Influencer marketing has become an essential strategy for brands, focusing on authentic connections with the audience. However, finding the "right" influencer to meet your marketing goals can be challenging, with success depending heavily on this choice. It's not just about having a high follower count; it’s about audience affinity, engagement, and brand safety. With so many factors to consider, how do you choose the perfect influencer to represent your brand? Let’s explore the key elements together.
Audience affinity
Finding an influencer whose audience aligns with your brand's target market is key to a successful influencer marketing campaign. This is what is called "audience affinity." It involves examining how closely an influencer's followers match your desired customer base.
Tools like HypeAuditor, Modash and Emplifi can help you understand audience demographics, interests, and brand affinities. They offer insights into the age, gender, location, and preferences of an influencer's followers. Focus on audience quality filters, demographics, interests and engagement analysis.
If you don't have a budget for premium tools, conduct your own research by reading through an influencer's comments and posts. Check for non-promotional topics and if those are relevant to your target audience; see who interacts with them and what’s in the comments. This approach can be just as effective, as it provides a more qualitative perspective on audience engagement and context.
It also doesn’t mean that you have to make promo only through influencers who talk only about your product niche. Which other interests can your audience have? For instance, if you're targeting a Gen Z audience, keep in mind that almost 9 out of 10 play video games, and 34% watch gaming streams on Twitch or YouTube. Understanding where your audience spends time online can guide you to the right influencer and relevant placement.
Check out the right numbers
Of course, for a marketing campaign, it's all about return on investment (ROI) and metrics that can predict a positive outcome. It's important to focus on metrics that can predict successful outcomes.
Audience affinity review still should come first, as high view numbers don't matter if those viewers aren't your potential customers. Once you have a good understanding of your audience, look at these key metrics to evaluate an influencer's performance:
- Average Views
The potential reach and what type of content attracts the most attention. - Engagement Rate
How many active community members are there. - Growth Rate
How engagement and views are changing over time. A healthy growth rate typically displays a smooth increase without suspicious unexplained spikes.
When assessing these metrics, focus less on the number of followers and more on identifying an active audience. An influencer with a smaller but highly engaged following may deliver better results than one with a large number of passive scrollers or bots.
Brand safety check
Brand safety is crucial for ensuring that an influencer's content and values do not jeopardize your brand's reputation. This involves reviewing influencers for content that aligns with your brand values and avoiding those involved in controversies or unethical behaviours.
Here are some sensitive topics and factors to consider when assessing brand safety:
- Explicit language and content
- Political statements
- Contradictory statements related to social and cultural topics
- Endorsement of unverified or controversial health claims
- Involvement in legal issues
- Inappropriate or offensive behaviour
- Financial misconduct, including misleading advertising or scams
It doesn't necessarily mean you should cancel an influencer if they have a history of any of the above. Instead, assess whether they align with your brand's values and message. If their past actions are not in line with your brand's principles, it's best to avoid collaborating.
Outsource selection to Agency
Selecting the influencer can be a time-consuming process, especially if you're not doing this type of work on a daily basis. It's always possible to ask for help!
The advantage of influencer marketing agency is that they have built up a process to select and contact content creators quickly; they already have connections with influencers who have proven reliability and the results they can drive.
Reach out to the TrapPlan team to launch a campaign with influencers who will have a perfect fit with your brand!
