Influencer Marketing
In just six years the global influencer marketing industry has grown from $1.7 billion to $16.4 billion. It is one of the most popular and effective ways to grow a business. Influencer marketing also fosters long-term relationships within industries.
A well-thought-out influencer marketing strategy can help you build brand awareness, increases impressions, and skyrocket sales. But if you ignore the common marketing mistakes made in this guide, then it’s unlikely you’ll breed any results.
Like with any marketing campaign, influencer marketing requires strategy, planning, and analysis. Keep reading below to learn what not to do in your upcoming influencer marketing campaign!
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing involves leveraging the influential (quite fitting) power of social media content creators to build brand awareness.
The word influencer wasn’t officially deemed a vocabulary term until 2016, about six years after the boom of influencer marketing. With the free real estate of social media being ever more saturated and challenging to grow, influencer marketing provides brands with a more controlled space to grow rapidly.
Nothing is free anymore in social media. Either you pay ads, or you spend hours studying algorithms, or you pay influencers with free products and/or a contract and watch your brand bloom.
However, maybe you’ve tried influencer marketing in the past and not seen results. This is not a result of influencer marketing as a whole, but usually the outcome of marking one of the influencer marketing mistakes below.
Influencer Marketing Is Analytical
Influencer marketing is a science and while sometimes the investment is high, the returns can be even higher. When we worked with social influencer Jake Paul, our client gained 78,000 new followers, 141,868 impressions, and 5,000 new email subscribers.
This is because we worked with the right influencer for that brand, at the right moment, and had their backend prepared to handle the substantial influx in traffic.
Top Five Influencer Marketing Mistakes
Influencer marketing expenditure is expected to reach $4.6 billion annually in the United States alone. More companies are recognizing the impact of running a successful influencer marketing campaign.
Yet some companies fall flat with common influencer marketing mistakes like working with the wrong influencer, not staying in touch with an influencer after a campaign, or even sending an influencer the wrong product choice.
There are so many mistakes that come with influencer marketing. Luckily by reading this guide you can avoid making them and spend your dollars wisely.
1. Picking the Wrong Influencer
Sometimes brands approach influencer marketing as if it’s a high school popularity contest. Influencer marketing is not about who is the most attractive, most followed person on social media.
It is about who has an audience similar to your target customers. These are the influencers you have to go for. The most subtle trap happens when brands choose influencers that would be their potential customers.
Just because a person fits your niche as a potential customer it doesn’t mean that is why their audience follows them. For example, a male who buys cleaning supplies has a successful food blog. Sure, other people who clean might follow him, but they are most likely following his opinions on food, not cleaning products.
In this case, a snack company would be better suited for this collaboration. Consider everything about an influencer’s audience from their demographic, to their location, income, and more.
2. Solely Focusing on Vanity Metrics
Follower counts and views are a part of the picture, but not the whole picture.
When collaborating with an influencer, make sure to not only pay attention to their following but also their engagement. Engagement rates are measured by activity within each post. How many impressions, likes, comments, shares, and saves do their posts get on average?
Ask influencers upfront before making a deal. You can also do some research and identify their engagement and study their past partnerships. The greater follower count usually means more impressions and conversions, but these mega influencers usually come with a much higher cost.
3. Poor Timing
Sometimes the timing of an influencer campaign is just off. Are you running a swim campaign in November? Or maybe a hot chocolate campaign in May.
Influencer campaigns require a lot of back-and-forths negotiating and brainstorming. This can cause major delays in actually finishing the project. It is important to set your timing and proposal deadlines in advance to make sure your campaign launches at a time that makes sense for your market and season.
4. Missing Backend Preparation
The goal of any influencer campaign is traction and growth. That can be in the form of subscribers, donations, or purchases. And sometimes influencer campaigns wildly outperform your expectations.
But if your backend is not prepared you might run out of product or your website might crash. This is the worst thing as these people will not return to try and checkout or sign up for your newsletter.
You do only have one shot, and there’s no time to blow it. Make sure your prices are right, discounts functioning, links are in bio, and more before launching a campaign.
5. Forgetting Contracts
Some influencers are very professional and others work more like spontaneous freelancers. Regardless it’s your responsibility to draw up a contract.
This sets clear expectations for work and deadlines. It also protects your business in the case that an influencer breaks a contract or doesn’t complete all agreed-upon tasks.
Unfortunately, this happens sometimes, especially with inexperienced influencers, and you need to protect yourself.
Consider Onboarding a Digital Marketing Agency
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool, but not all influencers are created equal. Working with the wrong influencers is one of the most common marketing mistakes. It can be more costly than the small cost, and high ROI of outsourcing a digital marketing agency.
An influencer marketing agency picks the right influencers for your brand goals and budget. They help you create a cohesive marketing strategy.
This means organic social content, influencer marketing, SEO, and even your web design. For help with your digital marketing, schedule a get in touch today!