6 principles of matchmaking
for influencer marketing

Mega-ifluencers are those who have tons of followers. Million or bigger number to be precise. On the other hand, there are nano- and micro-influencers followed by 1 000 to 10 000 and 10 000 to 100 000 people respectively.

It looks like a million followers is better than 1 000 for a brand. But marketing and statistics say the opposite. Think: what percent of top celebrities' followers just scroll that person's posts down? Remember a few things good for matchmaking.

• Big amount of people = less engagement. For nano-influencers, engagement rate is 5% which is more than many mega-influencers have.
  
• Not all of the top celebrities' followers are your target audience.
  
• Superstars are obviously pricy. And what do you have in return? Rather low ROI numbers really.
  
  

That's why micro- and nano-influencers might be useful for your brand. Those who have 5 000 – 25 000 followers have real impact on people in their niche. Studies in the US say up to of 92% people are likely to listen to word-of-mouth recommendations. It's about marketing too: micro- and nano-influencers represent that certain type of content.

If you're still sure your brand needs to collaborate with a celebrity influencer you better make an offer for one or a couple of posts. For long-term collaboration micro- and nano-influencer are always better options.

HypeFactory agency has a large database that helps decide: who exactly your brand needs. It provides a list of various types of content creators and it's always based on the idea of matchmaking.

This is a better way than going through online catalogs with thousands of bloggers that are badly categorized or even worse — searching for a person who fits you on social media.

A popular influencer receives a lot of offers for collaboration. Any type of brand may want to connect with him/ her. Yet not every brand has regard for matchmaking.

All that just becomes information noise — something a person likely wants to get rid of. An offer from your brand can get lost in the ocean of messages or go straight to spam without even watching.

That's why you need to choose the right channel of communication. It means you should have a proper partner who will introduce you to an influencer.

Be sure that your message will find its way to a creator's mind. And heart. That's what matchmaking is about.

Matchmaking should bring mutually profitable results. One of the main reasons why an influencer doesn't want to support a company is an irrelevant offer from a brand. Imagine a tech blogger who's offered to promote pet food. Sounds like a joke but this is pretty much of a common thing in marketing.

It's important to understand not only the needs of the campaign but the target audience of the influencer and his/ her characters in social media. This brings benefits for both parties.

If your matchmaking is done perfectly influencer has reasons to truly like your product. Not only money leads them. Interest is a big part of the motivation. That makes a person create better and inspired content.

Another important note for good matchmaking: fans of an influencer will likely take it as a fake when something doesn't associate with his/ her image on social media.

Freedom of expression is good, right? Not in any case for your brand.

If the influencer you collaborate with doesn't optimize the content according to your product the whole thing will probably fail.

Another matchmaking rule: posts, photos and videos should be created exactly for the marketing goals. Think about why people love the influencer and why they love your brand. The collaboration must lead you both to the crossing of that interests.

That's why HypeFactory's specialists analyze:

• the product you need to promote;
  
• target audience of the brand;
  
• character of the influencer;
  
• TA of the influencer.
  
  

The agency also uses unique AI technologies to make matchmaking faster and more effective.

Matchmaking is not only one action. This may sound pathetic but… it's a way.
Nothing is perfect in the beginning. Any marketing process needs development and optimization. Analytics should show the impact that content has and the reaction of audience.

After making corrections campaign can be scaled: if matchmaking worked well and you successfully collaborated with an influencer you can expand the creators' pool and go to new areas.

From the moment you have the shortlist of relevant influencers to the finish of promotion and even after the campaign all participants should keep in touch and check how the process goes.

Good analysis is crucial not only for matchmaking and providing current activities. It's a basis for building future ones and predicting their results.

Marketing deals with creators work great for advertising if you remember matchmaking. Pick the persons carefully. Always ask yourself: what does your brand promote? What can a certain influencer bring to you with his/ her skills and the audience? What can you offer to that person? And cooperate with professionals who can help you establish a strong connection with the right influencer.