There are important lessons to be learned from brands whose success depends on catching their audience at a particular time in their lives. This could be campaigns gearing towards pregnant women, companies looking for first time home buyers, financial aid for college freshman, pharma companies running seasonal allergy campaigns, or anxious first time moms (and dads); each relies on that perfect nexus of catching both the influencer and their audience at the right time. As you can imagine, the already difficult task of finding the right influencers is exponentially more challenging in these scenarios, potentially causing you delays and disappointment.
Why Influencers Work So Well
It’s not hard to see that the influencers with the most engaged audiences are those that speak openly about themselves, their journey, their families, and where they are at in life. People connect with that and follow along with those on that same journey.
Followers look to influencers for many things. If they are a young person nervous about college, they may follow a college influencer that can give them advice. Pregnant women often times follow pregnant influencers so they feel they are on this journey together. Because of this on demand synergy between the influencer and their audience, when you catch an influencer at the right time, there is an increased likelihood that you are catching their audience at the right time. Influencers are often innovators, so perhaps you are even catching their audience before the right time– even better! But, even this wonderfully convenient situation only helps a little with the discovery phase. Finding influencers with the right audiences is hard enough without this difficult, time-sensitive challenge. All brands have to be careful when leveraging influencers, but when your product heavily depends on timing, your vetting needs to be even more strategic. Brands need to engage audiences in the right location, with the right psychographics, demographics, and persona (the look and feel of the influencer’s feed). But there are best practices out there to help!
Begin Early
We preach this to every brand we come across, START EARLY (or as early as you can). It’s important to find influencers whose audiences can relate to your product or service, which may be a very small number, especially if your product is niche. The earlier your search begins, the more time you have to find influencers that can authentically use, relate, and relay your product to their audience. For instance, if your company manufactures pregnancy pillows, you more than likely will want an influencer that can, you know, actually use the pregnancy pillow. The number of pregnant and available influencers out there isn’t going to be as large as your typical influencer pool. Giving yourself as much time as possible also opens up your range to influencers that may become pregnant or perhaps were recently pregnant, ready to work again and recommend your product to their followers. Many brands wake up one morning and decide they want to run an influencer marketing campaign in the next month, and yes, with the right provider it is possible. But in order to see the results you want, specific brands, like yourself, need the allotted time to ensure your influencers and target are going to connect.
Know Social
This may seem like an obvious one, but if you’re going to work with influencers, you need to know influencers. The influencer marketing industry is growing daily– there are updates, scandals, drama, and news everyday – and all that just between influencers. There are influencers who are hidden gems and just as many overrated or overpriced influencers. It is extremely important to have someone on your team, or perhaps an entire team, that can take time to know and learn about influencers inside and out. Connecting with a pool of influencers also allows you insight into their lives. This can help you learn what kind of cars they drive, when their children are going off to college, or maybe when they are planning a family vacation. This is all important information that can help you know they are the right influencers for your specific brand, beyond what may just be seen right on their page. Building relationships with influencers allows you a better look into their lives and to know how genuine a brand and influencer relationship will become.
You Can Do This
Finding influencers with the right audience is hard enough without the added requirement of something time sensitive like a pregnancy, or other life change. Giving yourself double or triple the usual time will be the first step to staying on schedule. Having a team who maintains a relationship with a pool of influencers will not only expedite the discovery process but also help with recruitment. As usual, if you need some advice feel free to reach out!
About MATTR: MATTR, leaders in influencer campaigns for highly regulated industries, is the only full-service influencer marketing provider with detailed audience insights from PersonaMesh™. We go beyond demographics into psychographics such as values and interests so that your influencer campaigns align with your campaign targets.