Choosing the right influencer

So you have been given the budget to get influencers/bloggers/vloggers for your brand, now how do you select and properly engage with the influencers? Here is my step by step guide in choosing the right influencer/s for you.

Create the right criteria you are looking for

Before you start with anything you need to consider a lot of variables on what type of influencer you are actually looking for. Are you looking for a vlogger? or someone to write an article for you? someone to promote your product through photos? Below are some of my minimum requirements in selecting the right influencer for you:

Own domain – of course you want a serious blogger, a domain won’t cost that much. But it clearly shows the seriousness of the blogger having it’s own domain
Make sure the blogger is still active – For me posting 1-2x a week consistently can be considered “active”. I won’t need someone who post content everyday. But I need to make sure he/she is still posting
Number of followers – if you are looking to launch a big campaign with budget then probably 50-100k followers would be the minimum followers to even consider the influencer. But if you are just a small brand/business then I don’t mind getting small followers with at least 1k followers.
How old is the channel/blog – You don’t want to get a blogger who is just 1 month old. First is it won’t rank yet on SEO, in effect not giving you significant traffic yet.
Niche – identify which influencer would be most likely the same with your target audience. If you are targetting gadget lovers then selecting a make up vlogger definitely won’t be the primary focus for now.
Traffic of the blog/channel – Please don’t hesitate on asking the current traffic the influencer is getting, this will be vital to manage your expectations. If you have “trust” issues, you can simply request from the influencer to add your gmail account on his/her google analytics for 24hrs just to verify the declared traffic.

Now what? What content does the influencer need to create?

Now that you have select your influencer/blogger, you now have to give them a guide of what you are expecting in with the partnership. The primary reason is usually bringing traffic to your brand, creating awareness of your brand and maybe some conversion for your product/service. I tried creating with a template and here is what I came up:

Contains at least 400 words
1-2% keyword density
Provide the keyword/s you would like to higlight
keyword should be in title/meta descriptions
Include social media links of the brand
Provide a tracking link for each influencer

Measure, review and optimize!

Everything is now in place, this is where you pray and hope that your partnership with the influencer will be effective. Most important thing is that you are able to track which influencer(tracking link) provides you the most return. Are the audience as engage? or are they audience asking for sample products? discounts? Discuss with your influencer and see what areas you could improve to have more interest and engagement towards the readers.

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What are the things to consider

How much do I actually pay the blogger? – For me, in the Philippines, it can go as low as Php 1,000-1,500 to start with. Or if you would like an exchange of product to feature your product/service. It is best if you are able to meet or at least speak with the influencer, because in the end you would like to maintain a good relationship for long term. Try to “shop” for different influencers, in the end you are on the upper hand since you are the one spending for the featured post.

Sample computation