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Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Influencers (+ Useful Tools)

If you have been in the marketing industry long enough, you must be well acquainted with how influencer marketing has taken social media platforms by storm. While influencer marketing seems relatively easy on the surface, it’s definitely not so from within. You might think all it requires is finding an influencer, paying them some money, and boom! You have got new prospects! But only if it were that easy.

One of the biggest hurdles in influencer marketing is finding an individual with a follower base of users who will resonate with your products or services. You could pick just about any influencer with a massive follower count and ask them to market your brand. But will their followers be interested in your brand? That is the real question.

Even though influencer marketing has become a big deal, marketers often need help to spot the right influencer for their brand. 34% of marketers consider finding influencers their biggest obstacle. Are you one such marketer who’s scratching their head over how to find the right person to collaborate with?

There is no need to worry since we are here! In this article, we will discuss a few tips and tricks to help you find the right influencer. Keep on reading.

How To Find Relevant Influencers For Your Campaigns

One of the biggest reasons why influencer marketing works so well is because prospects trust peers more than brands; as a result, they gravitate towards the products or services the influencers recommend. In the beginning, companies used to go for celebrities or mega influencers to become the face of their brand and propel it toward success.

However, customer behavior has changed massively since then, and prospects now belong to different niches, which is why the need for micro-influencers and nano-influencers has increased. You cannot just randomly select an influencer with many followers; you have to tap into a niche and find an influencer whose followers have a high chance of becoming paying customers.

1. Choose the Right Platform

Gone are the days when social media platforms only meant Facebook or Instagram. They are increasing with the introduction of platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and more. And the number of users on these platforms is also simultaneously increasing. Thus, before you begin searching for an influencer, a very crucial first step is figuring out which platform you should choose. To figure that out, you need to dive deep into the demography of your prospects.

Which social media platform do your potential customers spend the most time on? Consider age, nationality, gender, location, and political and socio-economic background. All these factors determine the kind of users you should be targeting. Before investing money in Youtubers, bloggers, Instagrammers, or TikTokers, you must ensure that your ideal customer base will be on that particular platform. Because, otherwise, it will all be in vain.

Moreover, you must consider the kind of industry you operate in, which social media platform usually has more presence in your industry, which social media platforms you visit to find relevant news about your industry, etc. Once you have answers to these questions, it will be easier for you to find a social media platform or two where you can find influencers to collaborate with.

2. Define The Campaign Objective

Remember that only some influencers can market your product perfectly. To find the right partners, you must first evaluate your brand’s marketing campaign. Understand the goals and objectives of the campaign. What are you trying to achieve? You must understand the campaign’s objective to narrow your search to the kind of influencers who will achieve that goal.

Is the campaign meant to generate engagement or create brand awareness? Or is it to make an announcement or expand your reach? It could also be for new product launches or promoting a holiday sale. Whatever the objective of the campaign, you need to find a relevant influencer for that.

While on the surface, the ultimate is the same: find prospects for your brand, the goals of every single campaign differ. It could be website visits; app installs, new paying customers, new impressions, or lead generation. Once you have the goals and objectives laid out, you will be able to find influencers based on their geographical reach or follower count, which will be relevant to your campaign.

3. Look For Influencers

Once the objectives and platforms are selected, you must look for the right influencers for your brand. Now, how do you do that? Deep dive into the platforms and scour them to find the right influencers. Look for creators who make content that is related to your industry, search for hashtags to locate people more easily, and consider their follower count and post frequency to make a better decision.

You can use the search bars of YouTube or Instagram to find the profiles of the people you are on the hunt for. Alternatively, you can look up articles on Google to find influencers interested in working with your brand. Lastly, you can also leverage platform-related tools to improve your search.

For instance, Social Blade is a platform for YouTube that lets you find the top YouTubers, depending on factors like subscriber count, video views, and the Youtuber’s niche. Followerwonk is a tool for Twitter that lets you find relevant Twitter accounts for the keyword you have entered.

Next, SignalHire is a professional tool that offers real-time verified contact info. It also helps you do IG account lookup, finding relevant users who might be able to market your products or services the way you want.

4. Reach Out To Influencers

If you think finding influencers is hard, welcome to the next phase: contacting them. You must expect only some creators you like to be interested in working with your brand. Influencers in demand get a lot of offers, so you must do something that makes your brand stand out. Have you already found the right influencer for your campaign? Great! It is now time to send them a message!

Since influencers already get tons of offers, be crafty with your message and make it as personalized as possible to get their attention. Try to avoid generic messages and sending mass emails because they seldom work. Show that you are interested in the influencer’s work. Mention what you like about them and what made you want to collaborate with them.

You can talk about some of their previous posts and what stood out most about them. Remember to mention your brand and what it represents. And try to keep the message as friendly as possible. Tailor your message according to whom you are connecting with. The trick is to keep the message short. You can do a follow-up if you are still waiting for a reply. However, if you think the influencer is not interested, it is time to go on to the next influencer.

Why Collaborate With an Influencer?

Several marketers believe influencer marketing to be unpredictable and a form of marketing with no potential. However, with social media platforms rapidly transforming, this type of marketing is becoming dominant, with the market reaching $16.4 billion, according to Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2022.

One of the reasons why this form of marketing works is because it depends on the vulnerability of the influencer’s followers, personal connection, and peer pressure. Followers trust and believe in influencers more and are greatly invested in their lives. That is often not the case with celebrities since they are unrelatable, have unattainable standards, and do not engage well with the wider audience. Hence, try out influencer marketing if you haven’t already.

Final Thoughts

With social media platforms rapidly changing, new forms of marketing are burgeoning. Presently, influencer marketing is quite popular, and it is only the beginning. Thus, by keeping the above-mentioned tips in mind, you can collaborate with influencers and take your brand to the next level.

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