It seems that digital marketing has been on a fast track for the past two decades. Our era of search engine optimization, social media, and mobile marketing is far from over, and we are already caught up in the new trend: personalization and influencer marketing. The latter two are closely linked, as influencers' unique content has helped many brands reach diverse demographics via the Internet. By now, however, the influencer marketing market has become saturated, and companies need even more sophisticated solutions if they want to reach their target audiences.
The focus has shifted from reaching the largest possible audience to reaching a relevant audience. Personalization and influencer marketing remain crucial, but businesses should narrow their focus to specific markets if they want to make an impact. The keyword here is niche influencers and with our new tool, you'll find them in a flash.
The Importance of Niche-Specific Influencer Marketing
A niche influencer can be an expert in any field and have a following that ranges from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands. What makes them so special is that they focus exclusively on a single topic and create content only relating to it. Because of their expertise and engaging content, they build a strong following that enjoys their content and views them as credible sources. Due to their in-depth understanding of a topic and relationship with their audience, these creators have a significantly higher engagement rate than influencers posting on a wide range of topics.
A niche can appeal to a wide audience, such as beauty, fashion, or sports, or it can be broken down into smaller categories of a larger industry, such as hair care in the beauty industry, accessories in the fashion industry, or water sports in the sports industry. The more specific the products or services a company offers, the more sense it makes to work with niche influencers. For example, manufacturers of ski equipment can advertise effectively with athletes, but they can reach much more targeted audiences and achieve greater engagement if they collaborate with influencers experienced in winter sports, more specifically skiers.
Understanding the Niche Search Tool
The best way to find creators within your industry is to focus your search on your industry's category or to use specific keywords. Suppose you manufacture pet grooming products and want to collaborate with relevant influencers. The majority of influencer discovery tools allow you to search by category - like Pets & Animals - or by keyword, such as 'pet groomer'. It is undeniable that you can find great creators with both methods, however, each has its shortcomings.
Most categories are too broad and you will end up with a lengthy list of candidates who still create content about animals, such as rescuing stray dogs or working as vets, but aren’t exclusively involved in pet grooming.
Using the keyword search, you will find influencers whose bios and content mention that specific keyword. It brings you closer to your ideal influencer because those who add the keyword 'pet groomer' to their bio clearly pursue this profession. Alternatively, users who mention pet groomers in their posts most probably know a trusted professional. So bingo! You have identified several potential pet groomers for your next campaign. However, if your niche is even narrower, a keyword search may only return a few results.
Why our Niche Search Tool is better than other influencer discovery tools
Keyword-based searches are word-sensitive, so, for instance, if you search for a pet groomer, the tool will list profiles where either the bio or content contains this keyword. As one of its biggest advantages, HypeAuditor’s Niche Search Tool can search both the text in the bio and the posts, as well as the images in the content. A second benefit of the tool is that it lists influencers from your country who are experts in your niche but post in a foreign language. Thirdly it manages to search by synonyms.
With these features, our search tool will help you identify creators who specialize in topics that cater to a smaller but highly engaged audience. You may also use additional filters to narrow down your search by ER, brand safety, audience demographics, AQS, influencer size, gender, age, and location. If you would like to make sure they have brand collaboration experience, you can even find out which other brands they mentioned.
How can the Niche Search Tool help you?
If you operate in a distinctive industry, you want to partner with people who understand your niche and are curious about your products.
The tool will ensure that you find the most eligible influencers for your next campaign, whether it is a product endorsement or event promotion.
You may discover subject matter experts who can assist you in entering the market and establishing yourself as a trustworthy brand.
With the tool, you can find advocates who can raise awareness of social issues relevant to your company.
These experts can provide you with their opinions and insights about your products or services.
By analyzing their followers, you can learn a lot about your ideal customers.
Our Niche Search Tool in Action
Staying with the previous example let’s compare the search results when using ‘pet groomer’ as a keyword and as a niche.
The tool returned 1.2K profiles when searching for the keyword 'pet groomer' in creators' bios and posts. We haven’t added any filters related to the influencer or their audience.
In the next step, we narrowed down the search with more information.
We set the influencers’ location to the US.
We established that at least 25% of the target audience should be US-based.
We are looking for influencers with 1% or higher ER.
The keyword search found 113 influencers.
Now, let's see how our Niche Search Tool performs.
This is what we found when we searched for a 'pet groomer' as a niche instead of a keyword. Without adding further filters, the tool found 31.7K influencer profiles.
Similarly, we set the influencers' location to the US, their ER to 1% or higher, and established that 25% of the audience should live in the US. The tool found 10.3K relevant influencers.
Thanks to its more precise search function the tool listed almost 26 times more creator profiles without filters and 90 times more with filters.
The Role of Precision in Influencer Marketing
In an era where consumers value authenticity and prefer endorsements coming from individuals they trust an influencer’s alignment with the brand’s values is even more crucial. As influencer marketing itself has evolved beyond just growing brand awareness and reaching new markets, influencer selection is no longer about understanding their reach, engagement, and audience.
Influencers with niche expertise can link brands with previously untapped customers, strengthen a brand's position in a particular geographical location, or promote services to an audience with specific needs. HypeAuditor’s Niche Search Tool helps businesses minimize the risks of mismatched influencer-brand partnerships and build deeper connections with their target market.
