How to Choose The Right Influencer For Your Next Marketing Campaign

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Influencer marketing has grown tremendously in recent years. With an estimated market share of $13.8 billionin 2021, influencer marketing is set to continue growing in the years to come! Despite the uptrend only being noticed in recent years, influencer marketing is not a new concept. Before the term “influencer” was used, the buzzword used was “celebrity”, because the only types of media then were mainstream media such as television and radio. People who exclusively enjoyed the spotlight then were movie stars, sportsmen, socialites etc. And they have been endorsing brands for a long time too. With the rise of social media influencers, many brands started to engage them to do promotions for their brands, even though they may not be as well-known as the mainstream media celebrities. Why? Simply because they have stronger influence and power over their followers than some of these celebrities have.

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Once you acknowledge the fact that these influencers have tremendous influence over their followers, the next question will be “who should I work with?”. Obviously, not every influencer is suitable as a collaboration partner with your brand. For instance, if you are selling cosmetics, it probably wouldn’t be wise to collaborate with an influencer from, say the tech niche. Instead, you would probably want to work with an influencer in the beauty or fashion niche instead, because their followers are more alike to your intended target audience. Furthermore, with an increase in the number of influencers and brands dipping their toes into the world of influencer marketing, it gets increasingly competitive and challenging to choose the right influencer to work with. It is not a walk in the park, that’s for sure, and hence, in this article, we will be sharing some tips on how you can choose the influencer for your next marketing campaign!

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Why Work With Influencers?

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Traditionally, celebrity endorsements are usually sought after by big brands. For example, Pepsi has spent millionsof dollars on endorsements from the likes of Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Nikki Minaj, Cardi B etc. But what if you don't have millions to spend on your marketing campaign like how Pepsi does? Well, it might work in your favor if you look towards influencers to market for you instead. By “influencers”, we mean content creators who have gained popularity on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc., and have the power and influence to sway their followers’ buying decisions. 

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With the increased growth of the influencer market, it has become evident that influencers have just as much power on their audience as celebrities do on theirs. Followers find themselves seeking opinions from influencers for simple things like, which movie to watch or what phone to buy. That’s because they feel some sort of authentic connection and trust with the influencers they follow.

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Many influencers have amassed a huge following which brands can take advantage of to increase brand exposure, build the brand's credibility and increase brand engagement. And often, these influencers are a creative bunch who will be able to deliver your brand message out there in a rather creative way that usually connects best with their own followers. At the same time, the created content is deemed to be beneficial to both the influencer and the brand, because the Influencer gives their audience interesting content to consume while the brand gets their marketing message known as well. Hence, that is also why such relationships between influencers and brands are known as “collaborations”.

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Influencer marketing is a great strategy to create brand awareness and it should be part of a brand's digital marketing strategy. The best part about influencer marketing is that, if correctly done a brand increases conversations around their products or services and also gains the trust of the new audience they reach. So now that we have discussed the “why”, without further ado, let's dive into the “how”; how to choose the right influencer for your next marketing campaign!

How To Choose The Right Influencer

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As more and more brands and marketers embrace influencer marketing, finding the right influencer becomes more and more competitive. Your marketing campaign is only as successful as the influencer you choose to work with. But the selection process isn't as clear cut as we hope it would be. You cannot pick an influencer simply because their content looks good, or because they have a large following. You need to take several factors into consideration. In this section, we will be sharing tips you can use to choose the right influencer for your next marketing campaign. Be sure to start taking notes!

1. Choose The Right Social Media Platform

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The first tip to choosing the right influencer for your marketing campaign is to identify the social media platform that works best for your brand.

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Lucky for you there are several platforms at your disposal to choose from. The platform you choose is a determinant of 2 main factors: (1) where are your target audience hanging out and (2) what kind of influencer do you want to work with. For example, if you want to market cosmetic products specifically target teens girls below the age of 25, then it is probably a good idea to go searching for influencers to work with on social media platforms with younger demographics, such as Instagram or TikTok, rather than say LinkedIn (which is usually where business professionals connect and hang out). It is important to get this right at the start because otherwise, all your subsequent effort will come to naught.

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At the same time, do understand and remember that not every influencer has a strong presence on every social media platform. So, if you are looking to market on particular social media platforms, you may not want to simply go with an influencer simply because he or she is popular on another social media platform that is not relevant to your target audience.

