10 steps to hiring an influencer

March 12, 2019
Antevenio
Did you like our post?
5/5 - (5 votes)

Hiring an influencer is as simple as performing a small search, contacting the influencer, and setting a price.

Are you also among those who believe this process to be that simple?

Error. Hiring an influencer to launch various marketing campaigns is the most significant stage of the whole process. In fact, the success of the collaboration depends, to a large extent, on finding the right influencer.

The success of a marketing campaign with influencers depends on the reach and social engagement of said influencer. Although, this success is also conditioned by how fitting a certain profile is for your brand.

Surely, if your company sells fur garments, contacting a vegetarian will not be a good choice.

However, numbers are not something you should use as a guide, and that must be clear in this whole process. The number of followers is not an objective indicator. You need to consider many other things.

Also, having in mind how important it is today to launch a campaign with influencers, you should be confident of each step you take.

The objective of this process is to link your brand to digital personas that already have a reputation in well-differentiated sectors and are respected and followed.

Does it work?

The best thing is for you to verify it.

The Annual study on Social Networks by IAB shows that more than 85% of Spanish internet users follow influencers on social networks, and 65% of them admit they affect their purchasing decisions.

Not to mention the influence they have on the relationships the customers create with brands.

In this sense, it is logical to devote some time and effort to hire an influencer who can provide the results you expect. If your potential clients look for references on the Internet, it is because their decision making will be influenced by them. So, what better way is there to get carried away than the advice and contributions of people of reference?

Today, marketing through influencers is a sure bet, especially for some sectors. Fashion, tourism or gastronomy are some of the ones that have used the presence of influencers to build relationships with their users

In fact, the campaigns are created to fulfill the following goals:

  1. Gain notoriety.
  2. Increase traffic to websites.
  3. Increase sales.

How to hire an influencer

Influence marketing is one of the most powerful long-term strategies. As such, you must build the relationship considering factors such as trust, transparency or collaboration.

However, to hire an influencer, you should always accept the advice of either professionals or experienced people. Therefore, it is best to have the following steps in mind before you start.

1.- Have clear goals and target for your campaign

This is something we have mentioned countless times, but having well-defined objectives and knowing which the target you want to conquer is essential to hire an influencer.

The chosen influencer’s audience should be formed by the people you are interested in. For this, you need to know beforehand exactly what type of audience you are interested in capturing.

This not only mean knowing the users in general terms. You need to investigate them. The more you know, the better. Thus, your buyer persona definition will be easier and you will be have specific data such as:

  • Average age.
  • Profession.
  • Gender.
  • Location.
  • Interests.
  • Motivations.
  • Hobbies.
  • Digital habits.
  • In which social channels they are most active.

The best thing about this preliminary research is that it will simplify the process of finding an influencer with a similar audience, or one that at least meets most of the characteristics and requirements you are looking for.

2.- Make a list of possible candidates

Once you have found the profiles that attract your target audience, you should not hire the first one you find. The most advisable thing to do is to make a list that includes all of them and carry out a deeper analysis. You might find that many of them are not a good match for your brand or are already working with your competitors.

As you can see, hiring an influencer is not as simple as searching for one and contacting him/her.

If you want your campaigns to make sense and succeed, you should find the right profile. Also, the best thing about investing so much in this search is that you will be able to continue your collaboration with the influencer later on. It is knows that the more trust there is and the better the relationship with the influencer, the easier it will be to work together.

3.- Choose one influencer or several micro-influencers

What happens if you have doubts? Is it more convenient to hire one influencer or several microinfluencers that better match what I am looking for?

You should consider the following information.

An analysis by Markerly on the commitment that users have with their Instagram followers showed that the greater the number of followers, the lower the commitment of the audience is.

This means that when a person has 1,200 followers, the percentage of likes he/she will be higher when compared with another person who has 100 times more followers. For example, a microinfluencer with 1,000 followers will have about 600 or 700 likes per post, while an influencer with an audience of 100,000 followers will obtain about 20,000 likes.

The same happens with the engagement.

