IG Influencer Marketing: Why Customer Subsets Beat Follower Counts

Liv Soibelman, head of e-commerce at Blueprint by Brian Johnson, breaks down how she sources influencers on Instagram despite never posting there herself since 2017. Her core approach starts with a customer acquisition mindset rather than a follower count mindset: she maps out distinct audience subsets she needs to reach, such as millennial moms, chefs, or athletes, and then finds the creators who already have those audiences.

She argues that real influence is visible if you spend enough time on the platform, because truly influential creators generate noise that other people pick up and amplify. Once you identify the right bucket of influencers and start working with them, their peers inside that same community will begin reaching out to you organically, which is how a small program compounds into a robust one fast.

For brands serious about IG influencer marketing, this video resolves the hardest early question: where do you actually start when no one is coming to you yet.