Howdy! So you’re doing it, the influencer marketing on Instagram thing… congrats! But finding the influencer in the first place seems to be like searching for a needle in an Instagram haystack. Where is going to be the right person for you among sheeps, goats, great pics, filters, and super cool captures? The right one makes the difference, so be astute when you look for it. Now, I will expose you to how you can look for and connect with the right influencers on Instagram to boost your brand. Here we go!
Why Instagram Influencers? Understanding Their Power
Instagram influencers have become an effective—and increasingly, necessary—part of digital marketing strategies for large and small brands alike. Just why are they so effective? The answer is influence: influencers have the power to move products, create customer loyalty, and reach audiences in a way that feels authentic.
Authentic Reach and Engagement
An important strength of influencers is that they already have an audience who trusts them. Rather than tune out traditional ads or disparage them as they might with friends, many consumers respond to this type of influencer content as a suggestion from a trusted friend: Business Insider reported that micro-influencers (those with 10,000 to 50,000 followers) often boast engagement rates far higher than those of macro-influencers—a’sweet spot’ for brands that want to feel real.
Credibility and Niche Expertise
In fact, perhaps the best reason that influencers work so well is because they have a niche area of expertise. Whether it’s a beauty guru or a fitness expert, there is something about their expertise that makes their mind stretch out and say, Well, there might be something here for me. If I am going to consider it, at least I want to hear from someone who might have an informed opinion. So when you are searching for the perfect angle and the next social media movement, consider partnering with an influencer who is already in the same niche as you.
How to Identify the Right Influencer for Your Brand
All right. You’ve bought into the force of influencers. But how do you find one that’s right for your brand? It’s not just a matter of follower count but of fit, engagement and authenticity.
Define Your Goals and Target Audience
Don’t approach the influencer hunt without first setting clear objectives. What is it you want to achieve—measurable awareness, increased sales, building your following—and make sure your objective drives the type of influencer you go after? Next, be clear about whom you want to reach. What type of person is your ideal prospect? The influencer’s following should match your target market.
Use Advanced Search Tools
Instagram’s search function is somewhat clunky, but this doesn’t matter too much once you discover the third-party tools that can actually turbocharge your search. AspireIQ, Upfluence and BuzzSumo all allow you to search for influencers by keyword, niche and by virtue of their engagement rate. Such tools are great, for they offer a wealth of analytics, which should ideally inform all of your decisions.
Assessing Influencers: Beyond the Follower Count
It’s a day in the life of the influencer, and it’s also familiar: we’ve all spotted someone with, say, 300,000 followers—and progressed through various stages of desperation to respond. ‘Heyyy’; ‘Yes, I’d love to work together’; ‘Lol, doing the same x, how was your day’; ‘Next time, mate? Text me’; ‘KEEP ME POSTED <3’. With all that in mind, it turns out that a few people can do better than one somebody. When we’re buying a house, who do we get to recommend a builder? Friends who’ve had a good experience with one, right? Plus, when was the last time you clicked on an advertisement for said builder on Facebook? Or asked an influencer what they thought of shin guards? A decent following doesn’t guarantee influence, though. When we hire a tradesman, do we take princes’ word for it? No. Mere numbers don’t definitely indicate reach. So, how do you find reliable influencers? For every individual that’s right, there’s a right-sized collective of someones. Before you DM that person with 300,000 followers—along with 1,199 others—dig a little deeper.
Engagement Rate Matters
Engagement rates are also a good indicator, because while a large follower count is important, it might not always be the most beneficial. Say you want to raise awareness of your brand. You would likely get better results from an influencer with 20,000 followers and a 10 percent engagement rate than from one with 100,000 followers but only a 1 percent engagement rate. An engagement calculator such as HypeAuditor or Social Blade will give you an accurate idea of an influencer’s social activity.
Check for Authenticity: Avoid Fake Followers
Fake followers are real. Sets of bots and zombie accounts can inflate followers’ counts but ultimately deliver no influence. Today, there are tools available such as FollowerAudit and Modash that offer the ability to identify top influencers with relatively higher percentages of suspicious followers. These tools can help you avoid putting dollars into non-existent influence.
Building a Connection: How to Approach Influencers
The technical challenge of finding the right influencer is only half the story; it’s the human connection that does the work. Approach influencers as you would any professional engagement—with respect, clarity and a value proposition.
Crafting the Perfect Pitch
The first thing you should do is personalise your message. You have to give the influencer or creator a brief reason why you’re reaching out to them. Tell them that you love their content and why. And you should give a very brief summary of the partnership—not very much text—but tell them what’s in it for them. Money? Free products? exposure to their brand’s audience. That professional pitch goes a long way, and it shows that you’ve done your homework.
Building a Mutually Beneficial Relationship
The way this works should be seen less as a TV ad with your brand slapped on it and more as a collaboration with a creative partner. So give the influencer the space to bring their own voice and vision to the partnership, and try to avoid making it look (and feel) overly manufactured. The more authentic the process feels, the more likely the content is to be authentic. Audiences can tell the difference.
Negotiating Terms: Setting Expectations
Negotiating with influencers is tricky and sometimes involves setting ground rules for what you’re willing to do or to pay for. It always helps to clarify these expectations up front.
Compensation: Pay, Products, or Exposure?
The level of compensation can depend heavily on the influence’s range and scope, as well as their engagement. Some influencers will prefer to be paid per post; others may go for products, commissions from affiliate sales, or even just exposure to your audience, and payments can range greatly in scale. Influencer Fee Calculator is a helpful tool to find out what kind of compensation will make sense based on an influencer’s stats.
Setting Deliverables and Deadlines
Outline what is required, for example, two posts a week with a specific kind of content (eg photos, videos, stories), when they have to deliver, any hashtags that need to be used, whether they need to include any call-to-actions, etc. Create a contract for the collaboration that details all the terms—and get it signed so there are no arguments later on.
Tracking Success: Measuring ROI of Influencer Campaigns
And after the posts have gone live, your job isn’t finished either; assessing your influencer campaign’s success can help you understand your ROI and plan the course of future ones.
Key Metrics to Track
Stop looking at likes and comments. See metrics such as click-through rates, conversions and the total reach of the campaign. Start trawling for data from posts. There are various tools you can use to track the traffic and sales driven by influencer content—for example, Google Analytics, Bitly or your own Instagram Insights.
A/B Testing for Continuous Improvement
Run A/B tests, for instance, comparing different kinds of influencers, content styles, or posting times to see which work most effectively for your audience. Over time, you’ll refine your influencer strategy based on your results.
Conclusion
Instagram influencer marketing isn’t a passing fad. Get it right, and it could propel your brand into a whole new stratosphere. Applying some simple rules—finding the right influencers, engaging authentically, and measuring your results—will see you on the way.
FAQs
How do I find the right influencer for my brand on Instagram? Figure out your goals and targets and enlist the help of an influencer marketing platform—your options include AspireIQ, Upfluence, BuzzSumo, HypeAuditor and more—to search for influencers based on your niche, engagement rate and authenticity. Look back at old content to make sure they align with you and your audience.
What metrics should I look at when evaluating an influencer? Engagement rate, authenticity, quality of content, the proportion of followers who truly align with your target market; HypeAuditor is an effective tool for checking these aspects.
How should I approach influencers for collaboration? Craft your pitch to them and explain why you love their work and why the collaboration is a win-win for both of you. Be very clear on what you can offer in terms of compensation, deliverables and deadlines so the expectations are set right from the start.