Influencer Marketing is one of the most efficient ways of marketing on social media. Influencers, nowadays, hold as much star power as celebrities, all thanks to Instagram. The number of followers, views, likes, and total engagement of an influencer’s account makes them valuable.
If they have great engagement, it means they have loyal followers who can also be proven loyal customers if the influencer chooses to promote someone’s brand. In this article, we will discuss how to find Instagram influencers and how to reach them with great tools and smart tricks.
On the surface, it seems that influencer marketing is just reaching out to good influencers and getting them to promote your brand but in reality, it is more complex than that. Influencer marketing has done wonders for business and it has proven to be better than traditional marketing. According to Grin, from 2016 to 2021, influencer marketing has shown great success as the market size in billion of US dollars went from 1.7 to 13.8.
Finding the “right influencer” to work with matters the most. Instagram is full of influencers from micro to macro. You have to keep in mind that all influencers will not be as enthusiastic about promotion as you are. Additionally, there are scammers as well who can take your money but never post about your products. Some of the qualities of a good influencer are:
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There are different kinds of influencers on Instagram. The range starts from celebrities, big brands to small influencers. We have divided influencers into 4 categories.
The number of followers have a huge influence on how brands and customers see an account of an influencer. If an account has a weak audience, a brand/business should not reach them as they have not developed a good online presence yet.
This is why businesses can’t work with accounts having a small audience. If the audience is small the marketing strategy would fail instantly. Hence why we see influencers increasing the number of likes which in turn increase their instagram followers list. Eventually, brands and businesses reach them to promote their products.
On the other hand, as a small business owner you should not aim for celebrities or Mega Influencers. Mega influencers work with other mega influencers to promote one another.
They receive countless messages everyday so it is expected that they would not see your collaboration message. Secondly, the budget of these influencers is of a giant value. As a small business owner, you have to be smart and target micro influencers.
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The most efficient thing in influencer marketing is to filter out the influencers who have the same niche as you. This is the most important step in knowing how to find Instagram influencers the smart way. For instance, if you have a skincare line, your main aim must be to pick out influencers who focus on skin care products, beauty tips, makeup, and feminine topics.
As a business owner, you have to work smart through the process of choosing. An influencer who has a great engagement rate and a good number of followers but they post about sports products would not do any good to you. The followers of that influencer won’t have any interest in your skin products. This is why it is important to align your and the influencer’s niche.
If you want to find micro-influencers in your niche, the first and foremost trick is to look into hashtags. For instance, the product you want to promote is a hair accessory. You would then look into hashtags such as #hairpins #beautyandhair etc. By doing this, you can look at the list of influencers who have been promoting products similar to your niche. Additionally, you can analyze how much engagement one influencer has on a particular hashtag related to. You now have a list to choose influencers from.
The engagement rate of the influencers will define how your collaboration will excel. You must analyze and choose influencers who are active. Micro-influencers are active and their engagement rate is great. They post constantly and use Instagram from time to time to interact with their followers. Hence, a bond of trust is already developed between them and their audience.
On the other hand, there is no guarantee that a major influencer has good engagement even though they can have a lot of followers.
To find this, you can use several tools that can help you in analyzing the engagement rates of the influencers you have selected.
Generally, you can pick one of the above tricks to normally find out influencers but won’t a deep analysis do more good? If you want your insta marketing strategy to work, you have to be specific about the influencers you want to approach. For instance, you don’t want to approach an influencer who is a man and promotes sports products for your baby hygiene products. Additionally, you would not want an influencer whose audience is not interested in baby hygiene products. This is where Instagram tools come in handy.
The authenticity of an influencer can’t be only measured by looking at their followers list. As stated earlier, engagement and active online presence matters the most. The most essential thing is to check if you are compatible with the influence or not. You must also keep a check on the originality of that influencer so there are no issues later.
Upfluence is a special tool that lets you examine the kind of audience the influencer you wish to select has. It aims to focus on the interests and niches of the audience.
This one is a famous software used by many professionals. It allows one to filter, pick and choose influencers based on your needs and interests. The best and most noticeable thing about this software is that it lets you choose the gender of the influencer.
This feature is worth applauding because many people have their preferences of gender hence it can help initiate the process of influencer marketing smoothly.
Secondly, Modash also allows you to check the audience of that influencer as well. On the software, you can find a separate section for location. This is a great feature because some companies or businesses would like to pick out an audience that is in their own country as they can easily reach them.
