The world economy has changed over the last recent years, and this new kind of economy that is also known as the gig economy or on-demand economy has given rise to new kinds of professionals. The new influencer marketers are a shining grail in the world of marketing that has gained impetus over the last couple of years. The phenomenon has been around for the last fifteen years but has gained prominence over the recent past. Brands and companies are also waking up to this change and adapting to the new trend.
Earlier, finding a face for your ad campaign was fairly easy. Take a sweeping glance at the TV soaps or movies, scan the world of athletes and you would come across several profiles who you would like to endorse your brand.
The present scenario is entirely different. With the advent of social media, the entire media gamut is now de-centralized and influencers can be found on multiple platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or streaming platforms like Twitch. With each influencer having their niche and their following, it is a huge market for instant and open connections.
Influencer marketing and its market have to be utilized with careful planning on the part of advertisers. While more and more businesses turn to influencers to leverage their fan following it is easy to get misguided creatively and end up losing revenue. Many businesses have now understood that running their influencer advertisements is not as easy a task as it may sound.
The one area that businesses can go wrong is that they approach influencer marketing in the same way that they approach other forms of marketing. This may have a very negative consequence as not every influencer is fit to root for every business. There are several factors that one needs to keep in mind while discovering the potential influencer for your business.
Let us find out what shortcomings one needs to avoid in the following points of discussion.
1. Keep your goals in sight while framing strategy
Not every size fits all. Therefore, while panning marketing managers must never forget what they are trying to achieve from the campaign. The goals must be laid out in black and white and defined in an exact way to make them relatable. The idea is not to generate reactions only, remember influencer marketing is done to connect to target audiences in a direct approach.
2. Finding the right influencers
There are a lot of faces in the influencer marketing world. It is therefore very confusing about who to get on board. Marketing managers need to research minutely about influencers who could connect to customers in a better and faster way. Even in the same genre, there are multiple faces with varying levels of followers who may seem to get the job done, however finding the right influencer with the right amount of connection to the followers is the success mantra. In this regard, it is best to take the help of experts already available in the market.
3. Your influencers are not your contractors
Influencers are not someone who you have paid to do the job right. They are celebrities in their own right and have their unique style of working and sharing content, your marketing manager and the influencer have to find the perfect patch where everyone can tread within their comfort levels allowing maximum creativity suited to your brand. Always remember the influencer has a better grasp on their followers than anyone else and can therefore predict how a particular campaign may be laid out for maximum effect. So while planning - make sure to get their end of the spectrum on board.
4. Choosing the right platform
Every product and business has its own unique USP. Thus not every platform is suitable for every business. Have a sense of clarity about what you want achiever, how you want to achieve, and where you want your campaign to be. For instance, if you are in the hotel business it may be a good idea to get an influencer to stay and tour your hotel and post a video on YouTube.
5. Don’t over negotiate
A fair price for a fair job should be the watchword of negotiating with an influencer. Always remember that each influencer is an individual treasure trove of contacts who would directly get an insight into your product. One can see an opportunity to cut a deal that is cheapest but exercise caution here. The value proposition of the deal has to be equal to the terms of the monetary value. Creators and influencers are not always business savvy, especially the ones who do not have their careers planned out as an influencer and gained fandom by sharing favorable and likable content. An influencer, therefore, has to be seen and valued as an artist and not as a marketing tool. If an influencer feels de-valued or undervalued the content may miss-fire altogether. Look at influencers more as partners than as employees or tools in your marketing campaign.
6. Inability to forecast the potential of the campaign
Several factors influence the success of an influencer campaign but there cannot be a set process to fathom the dimensions and effectiveness of a campaign. This often ends up in a waste of time, creativity as well as investment.
7. Influencers are not your brand’s spokespersons
Practical experience dictates that influencers are fantastic brand advocates but they cannot double up as your brand’s spokesperson. They will push your product but the tone and the style will be aligned with their style. Influencers can strike up gold if you let them go with their flow. However, if you force a style or certain phrases the result may be awkward and therefore lack the blatant honesty that is needed for the influencer campaign to work.
7. Focus on long-term relationships
While influencers would like to be compensated for his or her work and one-off deals should and can happen. But influencers would most likely have to have a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with your brand or business. A purely monetized relationship is expected to fall off the grid sooner. The best option here is to take an extended period into consideration keep influencers interested to work with you in the future.
8. The raging competition
The competition between social media platforms has made it difficult for brands to broaden content and methods. Additionally, the emergence of the latest platforms is now resulting in content exhaustion which may be negative for campaigns. Well, despite these challenges influencer marketing remains one of the foremost effective marketing techniques. Let’s check out what you ought to avoid when framing and implementing an influencer marketing campaign.
9. Go for video
Video content is that the way forward for digital marketing. Brands and businesses not creating video content are losing out on an enormous bulk of the audience, the audience for video content is always higher than that of print or photograph. Videos generate good engagement on social media platforms and assist you to convey any message appropriately. Users lately prefer video content over other quiet content. the recognition of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts is that the best example of how effective video content is.
10. Avoid the knee jerk reaction
For many influencers, this is often their livelihood. As a brand, you will ensure better long-term relationships if you are more dependable in several areas. Confirm you are setting clear expectations on how you will use the content and your policies of approving content and paying creators promptly. When changes happen, communicate them to the creator and, by all means, do everything you will to insulate creators from churn and alteration of their contents.
11. Do not discriminate
It is a tragic truth that minority influencers are underrepresented within the influencer space. For instance, recent research showed that Black+ creators (those who are Black and should also incorporate other races into their identities) are only capturing 6.7% of brand name partnerships in YouTube influencer campaigns, while Black Americans structure 13.4% of the U.S. population. Back in March, Bloomberg reported that Black influencers are also being paid but those that are white.
If you need a particular person to feature in your marketing campaign then it should be based on parameters like the merit of the creator, his or her followers, and the ideas they curate to and not the color of their skin. It is not just a good policy but also good business.
Conclusion
What is derived from these lessons? Be empathetic for your influencers. Treat influencers like citizenry who happen to possess a huge megaphone and audience. You are not buying a stock or security nor hiring a contractor, be creative while in the vicinity of a creator. Use influencer marketing to its fullest potential. You’re investing within the voice and face of a personal ecosystem that is as unique as a human being. Recognize inference's success and establish long-term goals. Happy selling!
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