5 Tips On How To Find Instagram Influencers Who Can Boost Your Business In 2020

Are you looking for tips on how to find Instagram Influencers for your business in 2020 and beyond?

You couldn’t have found a better guide. 

But before we go there, just a quick question:

Do you remember Tony the Tiger saying ‘They’re great’?

Back then, as kids, we never knew that Tony – the tiger – is an influencer. Yes! He was. He claimed that the frosted flakes are great.

And we couldn’t agree more when he did.

What has changed during all these years? 

1. The usage of social media instead of television media. And
2. The replacement of cartoon characters with real humans.

With the ever-increasing popularity of Instagram for businesses, the influencers have shifted to Instagram.

The question that arises here for businesses now is ‘How to find Instagram influencers‘?

The Instagram influencers who are not just keyword warriors! Not even the influencers building castles in the air or the ones who only know to talk. 

We are talking of productivity here, and deliverability! We are talking about finding the right Instagram influencers here.

You might ask, do we have a definite way to go about finding the right Instagram influencers?

Of course, we do!

This is what you need to know:

But before that, let’s see what makes Instagram influencers so in and desirable today!

Why Are Influencers So Relevant today?

Here’s why every business – big or small – is going crazy for influencers:

Influencers are credible and authentic entities who have a say in their niche.

Let’s simplify it.

There’s no need to go into the marketing details, just yet.

During your early school years, how many times have you told your parents, ‘No, this can’t be true! My teacher told me the opposite’.

Uncountable times. Right?

Teachers are the most authentic influencers for kids.

They can rely on whatever their teachers tell them.

Growing up, we never realize, but we pick up influencers who can shape up our perceptions.

Turning back to the topic now.

Here is precisely what Instagram influencers do:

• They shape up your opinion regarding brands. 
• They make you consider, even purchase from the brands that you wouldn’t have otherwise found.

Before getting started with the tips on how to find the right Instagram influencers for your business, let’s dig into the factors that are essential for an Instagram partnership.

Factors That Matter For Instagram Partnerships:

 Multiple factors affect the decision to choose an Instagram influencer.

But the first question is, “why should you hire Instagram influencers?”

That’s so you can reap the benefits of creating awareness of your brand and increasing its visibility.

A blog post at Later uses the following graph to explain the importance of different factors while choosing an Instagram influencer.

Source 

Interestingly, engagement makes it to the top of that list. But, there’s more to the graph. Let’s look at each of the factors now:

1. Engagement: The more the engagement an influencer has on his Instagram handle, the better the impact he/ she can make on your brand.
2. Quality of followers: The fact, whether the follower’s accounts are real or fake/dummy, holds an important position in picking an influencer.
3. Industry/niche: There must be a desirable business-niche that’s fit to achieve the results.
4. The number of followers.
5. Budget requirements.
6. Location: The part of the world to which the influencer belongs.

Let’s put this talk into perspective now: 

You might say that the number of followers is a more reasonable factor to evaluate an influencer.

We won’t call you completely wrong on that, but not wholly right either!

The marketers still rank engagement higher than the number of followers.

What could be the reason?

Let’s see:

Even if there’s a significant number of followers on an Instagram account, you can’t ignore the chance of low engagement. 

There’s more.

Suppose you’re operating a business in the fashion niche. You can have fashion influencers on board as your niche influencers with the highest number of followers, a great engagement rate, and your location matches, etc.

But what about your budget? There’s a BIG question mark.

What if you can’t afford them? 

Should you lose hope?

Ask us, and our spontaneous response would be “No”!

Ask us to reconsider our decision. Our well-thought-of stance would still be the same. 

Here’s a crazy, workable solution: Contact a micro-influencer instead in your niche.

Let’s see who Instagram micro-influencers are and how they work!

What Is A Micro-Influencer On Instagram?

A micro-influencer is someone who has a following of 1000-100,000 on Instagram. Even though they do not have a huge following, they have a specific niche of highly engaged followers. 

You may be dealing with the food business. You can hire an Instagram influencer who is working as an Instagram food blogger. In this case, you don’t need a huge market to tap. You aim to get regular orders or an increased footfall in your restaurant. 

Here’s the kicker:

An Instagram micro-influencer can do it for you.

