Influencer marketing is a powerful PR strategy that can boost your brand awareness, credibility, and engagement. But how do you find the right influencer for your campaign? Here are some tips to help you select the perfect influencer for your PR.
Before you start looking for influencers, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your PR campaign and who you want to reach. Do you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Who are your ideal customers and what are their interests, needs, and pain points? Having a clear goal and audience will help you narrow down your influencer search and align your message with their values.
Incorporating influencer marketing into your PR strategy can yield various benefits. It allows you to tap into new audiences, foster trust, and enhance engagement. Finding the ideal influencer involves defining your goals, researching and assessing candidates, negotiating terms, and facilitating creative collaboration. However, challenges can include ensuring authenticity, managing expectations, and measuring ROI effectively. Balancing these factors can lead to a successful influencer partnership that enhances your PR efforts.
Well, it's more than just about metrics – followers, engagement rates, etc. It's about authentic alignment and depth. Understand your brand's purpose and ensure the influencer genuinely resonates with that purpose. It's not about a simple transaction; it's about a partnership built on shared values and visions. The influencer should naturally embody the ethos of your brand, making the collaboration seamless and genuine. ? Indeed, while metrics are important, relevance is too. It's not just about the size of the audience but its quality. A smaller, niche audience that aligns closely with your target demographic can often lead to better engagement and results than a massive but less relevant following.
Without a goal, your campaign won’t have any metric to compare with. You end up spending to achieve nothing Also know the people you want to communicate with. This way, you don’t waste time in targeting everyone because the truth is, you’re not meant for everyone
It’s also important for PR pros to collaborate with influencer marketers who understand the intricacies of working with digital talent. Having an AE or jr. Manager on your team “run influencer” is not a good approach. Influencer marketers understand the ins and outs of industry standards for compensation, the complexities of usage rights and exclusivity, how to go back and forth on contract redlines, how to work with the paid team on boosting plans… a lot of PR people “add on” influencers to a comms strategy without having an expert there to execute and in doing so, things will surely be missed!
Once you have defined your goals and audience, you can start researching and evaluating potential influencers. You can use various tools and platforms to find influencers in your niche, such as BuzzSumo, Upfluence, or AspireIQ. You can also look for influencers who are already talking about your brand, industry, or competitors. When evaluating influencers, you should consider their relevance, reach, engagement, and reputation. You want to find influencers who have a strong connection with your target audience, a large and loyal following, a high level of interaction, and a positive and authentic image.
Not every influencer is suitable for your brand. Do an audit of the influencer and confirm that their values are in line with your company’s values. If there’s a mismatch, your audience will kick against your influencer and your campaign. It could even lead to a crisis to be corrected
I firmly believe in the "research first, then decide" approach. Not all influencers align with your brand's audience or discuss your products. So, it's important to identify those engaging with topics related to your brand, industry, or competitors. In evaluating potential influencers, two key factors stand out: relevance and reputation. - Relevance is paramount. Influencers should mirror your brand's values, resonate with your audience, and demonstrate expertise in the subject matter. - Reputation is also vital. Ensure the influencer maintains a positive, authentic image & avoids controversies that could harm your campaign. No matter how talented or widespread an influencer's reach, a tarnished reputation won't do your brand any justice.
After you have shortlisted your potential influencers, you need to contact and negotiate with them. You should reach out to them with a personalized and respectful message that explains who you are, what your brand does, and why you want to work with them. You should also outline your expectations, deliverables, timeline, and budget. You should be transparent and flexible when negotiating with influencers, as they may have different preferences, rates, and terms. You should also establish a clear and written agreement that covers all the details of your collaboration.
When possible, try to avoid dealing with managers and agencies who will drive up the fee and find a route straight to the talent. Some may re-route you to their team, but it’s always worth the effort.
Not sure Jerry’s ethics are right. Managers and Agents are there for a reason, this being that business is conducted professionally not for you but for the influencer so you will probably find that contacting direct will lead nowhere. The influencer will probably wonder what sort of unprofessional company would approach them direct and avoid the right channels.
Once you have agreed on the terms of your collaboration, you should provide creative freedom and support to your influencers. You should trust them to create engaging and authentic content that resonates with their audience, while still following your guidelines and objectives. You should also provide them with any resources, information, or feedback they may need to produce high-quality content. You should also respect their editorial style and voice, and avoid being too controlling or intrusive.
You might think influencers don't need or want press releases but actually they can be a useful fact-checking resource when they are creating their own content around your brand. It also pays to be upfront and clear about content expectations including any collaborators and hashtags they should use
The last step of selecting the perfect influencer for your PR is to measure and optimize your results. You should track and analyze the performance of your influencer campaign using various metrics, such as impressions, reach, clicks, conversions, or ROI. You should also collect and review the feedback from your influencers and their audience, and identify what worked well and what can be improved. You should also maintain a good relationship with your influencers and thank them for their work. You can also consider working with them again in the future or expanding your influencer network.