Tips For Choosing The Perfect Influencer For Your Instagram Campaign

At present, Instagram is the most popular social media platform for both entertainment, and marketing purposes. Considering that Instagram has an average of 500 million daily users, there is no doubt that brands can leverage this huge audience for increasing brand awareness and generating profits. Since all organizations, big or small, understand how important it is to establish themselves on Instagram, every brand faces huge competition from their counterparts. In such a situation, launching the perfect marketing campaign becomes essential to distinguish oneself and create a brand niche. In this regard, social media influencers can prove to be of great help in accelerating your growth.

Who are Instagram Influencers? 

In marketing language, an Instagram influencer is somebody who has the capability to influence many potential buyers of a particular product or service. In simple terms, an Instagram influencer is that friend who you turn to when you are confused about purchasing a given product or taking a given service. This friend has a great degree of knowledge and experience regarding the product or service in question and so, you trust his/her opinion. Similarly, Instagram influencers are regular users of Instagram with the power to influence their audience because of their well-established credibility. They generally tend to have a large number of loyal followers and high engagement rates. 

What is Influencer Marketing?

When companies and brands collaborate and establish relationships with influencers to market their products and services, it is known as influencer marketing. The reason why the trend of influencer marketing is rising over the years is that influencers help companies to expand their reach by giving them access to their audience. Since the audience gets to know about the brand’s offerings through a trusted source, there is a greater probability that they would engage with the brand. 

How can you find the perfect online influencer for your brand?

Choosing a popular Instagram influencer without paying attention to his/her niche, target audience, and expertise will not result in positive outcomes. Before you go for bringing an influencer on board your brand campaign, consider the following tips:

1. Formulate your campaign goals

The foremost thing you need to do is plan what your brand campaign is about and what you seek to achieve from it. There may be a number of goals that you want to achieve through your brand campaign on Instagram. Some possible goals could be:

• Increase brand awareness
• Expand reach on Instagram
• Get more real Instagram followers
• Get more engagement in the form of more Instagram comments and likes
• Increase sales
• Generate leads
• Create content, etc.

Once you have outlined the goals of your campaign, you can then search for the influencer who can help you the most with these goals. For example, if you are a fashion brand and want to expand your followers and also generate sales, you can collaborate with a fashion influencer. If you have just opened a new restaurant and want to inform your target audience about the same, you can approach local bloggers or food bloggers. 

Clear identification of the campaign goals will also help the influencers to understand what you want, and hence, they would be able to contribute in a better way. 

2. Define who is the ‘right influencer’ for your brand

The right Instagram influencer for your brand would be somebody who shares your brand’s voice. The brand voice primarily refers to the values, personality, and language of the brand. Your brand message needs to be consistent and to share the same with your audience, you need to have an influencer who has a similar style. For example, your language style is an entertaining one. You communicate your message humorously. In such a case, the right influencer for you would be somebody who can deliver your message in a similar manner.

3. Understand the Instagram influencer’s niche

Not all Instagram influencers will be appropriate and relevant for your brand campaign. Every Instagram influencer has built a niche and target a particular audience. They specialize in a given area and have followers that are interested in the same. Therefore, when you choose the right online influencer for your brand, you must identify what industry they are operating in and whether it is related to your brand or not. For example, if you are thinking of launching a campaign for men’s wear, targeting male fashion influencers is obviously the best option. 

4. Evaluate the audience of the Instagram influencer

Before collaborating with an influencer, make sure to check who their target audience is and whether it matches with yours. Some factors that you can pay attention to are:

• Target location
• Age 
• Gender
• Interests

It is essential for your target audience to match with the online influencers to ensure that your message is delivered to the right people and to make your campaign successful.  

5. Check the engagement levels

The Instagram algorithm runs on high engagement levels. If the number of Instagram likes and comments is low, the chance that your posts will be visible to a large audience also reduces. That is why it is important for you to check the level of engagement on the influencers’ profiles. Do people really interact with their content? Do they like, comment, and share their content? The level of engagement gives an insight into how strong is the relationship between the influencers and their audience. An Instagram influencer with fewer followers but high engagement is better than the one with a high number of followers but low engagement. This is critical for the success of your brand campaign on Instagram.

6. Engage with reliable influencers

For the smooth functioning of your brand campaigns, ensure that you are working with reliable influencers. A reliable influencer would be someone who communicates and completes projects in a timely manner. The easiest way to check whether a particular influencer is reliable or not is to get feedback from other brands about their previous collaborations. 

7. Check the Frequency of posting content

Another factor that dominates the Instagram algorithm is frequency. To hook the audience to their content, Instagram influencers have to post new content regularly, generally in 1 to 3 days. You must also check the manner in which influencers post sponsored content. There must be a balance between the sponsored posts and the normal content, and both should be attracting similar rates of engagement. Also, go through the comments section on the influencer’s sponsored posts. If there are many negative comments, it may indicate that their followers are tired of seeing a lot of sponsored content on the influencer’s feed. 

8. Evaluate the content quality of the Instagram influencer

Influencer marketing on Instagram involves delivering the influencer creative freedom to present your brand the way they like. The manner they will showcase your brand and its offerings will be in their unique style that is also reflected in their already posted content. To ensure that the influencers portray your brand that matches its overall image, analyze their profile and past content. Look at the way they present sponsored content. If you like the content quality, then only approach them. 

9. Set a Budget for the brand campaign

Instagram influencers have invested a lot of time and energy in building a loyal follower base and establishing their space on Instagram. It is highly likely that they will charge you for their promotional services. It is helpful to set a budget for the same. Different influencers charge different prices. Select the one who fits in your budget to avoid losses. 

Why should you indulge in influencer marketing?

Collaborating with influencers can help brands and organizations in numerous ways. Some of them are:

1. Influencers have a ready audience that matches your target audience. Instead of building ways to reach them, you can approach them directly through influencers. 
2. The influencers build a community of people who trust their opinion. Therefore, there is a higher chance that people will purchase your product when their trusted influencer tells them so. 
3. Influencers have a lot of power on social media platforms. Collaborating with them can immediately make your brand campaign the new trend or the hot topic.
4. Since Instagram influencers have well-established credibility, working with them can also make your brand appear to be a credible one. 
5. The influencers know exactly what their target audience likes as they interact with them regularly. Hence, they can help make your campaign a more impactful one because of their knowledge and experience in the field.
6. Instagram influencers create fresh and unique content. They may present your brands in creative ways that can drive more traffic to your website and feed.

In short, if done right, influencer marketing can result in numerous advantages for your business. The right influencer can boost your brand campaign, increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your page, and influence purchasing decisions. If you are new to the field, influencer marketing may seem a bit tricky. These tips will help you make more informed and rational decisions in this regard.