How to Find Influencers as a New Brand
By QuikPlace | May 28, 2021
If you want to scale up sales of your new brand quickly, finding influencers can be a great way to do so. Relevant niche-based influencers can help you spread the word quickly, as their followers could be the right people to target.
There are many types of influencers out there- which one you choose is based on your budget and niche. When it comes to how to find brand influencers, how to find brand influencers, the best way to do it from scratch is given below.
Search and follow hashtags
Hashtags are the best way you know what is being posted online of your niche. A simple search of terms relevant to your niche will help you get a rough idea of whatever is being posted online of you and your competitor’s products.
You can also search for hashtags where people share content related to your competitors’ products- check how much engagement it generates and who regularly posts or comments about these products. Make a list of possible influencers who have high engagement rates and also a large number of followers.
Google the hashtags
Like everything else, finding the right influencers can be done using a simple Google search. But a simple search may not be enough, you need to search smartly to get what you want.
When searching for a particular keyword, you can add “site:instagram.com” to get searches only from Instagram. For example, instead of searching for ‘vegan food’, you can type “site: Instagram.com vegan food” to get results only from Instagram.
Another way to get to the influencers is through their blogs. To search for the best bloggers, you can look up something like ‘vegan food bloggers in New York, USA’ for specific results. Many influencers have a presence across social media and run their own websites too. You can always find their social media accounts through links on their blog.
Research competitor’s hashtags
Your competitor may be using influencers too. Search their names in your brand’s Instagram account to see which hashtags they and their influencers use. Check out their influencer’s profiles-following, engagement, how often they post about your competitor and so on. Maybe you could get these influencers to work for you instead of your competitors! This would help your brand immensely as the influencer’s existing followers could switch loyalties too.
Search keywords on YouTube
You could meet your potential influencer through a YouTube video. Many influencers are more active on YouTube than other mediums. You can search your businesses’ keywords and find them there. Check for the number of views, likes, comments and subscriptions they have besides their social media stats.
Follow blogs and bloggers
Mentions by bloggers can be a great way to get genuine leads from backlinks. These bloggers are experts in their domains- they are a great way to get to your target audience.
These bloggers may also have a great social media presence, amplifying their use as influencers. Go through their blogs and social media posts to see how well they can fit as an influencer for your brand.
Narrowing down to the right ones
After you have made a list of all the potential influencers for your brand, the next step is to narrow them down to those that fit the personality of your brand.
For this, you have to sit down and answer the following questions-
Does this influencer’s following coincide with the people your brand aims to target?
How well does this influencer engage with his audience?
Does his personality fit with our brand’s personality?
If he has worked for other brands(including our competitors), how well has he helped market those brands?
How to perfect your influencer marketing campaign?
Choose influencers based on buyer personas
Would you try to sell bright sports sneakers to an 80-year-old grandma? You have to make a buyer persona- a profile of your target audience and choose an influencer that they adore. Coming to the above example, Pre-teen and teenage boys and girls will be most interested in buying bright-colored sports sneakers. Who do they follow on social media? How do they make purchasing decisions? – you gotta put yourself in their shoes to know how your target audience will behave.
Each age group has its own set of influencers- teenagers and young adults usually follow sports and the young movie stars while people in their 30s and 40s may follow niche-based and business-based influencers.
Monitor the influencer’s performance regularly
Just choosing an influencer based on their social media stats isn’t enough, you also need to ensure their posts sponsoring your products are interesting and engaging. For this, you will have to monitor their social media accounts and keep a close watch on their comments. In the influencer marketing contract, you will have to set a part of the compensation as variable pay to ensure they work their best.
Ensure creativity
Your social media influencer should make your sponsored posts as creative and interesting as possible. This is what makes the most difference. If there are two influencers with roughly the same number of followers, you can choose one that has better engaging and creative posts than the other.
BONUS TIP-Use an influencer marketing tool
If you are looking for an influencer but do not have the time to do so, you can opt for an influencer marketing service that does all the work for you. These people constantly review various influencers across niches. They also have an eye on your competitors and how well their influencers have driven sales.
Influencer Marketplaces like Quikplace help you choose influencers that are perfect for your brand. It also helps to monitor the performance of these influencers and the impact it has on your sales.