It is a known fact that influencer marketing is your #1 tool to drive sales. I understand it can be a scary thing to find the right influencer to work with. Someone who you can trust with your brand, while being able to spend the right amount of money to get the best return on investment.
So, how exactly can you find the right type of influencer to work with?
BIGGER influencers, or, macro-influencers – These people have hundreds of thousands, even millions of followers (i.e. celebrities, public figures, etc). Don’t be fooled by the numbers though, just because you have a huge following base doesn’t mean that you get a lot of engagement for your brand. Working with these big influencers costs a lot of money, and it’s a huge investment to make with little returns.
The big question is, how can you spend less money and have a higher engagement rate and leads for your brand…? This is where we introduce micro-influencers.
Micro-influencers are essentially social media figures with a smaller following base (the ideal number is between 1,000-10,000). Don’t take the ‘micro’ term too literally, though. They are able to take their ‘micro’, niche-focused follower base and tell a story about your brand in a genuine and authentic way. Think about it, wouldn’t you want a person to be able to tell an honest story about your brand while getting more value for engagement? I definitely would!
Let’s not forget how relatable micro-influencers are. They give attention to details and add that ‘personal touch’ factor, which is the best way to attract your audience. At the end of the day, you as a company and influencer want to be able to build a trusting relationship with your audience. This to me, is the most important and strongest tool to have. As an influencer, if you have enough time to be able to respond to your followers’ messages and comments, then you know you are doing a great job. When it comes to trust, I strongly believe that a micro-influencer’s voice is as genuine as it gets.
So how exactly can you find the right type of micro-influencers for your brand?
- Check your social media followers list: If they already follow your brand and like your content, there is a good chance they will want to work with you to promote your brand.
- Hashtag/Keyword Search: Look up your main branded hashtags on social media and see if any influencer has already posted about your brand. Using Google or Bing is another tool that is pretty effective. You can search for local influencers in your area that are relevant to your industry. As long as you use the correct hashtags and keywords, you can find a lot of pertinent information.
- Influencer platforms: There are numerous platforms available that help specifically with finding data for influencers in a given niche. I think the great thing about these platforms is that you are able to filter results based on your influencer requirements, and really narrow down the type of influencer you want. So, the more filters you add, the more niche-focused your influencer search results will come out to. Some examples of these platforms include HYPR, Influence.co, BuzzSumo, and Insightpool.
As a brand, we all want to get a decent number of engagements with a minimum amount of spend, right? Well, using micro-influencers is your best solution. They are experts in their field AND they are fantastic storytellers. They bring an experience with them and leverage that power over anything. So, take that leap of faith and make your investment with micro-influencers. I’d say it’s a win for you and a win for them. Everybody wins!
