influencers that approach their audience not as a means to an end, but as an actual community offer the most authentic content and are more likely to develop more meaningful relationships with their followers!
Reliability
Outside of all the obvious factors we just discussed, it would be in your best interest to find an influencer that is reliable and trustworthy! Believe it or not, but an unreliable influencer can prolong your campaign and make it more difficult than necessary. The best influencers are open to communication and are willing to create a two way street of communication to deliver the best possible results!