10. Choose the right influencers for your campaign

Business Benefits

Minimize brand risk and maximize campaign results.


Use an SaaS tool to identify social media influencers and add them to an Influencer Marketing spreadsheet.

Go through every influencer candidate in your spreadsheet and browse through their 20 most recent pieces of content.

If your influencer candidates are on several Social Media platforms, choose the ones that are most relevant for your brand, product, and audience.

Add a Creativity column to your spreadsheet and give every influencer a score from 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.

This is a subjective score based on your opinion. You can also score Creativity based on the easiest, such as still images and Stories on Instagram, to the hardest formats, like long-form YouTube videos.

Add a Category Knowledge column to your spreadsheet and give every influencer a score from 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.

Think of the depth of content the influencer publishes to their audience. Is it meant for the average consumer, professionals, or both?

Great influencers and creators can stand out by making difficult topics easy to understand.

Keep an eye out for influencer content that features your competitors, it’s usually best to avoid creating a conflict of interest.

Add a Tone & Safety column to your spreadsheet and give every influencer a score from 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.

Every brand has its own set of values. Therefore, you would want to assess if the influencer’s overall tone of content and delivery is fitting to your brand values.

Keep an eye out for potential brand risks. For example, many brands are not allowed to present themselves in a political context, and some influencers may be crass and come off as insensitive toward certain sensitive issues.

Add a Brand Fit column to your spreadsheet, populate it with the sum of each influencer’s Creativity, Category Knowledge, and Tone & Safety score, and sort influencers in descending order.

Use the influencer score you assigned when identifying social media influencers using a SaaS tool and contact your influencer candidates, starting with those having the highest Influencer Score and Brand Fit, to find out if they are keen to work with you.

Usually, the preferred way of contacting influencers is through social media direct messages, like Instagram direct messages, or the contact address specified in the profile bio. The influencer might then refer you to their agent accordingly, depending on the size of the audience.

Always show appreciation and start off by congratulating influencers for their craft. Influencers are a small and globally connected group who actively share their brand experiences, you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot.

Continue contacting your candidates until you have the desired amount of influencers confirmed.

If you are being turned down more than half of the time, try to find out if the issue is related to your brand, product, campaign, timing, or conditions.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T11:01:05Z