In this AMA series, marketing master Kristian Sturt, Head of Influencer Marketing  & Talent Management @Colossal Influence Limited, hands us his playbook for all things Influencer Marketing. After running an agency for over 10 years, he’s got a pretty good idea of what works - and what doesn’t!)

⚡️First, Kristian starts the longest-standing influencer marketing agency (and makes the 30 Under 30 Sport Industry NextGen leaders in the UK).

⚡️Then, he builds his social media network to 1.5million followers

⚡️And now, he’s going to tell us how Influencer Marketing made it all possible.

🗣️: In terms of growth which works better & faster do u think between influencer marketing & digital ads, and why?

💬 Kristian: Thanks for your question! It depends. Better and faster are two different things. Theoretically, I can post a digital ad by myself with a huge budget and start seeing results instantly. With influencer marketing, I'm having to speak to an agency or an influencer and they have to create the content and post. How long that takes is out of your hands.

However, we're potentially talking like an hours difference.

Better, influencer marketing. There are countless double-blind studies that have been carried out to say that when done correctly Influencer marketing out performs every other form of marketing for return on the dollar. It eclipses digital ads by a distance.

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🗣️: What are the best tools to find the right Influencers?

💬 Kristian: This is a tough question. As a vet with 10 years in the field and a talent roster, all of my searches are done manually or through word of mouth or experience. In fact, it's one of my USPs. There's a plethora of software programs out there that all offer very similar services using almost identical coding. Personally, I've found flaws in all of them and no longer use any of them. The one I probably had the most success with is Upfluence. With any of them, expect to spend hundreds of dollars a month.

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🗣️: How do you find the best influencers in a specific industry?

💬 Kristian: Experience! The reality is that the fields are so limited because there's so few highly engaged influencers that it's not that hard, if you've been in the field for 10 years to know all the right people. If somebody asks me who is the best FIFA Gaming influencer for x price with a UK demographic from 18-24 then I can name 5 influencers off the top of my head, and because I keep a close eye on the field I know who is breaking through. If I don't know the field then I know somebody who does and I ask them then research doing manual searches.

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🗣️: Who is a Social media influencer?

💬 Kristian: A social media influencer is anybody with a significant following who has 'influence' over another person. There's no real right answer about size. Some say everybody with a social media account is an influencer. Some say only the biggest people. I say it depends. Generally, anything over 10,000 with good engagement in a niche for me carries notable influence.

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🗣️: Why use social influencers?

💬 Kristian: Value for money. As I mentioned, if you find the right influencer then influencer marketing is the most cost-effective form of marketing. However, if you get the wrong influencer for a campaign then it would have failed before you started.

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🗣️: What’s the best tool to find social media influencers?

💬 Kristian: As I mentioned before, I'm not a fan of using tools. Use an influencer agency like Colossal Influence! However, if for some reason you want to use a tool then check out Upfluence. Using a tool to find somebody is only half the battle. The software can only tell you part of the story.

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🗣️: Why should brands use influencer marketing, and what uniqueness it has?

💬 Kristian: Sure, just to note, I don't think Influencer Marketing is a magic solution for all brands, but it hits the 'most valuable' demographic perfectly. Influencer marketing can be activated on almost all budget sizes.

The reason why it's unique is because of the engagement. Recommendations are super powerful, and studies have shown that viewers see influencers more like friends than celebrities. In fact, influencer recommendations are 10 times more likely to be listened to than celebrity recommendations.

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🗣️: Can you recommend how to find influencers in specific niche and what is the best way to analyze this influence?

💬 Kristian: For me, I'd search manually. All platforms have very good search engines inbuilt in their sites. They also have recommendation tools based on searches.

The best way to analyze Influence is engagement. Follower counts as a metric is borderline pointless. How many likes, comments and engagements are there. We call follower count a vanity metric. The more engaged somebody is with an influencer, the more likely they are to purchase a service or product.

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🗣️: As a startup, how do I gain the interest of Top influencers I want to collaborate with?

💬 Kristian: Try and find business emails. If not, try and look for agents. In your message, you want to be to the point. Many top influencers receive dozens of messages daily. If you receive no reply try reaching out on socials.

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🗣️: How do I measure the success of an Influencer’s promotion of my brand?

💬 Kristian: This is a tough one. Bottom-line metrics like sales are obviously super important, but it's imperative you take into account brand recognition as well as secondary metrics like follows. What's your spend vs your return? Then also work out how many people that add reached as well.

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🗣️: In Influencer marketing, do you recommend using specific social media platforms per industry, or do all platform works?

💬 Kristian: At the moment the best results are coming from Instagram and YouTube. However, if you're trying to hit a Gen Z audience explore Tik Tok. If you're trying to hit an older audience then explore Facebook. The type of industry you're exploring doesn't tend to be too impacted by the platform. Making sure you find the right influencer is far more important than the platform.

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🗣️: Contract-wise, what's the most efficient arrangement we can have for our business with an Influencer? (we're currently looking into it but struggling on setting up the terms on how we can make the most out of the collaboration) --- or at least what's the industry standard? Just to get an idea 🙂

💬 Kristian: Good question. The most efficient agreement you can have is one where everyone is covered, but not one where there's so much detailed that it becomes counterproductive. I've read agreements from one page to 15 or 16 pages. Both for almost identical roles. Vet the Influencer first and mitigate your risk then draw up an agreement that ensures you get what you expect.

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🗣️: Is it advisable to jump into Influencer Marketing when we are still in the starting out phase of our business? When's the best time if budget is not an issue?

💬 Kristian: Yes, but test and scale up if successful. If your budget is $1000 initially then spend no more than 20% on a test and analyze the results then work out from there what went right or what went wrong. Do not spend the entire budget on an untested strategy. That's a recipe for disaster.

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🗣️: Can I use influencer marketing to promote a website? How?

💬 Kristian: Whatever advertising subset you're using the best bit of advice I can give is to remove as many steps as possible. If you're promoting something on Twitter then use Twitter influencers etc... Of course, you can't do this with a website, so what is the solution. Clear and obvious links to click with a clear call to action.