Influencer marketing is a big part of digital marketing these days, but how do you choose an influencer?

Yello can help, here are five tips on choosing the right influencer for your next campaign.

We all know them; we even follow them and are inspired by their choices daily. An IG blogger, a fashionista, that mega foodie, the mommy blogger. Today readers want to be told a story and the best storytellers rule online. They have the ears and hearts of your target audience. Why not choose an influencer to partner with and get your message across?

Because it isn’t as simple as choosing the biggest name in your industry, choosing an influencer requires time and research.

Here are five things to consider when choosing an influencer to partner with.

Define your objectives

What is your end game? What do you hope to achieve from this partnership? How will you measure your success? Identify your campaign goals before you begin and include considerations that focus on the influencer marketing’s strong sides – like engaging the audience, creating content and time spent with the brand. Consider how you are going to rank success, measure by brand exposure and reach, an increase in engagements and interactions, or an increase in sales — or a combination of all of these.

Decide what your objectives are and communicate with everyone on the team.

Find influencers that share your values

It is important to know what your core values are and that the influencers you choose to work with are in alignment with your beliefs. Avoid mismatched partnerships. These incompatible partnerships can hurt your brand. Research the type of content and the tone of their current brand partner. Research their history to see what they may have done and said in the past. Be thorough.

Macro vs micro Influencers

Influencer isn’t a one size fits all term. There are a variety of influencer types and grades. Is the biggest name the best fit for your brand? Will the megastar influencer spend enough time working on your branded message, or is this only another paycheque? Plus does the micro-influencer have better engagement rates and ranking than the celebrity with millions of followers? Perhaps you need an expert in the field to work with you on your campaign.

You need to carefully assess these questions and decide which is the best for your brand.

The story

What’s the story you want to tell? There is a fine line that must be adhered to, do you allow the influencer creative freedom, or do you craft the story for them? This is a delicate balance that must be maintained when negotiating your brand-influencer partnership. There is a fine line between telling an influencer what to post and creating an inspiring branded story that leaves enough space for individual creativity. The second often gives the best results – especially if you are using more than one influencer. Strike that balance.

Compensation and deliverables

Determine what you need from them — will you get a blog post or an IG post or a Tweet? What are their statistics? Are you paying your influencers in product, money, or a combination of both? Negotiate fees and deliverables and have a contract drafted that outlines all that is agreed.

Research

Follow influencers and see what they offer to other brands, listen in to conversations online and join in the chatter. You want to dig deep and research influencers’ platforms, content themes, past collaborations and brand partnerships, tone, and execution.

The most important thing to remember is that influencers are people with lives and loves and that their creativity and personality mean that they have captured the attention of thousands of people and built a community.  It is access to these people in the influencer’s community that you are ultimately paying for.

Influencer marketing can provide a huge lift to your brand, especially if it’s targeted and the scope is well defined. With these five tips, you are well on your way to success.

Sources: PR Daily, Twitter, Influence and Co, and Native Advertising Institute.