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Step 1 of The Influencer Code taught us all about starting with our end goal in mind and coming up with objectives in order to reach that goal. But what’s next?
Step 2 of The Influencer Code teaches you how to put on your detective hat and observe your target audience. Then, use this research to identify an influencer and determine how you can offer them value. Grab that glass of wine again and let’s get started!
Step 3 of The Influencer Code: “Observe and Identify”
Far too often, marketers end up going too broad when trying to define their potential audience. Why is this? Because many times, there is a fear that going too specific with a target market eliminates potential customers. The problem with going too broad with your audience is that by trying to appeal to everyone, you might end up appealing to nobody.
So how do you define your target audience? Amanda recommends using social listening – gathering information to learn who is talking about a brand and what they are saying. In doing so, you will gather demographics and psychographics. Demographics will give you the “who” behind your target audience (age, gender, income, occupation), while psychographics will help understand the “why” (lifestyle, behaviors, attitudes, values). Demographics help you narrow down your target audience, while psychographics help you understand what they care about and who influences them.
When trying to choose the right influencer, Amanda suggests weighing out 5 factors to help decide how impactful a selected influencer can be for your brand:
1. Brand Alignment – Are your brand and the influencer’s brand cohesive?
2. Authenticity – Is the influencer perceived as being genuine?
3. Content Type and Quality – Does the influencer share quality content through a medium that will be impactful for your brand?
4. Relationship – Is the influencer easy to connect with?
5. Audience – Is their audience engaged?
Amanda also talks about her 5 R’s that are relevant when analyzing influencers:
1. Reach – The total size of the influencer’s following across all platforms.
2. Recognition – How known the influencer is in the category you’re trying to focus on.
3. Reference – Has their work been referenced or featured on any lists and are these lists credible?
4. Relevance – How closely associated they are with the topic you’re marketing.
5. Resonance – The quality of engagement the influencer gets.
Amanda makes it a point to mention that while these are some of the important factors you should consider, your selection of an influencer doesn’t need to align with all of these factors. There are many influencers who don’t have a huge following or online presence but could be more influential to your target audience than a macro-influencer would be.
Now you know 2 out of the 3 steps of The Influencer Code. Be on the lookout next month for the final blog post where we discuss the last and final step to complete the Code!
