In a recent article by Ketchum on influencer marketing trends, the industry is projected to rise and be valued at $15 billion in 2022. This form of modern marketing has taken over how we create campaigns, sell products, and adapt to our audience using different avenues – social media being the primary source.
This article will explain 5 different ways to find influencers for your next marketing project including the advantages and disadvantages of each.
1. Agencies
This is the most trustworthy way of finding and booking an influencer for your project or campaign. By booking an influencer through an agency, the influencer would have already been vetted, the agency will also discuss with you what type of influencer you need and match you with the ideal influencer, and it will reduce having to do your own research, contacting influencers and spending a lot of time on something you can delegate to industry experts.
With an agency like ITP Live, we simply ask what all your requirements are, help you with your journey to create a campaign, and suggest global and local influencers big and small, depending on your needs.
The disadvantages of booking through an influencer marketing agency may include the agency taking a small cut from the project. Of course, agencies need to get paid for their work, but at the same time, you will be getting a lot more out of booking an agency and it will be a better use of your time. Building relationships with influencers may also be difficult as they would be coming through the agency. Instead of building relationships yourself for future work, you won’t have that communication with them until the day of the shoot.
2. Social Media
According to Mediakix, estimated 3.2M-37.8M influencers are on the social media platforms Instagram, TikTok and YouTube combined. This staggering number shows that finding an influencer shouldn’t be as difficult anymore as it maybe was before as there are an active number of influencers online.
Depending on the type of influencer you are looking for, you can find them by typing the niche into the search bar and seeing which profiles come up first, or by following the hashtag.
The only problem is that this is very time-consuming, it also doesn’t guarantee that you will find the perfect influencer you are looking for, and you would have to do your own vetting on the influencer compared to booking through an agency like ITP Live.
An influencer may not turn up to a shoot, or reply back to your inbox, or they may not even be real! Although social media platforms do what they can for up-and-coming influencers and creators, they are still trying to combat security and privacy. This is the same for influencers – they may not trust who you are or what you represent whereas, with an agency, the influencer already knows what they have signed up for and are less likely to ask questions (that you won’t have to deal with anyway).
Make sure a contract is signed between both parties so that if you do book an influencer from social media, they are liable for any damages, delays, and cancellations.
3. Word of mouth
Do you have multi connections with people? Or has someone recommended an influencer to you that you thought you could try out? There is nothing wrong with booking an influencer from word of mouth. This may be a good way for the person to connect you with an influencer so you can use them for long-term work and build connections.
By word-of-mouth booking, it does help to find someone quick, however, the downfall of it is that the person who is recommending the influencer may not fully know the purpose of your brand and campaign/marketing goal. Therefore, it may waste everyone’s time if the influencer is vetted but you find out they are not suitable.
Make sure you ask as many questions as possible when it comes to word-of-mouth booking so you reduce wasting anyone’s time including the influencers.
4. Head Hunting
If you’re company or brand is very serious about booking an influencer and has the resources to do it in-house, then why not organise a head-hunting day? You can create a marketing campaign/poster for influencers to sign-up and attend an open casting or go out and head-hunt yourself in a popular area.
Again, if we look at the disadvantages of this, although head-hunting is fun and a traditional way of casting people, it is time-consuming and you are not guaranteed that you will find the ideal person, if not anyone, to book for a campaign. There is also the time and money that you will be spending just to get the open-casting message out online or in person for influencers to attend.
5. Articles
Online searches are the go-to place for finding anything. If you have a problem, what is the first thing you do? Go on google and quickly search for the answer. If you type in ‘fashion influencers in the Middle East,’ you will definitely have a list of influencers that will appear in articles by different sources.
The problem here is, which source can you trust? With ITP Live, articles are updated regularly and there are listings of every influencer you need in the region or globally. If you can’t find what you’re looking for then you can always call the team, who will be able to help you straight away!
We hope that helps you when searching for the perfect nano or mega influencer for your next campaign. There are influencers out there, but it’s up to you how to find the right one and which avenue stream you intend on exploring. It is trial and error, depending on your marketing budget and what you would like to explore.
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