Consider a different scenario now:

You are dealing with home décor goods. 

Whom should you contact as an influencer? 

Lifestyle influencers can work well because you are working in the same niche. 

It is crucial to find an Instagram influencer, who is an excellent fit for your business. 

If you deal with furniture, an Instagram fitness influencer will not be suitable for you. Despite having a vast following, he’d still be useless for you.

Does that make sense?

Let’s take a look at a real-life example of a micro-influencer Instagram account. You can see the niche and the number of followers in the following screenshot.

 

Now that we have seen the concept of micro-influencers get ready for the next important question: How can a business approach a micro-influencer?

How Can A Business Approach A Micro-influencer?

How to contact Instagram influencers is the next important question you’d ask.

Businesses can approach a micro-influencer in several ways. Let’s discuss the top three here:

Run A Manual Instagram Research To Know The Category Of Influencers

Run hashtag research on your business account. It will show you the list of category leaders. 

For instance, if I run a #fashion search on my Instagram, the accounts searches show the influencers. 

1. Look Into Who Your Followers Follow To Get an Insight About their Interests

Your business account must have its following.

See whom your followers follow. Make efforts to hire those Instagram influencers. It gives an insight into the interests of your followers and makes you target your audience more tactically.

2. Hire Influencer Agencies For Pinpointed Niche Influencers

People tend to look for all sorts of influencers, ranging from Micro bloggers to Beauty micro-influencers, to teen influencers to food influencers on Instagram.

As a business, you might not have the right kind of resources or contacts to find an influencer on Instagram.

What do you do in that case? How to find influencers on Instagram if you do not have the right kind of resources?

Give up, or partner with whosoever comes your way?

Interestingly, there’s a third and a better option.

And that option is to hire influencer agencies that work professionally to find suitable influencers for your business. 

Whether you are looking for Social bloggers or Influential media bloggers are who you need, the right influencer agency can find you just the right option for your business.

Also Read: Niche Marketing – Content Trends in 2020 and Beyond  

The next big question here is how much do the Instagram influencers cost. 

Let’s try and find the answer to this question as well:

How Much An Instagram Influencer Costs?

Instagram is a celebrity’s paradise.

Big brands are continuously approaching those influencers and celebrities for their marketing campaigns.

You can find almost all the prominent sports figures on Instagram. They charge a fortune even for a single post. They have earned it!

The highest-paid Instagram influencer costs up to $1 million per sponsored post.

I know this is a lot of money, but you don’t need to worry because they aren’t your target influencer.

These are the figures for mega influencers who have a following in millions.

As we have discussed the micro-influencers in the preceding section, we will focus on how much they charge.

According to influencer marketing hub, micro-influencers cost from $100-$500 per post.

Now, you wouldn’t call it a lot of money if you meet your business goals through this investment. Would you?

Now that we have done the basics let’s dive into formulating a strategy on how to find the right Instagram Influencers for a business.

How To Find Instagram Influencers For Your Business: 5 Tips To Find The Right Influencers!

Instagram has a $7 billion influencer marketing business and the top share among all the influencer marketing channels.

What does that suggest?

It says that meticulous efforts directed towards selecting Instagram influencers are needed.

Source

Below are some tips on how to do it effectively:

1.   Determine The Business Goals To Select Your Instagram Influencer Accordingly

As already established, not all influencers are suitable for your business.

There may be top influencers on Instagram who belong to your niche as well, but they are not ideal for your business goals.

According to the search engine journal, these are the top targets that most businesses seek from influencer marketing:

• Sales conversion through Instagram partnerships.
• Increasing the online visibility of their business.
• Escalating the number of Instagram followers of their business account.

If none of these goals is met through Instagram collaboration, it’s a futile effort.

In the beginning, your feed on Instagram was chronological. The company has now changed it to an algorithm based setting.

A user sees a post based on what he prefers to view on his feed and what type of posts he/ she has shown interest in in the past. 

Suppose your business approaches an influencer on Instagram just because he’s under the budget or seems to have some connection with your brand. In that case, there’s no guarantee that the campaign will be successful.

There are times when the target audience doesn’t even see the marketing posts aimed at them.

It is the point where you need to establish an important aspect: the engagement rate of the Instagram influencer you’re trying to reach.

