According to Influencer Marketing Hub (IMH), Instagram is the most popular platform used for influencer marketing. Not only that, marketers were able to yield the biggest ROI through Instagram in the past year.

So, it’s only natural that marketers like you and agencies are turning to Instagram influencers for marketing campaigns.

But why go for local influencers?

Local Influencers usually have a strong online presence and credibility within a specific geographic area or community on Instagram. Their followers would be comparatively lower, but what they lack in followers, they make up for in engagement rate.

And it’s because of this engagement rate that it’s important to consider local Instagram influencers.

So how can you find them?

Well, that’s exactly what we are here for. This blog helps you understand the basic things to consider before reaching out and relevant tools to help you find local Instagram influencers for your agency.

Benefits of Partnering with Local Instagram Influencers    

Partnering with local Instagram influencers offers a myriad of benefits. Here are some of the primary advantages:  

• Local Instagram influencers often foster genuine interactions, creating a deeper bond with their audience.

• They are seen as community peers, and their endorsements carry a personal, trusted touch.

• Partnering locally can often yield strong results without the premium price tag of mega influencers.

• Their follower base aligns with specific local demographics, ensuring precise targeting.

• Local influencers can offer specialized knowledge in regional trends, tastes, and events.

• With a keen pulse on local preferences, their promotions often lead to better conversion outcomes.

• Content is tailored to local cultural nuances, ensuring relatability and resonance.

• Promotions with local influencers often emphasize and support community growth and local business.

These benefits demonstrate the effectiveness of leveraging local Instagram influencers for your campaigns. But before we jump into finding them, let’s understand some basics first.

Consider this before Connecting with Local Instagram Influencers

Approaching a local Instagram influencer requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. We have already talked about their engagement rate, but there are other factors that need to be considered.  

Here are some key considerations to ensure a successful collaboration.

Brand Alignment: Does the influencer's content, aesthetic, and values align with your brand? It's essential that there's a natural fit to ensure authenticity in the collaboration.  

Audience Demographics: Ensure the influencer's audience matches your target demographic. Consider factors like age, gender, location, interests, and purchasing habits.  

Content Quality: Evaluate the quality, originality, and consistency of the influencer's content. High-quality visuals and well-written captions can enhance the credibility of your campaign.  

Authenticity: Does the influencer have genuine interactions with their followers? Beware of influencers with a history of indiscriminately promoting products or those who might have purchased followers.  

Past Collaborations: Review their previous partnerships. Were they successful? How did the influencer integrate the brand into their content? This gives insights into their professionalism and effectiveness.  

Terms and Compensation: Have a clear idea of what you're willing to offer. Fix whether it's monetary compensation, products, services, or other perks. Also, be prepared to negotiate.  

Exclusivity Clauses: Be open if you want the influencer to avoid promoting similar or competitors' products.  

Content Rights: Decide if you want rights to the content created during the collaboration. This can be useful for repurposing in other marketing channels.  

Approaching a local Instagram influencer with these considerations in mind ensures a more strategic and beneficial collaboration. Remember, the goal is a partnership that benefits both parties and resonates genuinely with the target audience.    

Now that's settled, let's see how you can find your local Instagram influencers.

Suggested Read: 10 Influencer Marketing Best Practices for 2024 

The Best Way to Find Local Instagram Influencers - Using an Influencer Marketing Platform

Now, before we start, let’s consider an example. This way, it will be easier for you to grasp each step.

Example - A new boutique coffee shop in Seattle named "Emerald Brews" wants to find a local Instagram influencer to promote their unique coffee blends and cozy ambiance.  

Objective: Increase brand awareness and foot traffic to "Emerald Brews" through an authentic and localized Instagram campaign.

The target audience will be -

• Age: 20-35 years

• Interests: Coffee, cafes, local Seattle events, sustainable living

• Behavior: Regularly visits cafes, values artisanal products, enjoys trying new local places

There are many influencer marketing tools out there, but we are going to use impulze.ai. Why? Because the tools offer a free version and it is easy to find influencers through it!

If you already have an account, log in to it. If you don’t - then sign up here for free. Once you have signed in, carefully follow the steps explained below.

Step 1 - Generic Filters

Once logged in, you will be redirected to the dashboard where you can filter out your influencer. The platform, by default, will be Instagram, but you should check it anyway.

Considering our example, we have added the following filters.

• Target location - Seattle

• Interest [niche] - Coffee, Tea & Beverages

  
  

You may have noticed that we skipped both the engagement rate and followers. We purposefully did that. We can use those filters at the end.

An important thing to note here is to click on these three metrics.

Doing so provides a list of influencers who are verified, have contact details, and have a history of past collaborations.

Hit “Search” and curate the influencers.

Step 2 - Creator Filters

This is where we filter the influencers with respect to their age, content, gender, and more.

I have added the following -

• Last posted - a month ago [to ensure the influencers are active]

• Account type - Creator

• Create age - 20 [Minimum]

  
  

Since I’m not sure about the average content count and likes an influencer should have for this niche, we have left them untouched.

The creators can be either male or female - therefore, we didn’t add any gender. And the creator language - since the USA has people from diverse cultures and ethnicities, we didn’t add any particular language as well.

Hit “Search”.

Result -

Step 3 - Audience Filter

You do need an influencer with followers who are interested in the same, right? So, let’s curate the influencers with respect to their followers.

Considering our example, we have added the following.

• Audience age - we added the minimum age as 20.

• Gender - Left it as such. No point in adding gender - everyone loves coffee.

• Audience  Location - Seattle [ we added 15% - you can increase this as you prefer]

• Audience interest - Coffee, Tea & Beverages.

Again, we have left the audience language empty because of the same reason we discussed earlier.

Hit “Search”, and the result will look something like this -

Step 4 - Do a Deeper Influencer Analysis

Inspect the number of followers and Instagram engagement rate of each influencer and save them for your campaign.

Just keep in mind that, just because an influencer has bigger followers or engagement rates, they are the right fit for you. Carefully read their description and understand what they are focusing on.

Once you have saved the influencer, go to “Home” and view the influencer profile. You will notice some missing details, but don’t worry, you can everything you need there.

You can use our Chrome extension - SocialiQ - to get first-party data from the influencer’s Instagram profile. And you can generate a report to learn more about the influencer’s profile.

In the generated report, you can understand the credibility of the influencer’s followers. Notable followers of the influencer, the gender and age split among the followers, the sponsored content they have created, and more.

Followers Details -

Notable followers of the influencer we selected -

Sponsored content created by the influencer (we selected) -

By assessing all these data, we are more than sure that this is the perfect influencer we can partner with for the influencer marketing campaigns.

We hope you were able to find your local influencers on Instagram as well.  If you are interested in getting a personalized demo, feel free to contact us!