How to Find the Right Influencer

Over the past several days, we have taken a deep dive into influencer marketing. We have redefined and updated who is an influencer. We have discussed the behavioral science as to why influencers are so impactful. We gave you proven influencer marketing strategies for B2B marketing programs. We shared the metrics that you need to evaluate the performance of any influencer that you hire.

Today, we are going to complete our journey by showing you the process that Prevail Marketing utilizes for narrowing down the possible influencers so you will end up with the right influencer for your marketing campaign. This process will help you identify influencers who have a relevant and engaged following that aligns with your target market.

In many respects, finding an influencer is easy. Throw a rock in any direction at any distance and it will most likely strike an influencer. While finding an influencer may be easy, finding the right one can be a challenge.

The first step is understanding your buyer personas and where they go for information, entertainment, and third-party verification. Influencers tend to have a major presence in a few select channels, make sure the influencer you choose has their major presence where your personas go.

Your budget will significantly dictate who you should consider for an influencer as well. Hiring a Subject Matter Influencer will be significantly more costly than a Macro or Mid-tier Influencer.

Armed with answers to these questions, where do you begin for B2B or B2C? Researching and analyzing potential influencers is crucial. Look at the five R's before to help you narrow down the potential candidates. You can certainly use any number of third-party agencies that have a stable of influencers that they can assign to your project. The benefits of these agencies are that they already have negotiated the terms and costs, and they can show you their reputation, reach, relevance, resonance, and results. The disadvantage is that they usually pull a twenty to thirty percent cut, meaning that you are getting less bang for the buck.

However, if you want to go that route, simply go to Google type in Influencers, and the vertical, (e.g., fashion) and you will find a number of agencies willing to connect you with one of the people in their stable.

If you want to find the best fit by yourself, many of the same influencers who have relationships with the agencies are able to contract directly if the party comes to them directly.

Here are the steps to find the perfect influencer for your business:

Find Your Influencer – The first step is to create a list of potential influencers along with their reach, relevance, and resonance. As you start accumulating names put them all in a spreadsheet and accumulate the relevant information for each social channel that your buyer personas go for information, education, or entertainment.

In order to populate this list, identify the prospective influencers using the following techniques. Even though this list may get lengthy, we recommend using all of the strategies below to ensure you end up with the best influencer for your business.

Google Search – Use the following search terms your “business vertical or niche” and (speakers, influencers, or experts).

Industry Conferences – Search for upcoming industry conferences. Unless it is a large prestigious conference, you will typically find a number of Micro-Influencers. While they may not be your primary influencers, this list is good to cultivate for amplification of any engagement efforts.

Hashtag Search – Do a hashtag search for your vertical/niche to find relevant influencer candidates. Also, check the hashtags being used by known influencers and experts in the field.

Database Search – Check your own CRM for possible experts and influencers who are already known to the company. They may be the easiest to work with as they already have made a connection.

Segment the Influencer List – You will probably end up with a large list of influencers who fall across many different categories. The key is to start prioritizing them into workable lists.

Sort by Category - Sort your list by each category all the Subject Matter Influencers are together and so on.

Rank Them by the R’s – Sort that list further by reach, likes, and shares. This will give you an idea of who really controls the narrative and is worth your consideration.

Investigate the Candidates – You will start to see a list of the top-tier influencers for each section. Before you seek to engage with them make sure you know exactly what they bring to the table. Pick a workable list (e.g., the top ten in each section) and do a deep dive evaluation.

Examine Posts – Examine one year of their post for the following:

1. Percent of on-topic posts.

2. Frequency of posting.

3. Check the tone of their posts. Have they engaged in any negative, controversial, or social media wars in the past year?

Search Their Handle – For each platform, search their handle and see what information comes up. You will see how the community is talking about them. Are they respected? Do they have a good reputation? You will ALWAYS find trolls and detractors, but the vast amount of feedback should be positive.

Google Search – Search for their name and see what information arises. You don’t want to align yourself with a person who might end up hurting your brand.

Cultivate the Influencer – Now that you have a workable list you need to cultivate that influencer. Unless you are a well-known established brand, reaching out directly before you cultivate that relationship could have a negative result.

Follow and Like - The first stage is simply to begin a positive interaction by following and liking posts that the influencer is making. Do not like every post as that can be creepy but make a meaningful effort to like a significant number of them.

Comment and Share – After a few weeks start to comment and share their posts. When you are sharing a post always add meaningful commentary or images and include their handle.

Share Content – After three or four weeks of commenting and sharing try to engage the influencer personally by asking them to review some content that has a very high level of educational or production value. Do NOT send sales material.

Access to Product – Give them a complementary product to try. Let them personally find the value proposition.

Proposal – Once you have developed a relationship ask them if they would be willing to consider an influencer marketing proposal. Do NOT just send the proposal over, get permission. This is an important step as it incorporates the Law of Commitment and Consistency. (Influence)

Nurture – Continue to nurture that relationship by inviting them to attend conferences at your expense, share the company roadmap, and include them in strategy meetings. Make them feel that they are a part of your long-term plans.

What are the Actual Costs of Influencers

There are lots of articles on the internet that tell you “the real cost” of hiring an influencer. We have hired influencers and represented influencers and the one thing we know for certain, there is no fixed guide on the cost of hiring an influencer. We will share what the authoritative sites believe should be the benchmark, and we will offer insights of our own.

The rates of any influencer will depend on the platform they are using, the type of content, if it is a short form or long form, the niche, and the 5 R’s we discussed earlier. It is the 5R’s that really dictate the price you will pay at the end of the day.

However, WebFx and GetHyped reported that in 2022 the “rate card” for each platform was as follows:

• Instagram - $20/1000 Followers

• YouTube - $25/1000 Followers

• TikTok - $5/1000 Followers

• X (Twitter) - $2/1000 Followers

• Snap Chat - $10/1000 Followers

• Facebook - $25/1000 Followers

WebFX & GetHyped

The reality is that many Nano and Micro Influencers will share content they created for swag or simply recognition by the brand. Micro and Mid-tier Influencers will share content they create for samples of the product, or in many cases for help in creating and distributing the content. While the prices set forth above may be the starting point, I have seen some heavy hitter Subject Matter Influencers earn $50/1000 Subscribers.

Use the information here as guidelines but understand you will need to adjust based on the factors of your particular niche and what an individual influencer brings to the table.

Conclusion

Take your time, do your homework, and let the metrics help direct your choice of which influencer to use for your campaign. Remember the influencers will represent your brand and the wrong choice can hurt your company. When you find the right influencer, treat them with respect and pay them their true worth. It is much better to have a happy passionate influencer sharing your brand than one who feels they are undervalued and paid.