Finding the right influencers for your brand is essential as they are the ones who will run and get your brand the campaign results. Working with the wrong creators can make your brand fail to reach its business objectives, or worse, lose your money to a fake influencer. This is how to find (and contact) Instagram influencers in 2023, and make sure your brand gets the benefits.

How is your influencer marketing result so far?

Does it bring you the results you want? Don’t say it’s flopped…?

Well, if that’s the case, I think you should evaluate what’s wrong in the process.

My wild guess: you didn’t do proper influencer discovery in the first place.

Choosing the right influencer for your brand is vital.

Guide: How to find and Contact Influencers ?

They are the campaign performer and how well the results depends on their ability

To convey the brand message and influence their audience to buy your product or service.

The influencer’s niches, how dedicated the audience they have,

And their account performance also affects the final result.

If you get it wrong, it’s over. Your inaccurate option will lead the campaign to no results.

Worst, you waste your money on fake influencers.

Here is the ultimate guide to finding influencers and reach them out for collaborations in 2023.

Read on for a successful influencer campaign in the future.

TL;DR: 6 steps to find the right influencer for your brand:

  • Set your influencer marketing goals & budget
  • Understand your target audience and match it with your ideal influencer
  • Define your ideal influencer based on your needs
  • Consider influencers with quality content
  • Work with an influencer with a dedicated audience
  • Start looking for influencers on Instagram, Google, or an influencer marketing tool
  • Audit the influencer before collaborating with them

What is an influencer?

You might be hearing the term all the time, but you wonder what it actually means.

An influencer is a social media user who has built a reputation & an audience on a certain scale and has the ability to influence others.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmLt1n9vxM6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Influencers can also be:

  • Content Creators
  • Celebrities
  • Bloggers
  • Industry Experts
  • Thought Leaders
  • etc.

Influencer marketing has helped lots of brands grow their businesses, and the 2023 predictions say so.

They are everywhere on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other potential social media.

Including influencers in your brand marketing can be the best growth accelerator for your business.

Remember to select your partners carefully as they are the essential factors that will bring you results or not.

How to do it?

Read on and I will share the best tips to search for the best influencers 

On Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or any social media you use.

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What is the difference between an influencer & content creator?

The two might be similar, but they are essentially different.

Influencers focus on engagement & community building that favors their Instagram pages to promote brands.

Influencer shares a lot of their daily lives, personal activities, and sometimes a recommendation on what to use, buy, etc.

While content creators are more focused on producing and publishing content

That is educational or informational for the audience.

If you visit their IG pages, you will find a lot of how-to guides, tutorials, daily tips, etc.

Influencers & content creators also share the same activity: brand sponsorships.

You will also find some content from creators containing product endorsements.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChXGyOAgLK6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

What does an influencer actually do?

As mentioned before, influencer focuses to build a community

That later can help grow their pages to be worth it working with brands.

Basically, these are what influencers do on their social media pages.

Influencers create a dedicated community

The core activity of an influencer is creating dedicated followers.

That’s what they “sell” to brands and one of the factors to scale up their levels.

Influencers care about their audiences and agree to switch their representations based on followers’ needs.

They participate in the conversation & maintain the relationship to build trust.

The quality of their followers is more important than quantity.

Influencers influence people with their opinions

After building a relationship with their audiences, it’s time for the influencer to insert their “power”.

With their own opinions, they “drive” their audiences to buy the product.

Since the relationship is genuine, people trust the influencer’s opinions.

This is why brands love influencers.

By collaborating with creators, you increase the chance of your product being bought by more people.

Why is finding the right influencer important?

The right influencer can give you the targeted campaign results.

While the wrong influencers might not bring anything to the table.

You are also hurting your brand’s reputation.

Or worst, you get cheated by fake influencers and you just throw your money away for nothing.

It’s important to work with creators that resonate best with your brand image

And match your brand needs.

Look at this influencer who delivers the brand’s product while still maintaining her unique character.

They are the ones who deliver the message and their ability to influence must be confirmed.

If they fail to relay the objectives, they are not meant for your brand.

Remember to always audit an influencer whether they’re a match for your brand or not.

For example, you run a new, small business that only has a small budget for influencer marketing.

Best tip: work with nano or micro-influencers.

They won’t dry out your wallet, but they can generate a good amount of awareness.

Don’t get carried away with the follower size.

