How to Create an Influencer Strategy

Building an influencer strategy feels like a huge undertaking, but it’s really just a series of smart, repeatable steps. When done right, it can build massive trust and drive tangible growth for your brand in a way traditional advertising can't. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from setting clear goals to measuring the actual impact of your campaigns.

Step 1: Set Your Goals and Define What Success Looks Like

Before you even think about scrolling through Instagram or TikTok for potential partners, you need to define your "why." Without clear goals, you have no way to measure success, and you’ll likely end up wasting time and money. What do you actually want to achieve with this campaign?

Most influencer marketing goals fall into one of three buckets:

• Brand Awareness: The goal here is exposure. You want to introduce your brand to a new, relevant audience. This is all about reaching people who haven’t heard of you before. Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for this would be things like reach, impressions, video views, and mentions.
• Lead Generation & Sales: This is a bottom-line goal. You want people to take a specific action that leads to revenue, like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading an app. Your KPIs will be more direct: coupon code redemptions, affiliate link clicks, conversion rate, and cost-per-acquisition (CPA).
• Content & Community Building: Sometimes, the main goal is to generate high-quality, authentic content that you can repurpose on your own channels. Other times, it's about fostering a community by tapping into an influencer's loyal following. KPIs here include the number of high-quality pieces of content created (User-Generated Content, or UGC), new followers earned, and engagement rate increases on your company profiles.

Pick one primary goal for your first campaign. You can have secondary goals, but having a single focus will keep your strategy sharp and make it much easier to select the right influencers and measure your return on investment (ROI).

Step 2: Know Your Audience Inside and Out

You aren’t looking for an influencer whose audience is massive, you’re looking for an influencer whose audience is your audience. If you sell high-end, cruelty-free skincare, partnering with a mega-influencer who primarily posts about fast fashion might get you a lot of eyeballs, but they won't be the right eyeballs. The connection just isn't there, and the promotion will feel forced.

To get this right, you have to be crystal clear on who your ideal customer is. Ask yourself:

• What are their demographics (age, location, gender)?
• What are their hobbies, interests, and pain points?
• What social media platforms do they spend time on?
• Who are they already following and listening to?

If you don't know, dig into your existing customer data and social media analytics. The "audience" tabs on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are goldmines of information. Once you know exactly who you're targeting, finding creators who 'speak their language' becomes infinitely easier.

Step 3: How to Find the Right Influencers for Your Brand

With your goals and audience defined, it's time for the fun part: finding your partners. Don't get distracted by huge follower counts. True influence is about trust and engagement, not audience size. Remember, you're looking for alignment, not just reach.

Understanding Influencer Tiers

Creators are generally categorized by follower count, and each tier offers different advantages:

• Nano-influencers (1,000 - 10,000 followers): These creators often have hyper-engaged, niche communities that trust their recommendations implicitly. They are incredible for localized campaigns or super-niche products. Engagements with them feel like a recommendation from a friend. They are also the most cost-effective.
• Micro-influencers (10,000 - 100,000 followers): This is the sweet spot for many brands. They have established credibility and a dedicated following but are still accessible and have strong engagement rates. They are often subject matter experts in their vertical.
• Macro-influencers (100,000 - 1 million followers): These are established personalities who offer broad reach. They're great for top-of-funnel awareness campaigns designed to get your brand name out there to a large and diverse audience.
• Mega-influencers (1 million+ followers): Think celebrities and major public figures. Partnering with them is expensive and is typically reserved for huge brands with massive awareness-focused campaigns.

Where to Actually Look for Them

Finding the right person doesn't have to be complicated. Here are some simple, effective methods:

• Check Your Hashtags: Search for specific hashtags related to your industry, product, or niche on Instagram and TikTok. Who is creating great content and getting real engagement? Go beyond the generic tags and look for more specific community hashtags (e.g., instead of #fitness, try #runningmotivationforbeginners).
• See Who Your Audience Follows: Look at who your current customers and fans are following. This is a direct line to the people who are already influencing your ideal buyers.
• Listen for Mentions: Are people already talking about your brand? Use social listening tools (or just your notifications) to find authentic fans who are already shouting you out for free. These are your warmest leads for a partnership.
• Competitor Analysis: Peek at who your competitors are working with. Don't copy their strategy, but use it as research to understand the landscape and identify potential partners they may have missed.

Step 4: Vet and Verify Before You Reach Out

You've built a list of potential partners. Now, before you send a single DM, you need to do a little homework. A quick look at their profile isn't enough. You're entering into a business relationship, and due diligence is essential.

