💬 Finding and sourcing high-quality personnel you want to work with, whether it be for influencers/creators, affiliates or some sort of thought-leader within your category, can take some time - and not to mention - not only finding them to contact, but then getting them excited and engaged, and them wanting to participate.
Recommended resource: I have a dedicated checklist to I'll with you here on increasing participation rates.
Learn more on affiliate participation rates
To find/source high-quality candidates, these are some of the tactics I've done over the years to work with awesome people across campaigns/initiatives.
💬 aAcross the below tactics, I've included some examples and of course channels/tools to further explore and test. :)
In the world of B2B and SaaS, no doubt that LinkedIn is one of the top/most active places when it comes to thought-leader content.
One of the best things you can subscribe to is LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find 'top voices' and those who actively share content on their feeds.
If you're product focuses on consumer-side, then you can find some awesome influencers and content creators on TikTok and Instagram.
They're some of the best types to go after too as they're used to developing engaging short-form content (which is an awesome strategy for B2B and SaaS brands, in my opinion).
Another social channel which is quite big in the world of tech, business, B2B and SaaS, is Twitter/X - there are many accounts, creators and brands that share value-focused content.
A great segment of potential influencers/creators to go after, are your paying users/customers - and why are they a good option? Because they already love and use your product where they see value.
Note: of course, segment users and request from those who've been active and using your product for a certain period of time.
Newsletters are nothing new, but they have really taken off in popularity in the past few years - especially thanks to the introduction of platforms such as Substack and Beehiiv, and also the fact that top thought-leaders from Silicon Valley and well-respected founders from around the globe, started doing newsletters actively which people can subscribe and engage with.
And thanks to these movements and the likes of organic social distribution, there are many that creators and thought-leaders that now have newsletters.
Typically, those who sign up to niche-dedicated newsletters are those who are genuinely interested in the topic and what the creator/thought-leader has to say, which in turn means quality of audience is there.
Next steps: find newsletter creators focused on your niche/category.
Creators on YouTube are some of the best quality influencers that you'll come across, in my opinion.
Having done YouTube myself with clients/brands, I know the level of effort that goes into producing med/long-form video content.So in short, the quality bar is already high.
You can easily find potential people to work with by simply doing a search on YouTube under a particular query, but there are also tools that can help.
There are numerous software vendors out there that make the process easy when it comes to finding top bloggers and content creators.
One of those is Ahrefs and their content explorer feature.
Some of the top creators and influencers I've found have happened through the likes of FB and Slack groups.
Typically you can find really great people who love to share their opinion/voice.
Many of them I've found to be like "micro" influencers - they don't really have a big following per se, but they do share great value in terms of content and discussions which people within the groups engage with.
When it comes to recruiting more great promoters for your brand, I've found just by asking some of the initial creators/influencers you work with to see if they recommend anyone that they know working with other brands, or even looking for some sort of opportunity.
You can always explore a small kick-back as well to say thanks and encourage any referrals.
As a recommendation to optimise the whole "experience" of working with promoters for your brand, you've got to make sure you are prepared on your end, especially when it comes to onboarding and activating.
Experienced creators/influencers do ask the right questions, and they will check to see how you operate/manage relationships for campaigns and content.
That's why I recommend investing in influencer software to manage end-to-end comms, tracking, and performance/analytics.
Recommended read: I curated my fave top influencer platforms (CRMs, databases, tracking/analytics, etc) to check out.
Check out various influencer platform options here
Related to the above checklist point, do some research on top affiliate programs within your niche, and see how they position their program and the sort of technology tools they're using.
Make sure to take note and track what your competitors are doing (make sure to setup a Google Sheet/Airtable) when it comes to influencers/affiliates - not all SaaS brands have affiliates, but there's a good chance they work with influencers/creators or some sort of thought-leaders.
Dissect the types of content they share, topics they focus on, how often (frequency), messaging/angles, CTAs, etc.
From there, you can then better understand the attributes of personnel you should be reaching out too.
A tactical initiative you could consider if you're looking to scale/get more distribution, is by setting up a partnership with complementary brands that have your desired personnel.
I've had mixed results over the years with "traditional" affiliate networks, such as CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, ShareASale, etc.
However, I've found and worked with some amazing affiliates and creators over the years that have produced some awesome results.
The reason why I love these networks, especially when you find the right personnel, is that they're experienced enough in terms of how they work and how to effectively promote to produce results. In terms of networks I recommend for SaaS and B2B brands, look into:
- Partnerize
- Impact
- Partnerstack
- Commission Factory
In-person industry-specific events and conferences I've great success with - you can't beat in-person connections over emails/LI (which are noisy for everyone).
Sometimes events/conferences can be a waste of time attending - however, the key thing here that I recommend is to go with a gameplan when attending, as you want to make the most of your time.
Research the speakers, sponsors, hosts, businesses that are attending (if you can find, etc) - plan to meet with key personnel.
From my experience, I've found some of the best thought-leaders and creator partnerships with people I've met at local meetups, especially in the world of startups and B2B.
Not all of them have huge followings, but they have awesome networks and have trusted voices within their specific networks.
You don't have to work with those with large followings to have success.
