Got Your Match? How To Find The Best Instagram Influencer For Your Brand

Did you know that influencer marketing ranks as one of the most powerful digital marketing platforms when it comes to ROI?

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, brands actually earn up to $5.78 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing. Because of this, 91% of brand owners believe influencer marketing is effective.

So, the biggest challenge you will face with influencer marketing is how to choose the right influencers for your brand. Especially since there are different types of influencers you can choose from.

But before we talk about that. Let’s first discuss who an Instagram influencer is.

Who Is An Instagram Influencer?

If you are into beauty and makeup, it is impossible that you haven’t heard of Huda Kattan. The famous beauty blogger also launched her own makeup line, Huda Beauty.

Or if you are a foodie, I am sure you know about Nusret, the famous #saltbae. He is a Turkish chef who is famous for his seasoning techniques.

They are all Instagram influencers.

So basically, an Instagram influencer is a person who has a reputation around a specific niche. When businesses work with an influencer, they can promote their brand to a large audience.

It wouldn’t be wrong to call them celebrities of their niches. So, if you want to reach a mass audience, Instagram influencers can help you with that.

Why?

Why Does Your Brand Need Instagram Influencers?

According to the Influencer Marketing Hub report, the influencer marketing industry will be worth $13.8 billion in 2021.

And do you know, 81% of people trust the recommendations of influencers?

Because influencers create content and build an audience that trusts their recommendation. So, if an influencer promotes your brand, its audience will trust you and learn more about you.

What’s more?

Apart from reaching a massive audience, influencer marketing has one more benefit…

These influencers create appealing content for their feed. They work with professional photographers to develop aesthetic posts for their audience.

And businesses can use this content on their profiles and websites.

You're probably wondering...

• How do I find influencers in my niche? 
• How much does Instagram Influencer marketing cost? 
• Will it help me make any sales?

Worry no more because, in today’s blog post, you’ll find answers to all your questions about influencer marketing.

We'll talk about the kinds of Instagram influencers, how much IG Marketing costs, and the most important part, which is how to find Instagram influencers.

So without further ado… let’s start!

Types of Instagram Influencers

There are five levels of influencers according to the number of their followers: Here's a breakdown by follower count:

1. Nano (1K-10K)

Nano influencers are content creators who have 1,000 to 10,000 followers. They sometimes collaborate with brands and promote their products. But, they aren’t full-time content creators.

Nano-influencers have a small following. So, it’s easy for them to engage with their followers. As a result, they achieve high engagement rates.

Nano influencers are the best option for you if:

• You own a small- to mid-size business and you have a limited marketing budget.
• You're planning to test a product or a product launch within a new niche.

2. Micro (10K–100K)

Influencers that have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers are Micro-influencers. This is the biggest influencer group on Instagram. As 47% of all the Instagram influencers are Micro-influencers.

They cost more than the Nano influencers. But, they have a good engagement with their audience. Making them a brilliant choice for promoting your business and driving sales. 

You should go for micro-influencers if you're planning to generate more focused leads.

3. Mid (100K–500K)

Mid-level influencers are the second largest group of Instagram Influencers. They represent 26% of all Instagram influencers.

Since these influencers have a large following, they cannot engage with every follower. Hence, their promotion and marketing cannot give a one-to-one feel.

But your brand will have a wider reach as compared to previous influencer groups. 

Mid-influencers can be go-to influencers if you have a medium campaign budget.

4. Macro (500K–1M)

Macro influencers are not celebrities or artists. They are people who are very popular because of creating entertaining content.

If you want to target young adults, this influencer group is perfect for it.

And if you're planning to target segmented audiences that are easy to reach and engage.

5. Mega (1M+)

Mega influencers have the largest followings of all the above levels. Mega influencers are usually celebrities and artists.

They have huge and diverse followers. Some famous Mega influencers on Instagram are:

• Cristiano Ronaldo- 307 million followers
• Kylie Jenner- 257 million followers
• Selena Gomez- 240 million followers
• Lionel Messi- 224 million followers
• Justin Bieber- 180 million followers
• Kendall Jenner- 172 million followers

Mega influencers have the experience to work with brands. Thus, working with them can provide a phenomenal reach to brands.

But the cost of these mega influencers is also MEGA.

(Don't worry, we'll cover the costs later.)

Hey, don’t think Instagram marketing isn’t for you. Just because you can’t afford Cristiano Ronaldo or Selena Gomez for marketing campaigns.

There are 500,000 active Instagram influencers. It means that there are a lot of influencers that you can work with.

Now, let’s talk about how much each influencer level costs?

How Much Do Instagram Influencers Cost?

An average Instagram influencer earns $30,000 to $100,000 yearly from promoting brands.

There are a lot of factors that affect the influencer’s charges. Such as:

• Their following
• Engagement and reach
• Niche
• Licensing rights

In addition, HypeAuditor found that, on average, you will earn $4.87 from an Instagram influencer's promotion for every $1 you invest. Earned media value is equal to the cost of driving a similar reach through social ads paid for by the same audience.

