With their niche content and highly engaged audiences, nano influencers have become an integral part of influencer marketing — with the highest percentage (39.5%) of Instagram creators being nano influencers. 

Marketers are increasingly looking for nano influencers due to lower rates and more engagement. 

But where do you find creators that fit your brand and can reach your target audience? 

This article details 11 ways to find nano influencers for your next campaign, how to vet them, and what factors to consider before you collaborate with them.

Let's go! 

Why work with nano influencers? 

Nano influencers are defined as content creators with followers from 1000 to 10,000. With their comparatively smaller audience, they get more engagement from their audience and are perceived as more authentic. 

According to our research, nano-influencers with fewer than 5,000 followers have the highest engagement rates of over 5%.‍

Nano influencers bring a more relatable and easy-going vibe that stands out from the heavily stylized content of mega and celebrity influencers. Let's have a look at some reasons why you should work with nano influencers: 

• More engagement: They have a dedicated audience that engages with their content and actually listens to their product recommendations resulting in a more impactful brand sponsorship.  
• More trustworthy: Your audience is more likely to listen to nano influencers when making purchases. It's like listening to a best friend or getting reviews from a family member — someone you can trust. 
• Lower cost: Nano influencers have lower fees and are also willing to create content around free products they receive as PR packages. 
• Higher enthusiasm: Brands want to work with influencers who are highly interested in their company. Nano influencers have specific niches and are quite passionate about creating content in that industry.
  
  

11 ways to find nano influencers 

Now that you've seen how brands can benefit from collaborating with nano influencers, let's go through the 11 ways you can find nano influencers for your next campaign. 

1. Use an influencer discovery tool 

One of the easiest and most reliable ways to discover nano influencers is through an influencer discovery tool. Let's take the example of Modash — with highly advanced filters (influencer and audience), you can specify exactly what you’re looking for, and you’ll have a list of influencers matching your requirements in a few seconds. 

Select a platform

You’ll start by signing up to modash.io and heading to the Discovery tab. Here, choose your desired social media platform — TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. 

If you want to find nano influencers for Instagram, select Instagram. The method is similar for other platforms as well. 

Start applying filters 

Now, it's time to start applying filters; the first is the follower count.

Note: Although it's generally considered that nano influencers have followers from 1K to 10K, it also depends on your location, industry, and niche. So, remember to experiment with the follower range and see the options it gives you. 

You can add other filters, like audience location, gender, growth rate, engagement rate, etc., to refine your search. 

✅Pro-tip: Start with a few filters and then continue to apply more, one by one. It will ensure you don't miss out on the right influencers for your brand by being too specific in the beginning. Apply a filter, see the results, and then add more filters to gradually go through the influencers and add them to your list. 

Analyze the profiles 

By now, you will have a list of nano influencers you like. It's time to analyze the profiles individually and check important metrics like fake followers, recent posts and how they are performing, top content, and much more. 

With Modash's influencer analytics, you can find all this and more about each influencer and then decide accordingly. Doing this analysis will help you personalize your outreach process while also ensuring you are selecting the absolute right influencers for your campaigns. 

Finding nano influencers who suit your brand can be a bit tricky. There are a lot of factors to consider and metrics to evaluate before you collaborate with someone. 

Modash provides you with in-depth details on any influencer to ensure you make confident choices so your campaigns are a success. You can pull up the profiles of specific influencers, see all the critical metrics and learn all about their account with just a couple of clicks.

Try a 14-day free trial to explore everything you can do with Modash and see if it's what you're looking for.

2. Search for nano-influencers in your customer base 

Sometimes, to find the best match, you don't have to look too far. Have a look at your customer base, people who tag your brand on social media after buying your product, and see if they fit your criteria. 

Also, search your followers on social media and see if any nano influencer follows you. Chances are, they already love your product and will jump at the opportunity to collaborate with you. 

Keep an eye on people engaging with your posts or sharing your content. Since these people are already interacting with your brand, there is a good chance they would love to promote your products. 

You can also see if any colleague or employee is a part-time nano influencer and ask them to promote your products. This can be a bit challenging as people might assume it's an endorsement of a company they work at. 