Therefore, the study encourages us to consider trusting microinfluencers and not to obsess over those who have more followers.

For example, you could hire 10 microinfluencers with an average of 10,000 followers in their communities, rather than hiring one influencer with 100,000 followers.

Think about it. If each one of those microinfluencer gets 5,000 likes per post, you could get an interesting engagement with 50,000 people, while the engagement will not be as powerful if you carry out a campaign with just one influencer.

We must also mention the fact that it is relatively cheaper to hire a microinfluencer.

Therefore, before hiring an influencer, consider what kind of profile you are looking for and what will work best for you.

4.- Investigate them

Your list of favorites has become shorter, until you have only 2 or 3 influencers, or 10 interesting microinfluencers.

It is the time to investigate them thoroughly to know whether they really get along with your brand and its values. For this reason, you will need to perform a deeper analysis of each of their communities.

  • How many followers they have?
  • How many of them interact with the influencer?
  • Does he/she answer the followers’ comments?
  • Does he/she interact with them?

Remember not to focus on numbers. Quality is more important than quantity. It is necessary to point out that many of those followers might be false followers. If the influencer has many false followers, he/she will cause you to fail too.

5.- What kind of content does he/she generate?

With this research, you will also be interested in knowing whether the person is creative and pushes your brand forwards, or if he/she only promotes your product.

His/her writing and communication style, the subjects he/she usually deals with, etc. All this is essential to achieve your objectives.

The credibility he/she transmits to the audience is very important. That is why it is interesting to know what kind of content they usually create. Consider photos in social networks, YouTube videos, etc.

6.- Request data from other campaigns

Before hiring an influencer, it is interesting to have proof of what they have previously done. That is why it is necessary for you to request data and statistics from previous campaigns. If they cannot provide them, you must request at least that they let you see their statistics.

A person with experience will have control over what he/she has to do, and that is reflected in the quality of each one of his/her actions. This experience in marketing actions will also help you discover his/her level of professionalism and responsibility.

Additionally, this will help your find out whether he/she has worked with your competitors or has participated in campaigns that are opposite to your brand. This means brands with which you do not share values or ideals.

7.- Is there feeling?

Does that person show empathy for the brand? This aspect is significant, as the more they feel comfortable with your brand, the more comfortable they will be while working. And the results show this.

For example, an influencer will not create a YouTube video with the same enthusiasm and creativity if he/she does not like the product or brand he/she is talking about.

That is why is so important to hire an influencer that likes your brand, but above all, someone who wants to maintain a relationship with it.

The more they have in common, the better, as everything will look more natural and credible. If your audience can see how the person who advertises your brand believes in what he/she is saying, the chances of that audience connecting with you are greater.

Believe it or not, hiring an influencer is more about feeling than numbers.

8.- How often do he/she posts?

Frequency is essential when hiring an influencer. In fact, collaborating with someone who is absent from social networks and who hardly shares contents at all will not be of help to you.

A good influencer posts regularly, and this benefits his/her audience engagement, impact and loyalty.

9.- Does he/she participate in the offline world?

The last aspects to determine which influencer you need to hire, is his/her activities in the offline world. For example, does he/she attend events?

It has been proven that many people attend any event were their favorite influencer is present. Also, the relationship and bond between the brand and the influencer will always be closer and the interaction more human.

10.- Set a price

It is often difficult to determine exactly how much to offer an influencer to participate in your campaign.

Some of the approximate global figures published on digital spaces are:

  • Up to 5,000 followers (with a high interaction rate): between $100 and $150 Euros.
  • Between 15,000 and 50,000 followers: between $300 and $400 Euros.
  • More than 100,000 followers: $1,000 Euros or more

However, it all depends on the kind of campaign you wish to launch and the kind of relationship you wish to establish with the chosen influencers.

Are you interested in hiring an influencer? Do you want to launch a campaign and are not sure where to start? The Content Marketing platform Coobis will help you collaborate with more than 20,000 media through which you will be able to generate actions to increase your visibility and improve your brand’s engagement. Register now and start working with influencers.

Do you want us to help you boost your sales through digital marketing?