What to consider when choosing influencers for your brand

You’ve seen them, striking a pose on the subway while getting their photo taken, or at the table next to you at a restaurant, meticulously styling their plate before standing on a chair to take an overhead shot on their camera. Instead of shaking your head, take note these people are engaging in influencer marketing and when done well, they’re making money doing it.

The reason brands work with influencer marketing is because it’s effective; they help brands reach their goals, whether it’s to gain new followers themselves or sell a new product.

Each of these individuals has honed in on their personal brand, created beautiful, original and engaging content, and have a long list of loyal followers or subscribers on the platforms they utilize the most. These influencers have worked tirelessly to build an audience of like-minded people who when they see a brand featured, are more to engage with that company (visit a website, purchase a product, or follow on social media). Given their value, it’s easy to see why every brand wants to incorporate influencer marketing.

What’s really important and will make influencer and brand partnerships most successful is pinpointing the people who reflect your brand ethos and aligns with your brand strategy and objectives.

To help, we’ve created a short list of things to keep in mind when choosing influencers for your next campaign.

What are your campaign goals?

Is it awareness, sales, or growing your social media following?

• Each of these will help you navigate selecting your influencers differently. If it’s awareness, you might want to consider “micro-influencers” (those with 5-10k followers) but if it’s sales and awareness isn’t an issue, you’d more likely go the route of top tier influencers (20k or more followers) with a discount code for their followers
• Community Development (Engagement rate etc.):
• Business KPIs: (website clicks, email sign-ups, calls, etc.):

Influencer Marketing | Things to Consider:

You know your brand; the next piece is nailing down which influencer demographic is the best fit for you.

This means doubling down on whether you want men, women or an event split, people who talk about beauty, health and wellness, events, etc. You also want to spend time getting to know how each of these audiences engages with the influencers. Are they critical of their content? Do they like and comment on everything?

It’s also worth noting where these audiences are most active ie. does this particular influencer gain engagement on their Instagram stories vs. static posts to their Instagram page. All of these factors will play into how you build out your campaign and how effective it will be.

• Audience Interests
• Audience Demographics
• Influencer Engagement (do they reply to questions on their feeds)
• Which platforms are they most active on

Influencer campaigns are more successful when influencers are carefully considered using the steps outlined above. When selecting your next influencer partnership, to hit the mark with your next influencer campaign.