How to Choose the Right Influencers (and Avoid Wasting Budget!)
Define your goals
What impact are you expecting from working with influencers? The answer should tie into a measurable goal for your brand.
Whether it’s more social followers, traffic to a landing page, or sales of a product, you need to have a clear and defined goal. This is what will effectively start and uphold your influencer marketing strategy.
Identify your ideal influencer
The beauty of the creator economy is that there isn’t just one type of influencer. Based on what your goal is, you can find a creator that fits into your strategy and budget. There are different types of influencers, including nano (1k-10k followers), micro (10k-100k followers), macro (100k-1m followers), and mega (1m+ followers).
Each of these influencer types can offer you something different while also posing individual risks, which is why it’s so important to have your goal in mind before choosing your influencer. Some can offer high engagement at an affordable cost but their audiences are more niche, whilst others can offer mass exposure but will be more expensive.
Do your research in line with your goals and get an idea of what KPI you’re looking for: exposure or engagement?
The authenticity audit
So now you’ve picked what type of creator you want to work with, it’s time to find someone that aligns with your brand.
This is arguably the most important part of finding a good creator to work with because audiences can smell an unauthentic partnership from a mile away. The best partnerships are those that are relevant to the audience, speak to the creator’s passions, and highlight the brand.
Analyse their audience
This leans nicely into checking for an authentic creator – analyse their audience. If you find a creator that fits your brand but their audience is a demographic that isn’t interested – that’s going to be a waste of your budget.
The winning formula is an audience that is engaged with the creator, who is also likely to invest in the service or product you’re selling.
There are a lot of tools you can use to help in this, whether that’s Instagram Insights or Upfluence to help you verify whether the creator’s demographic fits with your target market
Watch for red flags
Now that you’ve found the creators you want to work with, it’s time to do a check for the red flags. While some things can’t be predicted, there are a few things you can check to make sure that the creator you’re working with is the best fit for your brand and budget.
- Check for sudden follower spikes – this could indicate buying followers, which would limit engagement
- Check comments/engagement – do the comments look like spam? Or from bot users? Again, this could indicate that their engagement isn’t going to be worthwhile
- Look to see if they have done brand partnerships before – were they well received? You can see straight away if anything problematic through the comments or reposts.
Make it measurable
Last but not least, make it measurable. Going full circle to defining your goals at the start, you need to make sure, for both your and the creator’s sake, that the success is measurable.
Whether it’s a certain increase in followers, a certain number of products sold, or so many website visits in a timeframe. Be specific with numbers and timescales, as that’s the best way to understand whether your partnership hit your ideals for success.
Navigating influencer marketing strategies can be difficult, which is why NewGen is here to help brands find the right fit when it comes to creators. With a leading creator roster and a team of expert influencer marketers, NewGen can help you achieve your goals when it comes to working with influencers.
Take a look at our creator roster here or get in touch today to discuss how NewGen can support your influencer marketing goals.