2. Trust The Metrics

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You've probably heard that "numbers don't lie". But is this right? We think not! Some numbers do not reflect the actual truth. Do not be fooled by the follower count because it is not a reflection of the true “influence” of the influencer. Don’t forget, many of these “followers” could have been bought by the influencers. Most of these fake followers are bots accounts which are created solely for the purpose of inflating the followers count! Hence, it is more important to look at the level of engagement (i.e., engagement rate), rather than the raw follower count of the influencer’s account.

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The engagement rate will be a more accurate reflection of your brand’s potential reach. It reflects how much of the content posted by the influencer will be consumed and engaged by the influencer's current audience. It also indicates how much an audience responds, resonates and cares about the influencer's content. The engagement rate is typically derived by looking at the number of comments, likes and shares of the influencer’s audience divided by the total number of followers he or she has.

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Also pay attention to "Followers: Following Ratio". Some influencers simply follow other people's profiles with the aim to be followed back to artificially increase their follower count. If you see a very low "Followers: Following Ratio", it may suggest that this influencer is using this strategy to artificially boost his or her follower count. It’s probably wiser to not engage them. Don’t forget to also check if the influencer’s audience demographics match your target audience’s. Ensure that they are the people you want to attract. 

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When it comes to traditional media, it is rather hard to calculate engagement rate of a particular marketing campaign done by a celebrity. But it is now possible to do so for social media influencers, and that is one of the greatest attractiveness of influencer marketing; because you are now able to use more accurate data to guide your decision-making process. Whenever possible, ask for their “Audience Analytics”, where it will show you a breakdown of their audience demographics such as:

Follower Growth | Top Locations | Age Range | Gender | Most Active Times

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In addition to asking for their Audience Analytics, request data from their most recent posts, so that we can evaluate the engagement rate of their posts. And these influencers should be able to supply such information whenever requested. If they aren’t, it might be a red flag for you to take note of, and probably steer clear from them!

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3. Do Thorough Research On Influencers

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Choosing the right influencer is a matter of thorough examination of the profiles. For starters you should check if the followers are real human beings. Some influencers use bots to increase their following. This means that their following may look large but most of them aren't real and won't interact with the content. Sustainable organic growth may reflect a good sign that the audience are real and are genuinely interested in interacting with the profile via authentic content that the influencers have been posting.

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Next, study in detail how engaged the followers are with the influencer’s content. Remember the “engagement rate" we mentioned earlier? Don't forget it as you do your research because it is such a huge deal when it comes to evaluating an influencer for influencer marketing. Ask the influencer for a copy of their analytics and check the comments, likes and shares that the influencer's profile attracts.

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Lastly, check if the influencer’s and the audience's values match your brand's. The last thing you want is to present content to an audience who have different values from your own. That would spell disaster in a sense that engagement would be low, and you will probably be targeting an audience who have little chance of interacting with your brand. For example, if you are selling a meat-based food product such as beef jerky, it is probably not a good idea to try to approach and engage an influencer who advocates vegetarianism or veganism. You may end up facing backlash when the influencer complains about you on his or her social media profile and giving you the “bad publicity” that you never wanted. So, make it a point to check if the Influencers you are eyeing are aligned with the values of your business and industry. 

4. Check The Influencer's Past Collaborations

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You may have taken interest in a few influencer's profiles based on the content they posted previously or from one of their past brand collaborations. However, do note that checking just their latest collaboration is not enough. It is vital to check and gain assurance that the influencer has done multiple collaborations in the past before. Another thing you want to avoid is to team up with an influencer who previously collaborated with your competitors. 

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Moreover, you need to ensure that the influencer's previous collaborations, values, ethics, and lifestyle do not go against your brand's voice. For example, if your brand is all about natural and organic hair shampoo, don't choose an influencer who promotes non-organic chemical-based personal products. Also, you do not want an influencer who is willing to do any sort of promotions. Such profiles tend to be oversaturated with a lot of brand promotions and barely any organic authentic content. Their profile is like an ad carousel! Usually, this type of collaboration will not give you the desired ROI because their audience are probably sick of all the advertising bombardment already. Your brand will be seen as “just another brand” promoted by the influencer. 

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Conclusion

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After reading this article, you might think that it is so hard to choose the right influencer because so many stars must align to find the perfect one. Nevertheless, it is not impossible, if you put in the due diligence to do your homework and conduct a thorough research studying and evaluating your shortlisted influencers candidates. There are still many outstanding and high-quality influencers out there whom you can collaborate and work with. Have patience and faith, and if you put in your due diligence and do your research, you will be able to find suitable influencers for collaborations.

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