Influencer marketing has become a cornerstone strategy for many brands. And Instagram is the platform where influencers thrive. With carefully curated feeds, engaging stories, and smart use of social media, these influencers are their own brand.
It’s safe to say that influencers aren’t going anywhere, and if you haven’t utilized this market, you need to. But how do you find Instagram influencers that are right for your brand? Here are 7 steps to find the right Instagram influencers.

1. Use Reach as a Criteria
Reach is defined by audience size and can be broken down into three main categories.
Celebrities are well-known people with a huge reach and a high price tag. Singers, actors and actresses, and famous reality TV stars fall into this category.
Macro-influencers are those who built a personal brand and have a large following from it. Think bloggers, bloggers, and smaller reality TV stars.
Micro-influencers have less than 10,000 followers and have built their audience around specific content. Bloggers, small musicians, and social media stars are often micro-influencers.
2. Categorize on Relevance
You need to consider how an influencer will fit into your brand. Your product or brand should make sense when paired with that influencer.
Think broad categories like food, fashion, entrepreneurship, or fitness. This will help you narrow down what influencer makes the most sense for your own brand.
3. Determine Engagement
This is so important in influencer marketing. You don’t want to spend time and money on an influencer who won’t give you a return on your investment.
Look for red flags like inauthentic engagement. While many likes may look good, if they don’t convert into sales, they’re a waste.
4. Check Out Their Content
The influencer’s content should fit your brand. Be aware of the kind of images they post. Are they quick snaps of everyday life, posed photoshoots, or artistic images?
Lifestyle influencers like Jenny Stumme feature slice of life content, so it doesn’t make sense to pitch promoting entrepreneurship courses. The product promotion should seem natural and not forced.
5. Match Their Presence to Yours
Think about the kind of message they put out into the world. Do your brand philosophies match? What kind of language do they use in their captions and replying to comments?
Your and their social media presence matters. Your product will be associated with that influencer, so make sure you line up in the way you present your brands.
6. Have a Your Requirements Ready
Know what you want the influencer to do before you reach out to them. Are you looking for video or photo content? Is this a series or a one time post?
If you have an idea of what you want the collaboration to look like, it can help you choose. If you want a video, choose someone with great editing skills. For photo posts, look for an influencer that creates interesting photography images.
7. Personalize Your Approach
Influencers get a ton of emails and messages, so you need to stand out. Personalize your approach to the influencer, so it doesn’t feel like one out of many bulk emails.
If you’ve followed these steps, you probably know some things they mentioned in previous posts. Include that in your outreach, so the influencer knows you have a serious interest in working with them.
Find Instagram Influencers the Right Way
In a competitive online space, brands need to market themselves to stand out. It won’t always be easy to find Instagram influencers that are right for your brand. But, most of the time, the right influencers will be a huge benefit.
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