3. Use hashtags on social media platforms 

Hashtags are a great way to find relevant content and profiles on social media platforms. Search for hashtags within your industry and find thousands of nano influencers who create high-quality content that matches your brand's needs. 

If you are a skincare brand looking for nano influencers on Instagram, you can search for hashtags like #skincare, #skincareproducts, or #skincarebrands, and the platform will give you thousands of posts. 

While it can be an easy way to find influencers, chances are, you won't have much luck with it as this method has several problems: 

• Hashtags show the most popular posts, which aren't always from nano influencers. 
• You will have to look at every influencer and use an influencer analysis tool to evaluate their audience. 
• It takes painfully long to look at each post, see the influencer who posted it, check their other content and audience, and then decide if they are suitable for your brand. 

The hashtag #skincare alone gives you millions of posts, which is pretty impossible to comb through to find your perfect nano influencers. 

4. Find influencers who are already posting relevant content

Nano influencers are highly active on social media as they aim to increase their followers and constantly search for brands to collaborate with. 

Nano influencers also create content their audience likes and focus on providing an authentic experience to their followers. So, keep an eye out for creators posting products, reviews, or their experience with relevant products and companies. 

If you're a health and wellness company, look for influencers creating content around fitness and workouts. Look at this post by Jen Lauren, a self-care influencer, sharing her experience with a massage machine. 

This post isn't sponsored, and with more than 5K followers, Jen is the perfect nano influencer to collaborate with The Body Roll Studio or other relevant competitors. 

5. Search on Google 

Google is a great way to find anything. It can be a bit unreliable, but you can find lists of nano influencers to work with. Type "your industry + nano influencers," and you will get hundreds of lists of various nano influencers. 

Don't forget to check the Video tab, as you will find some great reels on TikTok or Instagram there. 

✅Pro-tip: If you decide to rely on Google to find nano influencers, be as specific as possible in your search query, go through multiple lists and rely on the most recent ones, as these things keep changing. 

6. Find influencer lookalikes 

This is a great way to find influencers for brands who have previously worked with some influencers and are looking to expand their influencer marketing. 

To find similar influencers to those you have worked with before, you can find lookalikes through the following ways: 

Use Modash's influencer lookalike tool 

In Modash, go to the Discovery tool, and add the influencer's username. You'll get a list of influencers who are similar to the original one. 

You can also add filters to this list, like engagement rates, audience location, etc., to further refine your search and find the best matches for your next campaign. 

For example, if you're looking for lookalikes for Kayla Compton, add her username, and Modash will give you a list of similar influencers.     

Look through an influencer's following

More often than not, an influencer is following other similar influencers in the same industry or niche. This process can get a little laborsome — especially if an influencer is following many accounts. 

Check out suggested accounts

Each social media platform suggests relevant accounts to you based on your likes, follows, and shares. 

The "For You" page on TikTok or "Search" page on Instagram is filled with content relevant to you. Here, you can find influencers in your niche. YouTube's algorithm also recommends relevant creators and channels based on your previous viewing history. 

You can also check out suggested accounts using the "downward arrow" on Instagram and TikTok. Go through these accounts to see if a nano influencer is relevant to you. 

7. Work with an influencer marketing agency 

Working with an influencer marketing agency is beneficial as they are experts in the field and will do all the heavy lifting for you. Most influencer marketing agencies provide the following services: 

• Influencer discovery and analysis 
• Content creation and distribution 
• Contracts, influencer briefs, and other nitty-gritty details 
• Influencer payments
• Maintaining long-term influencer relationships 

So, if you have the budget, working with an agency can benefit your campaigns. You might have less creative freedom depending on how the agency operates, or they might have a limited number of influencers they collaborate with. 

✅Pro-tip: Do thorough research and ask important questions like what industry the agency specializes in, how many influencers they have access to, and what their entire process is. 

8. Ask your network 

A lot of us follow nano influencers on social media and are invested in seeing them grow. You can ask your friends or family to see if they know content creators relevant to your niche. 

You can also ask other influencers you have worked with for recommendations or check if any influencer you like has partnered with some other influencers in their past content. 

9. Create a brand ambassador program 

A brand ambassador program is a great way to attract talented and skillful creators to your brand. Many nano influencers are brand ambassadors, and it's a great way to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. 

