Trying to grow your eCommerce brand into something mighty? Influencer marketing is the way to go.

Not only does influencer marketing generate $6.50 for every $1 you spend on it, but 70% of shoppers trust influencers more than big-name celebs, anyway.

That sounds all well and good until it’s time to actually make your influencer marketing campaign come to life.

Where should you promote yourself? How do you connect with influencers, anyway?

First things first:  you need expert content creators with a following on Instagram.

Why use Instagram for influencer marketing?

“But why should I focus on Instagram for my influencer marketing campaigns?” you might wonder. Aren’t other platforms, like YouTube or Facebook, more effective?

We’re all for promoting yourself on all of your branded social media, but when it comes to influencer marketing, Instagram should be your go-to.

The thing is, you can’t afford to overlook Instagram. We say that you should focus your influencer efforts almost entirely on this social media platform. The stats back us up:

• 79% of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing campaigns. If you aren’t promoting yourself on Instagram, chances are, your followers are already seeing posts from your competitors.
• 59% of influencers say Instagram is their platform of choice because engagement figures are much higher. So, if you aren’t on Instagram, you’ll have a harder time finding influencers with engaged followers who are ready to buy.
• Women make the majority of household buying decisions in the US. And since 86% of women rely on Instagram to make buying decisions, you need to reach this demographic where they are—on Instagram.

When it’s high time to plan your first Instagram influencer marketing campaign, focus on influencers with an established social media presence.

But that’s easier said than done, right? How do you find Instagram influencers worth their salt?

4 strategies for brands to find Instagram influencers

Instagram has over 1 billion active monthly users. Many of these folks are quality influencers who would love to partner with your brand.

Trouble is, you need to find trustworthy influencers who match your brand’s aesthetic, demographics, and more.

And you aren’t alone: 61% of marketers say it’s hard finding good influencers for their campaigns.

Here’s the good news: it's actually easier than ever before to find Instagram Influencers. You just need to know where to look.

When you need quality influencers in a hurry, follow these 4 strategies to revamp your business’s social media marketing efforts.

1 - Slide into their DMs

The free option is to find influencers by manually searching for them on Instagram. To do this, you:

• Type a relevant industry or brand hashtag into Instagram.
• Look for profiles sharing quality content.
• See if the micro-influencer has a decent follower count (2,500 is ideal for micro-influencers) and engagement.

If it seems like a fit, send the influencer-to-be a DM through Instagram. Explain who you are, a little about your brand, and that you’re interested in a collab.

Here’s how it works in practice:

• Your eCommerce business sells baking supplies.
• You search for hashtags like #bakedgoods and #bakersofinstagram to find millions of accounts from people who are serious about baking.
• From there, you browse through the images and check out accounts that catch your eye.
• DM influencers who interest you and cross your fingers that they reply!

But keep in mind that a one-off DM isn’t a good way to start influencer relationships.

If you aren’t following each other, they won’t immediately see your DM in their inbox (it goes straight to their “Requests” section—ugh).

So, instead of sending cold DMs, you need to like and comment on a few of the influencer’s post first.

Basically, show them some love and let them know that you’ve taken the time to actually check out their profile.

They’ll receive notifications about your engagements, which will at least put you on their radar.

Finally, to be extra thorough, make sure you also look up their profile on Instagram’s mobile app. Most micro-influencers have a button on their profile where you can email them if a DM isn’t your thing.

2 - Search a database

We don’t love this option, but it’s a common one that brands use.

Some brands use influencer databases to quickly mine a large list of potential influencers to contact. Now, the database does allow you to narrow down your search, but you’re still manually looking through profiles to see if people are a fit.

In theory, this means that most of the results will be right on target.

Here’s the crazy part though: a lot of influencer databases acquire their information by scraping data from the internet.

They have no quality control, which means that a lot of junk ends up in the database as well—junk that you have to sort through.

Just like an old-fashioned gold mine, the trouble with mining a database is that you eventually run out of searches.

They’re not updated regularly, and only a small portion of the accounts will align with your brand.

Influencer databases are definitely a step up from just manually searching and DMing influencers yourself. But you’ll still have to sort through hundreds of accounts that aren’t a good fit, and you’ll likely pay for a ton of bad data, anyway.

3 - Set up an ambassador program

You can source more quality influencers by creating a formalized ambassador program for your company.

This sounds complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple to set up:

• Focus on what you have to offer. What do influencers want to receive in exchange for their work? What’s the benefit for them?
• What do you need from your influencers? A post a month? A link in their bio? Make it super-clear what you need on your end of the relationship.
• How will you compensate influencers? That might mean exclusive deals, priority access, or even a welcome kit to share with their Instagram followers. If you’re doing monetary compensation, is it per post, click, or some other metric?

The clearer and more attractive your program perks, the faster word will spread among influencers.

Before long, influencers will start flocking to you, significantly cutting down on manual searches.

One brand that’s had a lot of success with ambassadors is Diff Eyewear. They’ve invested the time and effort to create a robust and detailed program—and they’re crushing it on Instagram!

4 - Use a curated network like Trend

You’ve considered time-consuming manual searches, questionable and expensive databases, and formalized ambassador programs.

They’re all valid ways to source Instagram influencers, but they aren’t without their downsides. Fortunately, we’ve saved the best for last: Instagram influencer marketing platforms.

The Trend platform is a curated, invite-only network of content creators.

Frankly, it’s your best bet for quickly sourcing quality influencers without the hands-on management or questionable data you’d find in an influencer database.

Here’s how it works:

• Your brand sets up a campaign on Trend.
• Influencers apply to join based on your requirements. That’s right—the influencers come to you.
• You select which influencers you’d like to work with and start your campaign in as little as a few hours.

Since our network is invite-only, we’re able to ensure each influencer is high-quality.

Trend screens each profile that requests to join our community to make sure they’re real, based in the US, and meet a minimum threshold with their follower count and engagement.

Essentially, we've already done the influencer discovery process for you. All you have to do is sign up, create your campaign, and start approving applications!

Conclusion

71% of marketers say leads that come from Instagram influencer marketing are of higher quality. Finding quality influencers is the first step to revamping your social media marketing efforts.

If you aren’t sure where to turn, manual search, databases, ambassador programs, and influencer marketing platforms like Trend can connect you with influencers for your next campaign.

Fortunately, you can get the best of everything with Trend. We combine the scale and reach of a database with the quality of an ambassador program.

Want to see it in action? Create your free account now to start sourcing influencers. 

‍