In this hyper-competitive marketing environment, it’s a challenge to genuinely reach and connect with your audiences. Influencers present a great opportunity for fresh produce brands to reach people, however, it is crucial to work with influencers who can align seamlessly with your brand. We recommend spending time getting to know an influencer and making sure their skills and abilities align with your preferences before making a commitment to them.
Here are five things to be on the lookout for when you first start getting to know an influencer that will indicate whether or not they will be a good fit for your brand.
Authenticity
People don’t connect well with brands who come across as manufactured or synthetic, so it’s important to make sure the influencers that will represent your brand don’t come across that way either. Start by diving into an influencer’s pages and profiles. How do they speak? Do their followers engage with more than likes and “cool pic” comments? Take a look at how they represent other brands – does it resonate well? The best partners portray a sense of humility and belief in what they are representing.
Engagement and Audience Size
It’s easy to get distracted by an influencer’s number of followers. What you may not realize is that there are many services out there that influencers can use to grow their community from 1,000 to 10,000 overnight, but these aren’t always genuine followers. The best way to sniff out an influencer who is artificially inflating their numbers is to look at their posts. If they have a lot of followers but they aren’t receiving a lot of engagement on their posts, chances are they are using services to increase their following. Here’s a tip: If an influencer has only 2,400 followers (considered a micro-influencer), but has amazing engagement, that is more valuable for your brand than an influencer with 24,000 followers and very little engagement on their posts.
Values and Interests
Most people would say they’d want to align themselves with other people who share their values and interests. For a fresh produce brand, if the influencer you’re looking at has a strong preference for fried food and lots of protein, it might not be a great match. It’s imperative that influencers working with your brand can be an extension of your brand values. For example, if your brand works a lot within giving back to the community you would most likely want an influencer who shares that passion for philanthropy. A question to always ask yourself: is this brand ambassador someone who you would consider hiring to work at your company?
Competitor Analysis
Chances are, if you have thought about using influencers as an extension of your social media content strategy, your competitors are likely thinking the same. Go to their pages and consider who is contributing. Look at how they use their influencers in bigger collaborations, like Instagram takeovers and event coverage. Now, consider looking for influencers that are different from those your competitors are using that would still align with your target audience. You should seek to partner with someone who has something different or unique to offer that will elevate your brand.
Other Brand Partners
Most influencers have multiple brand partners, to which you have to ask yourself “am I comfortable being aligned with this influencer AND their other partners?” If you find someone who also supports highly processed foods, is that okay with you? For most fresh produce brands, it may not be. But for the influencers who work with other like-minded brands, this can actually present a great opportunity for you to collaborate!
Finding the right influencer for your brand can be a daunting task if you don’t know where to begin. At DMA, we have worked extensively to build relationships with several influencers so we can help play matchmaker for you. Contact us today at info@dma-solutions.com to get started on your influencer marketing journey!
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