Nowadays, influencer marketing is being embraced by brands of many industries and sizes. However, when done right, influencer marketing can bring plenty of benefits to your company, including:
- More brand awareness
- The likelihood of forming fanbases (online and offline), AND
- Nurture long-lasting relationships
In other words, it’s not good to see influencer marketing as “earning media.” In fact, influencer marketing isn’t about getting social media coverage or earning money from it. It’s about marketing to your consumers with reputable people vouching for your brand.
Lauren Groff writer at UKWritings and Academized, outlines 10 of the common mistakes to avoid in influencer marketing:
Coming off as ‘spammy’
Many professional influencers know that spamming their followers is a NO-GO. That means that when you work with an influencer, then you’ll know that spamming your consumer base will cause people to turn away and brand you as spam.
Remember that influencers are there to give your brand a good word. Therefore, make sure that you and the influencer establish a healthy posting schedule to ensure that all social media posts aren’t spammy.
KPIs that aren’t clear enough
Key performance indicators (KPIs) tell you how well your campaigns are doing, and how you can improve. For this, you’ll need to do your research before you start a campaign, so that you get a clear idea on how well you want your campaigns to do, especially when working with influencers.
Rushing when selecting influencers
When working with influencers, they need to, first of all, HAVE an audience to influence. So, you may want to stay clear of selecting influencers with small followings, since they won’t help you reach wider audiences. Rather, opt for influencers that have followings in the thousands. Also, look for influencers that post great-quality content, and have plenty of availability on their hands.
Relying on the wrong metrics
As you learn to understand the metrics, make sure that you’re relying on the right ones. While seeing that an influencer has thousands of followers is great, make sure that they’re good for your brand metric-wise. In other words, ask yourself why they have such a massive following to begin with. Chances are, you’ll accidentally wind up with an influencer who has bots for followers – That’s never something that you want for your brand.
Not having the right outreach methods
If this is the first time your brand is doing an influencer marketing campaign, then be sure to test the waters before going into it 100%. That means ensuring that you’re adapting the right methods of outreach. Learn from the most successful influencers and brands, and what strategies that they implement to boost results.
Not including details and key terms in contract
One of the most important parts of influencer marketing is having an agreement with the influencer. Agreements and contracts protect both the brand and the influencer from any misunderstandings. Not giving details or leaving out key terms will result in failed partnerships. Plus, any loopholes unaddressed will cause one side of the partnership to fall away, or make any other violations.
Make sure your contract addresses the following:
- Rules on the use of content
- Rules on recycling content
- Rules on republishing or resharing content
- Expected deliverables
- A list of violations to avoid, etc.
Not knowing much about your brand
While every brand wants their products known by a target audience, there’s actually more to it than that. In other words, why do you want influencers to partner with you? What qualities and products do you want them to talk about? Plus, you have to make sure that the influencer you go with is relevant and trustworthy – but don’t push too hard, so that they can be themselves when representing your brand.
Limiting creativity
Creativity is the life blood of influencers. Without creativity – or even limiting it – will cause your influencer(s) to put out boring and dull content. That’s why it’s important to give them creative leeway, so that the content they put out is fresh and engaging.
Not placing influencers within their niche
As you let influencers have their creativity, make sure they know and love their niche 100%. For example, if you’re a brand that sells gym equipment, then you’ll need an influencer that goes to the gym regularly and posts about their adventures and misadventures of their workouts. In other words, you want your influencer to tell great stories about your brand, and even use hashtags that will lead consumers to your product or service.
Short-term partnerships
Finally, influencer marketing shouldn’t be a one-time thing. In fact, having a campaign mentality when working with influencers is never a good idea. If you feel that you’re doing so well with an influencer, then why not keep them? In short, long-term partnerships are key to being successful 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 take your business places.
By avoiding these ten common mistakes, you’ll not only create a successful influencer marketing campaign, but you’ll also work with influencers that will speak well about your brand.
