Working with influencers – how to pick the best match for your business

If your business is considering working with influencers you may be wondering where to start. How can they impact your bottomline and, importantly, how do you go about picking the best matched influencers for your business?

Influencer marketing is a growing phenomenon. In 2019, 86 percent of marketing departments intend to spend budget on working with bloggers, YouTubers or social media influencers. In fact, nearly half will be spending 20 percent of their total budget on this type of content. That’s no small commitment.

If you want to find out more about why influencer marketing has taken off, read our blog post about influencer outreach for businesses.

Tips for working with influencers

Before any business dives into influencer relations it’s important to be clear about what you want to achieve and who are the best influencers to work with.

Here’s the top things to consider before starting a influencer marketing campaign:

Size isn’t everything

The number of followers an influencer has on their social media accounts doesn’t necessarily make them the best match for your business.

It’s much better to align yourself with an influencer who already talks about your type of product or service. Influencers in your niche with a smaller following will have a more engaged audience. This means their followers are more likely to act on their recommendations than they would on the word of a big celebrity with 100 times more followers.

Add to that the sad fact that some influencers have bought their followers, which means they have the numbers but the accounts are not real, so you won’t see them engaging. Handy tools for seeing unusual spikes in follower numbers include SocialBlade.

How authentic are they?

Ultimately it comes down to whether the influencer’s content feels real or forced. Are they toeing the party line for payment? Or are they giving their genuine opinions and helpful advice to their followers?

When you are working with influencers, the most useful product reviews are subjective. These will lead to more click-throughs, enquiries and sales.

Do they post regularly?

The more often an influencer publishes content to their channel or platform, the more engaged their audience will be. Sporadic posting leads to disengaged audiences. 

Do their values align with yours?

This is seriously important for any influencer marketing campaign. Picking an influencer whose values align with your brand’s makes sense on many levels: they will ‘get’ where you are coming from; they have probably already had experience of your products or services; and are likely to have a similar audience to your own.

If you want to include influencer marketing in your business plans then we can help create a campaign that achieves ROI. Contact Southampton-based agency Amplify PR to find out more about working with influencers.