Influencer marketing was once considered manual labor for brands and marketers alike. Now, tools like Mattr can help make the influencer identification and hiring process both smoother and faster. Mattr provides a pool of influencers ready and willing to work with brands, instantly.
Getting access to an awesome influencer marketing tool has become easier, yes– cheers all around for that!! However, choosing the RIGHT influencers can still be a challenge for your brand and marketing team. Here’s a list of items to consider when selecting influencers for a campaign using Mattr:
– Identify your target audience and brand values. This step is marketing 101 but often overlooked. Who are you trying to reach? What type of people are they? What motivates their purchase behavior? Discover who the people are that you’re trying to reach, and you’ll discover their influencers much easier as well. Mattr can help with this step using our social segmentation tool, if you don’t have the resources to do it on your own.
– Identify what type of influencers will resonate best with your target market. Are you looking to hire micro, mid, or macro advocates (or the little guys, semi-celebs, or Taylor Swifts of the world)? Also, which social metric is most important to you when identifying your brand influencers – their reach, relevance, or resonance?
– Use smart hashtags and keywords for your search. Hashtag lists should consist of more than just one term. For example, we’ve found over 100 hashtags for our mommy influencer pool of influencers alone! Get creative with how you search social posts to find the most relevant influencers for your brand.
– Identify influencers with brand-aligned interests, values and personality traits. Your brand and your advocates should mesh well. Influencers might be traditional or non-conformist. Show more positive or negative sentiment. Be cost-conscious or big spenders. Make sure they align with your brand and/ or your campaign goals.
– Further sort influencers, when applicable. Sort by demographics, social channels, location and more. Sorting can be time consuming, but worth the effort in the end.
– Learn who influences your influencers. Where are their eyes and ears on a daily basis? What inspires them to post? The more you know about them, the more comfortable you will feel with them representing your brand. And the more confident you can be that their messages will reach the right audience.
– Review the influencer’s content quality. How often do they post? How much engagement do they have? How does this vary from each social site they own? Are they promoting other brands already? Are they spammy or are they authentic? Content is king for an influencer, so make sure they are doing it right from the beginning.
– Vet. Communicate. Then vet some more. Build relationships with potential advocates through social posts, follows and likes. Let them know you are there. And then vet your list again and again. Find the best of the best for your campaign if you want the best results.
Here’s a quick hypothetical example on how a brand might narrow their search for influencers using the Mattr app:
A new upscale beauty brand is popular amongst working females between the ages of 30- 40 (their current target market). The brand is launching a new ‘on-the-go’ skin care line in London, and their goal is to drive brand awareness. They want to hire mid and micro female Instagram influencers who use skincare and job-related hashtags often in their posts. Further, they should have fast-paced lifestyles and extroverted personalities, and not be too cost-conscious. Their audience should have similar qualities.
Now that you’ve found your favorite brand influencers, the next step is to invite them to partner with you on a campaign. Look for next week’s Real Talk blog post to get started.