“The magic of marketing is when the message meets the medium,” said Najla Kayyem, executive vice president of marketing for Pacific Retail Capital Partners. Influencers, people who have built loyal communities around their social media content, are the most trusted advisers for many customers when it comes to purchasing decisions. Influencer marketing has evolved greatly during the past 15 years, from the era of bloggers to the advent of nano-influencers.

One reason for influencers’ success is their authenticity and relatability. Influencers “tell a story,” Kayyem explained. “They tell stories for brands. They tell stories about their experiences. And good stories told well over time, to the right audience, inspire people to act.”

A recent study by Influencer Marketing Hub showed that 61% of consumers trust influencer marketing recommendations, compared with only 38% who trust brand recommendations. 

So how do you identify the right influencer for your brand or small business? And what are the best practices for influencer marketing? At ICSC LAS VEGAS, a panel of marketing experts offered their top tips for best practices.

1. Figure out your objectives.

Before you begin your influencer marketing campaign, define your objectives clearly. What do you hope to achieve? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads or boost sales? Or as The Dealey Group director of account management Liz Glosson suggested, perhaps you want to push a new retailer that’s opening or drive traffic to a Santa photo op. Understanding your goals will help you identify the right influencers and measure the success of your campaign. Whitestone REIT COO Christine Mastandrea said: “If you don’t know what your goals are, you’re going to be shooting a shotgun versus a rifle shot. You have to be smart there, and then move on to the next steps.”

2. Come up with a budget.

Glosson pointed out that today’s influencers come in categories. “You've got celebrity influencers, expert influencers, nano-influencers,” she said. Macro-influencers, who have 100,000 to a million followers, typically command higher fees. In contrast, micro-influencers with fewer than 10,000 followers and nano-influencers, who have a relatively small but highly engaged follower base, often work on trade or smaller budgets. “Some nano-influencers are stay-at-home moms, for instance, who just want free products,” Glosson said.

Your budget will guide your influencer selection and the scope of your campaign. It’s essential to be realistic about what your budget can achieve. A smaller budget might mean collaborating with micro-influencers who have highly engaged, niche audiences, while a larger budget could allow you to work with celebrities or macro-influencers for a broader reach. There’s no reason to psych yourself out about the high prices that some celebrity influencers demand. With influencer marketing, really, “everybody can get into this game,” Glosson said. She shared an example from a few years ago. “I had eighth graders, and I gave them $100 gift cards to the mall. They spent it at various stores, documented their experiences and created amazing TikToks that resonated with their age group. You can absolutely do influencer marketing on a budget, even by leveraging trade.”

3. Identify your brand.

Selecting the right influencers is crucial. “You don’t want to get aligned with someone who’s not going to represent your brand,” said Ashlyn Booth, executive vice president and senior director of strategy and marketing for retail property management at JLL. Start by thinking about your store or brand’s persona. She explained: “Every property has an identity. What do people feel when they come to your property [or your store]? What is the experience they have when they’re there? What are the values you imbue? Find someone who aligns with that.”

You also need to understand your target audience’s preferences and behaviors. Who are they, and what do they care about? Are they young, tech-savvy individuals, or are they families looking for wholesome experiences? What platforms are they on: X? TikTok? YouTube? That information will help drive your influencer decision. “Figure out who your audience is, then make sure you’re picking the right influencer who is able to communicate to that audience,” Mastandrea said.

4. Think local.

Consumers are invested in local influencers because they feel the most authentic. These influencers often have deep understandings of their communities and can create content that genuinely reflects local culture and preferences. Leveraging local influencers can help build a more personal and relatable brand image. “We put together our promotions and programs seasonally,” Booth said. “We’re working with 50 different locations. I’ve got properties in Vancouver and properties down in South Texas. In the past, when we would do a campaign, we would pick a persona, one or two people, to represent the entirety of our portfolio. My marketing managers would say things like: ‘This doesn’t feel like my market. It doesn’t feel like my community.’” That’s why local, or nano-, influencers often feel more credible than celebrities, whom consumers know are paid thousands for their content.

The lack of credibility is what Zelnik director of national advisory Kyle Inserra encountered when he decided to hire influencers to promote his New York restaurants. “We had influencers with 128,000 followers from the city offering to create content for us, but it did nothing. Instead, we were hospitable to the local moms and dads who coached Little League, and they posted pictures of their kids eating pizza and having a great time.” That brought in the crowd. “This became our strategy: focusing on these smaller, community-based influencers,” Inserra said. He suggests other small businesses do the same. Such influencers “may not have had large followings, but they are influential in their own right within the community.”

