It’s common knowledge that influencer marketing has developed into a powerful resource for businesses operating online. Due to the exponential growth of social media, social influencers have emerged as a potent tool for marketers to connect with customers in a genuine and meaningful way.
Because of shifts in customer preferences throughout time, many well-known companies have adjusted their advertising approaches to remain relevant. Consumers today put more stock in the opinions of their friends and family than they do in advertisements and official brand communications when making purchases. Why did people’s buying habits suddenly change? For one simple reason, customers value genuine communication more than brand communication.
Instagram is one of the most popular and credible social media platforms in the modern world. For Instagram influencers to gain followers and increase the probability that their followers will interact with their posts, they need to generate material that is both visually appealing and interesting. In addition to posting a photo, influencers are encouraged to provide a short text or testimonial and to tag other Instagram accounts in their post. This way, fans can see which goods their favourite influencers are endorsing, get a sense of how those influencers feel about those things, and then head on over to the brand’s account to learn more.
Finding The Best Influencers For Your Brand
Contacting popular users of Instagram is simpler than you would believe. The vast majority of influencers are interested in forming collaborations with and representing new businesses. Finding the right influencer for your company, however, is more difficult, and nothing could be more damaging than choosing an influencer who isn’t a good fit.
Knowing your business’s target consumers is essential for developing an effective Instagram influencer marketing plan and selecting the most appropriate brand ambassadors. Be sure that the influencer you choose has access to the same demographic that your brand does. It’s important to assess an influencer’s social media presence before contacting them in any way, be it by direct message (DM) or email. When determining whether or not an influencer is a suitable fit for your client’s brand, it is recommended that you use the “three R’s” as a metric. It is important to consider influencers’ relevance, reach, and resonance in your study.
Relevance
Your first step in analysing an influencer’s Instagram account should be to determine how well their content relates to your client’s brand. Is this person a good fit for your brand’s target audience? For instance, if my client is in the health and fitness industry, I would focus on fitness-related influencers as opposed to fashion bloggers. In spite of its apparent simplicity, a surprising amount of marketers still reach out to influencers without first reviewing their portfolios. It’s a waste of time for both you and the influencer, and it might destroy future collaboration opportunities.
Reach
The influencer’s reach is the second component of their profile to examine. The influencer’s follower-to-like ratio is just as essential as the total amount of followers they have. It’s a cliche for a reason: it shows exactly how many people are responding to each individual post.
This also helps you separate the influencers who have genuine fans from the fake ones who bought their popularity. It’s essential to make sure the influencer is generating genuine interest from its audience while using the modern suite of social media platforms at their disposal.
Resonance
My third consideration is whether or not the influencer’s audience is responding positively to the information being posted. How frequently do their followers like and comment on postings, share them with others, and tag other accounts in related posts? Does the influencer interact with their followers?
Interaction between the two parties is a sign that the influencer’s material is interesting and useful to its target demographic. Our PR team has discovered that micro-influencers are more effective at connecting with their target demographic than major influencers. To rephrase, we’re looking for influencers who are more approachable than celebrities. Fans are more inclined to relate to relatable influencers than they are to superstars they look up to.
Influencers should be treated as people, not products
You may start an email to the influencer you want to work with by highlighting one of their recent posts or complimenting their account’s style, but direct messaging them is also an option. In contrast to the prevailing wisdom among marketers, our team has found that dealing with influencers on a human level yields better results.
Develop a partnership that benefits both parties
When approaching an Instagram influencer with a business opportunity, it’s crucial to design a relationship that will work for both sides. No one with influence is going to work for free, so you’ll need to make them a competitive offer that benefits both your company and theirs. Typically, companies adjust their offer to the influencer’s following size and the level of interaction generated by the influencer’s posts.
Our public relations team has discovered that delivering the influencer a unique discount code in addition to free merchandise is a great way to ensure that everyone involved benefits from the collaboration. The influencer wins since providing a unique coupon to their followers boosts interaction with their content. Establishing an affiliate programme in which the influencer receives a commission on sales made as a result of their promotion is another viable approach. As a result, the influencer is more likely to promote the company by spreading the code to their audience.