How to find and work with influencers in 10 simple steps
The world of influencer marketing can feel daunting and unsure territory. Paying someone to promote your business? What does that even look like?
How much do you pay someone? How do you even find influencers? How can they help your business? I am sure you have a heap of questions running through your mind!
This week we are exploring influencer marketing; the research that is behind it and the trial and error needed to get started!
Influencer marketing can be an amazing strategy in your business!
How? Let's find out!
Getting started
The first and most important part of any strategy is the planning and prepping you do to make sure you have the steps in place for a simple implementation. Fully understand your niche and what you need, be willing and ready for open communication and remember that flexibility is key! If you think about these things from the start, you’re already on your way to having an amazing influencer marketing strategy!
Step 1: Do the research
Much like starting your business, research is super important to understand not just what you want out of your strategy but what you are looking for in the influencers you approach. So here are some tips on where our research can begin!
Start with what you want and the goals of your approach, have a look into how others have approached influencers, and see if you can adopt some of those tactics for your own strategy!
Google is its own resource, use it! You can start on the Content Queen website with this week's podcast with Lauren Christian - it’s all about influencer marketing. Have a look here!
Even this blog is research - so well done! Want to read another one? We have a blog on being an influencer, check it out here!
What type of influencer are you going after? There are 4 types of influencers, according to this blog by Amire, mega, macro, micro, and nano - have a look into each and decide which one is your target
Step 2: Setting the goals
Ultimately, what do you want to achieve?
Awareness?
Engagement?
Sign ups?
Purchases?
The Measure of success comes down to having the goals in place to achieve. These will help you find an influencer, and make sure it is the right one.
Step 3: The type of influencer to work with
The influencer you work with should suit your business goals. You can refer to the above article for more info, but here is a brief rundown.
Nano - This new term describes social media influencers with less than 1,000 followers.
Mega - Used to describe influencers with more than 1 million followers (yes this is an achievable goal)
As well as the amount of followers, you can also think about the niche they appeal to. Are you looking for a mummy blogger, a fashion influencer, or maybe a well-known spiritual coach? Pay attention to these things along with their branding and note it down.
Step 4: Searching and finding an influencer
For this you can use hashtags, keywords, the explore/discover pages, and any other means of finding influencers you relate to.
Allow yourself to fall down the rabbit hole of searching, and when you do make sure thor images and content align with your brand for an authentic collaboration!
BONUS TIP: try these hashtags on IG while searching!
#ads #influencers #australianinfluencer on IG
Step 5: List 10-15 influencers
Have a list of people who MIGHT meet your needs, you can narrow it down from here
Engagement
The next step? You make contact!
Step 6: Following and connecting with influencers
Depending on where you do your research, some websites will say to utilise a collab type strategy, so connect, comment, like and start building a social relationship.
In theory, this is a good idea, but in reality, it would take a lot of time and energy with the amount of people you would like to reach out to. What we would recommend is, instead, start following the people you want to collaborate with and just message them as you go.
Step 7: Chatting with influencers (sending the message)
When reaching out to these influencers, don’t start by demanding things and going too hard straight away - drop hints and relate to them on a mutual level.
An example of a message you could send would be this:
“Hey I’m xx from xx,
I have seen your content, love your energy, and am keen to create a collaboration. If you are interested, let me know and we can have a chat about the details”.
Our podcast guest this week Lauren, found out too much information when first approaching an influencer. So rather than putting all f the information in the first message, try a teaser-type message instead.
This type of message seems to get more replies than one that had all the details straight away because of the peak in curiosity.
The key is to remember that you might have to be patient with this process, no rush!
Working with an influencer
The next phase is, once you get interest, to start working with these influencers.
Step 8: Determining a price
This is when the inclusion of a rate card becomes so important. A rate card, which you can read more about here, is a document that an influencer should have for you as an idea of the types of posts and the prices in which they are set. These rate cards include a name, website/social info, email address, and phone number so you can be contacted plus, of course, the prices and rates of what the agreed circumstance is.
Most influencers will have a rate card, but also some won’t. For example nano or micro-influencers are less likely to have one; they are finding their feet so they are working it all out, so you can guide them if they don’t have one.
When you begin discussing the logistics, just make sure to have open conversations and open fees if there isn't a rate card. Once you know, you can always help others who don’t have one!
Step 9: Ways of working
Now you need to think about the best ways of working for BOTH you and the influencer you’re working with.
Think about if you want to approve the content, the hashtags you want them to use, the topic you want to focus on, which days you want to post, and how much creative control and inspiration you will put into the project.
This is your collaboration too!
Step 10: Be flexible and communicate
Lastly, and probably most essential, you need to remember that you are representing your brand when approaching these influencers, so be open, flexible, and COMMUNICATE!
There are different elements of communication you can use, social media is their usual way of working so you need to adapt to this.
They are online all the time and will have an expectation of a quick response, so be flexible and work into this for a smooth collaboration where everyone walks away happy!
Bonus tips
I know we’ve given a lot of tips and steps on working with influencers, but we wanted to include some bonus tips to round it all off.
Remember they are HUMAN
Build a relationship with them
They become the face for your brand
It is a relationship
Make sure you find people to align with your brand
Be picky and make sure they are aligned with your brand
Make sure it aligns with your business
Trial and error
Refining your strategy
Testing different types of influencers
Testing different types of content
Influencers can start reaching out to you (do you know what our business is, are you interested in working with the product). An Intentional strategy
A purpose-driven marketing strategy
Final thoughts
It's important to remember that influencer marketing is a collaboration, so pay attention and look into the way other people work and their style and work your strategy around this!
Influencer marketing may seem daunting (everyone starts out feeling this way) but once you gain that confidence in yourself and the type of people you want to work with - you've got it in the bag!
For more information and more resources, explore the links below!
