Influencer Marketing remains one of the hottest, most talked-about topics within Digital Marketing, yet so many marketers are struggling to find & select influencers to work with – particularly marketers working in-house for a brand.
The Influencer Marketing Hub reports that the most significant challenge for 34% of brands already running campaigns, is finding influencers to work with.
This statistic amazes me… that’s over a third of brands running campaigns, taking longer than they should to find influencers or, potentially using influencers which aren’t right for them but they’re running the campaign anyway!
This time last year the same report told us that around 39% of brands were struggling with this same issue, so that’s 5% more brands feeling confident in influencer discovery – this is likely due to the 240 additional platforms/influencer agencies popping up within the space.
We’re heading in the right direction.
Other challenges marketers are facing, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub, include measuring ROI, managing contracts, deadlines & payments – it’s interesting to note that all of these challenges have fallen more dramatically than Influencer discovery based on the 2020 report, in some cases by almost half (contacts & deadlines 13% down from 21%).
I think there’s a strong correlation between the number of influencer marketing platforms flooding the market, and inhouse marketers feeling more confident when faced with these challenges. Making use of the resources (paid or free) to streamline their processes, marketers have found that influencer marketing is becoming ‘easier’. My only concern is that considerations need to be made to find the right influencers for campaigns, ensuring they speak to your target audience, align with your brand & return positive ROI based on pre-determined success metrics.
So, where can in-house marketers find influencers more efficiently?
Here are some of my favourite platforms, when utilised fully, individually or together, these can make the process of finding the right influencer more efficient for everyone :
This is a fantastic all in one solution for marketers looking to find the top content creators in their industry niche, searching for influencers based on a wide set of parameters you’re sure to find potential promotional partners.
Their opt-in option allows influencers to share greater insights, giving marketers the ability to dive deeper into performance analytics.
*Insider Tip* : They’re expanding their UK influencer database as we speak!
A new kid on the block, but offering marketers a really user friendly & data driven experience. With a team behind the platform who love analysis it’s no wonder reporting and insights lead the platforms functions, helping users make informed decisions when selectin influencers & running campaigns.
*Insider Tip* : New features & social platforms are coming soon!
With a mix of paid, trial and free access, HypeAuditor remains one of the industry leaders when it comes to influencer discovery. Using the free search function, you can find influencers meeting your requirements, and for further insights into the influencers performance you can invest in a paid subscription.
*Top Tip* : When using the free access, it works well in tandem with other tools.
Proving users with useful insights & enabling you to search for potential influencers effectively, whether that’s by the audience demographics, or by the influencer themselves, searching through a database of 12million+ influencers. Whilst on the platform you can monitor campaigns progress too.
*Insider Tip* : The trial access gives 100 searches & only 5,000 influencers.
Searching for influencers across YouTube & Instagram is easy with the SocialBakers discovery tool, refining by the influencer’s demographics. Alongside its search features you’ll find some useful social media analytics & A-I driven audience data analysis.
*Top Tip* : Make use of the trial as it offers site-wide flexible free access.
A great platform for Instagram & YouTube equally, but this one requires no trial or sign up to make use of its features. You can access NinjaOutreach online and right from the home page start discovering influencers meeting your refined search criteria. Whether you’re searching by pre-selected brackets (followers, engagement etc) or more specific parameters, the platform helps you to find influencers meeting your requirements.
*Top Tip* : Visit this site first to gauge how useful using a platform could be for you.
