Step by step guide how to work with influencers on Instagram

If you want to start working with influencers, you have 5 steps to go through:

• Searching for influencers
• Looking for contact
• Negotiating term and wages
• Creating the content
• Measuring the results.

Step 1: Searching for influencers

There are many ways to search for influencers. They can be divided into two categories:

• Time-consuming: Google keyword search, Instagram search, Facebook groups.
• Fast: using an influencer-marketing platform or hiring an agency.

Before you begin the search read our post “7 Common Mistakes You’re Making With Influencer Marketing and How To Avoid Them”.

Make a list of all influencers that you will find and check them for fake followers and likes. We have explained how to do this.

Step 2: Looking for contact

If you work with influencer platform or agency, you can skip this step. Usually, they have all influencer’s contact details or their own messenger. But keep in mind that there is no guarantee that you will get a reply from them.

If you decided to search for influencers yourself you’ll have to also make a little investigation to find their contact details. Some influencers have an email address in bio, some don’t. Sometimes contact details are attached to the influencer Instagram business profile.

Of course, you can write a DM, but it works only with micro-influencers.

Anyway, your first message to a blogger should be personal and relevant. Remember: it’s all about building relationships.

Step 3: Negotiating terms and wages

You can ask influencers to promote your brand by:

• Making a sponsored post
• Becoming an affiliate
• Creating a product review
• Giving products to other influencers.

All influencers have their own pricing, but with most of them, you can bargain. Read our article about pricing in influencer marketing to know the average prices in the industry.

Step 4: Creating the content

There are two methods of creating content:

• Branded content. You create the content (pic or video and post captions) and give it to the influencer.
• Influencer content. Blogger creates the content and post it.

You should always verify the blogger’s content. It should meet all brand guidelines. Only when everything is fine, the blogger can publish the post.

Step 5: Measuring the results

The main problem when it comes to working with influencers on Instagram is to measure the result of a campaign. This is a topic for a separate long read, here we just highlight the main ways to measure influencer impact.

If a blogger has a business profile, ask them to send you the post insights. Thereby you will see likes, comments, post saves and reach.

If you want to track sales, ask the blogger to place a link to your website with UTM in bio or make a promo code for their followers.

Conclusion

Most marketers believe that influencer marketing is a viable tactic, but it’s still incredibly challenging to find the relevant influencer, make them interested in your product, and measure an influencer campaign ROI.

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