Here’s a checklist to run through for each potential influencer:

1. Check Their Engagement Rate: A high follower count with low engagement (likes and comments) is a major red flag. It can indicate a disengaged audience or, worse, fake followers. A simple formula to calculate this is: (Total Likes + Total Comments) / Follower Count * 100. Ideally, you want to see a rate of 2-5% or higher, though this varies by industry and platform.
2. Read the Comments: Don't just count the comments - read them. Are they genuine conversations? Or are they generic, one-word responses and emojis from bot-like accounts? Quality engagement is what you're paying for.
3. Assess Brand Alignment and Content Quality: Does their grid aesthetic, tone of voice, and overall brand vibe fit with yours? Look back at their past three to six months of content. Is it consistent and high-quality? Do their values align with your own?
4. Review Past Sponsored Posts: How do they handle brand partnerships? Do their sponsored posts feel authentic and creative, or are they uninspired, lazy sales pitches? How an influencer has treated past brand partners is a good indicator of how they'll treat you.
5. Ask for a Media Kit: A professional creator will have a media kit ready to go. This document should provide detailed audience demographics (age, gender, location), past campaign results, and their rates. This is the best way to confirm that their audience is actually your audience.

Step 5: Craft Your Outreach and Make a Connection

Influencers, especially good ones, get dozens of generic, copy-pasted pitches every day. To stand out, your outreach needs to be personal, professional, and straight to the point.

Whether you're sending a DM or an email, follow these basic principles:

• Personalize, Personalize, Personalize: Start by mentioning a specific piece of their content you enjoyed. "Hi Sarah, I loved your recent Reel on fall recipes..." shows you’ve actually done your research and you aren't just spamming creators.
• Briefly Introduce Yourself and Your Brand: Who are you and why are you reaching out? Keep it to one or two sentences.
• Explain the "Why": Tell them exactly why you think they would be a great partner for your brand. Connect your product to their content. "Because your audience is so engaged with easy weeknight meals, we thought they'd love our single-pan simmer sauce."
• Propose a Partnership (But Be Flexible): Clearly state what you're interested in (e.g., a gifted collaboration, a paid post, an affiliate relationship). Keep it high-level for now. Avoid sending a long, demanding brief in the first message.
• End with a Clear Call to Action: What should they do next? "If you're interested, I'd be happy to send over more details and discuss your rates. Thanks!" is clear and professional.

Step 6: Negotiate Deliverables and Finalize an Agreement

Once you've agreed to work together in principle, it's time to iron out the details. To protect both you and the creator, always, always get it in writing. A formal contract isn’t always necessary for smaller collaborations, but a written agreement via email that outlines everything is non-negotiable.

Your agreement should clearly define:

• Deliverables: Exactly what is the creator expected to produce? (e.g., 1 Instagram Reel, 3 Story frames with a link sticker, 1 TikTok video). Be specific.
• Timeline: When is the content expected to go live? Be prepared for this to be a window (e.g., "the week of October 23rd") to fit their content calendar.
• Compensation: How much are you paying, what is the payment method, and when will they be paid (e.g., 50% upfront, 50% on completion)?
• Content Approvals: Will you have a chance to review the content before it goes live?
• Content Usage Rights: Can you repurpose their content on your own social media channels, ads, or website? For how long? This is a huge, often overlooked benefit.
• Exclusivity: Can the influencer work with a direct competitor for a certain period of time (e.g. 30 days) after your campaign goes live?
• Disclosure Guidelines: Remind them of the legal requirement to clearly disclose the partnership using hashtags like #ad or #sponsored, per FTC guidelines.

Step 7: Track, Measure, and Build the Relationship

The campaign is live - your work isn't done! This last step is what separates a one-off campaign from a scalable, long-term marketing strategy. You must track your results against the goals you set in Step 1.

To measure your campaign's ROI, you can use:

• Custom Promo Codes and Affiliate Links: For sales-focused goals, give each influencer a unique discount code (SARA15) or a trackable link (like a Bitly or affiliate link). This is the cleanest way to attribute sales directly to their efforts.
• UTM Parameters: If you're driving traffic to your website, add UTM parameters to the links you provide them. This allows you to see how many visitors, leads, and sales came directly from their post in your Google Analytics.
• Post-Campaign Analytics: Ask the influencer to provide a screenshot of their final post insights about 7-14 days after it goes live. Pay attention to reach, impressions, shares, and saves.

Analyze what worked and what didn't. Did one influencer's 'how-to' Reel outperform another's unboxing Story? Use these insights to refine your approach for the next round. If a partnership was a success, consider how you can turn it into a long-term ambassadorship. The best influencer strategies are built on genuine, ongoing relationships, not quick, transactional campaigns.

Final Thoughts

Developing a powerful influencer strategy comes down to a clear process, from defining success at the very beginning to tracking your results. It's about finding authentic partners whose audience genuinely trusts them, giving them creative freedom, and building relationships that benefit everyone involved.

Managing all the moving parts of these campaigns takes serious organization. Once we get that amazing video from a creator, we use Postbase to schedule that content across all of our channels seamlessly. Seeing collaborations pop up on our visual calendar helps us integrate influencer content into our broader strategy, making sure every post delivers the maximum impact for our brand.