Want to make your pop-up as impactful as possible? Using influencers is undoubtedly effective, especially among Gen Z Audiences, but it’s important to get it right from the beginning, and that means choosing who to work with carefully.
If you’ve got a big budget it’s worth considering tapping into the expertise of an influencer marketing agency, such as Engage Hub, who will look at your requirements and match you with the influencer who will work best for your brand.
Read our blog: How To Work With Influencers
Of course, if you’re up-and-coming and ain’t making the big bucks (yet!) you can definitely still get involved in the influencer marketing game. It’ll come down to research, and, when it comes to your shortlist of influencers to approach, asking three questions:
Would they do it, should they do it, and can they do it?
Choosing an influencer: Would they?
We’re all for aiming high, but we’re also all for being realistic. Set your sights depending on how big your business is, and what you can afford, and whether what you’re asking is something they’d be up for.
Love Island contestant and Pretty Little Thing Creative Director Molly-Mae Hague charges up to £11,000 for a single Insta post, so while she might be your fashion brand’s ideal, she wouldn’t touch it if the money isn’t right. If you’ve got some budget, though, a quick Google search will turn up an agent’s website, and away you go.
Also think about whether your influencer has their own brand thing going on that might conflict or compete with yours. Of course, money isn’t always everything. Know your value, and if associating themselves with your product or service can offer something other than monetary benefit, then a fee can sometimes be negotiated, or even dropped.
Side note: be careful about giving stuff away for free, unless you are certain you want to work with someone. If you’re a SME that’s spent any time on Instagram, you’ll almost certainly have been approached multiple times by ‘influencers’ asking if you want to collaborate in return for products. A quick look at their account might seem promising, with good follower numbers and high engagement, but social media is full of chancers, quite frankly, and they may use strategies such as frowned upon ‘like loops’ and ’follower loops’ to bump up their digits and make them appear more popular than they really are.
Choosing an influencer: Should they?
The more discerning an influencer, the better quality they’ll likely be. If you’re selective, then it means any followers you gain, or exposure you’re given, should be right for you and have a greater impact in the long run.
Make sure you’re looking for an influencer with whom your brand has some synergy. It seems obvious, but if you’re a fitness brand, look for an influencer in the health and fitness sector. Then, can you go even more niche? You’re after someone who is an undeniable fit, and with so many to choose from, the right one is out there.
Think about what you want them for. Influencers with a mass following are great for spreading awareness to mature markets, but smaller influencers can be perfect for creating or tapping into a new trend.
Read about Mega, Macro, Micro and Nano Influencers
Choosing an influencer: Can they?
A few things at play here, all under the banner of ‘can they deliver what you want?’.
One, when you’re checking out your influencer shortlist, delve into their follower list. Are they real people or a mass of PR companies and dodgy-sounding randoms? Tap through a few and see if they’re real, and are the kind of people you want to reach. This can be time consuming if you’re doing it manually, so consider using services like Fanbytes, a social listening company, who can analyse for you and give you some quick insight into demographics, or Heepsy, who collate all the metrics on Insta and TikTok influencers so you can find who you need. Heeps have a free tier of pricing too, which is a great place to start.
And two, can the influencer practically deliver what you want them to? Can they create video? Can they organise and schedule a more meaty campaign? Are they in charge of their own account and, if not, who’s going to be running it? Look for track record in producing campaigns for others, and make your call.
Make sure you button down who needs to do what, and what each party can expect in terms of the transaction BEFORE you start working together. A good way to do this is write a campaign brief. You can find more information on how to put together a great influencer brief, at Upfluence, and there’s a handy free template too.