Influencer marketing is growing at an unbelievably fast rate with more and more brands investing a big chunk of their marketing budget for a better ROI. However, many influencer campaigns do not yield expected results because of a simple fact – the choice of the influencer doesn’t fit the requirement of the brand/campaign.
So what exactly are the key points to remember while finding the right influencer for your campaign? We, the people at Greenroom, list out some of the following:
#1) Be clear of your brand’s requirement
This is the stepping stone. Every little step you plan to take from here on shall largely depend on what exactly is your brand (and the campaign) all about. What is the objective – is it a product launch or a loyalty campaign? What is the demographic of your target audience? What kind of content would you like to roll out for this campaign? All these are extremely vital points that you should be clear about before starting off with the influencer hunt.
#2) Decide on the right platform(s)
See where your content fits the best. If most of your content is going to be in form of images, then Instagram is going to be the top platform for your campaign. Whereas, if you are planning to roll out a few videos, you should target YouTube instead. If you are looking for people to do a detailed product review or opinions of that sort, you might want to prefer blogs or micro-blogs like Twitter. There can be a mix of 2 to 3 platforms for your campaign for a better result. Not all influencers are equally successful on every platform, and there comes your first sorting parameter.
#3) Study the audience of the target influencers
Many marketers go wrong here. They equate the success of a campaign directly with the sheer number of followers an influencer enjoys. But that’s not the case. You need to equate whether the majority of followers correspond to your target audience. That’s vital. If your product is a complete shaving kit for men, there’s hardly any point to chase an influencer whose primary set of followers comprises of women. Even if the influencer has 1 Million followers, your campaign will be targeted towards a wrong set of consumers.
#4) Focus on engagement over reach
Follow the influencers you are targeting for your campaign. Closely follow the kind of engagement they get to generate through their posts. An influencer with a huge set of followers will naturally get a good reach for their posts, but in influencer marketing what matters more than reach is engagement. You want people to like, comment, share your campaign posts for an exponential effect on the market. Finding the optimum balance between reach and engagement will ensure success.
#5) Do the maths
Figure out the costs of your target influencers and the numbers you want to achieve through the campaign. How many people do you want to reach to through the campaign? What is the expected conversion rate? What’s the average reach and the engagement score of your target influencers? What’s their charge? How much do you want to spend on promoting the posts after influencers have published them? Do the maths properly, and give yourself a proper window of budget.
#6) Look for long term association
This is not going to be your last campaign, and hence, you may want to work with the similar set of influencers later on as well. Study influencers based on their previous campaigns. Do they have the affinity to continue working for one brand on multiple campaigns? So your work doesn’t end there. You need to continue to engage with the influencers to form a long term association.
Pro-tip
Finding the right influencer for your campaign is never an easy task. Unless you have a strong database of influencers along with a robust in-house team to take care of your influencer campaigns, it is always advisable to let a specialized agency carry out your campaign from end to end. It helps you from avoiding the hassle, as well as assures a better success rate.
Hope it was a meaningful read. Continue to follow Greenroom blog for valuable content. Also, read about the importance of regular blogger outreach.
Cheers!
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