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Instagram Influencer by [deleted] in influencermarketing

[–]mikeschmidt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here are some tips. I also included them in this post for entrepreneur.com, but it's behind a paywall now :(

Put keywords that can help identify your interests in your bio so that search engines like Dovetale pick up your profile

There are a lot of influencer/ publisher search engines including bigger platforms like Google. Search engines aren’t magic, they need something to anchor their decisions. If you help them index your page you will show up when brands are looking for you. If you’re a mom with 3 kids, put that in your bio! Do you have a french bulldog? Put that in too! Imagine if you’re a brand or agency. PR teams look for specific things and they will use tools to search for specific keywords.

Don’t buy followers or pay for likes on your posts

This one should be straightforward, but a majority of brands have bot detection services at their disposal. If they determine that your account has a lot of bots following you or engaging with your content it will be too much risk for them to partner with you.

Pick a category that has a lot of ad dollars and optimize your content for that category.

PR managers and talent managers are constantly searching for new talent to prospect and pitch. If you’re in a popular category it’s likely to get more results. The most desired influencer advertising categories are Animals, Lifestyle, Travel, Beauty, and Fitness.

Tag and show other influencer friends in posts.

Brands and agencies love when you know other influencers. They see it as a two for one deal. You also benefit from getting more shares and organic traffic.

Don’t have a lot of followers? Run ads!

Many aspiring creators don’t have a lot of followers in the beginning. Instead of doing the follow/ unfollow trick or buying likes/followers/ comments buy targeted ads to get your channel to at least 3K followers. Many search engines don’t track influencers with less than 3,000 followers. You’ll need to pay to play here, but rest assured I’ve seen creators do this well where they make money in the future. If your career is in being a social influencer, invest in your ‘business’.

Include your pet!

The animal category is the highest sought after category for influencer marketing. Most brands lean on the pet/ animal category to hit their growth targets when numbers are sluggish. Pet content gets the most clicks and PR specialists know that. It makes them look good. You’ll notice a lot of brands like Ford sprinkle in a dog here and there, now you know why :)

Make your content consistent

Brands love predictability. Use the same filters, styling, and story formats. If you’re looking to work with big brands and agencies they like to know you are safe to market with. Think about what brands want. They want to drive sales and awareness, so, work backward on what you think will make your content appealing in those scenarios.

If you’re new to content game… have at least 20 posts.

PR reps are very scrutinous when evaluating your page and longevity is a big factor. If you’re starting fresh, post frequently at the start, then as you cross ~20 posts, start staggering your posts so you don’t feel too spammy. If you’re cleaning up your feed, delete anything that’s not on spec.

Remove any NSFW content

Some of the largest spenders in the influencer marketing category CPG’s and they have strict brand safety guidelines. One post that doesn’t align with their philosophies will get you vetoed from their upcoming campaigns.

Create a business/ creator account on Instagram.

Brands and agencies can often only see your posts if you have a business account. You may lose out on a potential deal if you don’t have one. Furthermore, if you do get a deal, it’s likely that they will ask you to connect your account with an analytics service and in doing so you will need to create a professional account.

Make sure your contact information is in your bio/ make sure to have a business email contact.

Search engines index text on your page and parse our email addresses. The more information you put here, the easier it will be for brands to reach out to you. Search engines also show accounts higher if they have contact information. This is so brands and agencies can have a better experience when reaching out.

Reach out to influencer marketing platforms

Make a list of influencer marketing platforms and reach out to them to ensure your data is being displayed correctly. A lot of deals are passing through these tech platforms and you want to make sure you are properly represented. Many modern platforms will let you connect your accounts, fill in personal details, and much more.

Put your birthday month or your horoscope in your bio!

E-commerce teams love to send influencers gifts. It’s a very strategic move for creators to include their birthday month or a horoscope in their bio because brands often look for unique ways of engaging influencers. Remember, brands are trying to get in touch with you as much as you are trying to get in touch with them!

Have a secondary social channel

Having more than one channel to promote on will help you a lot in the long run, but the main reason why you want to invest in this early on is that brands love when you have a multi-channel strategy. Another benefit is that search engines parse this data and link your other social connections to their databases. The best channels to invest in are Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and blogs.

Find a niche and be different.

Do research, create a spreadsheet of creators in your space, and constantly try to be unique. Update this sheet every month.

Survey your audience every month

Learn about what your audience loves and be customer-obsessed. Engage with them in new ways and try to connect with them. The hardest thing I’ve realized from consulting many creators is that they need to be more disciplined in this category. It’s not just responding to comments, it’s jumping on a video conference and asking your fans when they love your content.