Working with mega-influencers doesn’t guarantee a successful campaign.

Where can you find influencers for your brand?

There are a lot of ways to discover creators for your brand

And these are the best platforms to find the best influencers for your brand.

  • Google
  • Instagram Hashtags
  • YouTube
  • TikTok
  • Influencer Marketing Platforms

Let’s unwrap each one. 

Find any influencer on Google search results

Open your Google, or any search engine, and type what kind of influencer you need.

I type “fashion influencer Singapore” and this is the result (no flex intended).

The top result of an influencer keyword typed on Google.
From beauty, food, & travel, to photography, you can type anything you want 🙂

Google is the perfect place if you need a prominent influencer in every niche.

The list of influencers is carefully curated, giving you the best recommendations ever.

Discover influencers through Instagram hashtags

If you want to find the influencers live, go to their social media pages, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Type the niche of the creator by hashtag and you’ll find lots of content from their accounts.

Take a look at the example.

The top result of an influencer keyword typed on Google.
Click on the content and visit the profile.

You can also type the keyword by their niches, like vegan food, traveling, fitness, and many more.

Take note that this method is very time-consuming.

You must go through every single content and visit a bunch of profiles to see what’s good for your brand.

Let’s go to the next step if you want a more efficient influencer discovery.

Find an influencer for your brand on YouTube

The next helpful platform is YouTube.

Just open your YouTube app or the YouTube site on your desktop and type your product niche.

For example, you want to promote your skincare product that heals breakout skin.

So, type “skincare for breakout skin” like you are a consumer and see how these creators review products.

Find the creators’ characteristics and see if it matches your brand image.

The YouTube result of the keyword to find the perfect influencer for your brand
Find a creator with good-quality content.

Well, it’s not an influencer tool per se so you can’t just type “beauty influencer” in the search box.

It will show you videos talking about being an influencer instead.

Discover the best influencer on TikTok

Almost works the same as YouTube, TikTok will show you the results of the keyword you type.

Find an influencer’s content where they talk about a specific product, review it, or a compilation of the best products they ever tried.

Or simply pick the one that loves your product, it will be much better 🙂

The TikTok result of the keyword to find the perfect influencer for your brand
Creators that love your brand will be happy to work with you 🙂

Use influencer marketing platforms for advanced discovery

Next thing, the greatest influencer tool ever:

Influencer marketing platform.

The software is everywhere on the internet, so it’s very accessible to everyone.

You can search for the influencer and go through its creator database.

Some also offer influencer analysis or audit, campaign management, and more.

The keyword or username box from a free influencer tool
Type anything that pops into your mind about the influencers you expect.

How to find influencers for your brand?

It’s a bit tricky to decide which ones can bring the best results for your brand.

No worries, here are tips on how to find the best influencers

On Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other social media

Only for you.

Set your influencer marketing goals & budget

In every marketing campaign, setting goals & objectives is a must.

You don’t want to spend money on a thing that cost so much but bring only a little, right?

Define your campaign objectives, is it to raise brand awareness, or to drive more sales?

Also, insert your budget setting into the goals.

What type of influencer you can afford with the budget to achieve the goals?

Define them and never skip this part, very important.

Understand your target audience and match it with your ideal influencer

Pra steps will always be self-defining what your brand needs.

Like this next step: know your target audience.

What kind of users do you want to reach?

Once it’s decided, put the target audience to the requirement of your ideal influencer.

Does my target audience exist among the influence follower base?

Make sure your answers are aligned with the chosen influencer’s audience.

Define your ideal influencer based on your brand needs

Moving on to the next step, define the ideal influencer you think is relevant to your brand.

Ideal creators are the ones that meet your needs and criteria.

Micro-influencers are the best option if you have a tight budget,

But still need a boost for engagement & conversions.

Start looking for influencers on Instagram, Google, or an influencer marketing tool

After everything is set, it’s time to hunt for influencers.

You can search manually on Instagram through hashtags,

Or Google, and read some curated lists of influencers,

Also influencer marketing software, and choose whatever suits your energy & budget.

Check out these best free & paid influencer marketing tools, in case you need more options.

While curating the influencers, prepare the requirements,

And make sure they are possible to negotiate with the deal.

Audit the influencer before collaborating with them

Have you chosen the influencer that matches your needs?

The work is not done yet.

You must review the influencer’s account,

From the engagement rate, audience quality,  account growth, saturation rate, and more.

