Influencer marketing can be a great way to simultaneously boost brand awareness and sales. As a brand, you’ll be able to leverage the relationships influencers have already built with their followers to spread the word about your business.
It can be difficult to know where to start or which influencers to trust if you’re just starting. Luckily, finding the right influencers for your brand is easy with a few simple tips. Here are the best ways to find relevant influencers who can take your brand to the next level.
Use Hashtags
Before you can start your influencer marketing campaign, you’ll need to know about relevant influencers in your niche that can help your business grow. The first step to finding the right influencers for your marketing campaign is to look into trends and content.
You can use your brand’s Instagram or Twitter page to search for relevant hashtags in your niche. These hashtags can help you uncover influencers and content so you can start planning your campaign. For example, if you’re a beauty brand, you can search for the hashtag #beautytips to learn more about the types of content being posted and the most popular influencers.
Hashtags will allow you to find hundreds if not thousands of relevant influencers to work with, so you must vet truly relevant results for all of the influencers you want to work with before sending them any products or money.
Use Google
Google can easily help you find influencers with a quick search. But, unfortunately, using Google incorrectly is too easy. If you want to find influencers relevant to your business, you’ll need to be targeted and specific in your searches. First, build a list of keywords that can help you capture your brand’s unique selling proposition. Your searches should also include the word “Instagram” so you’re not stuck looking through influencers for Twitter or another social media platform.
If you are looking for other types of influencers, you can type in their titles, such as “blogger,” so you can narrow your search even further. In addition, you can even get as specific as the region you want to target. If you’re a local business, you can add your city or state into the search bar so you only see truly relevant results.
Do Competitive Research
If you think influencer marketing is a great idea for your business, then the odds so do your competition. Look through your competitors’ mentions and tags to see if you can find any influencers that might be right for your brand as well. For example, if you’re a travel company, you can find travel influencers by searching through your competition’s social media feeds and hashtags.
Go through each of your competitors’ Instagram profiles to find out who has been tagging them. You can then click on each influencer and learn about the types of content they post and how many followers they have.
If you find an influencer who is working with your competition, don’t be afraid to reach out. Many influencers don’t sign non-compete agreements because they’re considered self-employed. It can also be beneficial to compete with your competition for the best influencers in the industry so you can get in front of as many eyes as possible and boost your brand reputation online.
Unfortunately, you’ll likely come across some influencers who won’t work with you because they’re already working with your competition. If that’s the case, then don’t sweat it. Instead, move on and find another influencer who might have more engaged followers.
Follow Blogs and Bloggers
Bloggers are a particular type of influencer that can help you boost your SEO and build links back to your brand’s website. Bloggers also promote their content through social media, so they usually have strong followings.
If you want to find blogging influencers, make sure to include the word “blog” in any of your Google searches so you can find writers who can help your business grow.
Use Influencer Marketing Tools
Influencer marketing platforms can help you find influencers, vet them, and hire them easily and in less time. These tools and databases search all of the available influencers for you so you don’t have to manually do anything. As soon as you find influencers you like, you can add them to a list and begin reaching out. Many platforms even allow you to create contracts and campaigns within them, so you’ll have a one-stop solution for all of your influencer marketing needs.
Recruit Influencers
You can easily begin recruiting influencers and letting them come to you by posting that you’re looking for influencers on your website and social media pages. Instead of putting in hours of work to scan the internet for influencers, consider creating a sponsored Instagram post that will attract the right talent to your brand.
Have an influencer application ready that asks the influencers to tell you more about themselves, the types of content they create, their followers, and how much they charge for a post.
Use LinkedIn
While it might sound like Instagram would be the easiest social media platform to use to search for influencers, LinkedIn can also be effective. LinkedIn allows you to refine your search by industry so you can quickly find the right person to message. Instead of searching for the word influencer, you can try variations, such as “content creator.” If you come across someone’s profile you think would make a great influencer, consider reaching out to them via LinkedIn instead of Instagram to give you a sense of more professionalism.
Make sure your LinkedIn profile page has information about your company and a link to your company website so the influencer can learn more about you before they decide to have a conversation about working with your brand.
Finding Influencers
There’s no one right way to find influencers for your marketing campaigns, but there are easier ways than others. If you want to invest in your influencer marketing strategy, consider getting an all-in-one tool to help you find, vet, and maintain relationships with influencers. If you don’t have enough resources to invest in a tool, consider starting out looking for influencers on Instagram and directly reaching out to them.
Matt Casadona
Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys San Diego life, traveling, and music.
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