Influencer marketing: who hasn’t heard of it yet? It’s about connecting with the right people to get your message across authentically. However, when the strategies are poorly executed, certain mistakes can prevent your business from exploiting their enormous potential. So best to avoid these most common mistakes brands make when it comes to influencer marketing!
Mistake #1: Not setting a goal for your influencer marketing campaign
Every marketing campaign should have a defined goal, whether it’s driving conversions, building customer loyalty, or increasing brand awareness. Some make the mistake of launching an influence marketing campaign without a specific objective!
Since they don’t know exactly what they want out of the campaign, they don’t know how to measure their performance. They will therefore not know whether their campaign is successful or not. They also won’t know if their campaign is generating the desired ROI because they don’t have a clear idea of what metrics to measure their performance against.
Mistake #2: Prioritizing Scope Over Context
Influencer marketing isn’t just about partnering with content creators who have a lot of followers. Many brands make the mistake of working with an influencer because of their follower count and end up neglecting what really matters: content suitability and engagement rates.
Numbers aren’t everything, so be sure to look at the whole influencer picture when looking at your influencers and don’t pick someone just because they have a lot of followers. Look at the number of comments on her blog posts and her social media engagement rates to gauge how active she is.
Mistake #3: Finding Uncreative Campaign Concepts
Many brands hire an influencer and give them generic content to post expecting amazing results. Results ? Usually, nothing really spectacular! Nobody wins when the campaign lacks creativity. You need to think of a fun and engaging campaign angle if the partnership with influencers is long term. Think of ways to incorporate contests, giveaways, Q&As, etc. The more you involve the influencer, the better the results will be.
Mistake #4: Lack of Authentic Communication
Communication and authenticity play a huge role in influencer marketing, just like any relationship for that matter. In fact, the best 1:1 relationships happen when the brand thinks about building real relationships with real people. Avoid “prepared” or clichéd statements and personalize each message.
Mistake #5: Hiding your partnership
Don’t hide your relationship with influencers and make sure influencers don’t hide your relationship. When your followers find out (and they will), it will destroy your credibility! If you pay the influencer in any way, they must disclose that relationship. If they don’t, you’re putting your reputation at risk and risk losing the trust of your followers.
Mistake #6: Not Trusting Influencers
As a brand, you must accept that influencers are first and foremost content creators. Instead of bombarding them with too much detail, give them some space. Influencers know their stuff well. They produce high-quality content that has generated good levels of engagement. When partnering with an influencer, don’t set rules that are too specific or you risk creating poor quality content. Influencer marketing campaigns that are too detailed will result in content that looks inauthentic as the influencer loses their own style in an effort to meet your expectations.
Mistake #7: Establishing a partnership for the short term
Influencer marketing shouldn’t be a one-time approach. If you feel like you’re doing well with an influencer, then why not keep it? In short, long-term partnerships are essential for success in influencer marketing.
Ultimately, influencer marketing can be a great thing for your brand. No matter who you are and what your brand is about, influencers can help you get your bearings if you do it the right way.