These metrics are usually shown on an influencer tool, use one to run an extensive audit.

Consider influencers with quality content

While selecting the creators, look at how they produce their content.

Are they interacting with their audience? Does the content appeal to them?

What is the content look like? Is it poorly created or is it in HD?

How are they treating brand sponsorships on their accounts?

Answer these questions to avoid low-quality branded content.

Work with an influencer that has a dedicated audience

Another important indicator when you are reviewing the influencer:

Make sure they have a quality audience.

See their posts, are they overflowing with likes & comments?

Are there any automated (read: bot) comments?

Or a comment from fellow influencers that are potentially involved in an engagement pod?

Make sure of these things to avoid a flopped influencer campaign.

How to contact the influencers you have found?

What’s next after discovering the right influencer for your brand?

Reach out to them.

Here is how to do it.

Grab the influencer’s attention: engage with their posts

First things first, don’t go straight to the creator’s DM.

The thing is, people are just not interested in random messages on their DMs or emails.

Go to one of their posts and hype them up.

Or reply or repost their Stories that are related to your activity.

But don’t just throw a random comment, learn their personalities and their sharing habits.

The goal is to draw the influencer’s attention.

The more they are familiar with you, the easiest your message gets noticed.

Offer a clear value and give freedom to the creators

Before sending the outreach message, decide first what benefits you offer.

Make sure you both exchange mutual values.

Be clear about what you want and what they get.

Also, don’t restrict the creators.

Give them the freedom to produce the branded content, they know their audience the best.

Don’t ruin the pattern, rather adapts to the usual.

Write a perfect message outreach for the influencer

It’s time to put everything into a piece of paper (or a sheet if you use digitals).

A key to a perfect email outreach:

Write straightforward messages accompanied by catchy subject lines.

For more convenience, you can “speak” their languages.

Insert some unique tone or jargon of theirs.

Visit this article for email outreach templates and tips to write the best outreach message that gets answers.

Contact via Instagram Direct Message or Email

It’s time to send the message.

Choose the place that has a high possibility of getting the answer.

If they are actively posting Stories, you can reach out to their DMs.

If they publish only important or somehow ‘scheduled’ posts,

It might be better to send the message through email.

Can I find influencers for free?

Of course, you can.

There are a lot of free influencer tools these days.

Pro tip: choose the tool wisely.

Some tools don’t really provide legit services since they are free of charge.

Free influencer tools also have limited features, like providing influencer discovery only.

Follow this practical guide to find influencers for free on Instagram.

Free tools are suitable for businesses with tight budgets.

But if you have more budget, I suggest you use the paid ones

Since they have more complete features to support your overall influencer projects.

Our Advice: Pay attention to the process of finding the right influencers for your brand & business

When running an influencer marketing campaign, curating the executor,

Which is the influencer itself is very important.

They are a vital factor in whether the campaign runs well or not.

So, don’t choose just a random influencer, but select it very thoroughly.

This is for your brand’s sake, the success of the campaign is in your hand.

And if you want to look for an influencer for your brand, define your goals & set the budget.

Also, see the audience quality of the influencer, engagement rate & quality, account growth,

And overall account performance is worth considering.

If you’re sure about the chosen influencer, immediately reach out to them.

By teasing first in their comment section, then going to the DM.

A key to a perfect email outreach: be straightforward.

Now, you have the full ammunition to find & contact any influencer, the best for your brand.

Did you find this helpful? Do you have another hack to discover any influencers?

Comment down below 🙂

Note: Contact us here & contribute your thoughts if you think we miss something to talk about.

Answering Questions about Finding Influencers for your Brand

How do I find influencers near me?

Use an influencer tool that has a location filter. Using Instagram directly is possible but it’s quite complicated. With an influencer platform, you can search for creators easily with just one click. Set your location and let the tool generates the relevant results.

How do you connect with local influencers?

Start with having a local social media presence. Create content that appeals to local audiences, then leverage Instagram Maps. The new feature from Instagram is the perfect tool to help your business be more visible to nearby searches.

How do you spot a fake influencer?

Look at the ratio of the following and followers. If both metrics have almost the same number, it is highly likely that the influencer is using the cheating method: follow unfollow. You can also see the number of likes & comments and compare the number with the followers. If the follower size is high but the engagement is far from the ‘usual’ number, there might be bots among their followers.

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