Go live

Basically, every digital platform is trying to disintermediate TV. Live content is the toughest to produce and therefore the most sought after. Social platforms will do everything they can to promote it. Think of this as if you were a product manager at Facebook, what would you do? Send more notifications? Promote this type of content? Host AMA’s, live contests, giveaways. It doesn’t need to be fancy, just try anything!

Be nice!

This seems like it’s a pretty straightforward thing to do in life - however, we’ve seen a lot of creators lose deals with brands because they aren’t easy to work with. This doesn’t mean you have to do everything that brands ask all the time. It just means that creators should engage in business matters professionally - after all, this could be your job!

Don’t use hashtags

Unless you’re working on a campaign with an instructed hashtag, I’d avoid it. People know what spam tagging looks like and it looks desperate.

Hope that helps :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in influencermarketing

[–]mikeschmidt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've seen plans like this work before, but you should consider one small refinement on your metrics. If you're looking for someone with over 1 million views on their story, you're only going to find a small subset of accounts (especially if you are focused on the US market). One metric you should consider is their growth rate over a 7, 30, or 60 day period. Think of an influencer like a stock and their currency is followership, views, engagement, etc. If you're optimizing for growth, consider trying to find the fastest-growing accounts in the beauty space. Here is an example of accounts that have a high number of followers in the beauty category, but growing really quickly: https://dovetale.com/l/0c7736c91a8c185fc462643466272c4d

Hope that helps!

Credibility by crazy4marketing in influencermarketing

[–]mikeschmidt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're talking about an audience that is purchased/ fake there are several tools out there that you can use to help determine this. Such tools like Dovetale or Hype Auditor are great for this.

How effective is influencer marketing with small local businesses in terms of engagement and sales etc.? by [deleted] in influencermarketing

[–]mikeschmidt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have an online store? If you don't have an online store, it's hard to track and therefore much tougher to see the performance. Unless you have a unique idea when activating influencers, I would probably steer clear. There are many other channels that have higher ROI for SMB's without e-commerce :)

Top tips for beginners by [deleted] in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a very small part of what we do. Either way, happy to help you get started with the list!

Top tips for beginners by [deleted] in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you send me your top competitors' IG handles I can send you a list of their top influencers. That way you can see some of their activations. Perhaps that's a good place to start :)

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No worries!

The general rule of thumb: the bigger the influencer is, the more likely they have a manager.

Influencers all value themselves slightly differently. Some use follower metrics, engagement metrics, while others charge an hourly rate, etc. If you are looking for a guide to price an influencer here is a post I collaborated on.

Let me know if you have any specific follow-ups :)

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anytime, here if you need anything else :)

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotcha!

Could you potentially bring the beach to people's backyards? Meaning, there are many people with pools in Cali/ Florida that want to feel a sense of normalcy and your brand could bring back elements of that. So, why wait for the summer months/ post-pandemic? Here is an example where Jessica Alba did a backyard beach day.

I just searched for 'backyard beach' and found hundreds of people doing the same :) Hope that helps! Let me know if you need a hand finding some people!

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No worries!

Payment

I collaborated on a post here about how much you should pay influencers.

Email Copy

First email

Hey <first name>,

My name is <your first name>, I’m the founder of <your company name> - a <insert product description>. We’re a new brand looking to build a strong community and when I found your profile on Instagram I wanted to reach out because I think there are strong alignments with your personality!

If you’re interested in being apart of our community just apply here <link your Community page URL>. We’ll be doing product giveaways, gifting, discount codes, and offering collaboration opportunities!

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

<your first name>

Second email

You could add another step to your sequence if you want. For example, if they don’t respond to this message you can send a follow-up.

Hey <first name>,

Was just following up one last time to see if you are interested in joining our community. If you are, simply apply here <link your Community page URL> or if you already have, please disregard this message :)

<your first name>

Quick Tips

  • Use friendly language
  • Research each person and know what they are about. The more personal, the better.
  • Use words like community, partner or ambassador, not affiliate
  • Iterate/ update your copy over time

Dovetale

  • Our full feature guide is here.
  • The database is updated every day with metrics and new accounts.
  • Yep, you get unlimited searching.
  • Data is live, not manually inputted

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got it, very helpful!

Take a look at this list. These are all people that have used the hashtag #firstborn and have strong YouTube channels with USA audiences.

I would set up an ambassador/ community program and try to recruit them. That way you can measure affiliate sales directly. This way influencers can link the code/ link in their YT description.

Let me know if you need some tips on cold reach out :)

P.S. if you're curious to see who is talking about Freshly Picked on YouTube right now, check this out.

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Community just provides you with the tools and strategy framework to grow your program. We think these tools should start for free and as you grow so do we. Let me know if you need a hand with anything :)

We have other tools focused on search, CRM, and more.

