5 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Building Your Influencer Strategy
While it is evident that Influencer Marketing can reap various benefits for a business, it is imperative to consider the potential mistakes brands make when utilizing this tool.
Influencer marketing is not as simple as choosing a popular Instagram account and throwing money at them. If used incorrectly, this approach can cost you thousands of dollars, however, if you avoid these common mistakes, Influencer Marketing can skyrocket your brand.
A recent study by Tomoson reported that businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
Avoid these 5 common mistakes to be among the businesses reaping these enormous benefits:
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Choosing the wrong influencer:
Brands will often select influencers based on their follower count. While in some cases, more followers means more engagement, this is not always true. The influencer should be chosen based on their values, personality and fittingness for the brand. Researching different influencers in the same niche will give you a better idea of who you should choose for your brand.
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Focusing on one social media platform:
Focusing solely on a single social media platform will hold your brand back from reaching a new audience. While it is natural to place greater emphasis on the platform where you have built the greatest presence, you are restricting your brand from reaching an entirely new demographic. Using influencers to direct attention towards platforms where your presence is lacking can be a good strategy to connect with new people.
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Making short-term collaborations:
It takes time to build trust with your consumers; don’t expect too much too soon. While you may experience some short-term gains, steady progress will often yield the best results. If the influencer campaign has achieved favourable returns in the short-term, focus on building a long-term relationship to achieve sustainable growth.
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Lacking authentic communication:
Cliché statements and captions will appear unauthentic. Using personalised messages and giving influencers an opportunity to voice their personal thoughts on the product will be perceived as more authentic and trustworthy by the audience. Finding an influencer that truly believes in the product will make this process significantly easier.
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Not having a proper strategy in place:
Implementing an influencer campaign because it is the ‘in-thing’ is the wrong approach to be taking. Before reaching out to an influencer, it is vital that you have a well-developed plan in place. To keep your brand on track, outline the end-goal of the campaign, whether it be more impressions or followers, then formulate a strategy to reach these goals. This will help determine which areas were effective and which areas need work for the next campaign.
While influencer marketing campaigns can reap various benefits for your business, it is vital that you avoid these basic errors to achieve the results you are seeking.
How Has Influencer Marketing Changed In 2020?
The rise of influencer marketing has grown substantially over the past few years, and it’s not going to stop anytime soon. Considered to be one of the most valuable forms of marketing present on social media, many companies are turning to influencers who operate in the relevant niche to promote their products and brand name to their followers. This provides companies with increased exposure amongst their target market and enables the generation of sales and revenue.
However, influencer marketing has changed and developed in order to keep up with the changing times. Here are some ways in which influencer marketing has changed in 2020:
Surpassing The Superficial
In the past, the influencer marketing industry relied heavily upon social media metrics such as follower counts, likes and engagement to gauge success. However, today these vanity metrics are believed to offer nothing of value and is not an accurate indication for which influencer would be best for the brand.
In fact, Facebook’s recent decision to remove the amount of likes on their platforms, such as Instagram, encourages people to shift their focus away from these vanity metrics. Instead, it prompts them to direct their attention more towards valuable metrics, such as audience demographics, reach, impressions and video views delivered to gauge the suitability of an influencer to promote a particular brand.
More Content
Traditionally, platforms like Facebook and Instagram primarily delivered picture and text-based content. However, drastic improvements in interned speed have resulted in more and more influencers creating and delivering audio and video content to their follows. In 2020, people are to expect influencers to increasingly utilise video content.
This is expected to greatly benefit brands as video content is considered to deliver higher audience engagement more and also generate higher ad clicks.
Building Long-Term Influencer Relationships
In the past, brands commonly used influencers on a campaign by campaign basis, meaning that they would utilise an array of different influencers for each campaign or promotion at the time. However, brands are now discovering the benefits associated with forming lasting, long-term relationships with their influencers. By consistently using one or a small group of influencers, it enables brands to save time, money and effort by not having to continuously search for new influencers for each campaign run.
2020 is a year of great change and that rings true for the influencer marketing industry. Despite the developments and alterations experienced by the industry as of present, these changes are essential to ensuring that the industry remains current and adequately promotes a brand and its products to the specified target audience.