In that case, how much would one Instagram influencer post cost?

According to Andrew Macarthy, Amazon’s best-selling author, the cost per post is:

• Nano Influencers- $10-$100/ post 
• Micro-Influencers- $100-$500/post
• Mid Influencers- $500-$5,000/post
• Macro Influencers- $5,000-$10,000/post
• Mega Influencers- Above $10,000/post

Now, we will discuss how to find Instagram influencers for your business.

How to Find the Instagram Influencers for Your Business?

Want to try your hands on influencer marketing?

Here’s how you can do it…

1. Outline Your Objectives

The first step to finding the influencer of your campaign is to outline your goals.

Ask yourself why you want to work with an influencer?

What do you want to achieve?

So, make a list of what you want from your campaign?

• Do you want to increase sales? 
• Drive traffic to your website?
• Boost brand awareness?
• Take feedback from the audience?

Suppose your goal is to boost brand awareness and reach a wider audience.

In that case, you’ll have to work with macro or mega influencers. Identifying your goals will help you select the right influencer for your brand campaign.

Once you're done, it's time to search for influencers.

2. Head Over to Influencer Marketing Platform

Gone are those days when marketers had to search for influencers through hashtags. Now, businesses can use influencer marketing platforms to find influencers.

Some influencer platforms also offer the following features to run the campaign:

• Campaign Management 
• Market places
• Relationship Management
• Analytics software 

Have a look at the Top 3 Influencer platforms:

Upfluence.com

It is a platform used by major brands, such as PayPal and Microsoft. Marketers can set their budgets and search for influencers that match their criteria. 

Grin. co

It is one of the best platforms to find influencers. This platform provides access to millions of influencers across social media sites. Such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and even YouTube.

Creator. co

This platform offers over 500 million influencers to select from.

It offers 2 options:

• Self-service–Marketers can manually search for the influencers to work with.
• Hands-free–Marketers define their campaign and requirements. The system handles the rest.

There are plenty of other platforms too, for finding influencers in your niche. But the platforms that I’ve mentioned above are super helpful for new marketers.

After picking up a few influencers, it’s time to analyze their content.

This will help you check if they’re fit for your brand…

3. Analyze the Content

After finding the influencers, you’ll want to select the one with the highest number of followers, right?

That's not (always) the right thing to do.

Here's why:

The number of followers isn’t the only thing to consider here. You need to dig a little deeper than just the number of followers.

The first thing you need to do is to check their Instagram feed. Check if their content aligns with your brand values and voice.

Suppose a skincare company has a sophisticated brand personality. Do you think working with an influencer who is fun and sporty will align with the brand’s image?

So, analyze their feed to check how appealing their content is.

Do they sound genuine or promotional?

Influencers who give a personalized touch to their posts receive better engagement rates.

Speaking about engagement rate…

4. Measure Their Engagement Rate

What’s the point of influencer marketing if the audience doesn’t interact with the post?

Or worse, no one notices it?

You need to analyze how much engagement an influencer’s post or story receives.

If the post receives a good number of likes, comments, and shares it means the influencer has an active and organic audience.

That’s why we said that number of followers shouldn’t be the only metric to consider. Because sometimes, an influencer might have a huge following. But, its audience might not engage actively.

Now, how can you calculate the engagement rate?

Thanks to Neil Waller, Co-founder of Whalar, for the formula to calculate engagement rates:

1. Take the last 4 to 10 posts of an influencer;
2. Add up the total number of likes the posts received;
3. Divide the total number of likes by the number of posts. It will give you the average number of likes per post;
4. Next, divide the average likes per post by the total number of followers. Multiply it by 100, and you’ll have your engagement rate.

According to him, if the engagement rate is between 2% and 3% or above, it’s a good sign. Nano and micro-influencers have stronger engagement rates, such as between 8% and 10%.

So, what’s next?

5. Reach the Influencers and Launch Your Campaign

After assessing the content and engagement rates, it’s time to reach out to the influencer.

Email is the best channel to approach them. Most influencers mention their email addresses on their bio.

Write them a short and to-the-point email.

Introduce your business and give a brief description of your products. Also, include the link to your website and the Instagram handle. It will help the influencer check out your products.

Next, inform them you’re interested in working with them to promote your brand.

And please….

Do not comment under the post that you’ve emailed them!

It looks unprofessional. If the influencers haven’t responded to your email, be patient. Send them a direct message to remind them about your email. But make sure that you don’t do that right after a few minutes of emailing.

Influencers receive dozens of emails each day. It takes time to respond to each of them.

So, hang tight!

Once the influencer agrees to work with you, plan out the campaign and its budget. Be very precise about your expectations.

And that’s it… your job finishes here!

The influencer will handle the rest and deliver you the best content!

Work With The Right Influencer for Your Brand!

Instagram influencer marketing is a fantastic way to reach a wide audience and increase brand awareness.

There are many influencers out there…

But not everyone is suitable for your business.

Hence, outline your goals and analyze the influencer’s content and engagement rate before collaborating with them.

So, tell us, who do you think is the perfect influencer of your business?

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