Create a landing page for a brand ambassador program, add all the details, and start generating inbound traffic from Google. Focus on the perks and the program's exclusivity. Also, highlight FOMO (fear of missing out) so more content creators apply for the program.

Bolt, a leading transportation platform in Europe and Africa, has one of the most impressive brand ambassador programs. The program doesn't specify influencers' follower count and encourages everyone to become an ambassador. 

The result? It has over 500 influencers across 18 countries, creating content for them on a long-term basis, making Bolt the third fastest-growing European company. 

10. Attend industry-related events 

Check out industry-related events, seminars, or conferences to find passionate nano influencers for your brand. This step works exceptionally well for B2B and SaaS companies looking for nano influencers. 

Check out the speaker lists for various conferences and see if you can find a potential collaborator relevant to your audience. A huge advantage of this method is these speakers already have massive authority over their industry — people listen to them and ask for their expertise. 

11. Creator marketplace 

You can find authentic influencers through the creator marketplace of each platform — like TikTok Creator Marketplace, YouTube BrandConnect, or Instagram Creator Marketplace. 

While these marketplaces have vetted influencers, the number of creators is minimal. Apart from that, they have the following drawbacks: 

• They are limited to specific countries, so if you are looking to partner with local influencers or launch international campaigns, it would be impossible to do so through the marketplace. 
• You are limited to the platforms on these marketplaces. If you are searching on YouTube BrandConnect, it will only help you find YouTube influencers. 

3 ways to vet nano influencers 

After following the steps mentioned above, you will have a list of nano influencers that are relevant to your brand and look promising. So, how do you ensure they are the best influencers to collaborate with? 

Let's look at the three factors you need to consider before making any decision: 

1. Check authenticity 

It's pretty easy for people to pretend on social media; therefore, being authentic, genuine, and reliable is one of the most important things to consider in an influencer. 

As mentioned above, you can use the influencer analytics tool to evaluate an influencer's profile — check for fake followers, engagement and growth rate, and audience. 

In addition to these metrics, you must ensure the influencer you move ahead with has credibility in their industry. See if their audience listens to them, takes their suggestion on specific issues, and listens to them regarding products and brands. 

Kayla Compton, a content creator with 2400 followers, shows her workday at Starbucks. The reel is authentic and shows her daily life without any exaggeration. People respond to content like this, and for brands, this can be a great way to do product placement or other collaboration. 

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2. See if they understand your product

Nano influencers have a pretty niche audience, so you want to work with influencers who understand your product and can effectively convince their audience to buy it. 

If you are a healthcare brand, reach out to influencers like registered nurses or physicians, who know your product, understand its usage and benefits, and can convincingly show the audience its value. 

The most effective influencers are the ones who know what they are talking about, resulting in their followers genuinely listening to them. 

Kamalani Remley, a nutrition influencer, shares her love for the Safe Catch brand in her post (not sponsored). The post shows her deep understanding of the product and its benefits and encourages her audience to buy low-mercury fish recommending Safe Catch. 

3. Analyze their audience 

Your influencer marketing campaigns aim to put your brand in front of people who might be interested in your brand. So, when looking for a nano influencer, it's extremely crucial to collaborate with someone whose followers are your target audience. 

Otherwise, your campaign might not be as impactful in raising brand awareness and increasing sales. You can analyze the audience with data (quantitatively) and through engagements and comments (qualitatively).

Now that you've found the perfect nano influencers, what's next?

Nano influencers are becoming increasingly popular because of their higher engagement rate, more enthusiasm, and lower rates. And brands are noticing! Nano influencers have a positive impact on brand reach and sales and marketers are more eager to work with smaller creators. 

The above-mentioned ways will help you find the best nano influencers for your next campaign. But what's next? 

You want to ensure a smooth outreach and recruitment process, with all the nuts and bolts properly taken care of. Check out our in-depth guide to successfully recruit influencers here.

And to make sure your influencer marketing campaigns run smoothly, Modash gives you everything on one platform — find influencers, get their contact details, and manage your campaigns..

Sign up for your 14-day free trial today to see how Modash can help you work faster & smarter on your next campaign.