Influencer Research Masterclass: How to find and vet the best influencers for your CPG brand

by Saral,

June 8, 2023

In the past few years, an increasing number of CPG brands have intelligently shifted their marketing budget from traditional advertising to influencer marketing, and it has proven to be successful for them, in one way or the other.

But often, brands find themselves burning both time and money, either endlessly scouting for influencers or partnering with the wrong ones. If this sounds like your brand’s story, you’re at the right place.

In this post, we’ll explore practical ways to find the best influencers for your CPG brand and tried-and-tested steps to vet them for successful influencer marketing campaigns.

4 ways to find the best influencers for your CPG brand

🙋Start by looking at your followers or customers

Your customer base is not just a group of people who purchase your products; they’re a reservoir of potential influencers. If you have anywhere above 1000 people on your email list, it’s very likely that at least a couple of them are social media influencers to some degree.

Yes, you might not find someone with a million followers in there. But you’d be surprised how many small (and trustworthy) influencers exist on your list.

Check your customer list and see if you recognize anyone influential. Athletic Greens found their initial advocates in their customer list when they discovered people like Tim Ferris and Andrew Huberman already use their product.

In the Leveling Up podcast with Eric Siu, Athletic Greens COO Kat Cole mentions that they only partner with creators who are also their customers.

You can also go to Instagram’s or TikTok’s “Search” tab to identify people who are already talking about your brand without you prompting them.

For example, for the brand Magic Spoon, which runs a successful influencer marketing strategy, we found a post from a dietician account talking about the brand after searching for the brand name in the Instagram ‘Search’ tab…

This is a great way to shortlist individuals who are genuinely passionate about your products, have used them, and are ready to talk on social media about their experiences.

#️⃣ Use core and tangential hashtags

Hashtags offer a direct channel to people (and their audience!) engaged around a particular topic, product, or lifestyle.

As a CPG brand, select hashtags that align with your brand, products, and lifestyle of your target audience.

Let’s say you’re a CPG brand specializing in healthy, high-fiber snacks these would be your core hashtags:

  1. #FiberSnacks: Direct and clear, this hashtag can help find influencers actively discussing fiber-rich snacks.
  2. #HealthyTreats: This targets influencers promoting nutritious snack options.
  3. #EnergyBars: If your snacks are energy-boosting, this hashtag targets influencers interested in food items providing sustained energy.

You can also list down tangential hashtags for each core hashtag. Tangential hashtags associate with the lifestyle, interests, or values of your potential customers

As an example, for #HealthyTreats, the tangential hashtags can be — #FitnessGoals, #MindfulEating, #Healthylifestyle, etc.

Once you have a list of hashtags, find an average of 20-30 influencers under each hashtag. And that will give you a list of thousands of influencers to reach out to, which is good when you’re just getting started.

Check out this video to come up with a full hashtag strategy to find influencers for your CPG brand.

Here’s a Hashtag Research Template you can copy to follow-along.

🔍 Look for influencers of brands that share a common buyer persona with you

Research brands that appeal to the same buyer persona as you, even if their product is different.

On Instagram, put any product’s hashtags to see who’s mentioning them in their posts. These tags are public endorsements of sorts and can lead you to influencers who already have an affinity for your type of product or service and a target audience that would help you reach more people.

For example, if you have a snack brand, or selling something to a young college crowd you can search for #OlipopPartner (a healthy soda brand) on Instagram to find people in the same demographic as your target audience.

On YouTube, use your competitor’s keywords to search for relevant influencers. Look out for who’s featuring similar products or discussing topics that align with your brand.

🧰 Use influencer marketing platforms

Technology has made identifying influencers easier. With tools like SARAL, you can search 150M+ creators to find the ones that have the target audience that you want to reach. You can use filters like follower count, gender, authenticity etc. to ensure that the influencers you select resonate with your brand and goals.

Not just that, SARAL comes with a free Chrome companion that allows you to see influencer’s stats, and save them directly to your list without any copy-pasting.

Let’s dive deeper into vetting influencers for your CPG brand in our next section.

How to vet the best influencers for your CPG brand in 3 steps

📈 Do they have numbers to prove effectiveness?

Start by reviewing the basics: follower count, engagement rate, and the quality of engagement. Numbers provide an objective lens to gauge an influencer’s potential effectiveness.

But it’s a tedious process to do this in sheets, manually.

One of the best ways to make it fast, easy, and FREE is to use SARAL‘s free chrome extension.

Remember that a larger follower count may seem impressive, but it doesn’t necessarily guarantee better results. The engagement rate often provides a more accurate indication of an influencer’s impact.

Beyond just the numbers, consider the quality of engagement.

Are followers genuinely interacting with the influencer’s content through comments and shares? Or are the comments generic, indicating potential bot activity?

🤳 Is there content worth people’s engagement?

Quality content is key to driving engagement. Analyze an influencer’s past posts to see if they consistently create content that captivates their audience using this 3-step framework:

Step 1- Evaluate visual appeal and creativity

Ask questions such as, is content eye-catching? Do they use compelling images or video content? Find whether the influencer has a unique style that sets them apart from others.

Step 2- Review storytelling ability

Check if the influencer tells a compelling story through their posts.

Do they have a good hook? Does the influencer provide context around their posts? Do they engage emotionally with their followers? Check if they write persuasive captions with the right call-to-action.

Step 3- Assess communication

Check if the influencer is clear and concise in their messaging. Do they maintain a tone that’s professional yet friendly? Look through comments to see if they engage with their audience and are open to feedback or questions.

🤝 Do they align with your brand values?

An influencer could have all the followers in the world, but if they don’t align with your brand values, the partnership may do more harm than good.

Start by studying their content, captions, and the causes they advocate for. Do they match your brand’s philosophy and message?

When an influencer is genuinely aligned with your brand’s values, their endorsements not only seem sincere, but they also reflect a personal connection to your brand. This authenticity translates into the content they create, making it resonate more deeply with their followers.

Their audience, in turn, is more likely to trust and engage with the shared content because it is an extension of the influencer’s personal values and lifestyle.

For example take Liquid Death, a water brand. They hold values of not taking themselves too seriously, being adventurous, and maintaining a sense of humor.

Rather than going the conventional route, they chose to partner with influencers that reflect their out-of-the-box brand persona for example this skateboarder @andymac720 who is known for his daring tricks, humor, and adventurous spirit.

Creator…

Creator’s post for Liquid Death…

Conclusion

You’re now armed with key strategies to find and vet the best influencers for your CPG brand. Start implementing these methods and continually evaluate and refine your process. Always be on the lookout for emerging influencers who resonate with your brand.

But strategies alone would be just that… strategies. You need to execute on those and for that, you need tools that can help you see results from strategies, faster (without burning the midnight oil!)

✨ One such tool is — SARAL. It’s an all-in-one influencer marketing tool that streamlines your operations, allowing you to easily find influencers in any niche, and manage and track them from one centralized platform.

Want to run a test campaign for no commitment and decide to stick only if it works for you?

Claim your free trial here.

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