When you decide to work with influencers, you must take the time to figure out exactly what your goal is for the campaign and then find the right people to promote your brand in the process. If you don’t plan, you will not succeed in the way that you desire. Planning may seem to take time, but the truth is, it saves both time and money by ensuring you work with the right folks.
The following are some common ways to vet or verify your influencers before you let them sign a contract:
Study Their Audience and Engagement
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Look for authentic content and how their audience interacts with them. Take notice of any spam-like comments. While it’s not a solid indicator, too many of them can tell you that their accounts may be bought followers or likes. Meaning their engagement rate and numbers are not accurate or true. Look for consistent content across promotions and posts to ensure they have positive audience engagement.
Look for Other Brand Partnerships or Collaborations
It helps to find influencers who have already worked with other brands. The main reason is that you can note whether or not they’re getting a good response from the sponsorships or not. One way to tell is whether the company asked them to sponsor another post or do another video or not. Bigger brands aren’t going to work more than once with most influencers during their campaigns, so if they work with them again, that’s a great sign.
Ask for Their Honest Opinion about Your Brand
It’s best to get honest feedback about your brand instead of expecting every influencer to say what you want them to say about your product. Giving honest feedback and a real review is much more valuable to your customers and you. In addition, if you’re listening, you will be able to use the info given to improve your offers.
Create Strict and Clear Influencer Criteria and Goals
Most influencers love having a goal put before them to meet in terms of the metrics you’re hoping for with the campaign. If they understand what you’re shooting for, and they are professionals, they’ll tell you if they think it’s possible or not. You can always adjust your expectations if you’re working with a professional who tells the truth.
Searching for and vetting potential influencers is very important for your success. Not only will you end up creating a better campaign that you’re proud of, but you’ll also experience more success meeting your goals and objectives because you do the work to make sure your actions will impact your results as you desire