5. Search out influencers.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed or go down a rabbit hole trying to find the right influencers. Start, Glosson recommended, by exploring popular social media platforms Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X and Facebook. Search out hashtags that relate to your business, such as #EcoFriendlyProducts if your business focuses on sustainable and environmentally friendly items or #HomeDecor if your focus is on interior design and home accessories. Google and blog searches also can find influencers. Look for bloggers who rank high in search results for keywords related to your products or services, or see if any have been cited in local stories. Reporters more frequently are looking to influencers for quotes.

You also could just look to your frequent shoppers. “Find someone who loves to come and hang out at your restaurants and brings their kids there and comes early in the morning for yoga. It’s their third place. Find someone [for whom] your property is their third place and partner with them, and they will tell the story for you,” said Booth.

6. Be specific in your ask.

Make sure influencers you hire stay on message and promote the aspects of your brand or campaign that align with your objectives. “We were very specific in the content we wanted them to produce,” Booth said. “We had a very detailed manual of what they could produce, what we wanted for that shopping center, what to film, so we were creating a consistent message.” At the same time, don't be overly controlling.Allow room for creativity. “We gave them six different content scenarios with very specific instructions of the content we wanted produced, and we sort of let them go,” Booth added.

Allowing influencers some creative freedom leads to more engaging and authentic content. “Lean into being a show, not a commercial,” said Inserra. This approach encourages influencers to showcase your brand in a way that resonates with their audience rather than appearing overly promotional. “My mind was blown when the first couple of videos started coming in. I could not get over the quality of the content that was being produced by these influencers, just the video skills,” said Booth.

7. Measure success.

Partnerships with influencers “only matter if there are results,” said Mastandrea. “Questions I always ask [influencers] are: How is this going to make money for my clients and how is that going to pay off for us being the landlord and for people coming into this space?” Measuring influencer marketing success requires tailored metrics aligned with specific objectives. “When we started working with micro-influencers and navigating this space, it was eye-opening,” Mastandrea reflected. “They used terms like ‘impression’ that were unfamiliar to me. What does an ‘impression’ really mean, and how does it contribute to our goals?” That’s why, as mentioned before, establishing clear objectives and metrics from the beginning is crucial. “We want to make sure that it gets monetized,” Mastandrea said.

8. Look into the future.

Trends are always changing, and today, artificial intelligence is taking the front seat, even in the influencer industry. According to Booth, this underscores the importance of always looking ahead. In February, JLL made headlines as the first shopping center owner to introduce a virtual influencer. Named Cindy, this virtual shopping “bestie” was developed by AI provider Imaginuity and rolled out across 13 shopping centers in the U.S. Cindy’s goal over a two-month campaign was to promote, on each center’s website and social media, local events and sales offered by retailers. “We went through numerous iterations to perfect Cindy,” explained Booth. “Our goal was to embrace technology and explore its potential in this space. Plus, sourcing and managing 50 influencers across 50 diverse markets is time-consuming. This approach allowed us to create a unified voice for multiple properties.”

Glosson, who assisted with the rollout, highlighted the challenge of ensuring Cindy’s authenticity across different demographics and climates. “Customizing Cindy’s appearance and outfits for each market was crucial,” she noted. “Each property had its own content specialists, enabling tailored content for retailers.” Cindy was not interactive AI but offered fashion advice, shopping tips and dining recommendations through pre-produced content. The campaign yielded impressive results: Within a month of launch, online website sessions across participating shopping centers increased by 500%, new site users by over 1,000% and page views by nearly 500%. And though some audiences might be leery of AI influencers, it’s important not to look away, Glosson said, and to keep your eye on this trend.

9. Be Ok with experimenting.

“I have a motto with my team: Fail fast,” said Glosson. The moral of this new influencer-driven landscape is: Try it all, be innovative and embrace new things. It’s OK to make mistakes because content is ephemeral. “If a post doesn’t work, you can delete it and try something else,” Glosson added. “Back in the day, when we started shopping center marketing, whatever you created lasted forever. If you bought ads or produced radio or TV commercials, you had to live with them. Now, you can literally change things on the fly,” said Booth.

But first, you must jump in and get started.