5 Things to Look for in Influencers for Small Business Campaigns

Influencer marketing has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry throughout the past few years. Big companies from every industry have been known to employ this strategy. Influencer marketing can assist brands in reaching their goals in branding as well as engagement, sales and much more.

And you don’t need to be a large corporation to benefit from influencer marketing. Small, local businesses are able to benefit from the method, too.

But, the success of your campaign is contingent on identifying the best social media influencers to promote your brand. It can be daunting at times, especially for smaller brands with few resources. 

So, if you’re a smaller company that is interested in influencer marketing, read on to learn what you should be looking at when it comes to finding influencers.

Before we begin – where can you find influencers?

There are three methods of locating influencers:

• Social media
• Influencer marketing platform
• Influencer marketing agency

The most efficient way to accomplish this is through an agency. However, it’s also the most expensive choice, which is probably not an option for many small-sized brands. And an influencer marketing platform requires a subscription, but it’s much less than an agency.

Utilizing this kind of software, you’ll discover influencers more quickly than if you use social media in a direct manner. However, if you have a very limited budget, do not rule out searching directly on social media. It’s not the easiest method and requires more manual work, however it’s completely free.

To decide which option is most suitable for you, consider your goals, the resources available and your budget. Whatever option you choose, it is essential you have access to performance metrics. They can be obtained through the agency you choose to work with or from an influencer marketing platform, or you can request that influencers provide you with their media kits.

What to look out for when it comes to finding influencers

Let’s examine the various metrics and characteristics small-scale businesses should take note of when it comes to influencers.

1. A follower count that fits with your budget

Prices for influencers are affected by a number of variables, including follower count, engagement rate, country, as well as the type of content you’re asking them for.

Follower count is among the easiest methods to quickly gauge more or less how much an influencer will cost. To explain more about this, let’s first arrange influencers into six tiers:

• Nano influencers, 1-5K followers
• Micro influencers, 5-50K followers
• Medium influencers, 50-100K followers
• Macro influencers, 100K-1M followers
• Mega influencers, 1M+ followers
• Key opinion leaders, no particular range of followers.

The Medium tier is where influencers start to exclusively accept collaborations that include some type of fee for services, and rates begin to get higher faster. Mega influencers can cost tens of thousands of dollars per post, or even more! The unfortunate truth is that if you’re a small company, you simply can’t afford this.

Likewise, a KOL (or key opinion leader) isn’t always the best option for you, either. KOLs are respected experts in their industries, and their influence isn’t limited to social media (that’s why they have no set follower range). They can also be expensive and difficult to communicate with, due to very busy schedules. So for small companies, it’s better to look elsewhere for your collaborators.

Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives for small-sized companies. Nano influencers, who have 1-5K followers, typically work with brands for free products alone. Micro influencers, with 5-50K followers, might collaborate for free products alone, or for products plus a small fee. 

You might think that these influencers, with relatively small numbers of followers, won’t be able to make any difference in your marketing campaign. But don’t be fooled, as they have the highest engagement rates among all influencers, which leads us to the next point. 

2. Good engagement rate

Engagement rate is the measure of the interaction between an influencer and their followers. The more followers trust and like the influencer’s content, the more they’ll interact with it. And, the closer an influencer’s connections are to their audience, the greater chance they have of translating this engagement into a relationship with your company. 

As small businesses don’t have the resources to pay for influencers who have millions of followers across the globe, it’s more effective to market your brand to highly engaged, specific niches. You connect with fewer people, true. But, quality over quantity.

So how can you tell if an influencer has a good or bad engagement rate? Compare their rate with the average engagement rate of similar influencers. This can be done using the help of an influencer marketing platform, or get the influencer’s media kit and research the benchmarks of their segment.

Be aware that engagement rates averages differ based on the categories, social networks, and number of followers. Don’t make the mistake of comparing TikTok creators with the rates of Instagram influencers, for example. Also, don’t compare fashion influencers who have 5K followers against sports influencers with 500K followers.

Also, be on the lookout for extremely low or high engagement. If it’s extremely low, it means that people are not interested in the influencer’s content. Or, their followers might be inactive or fake. If it’s very high, it could indicate that the influencer has purchased fraudulent engagements (like fake comments or likes).

3. An authentic and genuine audience that matches your goals

Every marketing campaign must keep its target audience in mind. You can’t succeed if you don’t know who you’re directing your campaign at. Knowing your target audience also helps you make better choices when choosing which influencers to work with.

When you’re finding influencers, analyze their audience in addition to their performance stats. Examine demographics, such as gender, age, country, interests and language, to ensure that the influencer has the ability to get you in touch with the right people. If you don’t have access to these details, ask the influencer for that info.

An audience location analysis, showing that more than half of this influencer’s audience is interested in surfing.

When you look at the audience of an influencer, be sure to verify the authenticity, too. Perform an audit on fake followers to eliminate those influencers whose audiences are made up of mostly bots. False followers are said to have cost companies $1.3 billion in the year 2019. And as a small company with a small budget, it’s important to avoid wasting your marketing dollars on bots.

An authenticity analysis showing that 8.46% of the influencer’s followers have exhibited some type of suspicious behavior.

There are several ways to identify the presence of a bot:

• No profile photo or biographical details
• Names that appear to be random string of numbers and letters
• Very little or no content, or content that looks like ads
• Comments that appear out of place or unnatural, as they were they were not written by a real person

Validating the authenticity of your audience is a vital step in making sure that you choose the best influencers to promote your small business.

4. Local presence

Large brands have the ability to work with influencers around the world because their businesses are internationally based. However, for small businesses the rules are different. And it is better to remain local.

Why is that? Local influencers will be able to better understand the culture of your brand and may even come to visit you if you have a physical store or location. In addition, local influencers can help you connect with people who live in your region, who are, at the end of the day, the people who are best positioned to become your customers.

5. Personality and content that is aligned with your brand

The last one applies to every brand that is involved in influencer marketing: Look for influencers who are aligned with your company. That is, followers shouldn’t have to wonder why the two of you have teamed up.

This can’t be quantified by data, therefore it is essential to examine the profile of an influencer and trust your intuition. Think about questions like:

• Does this influencer produce content in the same style that my company does?
• Is their content quality in line with my expectations?
• Will their voice be able to transmit my message?
• Does the influencer uphold the values of my brand?
• Does their style mesh with my own?

Prioritizing influencers who align with your brand’s values can lead to more authentic, credible collaborations.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is an enormous market, and even small businesses can utilize this technique to improve their performance. Remember that the success of this strategy is contingent on the selection of the best influencer to work with.