6 Steps to Find the Right Influencers for Your Brand

6 Steps to Find the Right Influencers for Your Brand

In today's social media-driven world, influencer marketing is one of the hottest ways to boost brand awareness and, more importantly, drive sales. 

Whether you're looking to highlight your products or build brand presence, influencers can play a huge role. But how do you find the right influencers to work with? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with these six simple steps.

1. Set Your Goals

Before you start hunting for influencers, it’s important to know exactly what you want to achieve. Influencers can help brands accomplish several different goals, including:

• Brand awareness: If you're aiming to get your brand's name out there, you’ll want an influencer with a large following. Keep an eye on metrics like reach and impressions.
• Sales: If you want to drive conversions, you’ll need to focus on engagement rates, not just follower count.
• Follower growth: Want to grow your social accounts? Consider partnering with an influencer for a giveaway where following your accounts is part of the entry process.
• Content Creation: Remember, these are professional content creators. This is how they make a living. Influencers pride themselves in their ability to create content that resonates, so leverage them to fill your library with high performance content. 

2. Know Your Audience

Understanding your target audience is key to any marketing campaign, and influencer marketing is no different. Ask yourself questions like:

• Where does your audience live?
• How old are they?
• What are their interests and passions?
• Which social platforms do they use most?
• What type of content do they typically engage with?
• Are there any social norms that they all relate with?

Having a clear picture of your audience makes it much easier to find influencers who resonate with the people you're trying to reach.

3. Pick the Right Type of Influencer

Not all influencers are created equal. There are different tiers of influencers based on their follower count:

• Mega influencers: 1 million+ followers
• Macro influencers: 100k – 1 million followers
• Micro-influencers: 10k – 100k followers
• Nano influencers: Under 10k followers

The more followers an influencer has, the pricier it will be to work with them. But bigger isn’t always better! A smaller, niche influencer might bring in more conversions than someone with a huge audience.

Selecting the right influencer for your specific campaign goals doesn’t always need to be based off reach either. If you identify a group of nano influencers that create exactly the style of content you’re looking for, this can be more valuable that influencers with a wide reach. 

It all depends on the goals of the campaign and how you plan on maximizing the creator partnership. 

4. Start Searching

Now that you’ve narrowed down your goals, audience, and influencer type, it’s time to start searching! Here are a few ways to find influencers:

• Search hashtags: Use industry-related hashtags to find influencers in your niche.
• Check tagged posts and mentions: If influencers are already mentioning your brand, that’s a great place to start.
• Explore related accounts: If you find one influencer, look for similar accounts through Instagram’s suggestions or YouTube’s related tab.
• Check out competitors: See which influencers are working with your competitors, but keep in mind they may have exclusivity deals in place.

Truly, searching for the right creators can be a tedious and difficult process. At Dialed, we pride ourselves in already having relationships with the top creators across Outdoor, as well as having the tools and software to seamlessly connect with those outside our roster as well. 

5. Set Your Criteria

Follower count is just one small piece of the puzzle. Here are some other things to consider when choosing the right influencer:

• Engagement rate: How well does their content resonate with their followers? A 1-3% engagement rate is average, anything above that is great!
• Post frequency: Do they post every day, or just once in a while? Decide what posting schedule works best for your brand.
• Personality and tone: Does their vibe match your brand? Look at how they talk in captions or videos.
• Authenticity: Beware of influencers with low engagement rates or suspicious follower growth—they may have bought followers.

6. Negotiate Compensation and Deliverables

When you find an influencer, it’s time to talk details. There are a few different types of compensation you can offer:

• Gifted product: Give them your product in exchange for content. Keep in mind, bigger influencers are less likely to post just for free products.
• Affiliate marketing: Provide a special discount code for their followers and give the influencer a commission based on sales.
• Monetary compensation: Pay the influencer to promote your brand, keeping in mind that content creation involves art direction, photography, editing, copywriting, and more.

Don’t forget to iron out the deliverables. Will they create one post, multiple posts, or share across several platforms? Are you looking for one-off content or an ongoing campaign? Be clear on what you want, but also be open to negotiation.

The six steps above are a clear roadmap covering the A-Z of identifying the best influencers for your brand, crafting influencer agreements, and positioning yourself to scale relationships after a campaign. Once you have developed solid relationships with the right influencers, you will truly begin reaping the immense rewards of influencer marketing for your brand – and there’ll be no looking back.

If you have any additional questions, or would like to hear more about how Dialed Media can assist in connecting with top influencers, please feel free to book a call with our team below!