As a marketer, trying to find influencers who align with your brand’s messaging and values can be challenging when there are so many ways to do so. As social media networks like Instagram and TikTok roll out their own creator marketplaces, it’s important to centralize your efforts into one or two top channels that your target influencers are already active on.

While emails and direct messages (DMs) are still major avenues to connect with creators in any industry, the value of influencer marketing platforms and networks is quickly growing. 

However, the technology available for influencer discovery is still largely fragmented in today’s digital landscape. Social platforms like Meta specifically prohibit scraping social media and buying data to collect influencers – indicating that all influencer discovery and database building for third parties must be opt-in from the influencers and above-board with major social networks.

We asked experienced influencers authenticated with the Pixlee TurnTo Creator Network where they typically find brands to work with; here’s the breakdown:

• 36% Influencer platforms and networks
• 35% Brands contact me via email
• 12% I contact brands via email
• 10% Brands contact me via social media
• 7% I contact brands via social media

Download our free 2022 Influencer Trend Report

According to this data, brands combining their email outreach strategy with the use of an influencer platform can access over 70% of influencers ready to collaborate on social media partnerships. That’s a huge chunk of the creator economy.

Ways to Discover Influencers

The Pixlee TurnTo Creator Network

Our Creator Network is composed of over 1,000 opt-in influencers experienced with brand partnerships across a variety of industries. These influencers, who have an average following of 22,000, all took their own initiative to sign up and are actively seeking brand partnerships. Check out some of our featured influencers by vertical here.

Build Your Own Database of Influencers

Pixlee TurnTo’s Influencer Marketing platform also enables brands to build a proprietary, opt-in creator network of passionate influencers, with tools to search by follower count, location, and other filters. Brands can then manage relationships and campaign content, and send emails and DMs to new influencer prospects without leaving the platform. In-platform influencer link tracking provides a full-funnel view of campaign success, from impressions to sales. Brands using Pixlee TurnTo can also improve review coverage by automatically requesting a review from influencers in exchange for products.

What’s more, content from the influencers you connect with on an influencer platform like Pixlee TurnTo can be repurposed as revenue-driving, shoppable assets across your other marketing channels like on-site displays. Integrating your influencer strategy with social commerce sets your brand up for more exposure, conversion, and successful ecommerce metrics (that can also be measured in-platform).

Brands like Alo Yoga showcase social media content from influencers on-site, allowing visitors to peruse the creator’s original posts and shop the apparel pieces featured.

Learning how to find influencers is just one step in your brand’s creator campaign process, and it’s valuable to weigh other insights from influencers themselves like level of involvement in campaign planning and compensation rates. Check out more feedback straight from real influencers in our 2022 Influencer Trend Report.