Have you ever wondered just how to choose the right Influencer for your brand?

Now this is a big one, and it’s often where brands can go wrong… purely because they just don’t know how to really nail down and analyse who is going to be the right fit. And maybe, more importantly who is not.

Selecting an influencer is kind of like choosing someone to date. You want them to have similar values to your brand, like some of the same things, and be attracted to their general vibe and aesthetic.

So, let’s break this into steps. How to find the right influencer for your brand. 

1. DECIDE ON YOUR GOALS AND DESIRED OUTCOMES 

What are you wanting to achieve with this campaign? Are you wanting to reach a large number of people to increase brand awareness and grow your audience? Or maybe you've just launched a new collection and you want to drive sales. It’s really important that you have a clear understanding of your goals and what you are wanting to achieve before deciding on who to work with. The more detailed you can be with your goals the better you can track ROI and the better you can design your campaign to fit these goals.

2. INVEST IN RELATIONSHIPS 

I cannot stress this one enough. One of the best ways to really see who is the right fit for your business is simply to get to know them. Follow them, watch their stories, engage with their content and find out what they’re all about. What values do they have? What sort of life do they lead? What products do they show and most importantly how does their audience interact with them? Is there a genuine relationship between the influencer and their audience? Is there trust there? A way to find this out is by looking at their posts… You want to be analysing;

1. Who is commenting on their posts? Is it only other influencers? Or are there everyday people in there too. Or do the accounts look like fake accounts?
2. The quality of the comments – is their audience really engaging with the post or are the comments completely unrelated?
3. The number of comments. Not every post will get a high level of engagement, so just make sure you take a good look through the feed to get a bit of an idea on this.

Another way to gauge a genuine relationship between an influencer and their audience is via stories. Influencers will often post the DM’s they receive from followers – these can be in the form of a trivial kind of question, like – where is that dress from? If you see an influencer post a story with loads of the same question on the one screen like “where is that dress from” that’s a very good indication that they have trust, and influence over their audience. Their followers care about what they wear, think, and do.

3. SELECT SOMEONE WHO ALIGNS WITH YOUR BRAND 

The ultimate question you need to be asking when looking at an influencer is – are they someone you want representing your brand, on their good days but also on their bad days. For example, if they’re someone who acts out and swears a lot on their account, this might not be the person you want representing your brand. Perhaps they're just not be the right fit for you. By selecting an Influencer that truely aligns with your brand means the partnership is not only going be genuine and authentic, but also come across that way to the Influencers audience as well. 

Want to know more about Influencer marketing and how it can grow your brand? I teach this and so much more in The Step Up, the all-in-one business course giving you the knowledge and skills to confidently market and grow your brand.