From Michael Jordan’s Nike endorsement in the 1980s to the Kardashians’ many brand sponsorships today, the celebrity endorsement has long been a useful marketing tool for brands. Celebrities added legitimacy, familiarity and fame to a campaign. While celebrity ambassadors are still employed frequently today, a new kind of endorsement is encroaching on its territory: influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is one of the hottest digital marketing trends. In fact, 94 percent of marketers who used influencer marketing believe the tactic to be effective. It’s also a great bang for your buck: on average, companies earn $7.65 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

As more consumers search for authentic experiences with brands, influencer marketing is a great way to build trust and reach a captive audience with common interests. Read on to discover how to make influencer marketing work for you.

Find the Right Platform

The first step to crafting your influencer marketing plan is to make sure you utilize the right platforms. A survey by Collective Bias found YouTube and Facebook are consumers’ overall favorite platforms for following influencers, while influencers themselves prefer Instagram as their channel of choice. Fifty-nine percent chose Instagram as their most effective platform for engaging with followers.

When selecting platforms to focus on, consider differences in demographics. The same study found men are twice as likely as women to be influenced by blogger reviews while shopping. The study also found men were most likely to be influenced by YouTube, while women use Pinterest most frequently when making purchase decisions.

Find the Right Influencers

Now that you have a better understanding of which platforms work for your brand, it’s time to identify individual influencers. You may be tempted to shoot for the stars and only approach accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. However, influencer marketing is not a popularity contest to find the account with the most followers. The point of influencer marketing is to get results working with influencers who have built trust and credibility with your target audience.

Yes, it would be a huge win if someone with a million followers promoted your brand, but if their followers don’t match your target market, it’s not going to help you very much. Micro-influencers, or accounts with fewer than 100,000 followers, can be just as influential as big-name celebrities. They offer a more personal connection with their followers, charge less per post and may be more focused on a niche market.

Examine the target audience you set earlier. What kind of social media accounts do they follow? What content will they be interested in? Let those questions drive your search. Your ideal influencer’s account should align with your brand messaging and provide relevant content to your target audience.

The Approach

Once you’ve decided on the kind of influencers you are looking for, you have a couple choices on how to approach them. One option is to research influencers manually by searching industry hashtags or simply googling top influencers in your industry.

While you search, pay attention to influencers’ engagement rates just as much as their number of followers. If an account has 10,000 followers but regularly get thousands of likes or hundreds of comments, you’ll know you’re reaching a highly engaged audience. When you send a message to request a partnership, explain why you’re interested in working with them specifically and why they should want to represent your brand. Don’t forget, their credibility is on the line, too.

Though searching for influencers yourself is free, it takes a lot of time to find the right ones and build those relationships. If you have the budget (or don’t have the time), look into using an influencer marketing platform. These services offer access to databases featuring thousands of users and social media posts. You can search and quickly identify influencers who meet the criteria you determined for your brand and contact them directly through the platform.

Consult on Content

When brainstorming the actual content, consider your campaign’s needs and consult with the influencer. Remember, these influencers are experts on your target market. Take a step back and let them do their thing. The whole goal of influencer marketing is authenticity, and it’s not very authentic if you just give the influencer a canned message to post. The content should be a genuine blend of your brand’s messaging and your influencer’s style. Audiences can tell when a brand has completely overtaken the message, and they don’t like it.

Depending on your needs, you might ask an influencer to publish a set number of sponsored social media posts, write a product review or join you for a podcast or video interview. Don’t be afraid to let them decide the direction and let their personality shine through in the content. It may lead to new ideas and opportunities you never considered.