How To Discover The Right Influencers For Your Brand In 7 Minutes

heyyyyy! good morning and happy friday/start of the long weekend! i woke up to 1,400 of us here! how crazy!! thank you for all of your support and for taking time to read this because it never ever goes unnoticed.

if you’re new here (i think we have 200+ new faces since last week!), welcome to the party. every thursday or friday, i like to take a few minutes to chat through some topics surrounding social media and influencer marketing with some tactical steps so that you leave each week feeling like you can take a step forward in your brand or in your overall systems.

please introduce yourself by hitting “reply”. i would love to learn more about you, what you do, and how i can help!

this week, we’re chatting about probably the most frequented asked topic i’ve received all week long: creator discovery.

we’ll break down:

• what is creator discovery?

• how to define your goals when it comes to searching for creators?

• tools that help in the discovery, collection, and reporting process

• why follower count isn’t the definition of a successful creator

BEFORE WE GET INTO IT…

If you have you ever wondered, “how can I leverage our social media channels to find influencers that are a perfect fit for our brand and save countless hours of doing cold, awkward outreach?” or perhaps, you have started working with influencers, but are getting in a churn and burn cycle and still trying to find the right ones then keep reading.

I am so excited to have Andy, Anders, Paul and the amazing team over at Superfiliate bring you this week’s edition of the newsie.

If you’re new here, I don’t shut up about Superfiliate like literally ever — in the newsletter, on phone calls, you get the point. I’ve used it myself this year for clients, specifically Graza, to help manage and scale our influencer and ambassador program (a now 6-figure channel!) from sourcing to communication with them to payouts and more.

That’s why I feel #blessed that I get to show you their new Creator Discovery Suite. Besides being able to run end-to-end affiliate + influencer programs, track ROI on paid initiatives, and handling product seeding and more, the team at Superfiliate has allowed you to now view all of the creators who are tagging you and for you to TAKE ACTION instead of just saying “well, that was cool while it lasted.”

I often see brands build up so much brand equity on their organic socials and then use almost 0% of it to recruit for their existing creator programs. So, that ends now (hopefully!)

One-click is all it takes (Dua Lipa Voice) for you to now leverage your social channels, email lists and website to seamlessly scale your influencer and affiliate programs. Identify engaged creators, DM them, and invite them to your program via your branded sign up page.

Creator discovery shouldn’t have to be hard in this day and age. 2024 is the year that creator discovery becomes the getting the MOST out of those who already follow you and use your product to leverage your efforts and needs for your brand.

To celebrate my obsession for this feature, the Superfiliate team is giving you a FREE MONTH to try out their platform if you click right HERE and tell them I sent ya :) 

Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just getting started, the process of creator discovery can be both simple and effective, but sometimes starting is the hardest part.

What is Creator Discovery?

As you could assume, creator discovery is simply the process of finding influencers and creators to tell your brand story.

Define Your Goals for Creators

Before you begin your search, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.

I like to look at future influencer initiatives across two main buckets.

• Revenue Capture and Generation: “Can this person drive sales for us? Can their content support our paid media initiatives to help conversion?” → Example of a recent Graza post I commissioned

• Brand Awareness + Engagement: “Does this creator allow us to get exposed to a new community, reach new potential followers/customers, etc?”

  • Here are some good examples of accounts that brands activate for brand awareness as an example:

    • If you’re in food: Panera x @thingsshetries - HERE

    • If you’re in beauty/food/wellness: I love the account @girlscarryingshit

    • Loved this partnership because of how fast Go Macro knew to lean into into Missy’s peanut allergy here AND become part of the moment that Missy and Marty are having on Tiktok (they are my FAVORITE creators right now hands down)

Both allow for potential new and potential customer acquisition online or off.

This is also why I am a fan of product seeding (the process of getting your product in an influencer’s hands) if it makes sense for your brand because it allows a great starting point for all of these relationships, but also allows you to get in hundreds of hands per month to give the idea that your brand is everywhere to create a little bit of FOMO. Plus, finding the right influencers isn’t just about one-off campaigns; it’s about building long-term partnerships. That isn’t to say you won’t have those one-off moments because if you do them, they should make sense, but sending free product to make sure they even like it and continuing to engage with them independent of your relationship, is a great start.

Also, just while we’re here, please keep in mind that not every single collaboration you do (whether free or paid) has to produce revenue.

It is okay to pay for impressions and reach (IF BUDGET PERMITS)!!!!

Look Beyond Follower Count

Just a quick piece of friendly advice. While it’s tempting to go after influencers with massive followings, please remember bigger isn’t always better in these necks of the woods. More followers doesn’t mean they are a fit for YOUR brand or that anyone will end up converting due to the variety of folks that may throw them a follow.

Pay attention to the people who are there for those who are there for them. I work with creators who I know care — they answer comments and actively have a community there, they are creating content that is getting distributed because people enjoy it, and the engagement speaks for itself as well.

You may want to get product in the hands of the celebrities and bigger creators, which is fine. But, if you’re ballin’ on a budget and trying to move fast, I would be working and looking for nano and micro-influencers who usually have more engaged communities and can potentially deliver a higher return.

