Choosing the best influencers for your brand: 3R model
Ever wanted to know the difference between a good and a bad influencer for your marketing campaign? The influencer with the biggest number of followers is not always the best choice as there is a lot of other things to consider. Below are some of our suggestions and observations based on our own experience at Monochrome, also referred to the 3R – model. The model itself is not anything new, but in this post we are going to cover how it is applicable in influencer marketing particularly.
1. Resonance: Can they lead?
Resonance in influencer marketing is the influencers’ ability to actually influence their followers. The bigger number of followers usually means higher brand awareness for you. However, you should also take into account the engagement rate of the influencers’ followers. Simply put the engagement rate is the amount of reactions the influencer is able to attain, so in the context of Instagram that would be likes and comments. It might be that an influencer with a considerably smaller follower base is able to get a lot more reactions and thus is more influential than the bigger stars. We at Monochrome have collected and analyzed comprehensive data on Instagram, and learned that the average engagement rate is something between 3% and 4%. However, so far the engagement rate of Monochromes’ influencer campaigns have been around 8%, a pretty impressive number, especially for commercial content. This success has a lot to do with the second R, relevance.
2. Relevance: Do they fit?
At Monochrome we are ambitious in making perfect fits which is why relevance is one of the most important criteria when we choose influencers for a campaign. When the product or brand fits seamlessly to the influencers’ profile it creates a sense of authenticity, leading to very good results. The influencers have different fields of interest and expertise, which can include for example lifestyle, sport, fashion, food, beauty or interior design. Marketers should use this as the first filtering for the influencer candidates. When the influencer is interested and excited about the product, which thus fits to his/her personal interests and expertise, the feeling transmits to the followers genuinely. This as its’ best creates a win-win-win situation. The influencer loves the collaboration, the followers get purchasing ideas and the company gets impactful marketing results.
3. Reach: Who follows them?
Last but not least, another very important aspect to consider together with relevance and resonance in order to make perfect fits is the reach. We are of course interested in the amount of people we reach, but in addition to that we should ask are if the people we reach actually are our target audience. In influencer marketing the target audience is, or at least should be, the follower base of the influencer. However the follower bases of the influencers vary a lot and can, depending on the influencer, be very homo- or heterogeneous. So defining the follower audience is not always as straightforward as it might seem. Something that should be kept in mind is that there are several motives for following influencers. If the target audience are 30 yrs+ males the best influencer choice might actually be beautiful young women, not 30 yrs+ males. Therefore when choosing the influencers you have to make sure you are familiar with the also with the followers’ characteristics, so that the marketing effort doesn’t get wasted because of reaching the wrong audience (even though the audience is of course not wrong, you are just in a wrong place yourself).
To summarize
Based on our experience at Monochrome, the right influencers for your brand are the ones that have good influence over their followers, who would genuinely love your products and whose followers actually are your target audience. However, this is not always an easy task. Since we are committed to follow the 3R’s and want to to serve a wide variety of companies and brands professionally, we have built an influencer network including over 500 influencers.
Writers: Emma Naumanen & Do Yen