Influencer marketing is a key element of any modern marketing mix, but it can be trickier than the old school way of placing ad buys or other traditional “transactional” methods commonly found in advertising.
Not only do you need to recruit the right influencers for your brand, you also need to consider where your authentic influencers have followings. They can have communities on one or many channels, like blogs, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, for example.
This means finding the right mix of influencers often becomes a laborious hunting expedition. Spending the time to research all of these platforms can make it hard for brands to determine which influencers to partner with efficiently and reliably.
That’s why we’ve broken down the most important steps to find and connect with your brand’s ideal influencer – so you can save time searching and spend more time building your business.
Before you start knocking on digital doors and sliding into DMs, ask yourself what your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be for any given influencer:
These are very important questions to clarify. The more detailed you can be about your goals, the easier it will be to recruit the right creators.
Answering these questions will shape who you target as a potential partner for an authentic influencer relationship – and help you establish shared goals and expectations once you do find the right influencers for your brand.
Once you know what your KPIs are, you can start making a long list of names.
Traditionally, you would search hashtags and keywords on various platforms to start your hunt. You could google articles and investigate who the authors are. Depending on your industry, you may even choose to ask colleagues or put out the word on LinkedIn.
Of course, that “spray and pray” method has worked in the past… but smart modern marketers beeline to the one-stop-shop platform TVPage, where you can “shop” a marketplace of influencers by industry, interest group and additional filters, as well as get a customized report to connect with them effectively.
Once you have your list, you’ll want to ask the following questions to make sure that the person you’ve found is a good fit for your brand:
When you’ve finally got your list of potential influencers narrowed down and you’ve gone through all the steps to make sure they’re a great match for your brand, there’s some key relationship-building steps you’ll want to take:
Many brands spend most of their time in Steps 2 and 3. This can lead to frustration and missed opportunities given how long it takes to find the ideal influencers and then vet them. When you work with TVPage, we take the pain out of influencer marketing, so you can find, vet, and recruit creators with ease.
Not only can you expedite and streamline this recruitment process, campaigns are created and launched right in the platform. With this unique method, you’re able to see direct ROI with clear, reliable metrics using first party tracking. And you can review and approve campaigns, as well as pay your brand’s influencers all within the TVPage platform.
If you value your time and expect high quality results, let’s connect. Request a no-obligation TVPage demo here.