This is why you should be asking a creator (or their agent) for demographic breakdowns, examples of past partnerships, recent impressions/reach, story link clicks. Basically, all of the information that would allow you know “hey this person is or is not a good fit” and here’s why.

How To Find New Creators and Leverage Those Who Already Love You

When it comes to finding new faces, here are quick and easy tactics that I use if you’re on a budget or are ready to pull trig on a platform or tools.

• Creator Search Tools

  • Use tools that are accessible to get started as you begin building your influencer lists. If you’re working on a retailer-oriented campaign (ex. Walmart), you might need to find creators who have mostly audiences in Florida and Texas. These tools can help make sure their audience breakdowns are accurate and their engagement is up to par with what you’re looking for. Dependent on the client, I have worked across 5 different tools in this space and I have a list of ones that I do enjoy, but every one is different!

    • If you need quick audience breakdowns of net-new people, I enjoyed HypeAuditor when working on Calirosa and CreatorIQ working on MadeIn.

    • If you want to leverage all of the people who already love your brand and are posting about your brand, this is where Superfiliate’s Creator Discovery can come in so that you can easily add them into an ambassador program and get them into a channel where you can track their attribution, which can help also better inform future ways you might want to work with this creator. What good are your efforts of trying to get in the hands of hundreds of people, if you aren’t doing something after the fact to keep them engaged? I also use Superfiliate to track sales and handle payouts for any commissions.

    • If you want to find net-new people based on AI search functionality like typing in “35-year old mom cooking with ceramic pan” and having visuals pop up left and right to show new potential creators who might be good for your (fake) cookware brand, then stay tuned because one of my favorite social listening and UGC collection tools is working on something super cool that I’ve been lucky enough to see come to life.

Use what is given to you. 

• Use the “suggested follows” features on Tiktok and Instagram. For every person you love, you can find another 10 you might similarly want to send to.

• Make the communities that creators have built work for you. Go through their comments to see who else is commenting on their content or perhaps even mentioning your brand down the road. See a clear example here. Go through who those creators are also following to find like-minded folks or brands that you might share similar values with.

• Use Tiktok like it’s Google! Go to town searching for what you know you’re looking for. Need some doing Whole Foods Hauls to team up with or send to to let them know you just launched there - easy. Perhaps you want to tap someone to make a viral recipe like that dubai chocolate bar? Ok, sweet here are hundreds of people.

Form an easy outreach message that is friendly, creative, and positions you to be a human from the brand side and not a robot and you’re in biz.

If you’re open to help…

• Virtual assistants can change your life..if you let them. For the last 2+ years, I have worked with a virtual assistant who helps me source influencers based on criteria I am given, handle outreach, shipping orders via Shopify, and more for less than $1,000 a month.

BRAND OF THE WEEK: PISTAKIO

This section is about things I have a virtual crush on and can’t stop talking about or just love what a brand is doing creatively.

Ok, so a fun fact about me is years ago I wanted to start a peanut butter brand because nutbutters are like my favorite food group. I have a PBJ or some rendition of one every day because i am a sucker for nostalgia. Also, just while we’re here, let it be known that raspberry jam is the best jam. I won’t be taking any questions at this time.

Anywho, I came home to a package from a product I’ve been dying to try called Pistakio, a sweet pistachio spread made with real pistachios that is made to be drizzle or spread (or chugged, like i did).

It tastes very pistachio-ey, sweet but with a little kick of sea salt and a whole lot of love. I have been loving watching their story of building this brand on Instagram. I couldn’t stop eating it after the first bite, but I also dm’ed the founders, Nico and Fran, to tell them that this product straight up gave me the same excitement that I felt when I started on Graza. From the way they are tackling content, building in public, getting product out there to creators, and by also having a great unboxing (very thoughtful as well!) and overall product.

I can confidently say this is one of the top 5 products I have tried in all of 2024 that will remain a staple and I don’t ever say things like that lightly.

If you love a sweet treat, grab a jar or 15 here and if you’re in NYC, they are popping up with a cool fountain so you can try it - see here! Once again, love seeing how they are activating their markets so early on and bringing a fun way to taste the product.

LOGGING OFF FOR NOW

Well we’ve unfortunately reached the end of the road for this week’s edition. As always, thanks for reading and letting me be in your inbox.

If you have 3 seconds, can I ask you to do one thing?

If you enjoyed this newsletter or have enjoyed previous editions (see them HERE for free to catch up!), share this newsletter with someone who you think would enjoy it whether it’s a friend, a co-worker, or a bestie you made on LinkedIn.

A few of my past favorites are:

• How To Write a Creative Brief For Influencers

• How To Use Social Media To Support Your Retail Launch

• How To Leverage Your Influencer Content AFTER It’s Been Uploaded

All it takes is sending this link: https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

If you just did that, THANK YOU.

That’s all until next week. I hope you do absolutely nothing this weekend and just relax, but if you’re going to the US Open, have fun! I went for the first time ever in my life on Wednesday and it was truly a blast. Oh! And if you’re going Tuesday, Graza is going to have an ice cream truck (!!!!!) with Talenti on the way to the Open. Sign up here for the deets.

Alright, see you next week!

Peace, love, and KPIs

-KD

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