2.   Look For The Level Of Engagement Your Targeted Influencer Is Offering

I know this all might look too much to handle at first.

But doesn’t the business already demand much more than it during tough times?

Welcome to the land of Marketing and Business Development.

Your social media presence can be much more than followership, visibility, and sales targets. It can also target creating a great bond between the brand and its users. It can aim to educate the people who are the business’s audience. 

For all these parameters, you need to know the engagement rate you can achieve by partnering with an Instagram influencer. A high number of followers is not the guarantee of high engagement rates. You must look into how many views, likes, and comments the targeted influencer earns. 

There are different formulae to calculate the engagement of the influencers. The primary method is to divide the number of likes by the total number of followers and then multiply it by 100 to get the average engagement rate:

(Likes/Followers)*100

Other methods, such as using the views per total number of followers or an average number of likes for specific posts divided by the total number of followers, can also give you the engagement rate.

For further research, the topic of finding Instagram engagement rate, here.

3.   Measuring The Post Frequency Of The Target Instagram Influencers

Post frequency is a debated topic. 

\Most of the marketing experts advise not to spam the follower’s feed with your posts. 

The influencer you choose should ideally post once or twice a day. Sponsored Instagram posts are a safe way to go about creating a well-directed post.

The influencers may mention your brand in their posts, but they don’t need to convey your message. For resolving this issue, the approach of Instagram sponsors is better. 

You can script your post according to your target audience and get it delivered through the Influencers you have chosen.

With IGTV, you can work with your Instagram influencers to make video messages, magnifying your brand identity. Influencer stories play a sensitive role in pushing a brand through Instagram. 

Instagram stories are the new trend and one of the best Instagram marketing tools due to their ease of creation and reach.

Let’s talk a little about the trend of Hash-tagging!

4.   Running A Hashtag Research To Find The Right Influencers Of Your Niche On Instagram

As for micro-influencers, hashtag research on Instagram is useful for all kinds of influencers’ search. 

Start with specific keywords related to your brand. Dig into the accounts that show up against those hashtags. Look at the type of audience they have, the engagement rate the show, and how relevant those accounts are for your business.

 If you find a perfect match, you can DM the targeted influencer and negotiate the terms with them.

Other than a specific keyword like hashtags, you can also research Instagram for long-tailed keywords relevant to your niche. 

5.   Run Thorough Research About Your Competitors

Look for how your competitors are working.

Which accounts do they follow? How do their audiences respond to their posts?

What kind of queries do they usually have on your competitor’s posts?

You can devise a strategy with your influencer to pick the pain points of your competitor’s audience and resolve the issues through your posts.

You can look out for the Instagram influencers with whom your competitors are working. 

Why?

That’s because it is not a good idea to reach the same influencers that your competitors do. If, however, you, it can create brand confusion.

Now, here’s the best part:

 The best way to find the right Instagram influencer is through influencer profiles.

That’s because most of them are connected through an Instagram influencer network. They usually work in collaboration with each other.

I can empathize with you.

It is a lot of hard work.

But trust me, if done right, you’ll see how it is worth it.

And these are the top 5 best practices worth your time, effort, and dough to boost your business through Instagram influencer marketing.

Let’s briefly touch each one again.

A Quick Recap

In this post, we have covered:

• The frequently asked questions regarding Instagram Influencers.
•  Why is influencer marketing essential?
• Five tips on how to get the right Instagram influencers, including:
  • Knowing the business goals
  • Having an insight into the engagement rate
  • Looking for the post frequency
  • Running hashtag research for revealing what people are looking for
  • Knowing your competitors to understand how they are partnering with influencers.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is a growing trend with much potential. To keep pace with the digital world, it is essential to know how to select influencers who can benefit your brand. Many upper-tier Instagram influencers can be a dream for small businesses.

But they are not the only ones who can help you!

Along with them, there are many micro-influencers who can provide their services for better engagement and reach.

After all the efforts, it boils down to the goals you have in mind to run your business’s Instagram handle.

If you achieve them, you can opt for different influencer campaigns from time to time.

So are you ready to take an Instagram influencer on your team?

Also Read:

How To Manage Your Instagram Business Account Better? These 5 Ways Are A Treasure!

Top 17 Instagram Post Ideas To Brighten Up Your Feed