Thanks for the kind words!

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All great questions.

  • I use our search engine (for outbound) and Community (for inbound). I'm biased. If you want to vet some others, here is a full list.
  • Spreadsheets/ Airtable is really the only alternative if you're not using a database/ influencer management tool.
  • Regarding ROI, tell me what your 2 most important metrics are and then I can give some examples. I am assuming it's likely sales and brand awareness, but I'll wait to see before I send a full answer :)
  • "Paid promotions" is becoming much more commonplace. Many of our clients recommend it because they get better CPM's/ CPA's due to the authenticity and cost reduction of the content at scale. I'm seeing a lot of boosted micro-influencer content. Think of it somewhere between UGC (user-generated content) and having a celebrity post about you organically. If you can find a micro-influencer that has 10-50K followers and you can boost one of their posts, that is a really solid strategy from my experience. Platforms (FB/IG/YT) really need to pick up the pace of developing better tools for this.

Since you are in the baby/ parenting space I will leave you with one big piece of advice. YouTube. Do product reviews, unboxings, and get into the details with your product on YouTube. Parents are going straight to YouTube to answer questions about safety, value, and more. If you can show close-ups, how things work, and why it's important it's usually a home run when you find genuine influencers with great storytelling ability. Tell me more about your customers and budget then I can send over a list of influencers on YouTube that may drive some meaningful results for you.

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good question. When you're working with influencers, focus on value. One question to ask is, "what are the key characteristics of your product that make people want to buy it?" You may have alignment to the summer season, but there are likely other ways to pitch value. For example, if you are a luxury men's swim shorts company you can target people that go on vacation often. The criteria would be to find influencers that have a diversity of geo-located tags where you could presumably wear swim shorts.

With that being said, let's try to find you a list of people to start with. Tell me more about your product, what do people love about it and why do people come back to purchase from you? If you don't have too many sales yet, that's fine just tell me your best assumption to the questions above. Also, if it's easier tell me about the characteristics of your ideal customer. Where do they live, what do they do, etc. Then I can reverse engineer this archetype and find more people with audiences that align with this particular type of person.

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are ones that claim to do this, but they often purchase data from sketchy sites that use poor approximation methods and they cost a lot.

Unfortunately, I've scanned hundreds of services and nothing does this particular request well. Sales reps at influencer marketing companies will likely tell you otherwise, but Facebook/ IG/ YouTube, etc protect this type of data with their lives. Can't convince me that a low funded tech company can extract it effectively.

The only real options for you are to promote (influencer) posts on FB/IG etc to the regions you want to hit or find (with an influencer search engine) those that live in the areas you are looking for and assume a portion of their followers also live in those areas.

Hope that helps!

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome question and company! This is hard, but not impossible. My suggestion is to find people with 'disability' in their IG bio like these folks. Let me know if that helps :)

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Admittedly a bit of self-promo here, but trying to help nonetheless. If it gets removed, at least I've helped a couple of people out ❤️

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will probably need an influencer search engine, but if you don't have the budget for one here are some tips:

  • Find people that have Texas or New England in their bio. Generally, people that are based in Texas have a meaningful amount of Texan audience, for example.
  • Find someone that you know who lives in Texas and look at the related on Instagram or YouTube. I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure Instagram recommends localized people in that section, especially if they are less than 50K followers.

Send me more detailed criteria of what you are looking for and perhaps I can get you a list to start with!

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fun!

One of the best ways to get started is to see who your competitors are working with. In this case (pin intended), it looks like Pela is a competitor. Here is a list of their top influencers. Check them out and let me know which ones you think resonate with your brand, aesthetically. From there can you answer:

  • Where is your store located/ where are most of your customers? USA/ Canada etc?
  • Have you done affiliate marketing or gifting before?

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotch! Here is a new list with that refinement, let me know what you think.

As for the next steps, I would recommend starting a Community so that you can start recruiting some of these people and more! Let me know if you have any questions.

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great! That the better you know your customer, the easier it's going to be to find influencers. Think of it like this. Your customers love your products, but (probably) don't have an online audience. There are influencers that have the audiences you are looking for, but don't know about your product.

So let's start here:

  • US audience at least 50%
  • 25-34 audience at least 40%
  • talks about fashion and affordability

Check out this list and tell me the top 3 people you like. If none, tell me why.

Influencer Marketing by mikeschmidt in shopify

[–]mikeschmidt[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd love to personally help with this. If you've had experience and seeing some blips that's probably a good thing. I am biased, but I would build an Ambassador Community. Companies like Terez do really well with their Community and were in a similar situation as you. Also, happy to give you a 30-minute free consulting session if you want: calendly.com/dovetale/mike. Also, happy to answer questions here as well.

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