The number of influencers and the confusion of choosing one for influencer marketing campaigns are increasing simultaneously. The criteria influencers must fulfil varies from brand to brand. Which makes picking the right influencer even more confusing. That is because an influencer driving sales for brand “A” might not do the same for brand “B”.
The underperformance of influencer marketing campaign due to the wrong influencer choice demotivates the brand. Mistake most brands must correct is recruiting influencers based on their follower count for their campaign. But looking at an influencer’s follower count might be deceiving and paints a partial picture of the influencer’s capabilities. Besides, followers count category and demographic must be taken into consideration to achieve the desired results.
Lets discuss each criteria one by one in detail so you can land the perfect influencer everytime.
Type of influencers based on the size of their following
Suppose I am a small dry fruit brand based in Bangalore.
Is collaborating with Bhuvan Bam for my campaign a good idea?
If your answer is no, you are right.
Bhuvan bam, without a doubt, has a massive influence, but he is out of the budget of most D2C brands and targeting potential customers through him is not an efficient way of doing it.
That is why Influencers are categorized according to their follower count and each type servs a different purpose, lets discuss each types.
Nano influencer
Nano influencers have a following between 1k-10k. They act like vocal advocates for your brands in their circle. They maintain a closer relationship with their followers as they interact with most of them in the comment section, Dm or community chat.
They do not overflood their content with obvious sponsorship. Thus, they are able to maintain authenticity.
Because of this interaction, they have a very high engagement rate compared to any other influencer.
Nano influencers are great for big and small brands as they have high engagement rates and are inexpensive.
Micro influencer
Micro-influencer has 10K and 100K followers, a wider audience than nano-influencers. Despite having more followers to engage with, they manage to keep their engagement level relatively high. Additionally, they are more likely to cater to a specific niche, such as beauty or fitness, and have a targeted audience. This makes it simpler to develop targeted, customized sponsorships.
Micro-influencers are ideal for brands that want targeted leads. This is primarily due to the audience’s pre-existing expectation that they will receive niche-specific marketing communications. For example, a micro-influencer specializing in fitness would be an excellent fit for the whey protein brand.
Macro influencers
Micro-influencers typically have following between 100K and 1M followers. These influencers are more popular and frequently comprise social media personalities. The reach of these influencers is also much more expansive. Additionally, since many were once small-scale influencers who have expanded, they are more likely to have a substantial audience of loyal followers. But the engagement rate of macro influencers is much lower than nano and micro-influencers. This is because of their larger following.
Macro-influencers are ideal for businesses trying to increase public knowledge of their goods or services since they have immediate access to a broader audience.
Mega influencers
Mega influencers have more than 1 million followers. They fall under the category of emerging stars or celebrities. Their views and ideas are frequently considered because of their high social standing. On the other hand, Mega-influencers are likely to be less specialized in a particular niche and have a low engagement rate.
Getting a significant influencer to promote your brand is highly expensive. Thus brands with a sizable marketing budget are best suited for these types of influencers.
Category demographic and majority following range
Once you have finalized the influencer according to their following size, the next step is deciding what category, demographic and audience range you want to target—and filtering influencers accordingly.
Category
The category part is pretty straightforward. If you are a utensil or food brand you should collaborate with influencers in the food category. And if you are an apparel brand, you should choose an influencer in the fashion category. This logic works on the principle of influencers can sell a product better which fall under the type of content they make. And it helps avoid the conflict of interest.
Demographic
Demographic is another essential criterion for choosing an influencer. Local businesses thrive through the right influencer choices for influencer marketing. Suppose you are a local or big business that wants to expand in a particular city or location. In that case, it is vital to choose influencers according to the area they have the most following. Hyperlocal influencers are ideal for this type of targeting.
Majority following range
The same logic applies to the gender-based following of the influencer. If you are a beauty brand, you should collaborate with an influencer with a large female following to deliver your message to potential customer.
The same goes for the age range. A brand that caters elderly will not benefit from collaborating with an influencer, with a majority of teenagers following.
These criteria are foolproof, and following them should land you the perfect influencer every time. But they all of them are time and manpower-consuming.
You can try Qoruz to combat this problem, an easy-to-use influencer marketing platform which will simplify influencer marketing for your business from start to end. Qoruz helps you find the best influencer for your brand and makes the tedious task of contacting them and tracking their performance a piece of cake. So you can take care of expanding your business instead of worrying about influencer marketing.