For example, a girl has started a makeup product small business in Africa and she plans to sell to African girls mainly then this feature would help her in her own country.
Through Modash, you can also choose the interests of people. This is one of the most significant filters because knowing the interest of the audience of your influencer will assure that they will buy your products. For instance, if the influencer you chose has mostly female audiences who are interested in topics of Beauty and skin then you will generate sales for your skin products.
Moreover, the age of the audience can also be filtered. This can also prove to be beneficial because underskin products are mostly bought by the ages of —- If you put this age in the filter, the software will give you an influencer with an audience in that particular country with the ages you mentioned.
HypeAuditor is also a tool that lets you filter the location of influencers. This is important because many small businesses want to collaborate with influencers who live in the same country or region as them. The cost to send the products to other countries is not less. It is a smart trick to target the influencers in your niche and your region. Later, if your business succeeds you can expand it to other countries as well.
When you have made a list of best and compatible influencers your next step is outreaching the people on the list. You can use several tools and tricks to get a reply as soon as possible.
The very first thing is collecting the sources from where you can contact these influencers. The most common way is to use Instagram direct messages. They are quick and efficient, however, there are other ways as well since there is no surety if you would receive a reply.
Modash provides a filter from where you can select what kind of contact information you would like. For instance, a list opens, as shown in the picture below. You can checkmark any social platform, for instance, link tree, email, Facebook, etc.
This can work very well because you might want to approach an influencer from multiple sources since not everyone reads their Instagram dms. Moreover, a lot of messages get pushed down and ignored as well. So, this trick can help you approach it in a more efficient way.
The next step is to make a pitch to send to influencers on your list. There are certain things to keep in mind before you hit send.
In every pitch, you should first introduce your company, brand, or yourself. Keep the introduction short. Remember an influencer does not have a lot of time on their hands as their dms are full of messages of others as well. Use the name of the influencer to create a friendly tone. After introducing yourself, mention your appreciation for their account.
Move to your goals. Be specific and remember this is your first time reaching out to the influencers. Your main goal for this is just to get them to read your message. You can ask for a video call or an audio call for a detailed introduction and explanation of goals.
While writing the pitch for each influencer, try to personalize it each time. For this, you have to search about the influencer, their interests, and how they have interacted with other brands in the past. You will have to check if they have used hashtags related to your products and how they have promoted your products.
You can use all this information to personalize your pitch. Personalizing your pitch will give a very friendly and understanding impression on the influencer which can result in a reply sooner than expected.
Before you decide about the prices, you must look into what rates are set for usual influencer marketing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub,
This is not a fixed rate but usually, these prices are what the influencers charged. You can give the influencer an idea about your contract or prices. As a small business owner, your focus should be micro-influencers. They charge less, are enthusiastic about their work, and respond on time.
Moreover, it is up to you, if you want to send free products to the influencer. Some brands consider this a strategy to highlight the image of their brand. For instance, with free products, certain brands would add candles, pens, notebooks, or other small accessories.
Now that you have created the pitch and sent it, you have to now keep a check on your interaction. Aspire is a type of tool that keeps track of your interaction with the influencers right from the start till the product shipment. This tool also helps you track your every move so you don’t forget your progress with the influencer you have reached.
Its feature, Product Tracking, also tracks the products that you have sent to the influencer for review or even as a gift for initiating the new business relationship. The best thing about this tool is that it lets you check the sales that an influencer would generate from your sent products. Everything is clean and concise on this tool.
After you have sent your message, you would want to track the progress. There is no guarantee that the influencer will reply to your messages or not. If they do, then you need a follow-up. Many brands consider automated follow-ups that are personalized. Pitchbox is a tool that lets you track your progress with the influencers by helping you with automated pitches and follow-up emails.
Follow-up emails are important to keep the conversation going. You have to ensure that the influencer stays hooked on you. When you get free and have completed your plan then you can have a detailed video call with the influencers.
In this article, we have forced on two critical steps of influencer marketing; how to find Instagram influencers and how to reach influencers. We have mentioned the best and most effective tools that can help you with these essential steps. These tools have helped many brands and businesses achieve their campaign goals. In addition to providing you with tools, we have also mentioned tricks and tips that can ensure great functionality of your interaction with influencers.
