Finding the Right Instagram Influencers for Your Business

You've probably read enough about influencers and their valuable relationships with brands. They offer the perfect word-of-mouth engagement that could mean a customer upsurge for your business, as compared to traditional advertising.

This marketing phenomenon has graduated from a rising tactic to a viable number one for most social media marketing strategies. As influencer marketing gains more traction, finding the right Instagram influencers should be a top priority for driving engagement, customers, and sales.

This quest, however, isn't as simple as it seems. You can't go by the number of followers or likes an account has. Instead, consider the factors below before deeming an influencer right for your Instagram presence. These factors go a long way to ensure the maximum efficiency of influencer marketing.

Before Anything Else

One thing first. You should take some time to decide why your business demands an influencer.

The key is to have a specific goal or objective in mind and determine what result you want to see from your campaign and the metrics to measure its success.

Your budget and brand identity are other details to weigh since your influencer campaign needs to speak to your ideal customer and stay on budget.

Checklist for Finding the Right Influencers for Your Brand or Business

1. Authenticity

Trusting the competence of your influencer is the foremost step that determines your relationship with them. But sometimes you might find yourself asking if they are indeed genuine, especially to your business.

Apart from flaunting loyalty to your brand, an influencer should be able to craft authentic posts. In fact, the right influencer would always present their content so it won't appear as a sales pitch or something they were paid to create.

2. Relevance

How relevant is the influencer to your brand, a particular campaign, or a series of campaigns?

Influencers don't necessarily have to be directly associated with your product or service but have some quality of pertinence to the content they would feature in.

A footwear brand would customarily have no link with an influencer in the science fiction space, but an ad to promote a pair of sneakers could involve the influencer spotting it in a sci-fi world. If it works, it works.

3. Perception

What do they think of your brand? Do they even use your product or service in their personal life?

These are questions directed to you to help build a meaningful relationship swiftly. Find out the positive or negative stuff they already speak of your brand to their community.

Alternatively, if the influencer doesn't even know your brand exists, be sure to ask them what they think of your product or service in all honesty.

4. Competition

There are literally thousands of influencers you can choose from, and an influencer who associates with your competitor isn't one of them. It only makes sense to move your business elsewhere.

For one, they might leak vital information to your competitors. Apart from this possibility, there is a visible sign of disloyalty. If an influencer decides to work with two competing brands on Instagram, their ultimate motivation is evident: rewards (monetary or material).

Instead, delve further and scoop out someone without a connection with your rivals. If the influencer agrees to influence your business other than your competitor's, do keep in mind that it can increase the amount you are likely to spend. No one will leave more for less.

5. Engagement 

From feed posts to Stories, the level of engagement an influencer holds will determine the number of followers that are likely to show interest and reach out to your brand. Engagement rates reveal how much followers love their content.

Notice how engaged your influencer can be on the Gram. Likes, comments, shares, and saves are few of the metrics to look out for. You want to focus on both the quantity and quality of their engagements.

Note: Stories (especially with Stickers) are just as important as feed posts, if not more. Keep note of this alongside IGTV views, if applicable.

6. Audience

Your existing audience's opinion on prospective influencers is a factor that should also govern your choice. You shouldn't only consider the effects an influencer would have on a new audience but also the impact on the existing one.

Associating with some influencers could help break into a new market but could have adverse effects on your current audience, leading to a drastic drop in engagement level.

7. Relationships

Staying clear of influencers who are challenging to work with or display poor work ethics would do your business a whole lot of good. This way, you'll avoid risking your brand's reputation. In other words, do not associate with influencers that are notorious for engaging in unsavory activities, topics, or issues.

Influencer marketing has moved past the days of one-off campaigns. Establishing relationships that would pass the test of time is key to creating (recurring) successful campaigns and meaningful collaborations. Moreover, you give the influencer more time to understand your business goals and work toward achieving it.

8. Portfolio

Taking into account previous associations an influencer has embarked on is crucial when trying to evaluate their general perception.

Final Thoughts

Influencers don't necessarily mean celebrities since several non-celebrity influencers can help your brand with more user engagement. Respecting the above factors would set you on the right path toward finding the best influencer for your business.

Now, it's time to put on your research hat and select the right fit for you. Cheers!