It seems like no one buys anything anymore without some sort of recommendation or review from friends, influencers, or celebrities. This has made influencers one of the most powerful drivers in Instagram marketing. After you build your influencer strategy, how do you identify a good influencer with the potential for profitability and brand awareness?
Quality Content
For some brands, quality means HD photos; for others, quality means that the photos don’t look staged and that the caption is genuine. Whatever it may be, content quality must be consistent and resonate with their audience and your brand.
High Engagement
Engagement rate is the most obvious way to tell if an influencer’s followers are invested in what they have to say. Though micro-influencers tend to have higher engagement, their engagement rate should never drop below 2-3% as they grow toward a 100k following. Engagement is not just dependent upon followers’ actions; it’s also up to influencers to engage with their audience too! The best influencers are constantly interacting with their followers in the comment section of their posts. This kind of interaction ensures that influencers will give further insight into your brand’s products when their followers have questions. This could be the very interaction that helps them decide to purchase your product.
Existing Brand Collaborations
Look for influencers who have ongoing relationships with brands. They will usually tag them often in feed posts, stories, and highlights. One-off collaborations are forgettable to consumers. It’s best to work with influencers who have a track history of building great relationships with brands that they genuinely like to work with.
Posts About Brands Like Yours
If an influencer is posting about brands like yours, including competitors, this is a good indicator that they’re probably reaching the right audience. This also gives you taste for the quality and aesthetic of the content that they would produce for you.
Utilizes New and Existing Features
Influencers that are always the first to hop on new Instagram features, like Reels, tend to benefit from the Instagram algorithm, resulting in more exposure for your brand. Utilizing existing features, like hashtags and geo-tags, make their posts easier to discover, leading to the discovery of your brand as well.
Promotes Their TikTok
Working with influencers to create cross-channel content is an efficient way to utilize budget and resources.
Though influencer marketing can be extremely profitable and boost brand awareness, it can also be a time-consuming process. For this reason, we must learn how to identify effective influencers that leave a lasting impression on potential customers.
75% of consumers trust recommendations they see on social media.
Are you still unsure if influencer marketing is right for you? Do you need help getting your influencer campaigns off the ground or finding a strategy that works for your company?
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