By working with influencers, brands can present their products in an original and subtle way in a completely new light, compared to traditional advertising campaigns. Influencer Marketing aims at increasing brand awareness, but also influences the purchasing decisions of the audience. Sometimes campaigns based on influencers’ actions do not produce the intended results. What are the main myths regarding cooperation with influencers?
- Influencer marketing does not work
Many marketers do not include influencer marketing in their advertising strategy, as they assume it is inefficient. However, regardless of the size of your business, it can bring tangible benefits. More and more consumers believe in the recommendations of opinion leaders, willingly testing the products they show and recommend. Nonetheless, campaigns created in collaboration with influencers can absorb a sizable advertising budget. For small businesses, it’s best to choose micro-influencers who might have a smaller reach than top opinion leaders; however, still bring together a narrow but committed community.
- Choosing a platform not matching the target group
Companies that want to engage influencers in their advertising activities should check where their target audience is most active and confront the information gathered with data regarding the influencer’s target audience. One of the tools to determine the brand’s audience characteristics is marketing automation – the information obtained about potential customers will help create a brand persona of the brand, i.e., the vision of the ideal consumer. Right at the outset, we need to define the goals we want to achieve by working with influencers and then analyse the reach in the selected media. It’s a good idea to ask the influencer for insights from Google Analytics, social media, or YouTube – traffic estimation will help us make a decision on future collaboration. It should be borne in mind that the image of the author must be consistent with the brand image.
- Lack of message transparency
By working with influencers, the brand becomes more and more recognisable; thereby, increasing the chance of sales. When creating campaigns, we primarily rely on the influencer’s credibility and authenticity. The brand’s presence in the content of posts or videos must be clearly marked, and the advertising message itself should look as natural and transparent as possible. Otherwise, we may mislead the audience and harm the brand image. It would be good to create a message so that it is possibly most relevant to your audience. In order to personalise your messages, it is worth segmenting your audience according to their interests, needs, or lifestyle. Segmentation enables making the message match the target group. Marketing automation tools can help by collecting audience data from all the available sources.
- Reach is not everything
When planning an advertising campaign with influencers, it is worth analysing which indicators are of crucial importance. The number of followers is not the only indicator of a vlogger or blogger’s popularity. The campaign may not bring the expected results if the influencer’s content has a high bounce rate. It is also worth considering other metrics that reflect followers’ engagement and success of your ad campaign, such as Customer Influence Value (CIV) or Customer Referral Value (CRV).
- Influencer not matching the promoted product
Popular influencers are able to transfer their features to the brand, creating the so-called halo effect. Particular attention should be paid to the image-related issues of the influencer and the brand. The humorous nature of the blog or vlog run will not match the brand’s serious communication. The channels of reaching the audience should be analysed in a similar way – the influencer known from Tik Tok is unlikely to promote toys for children when the target group comprises mothers aged between 30 and 35 years. In addition, the author must have a good understanding of the company’s industry in order to properly and present the product in a credible way.
- Creating unoriginal content
Content marketing has become a permanent feature of marketing strategies in the majority of developing brands. One of the most valuable aspects of cooperation with influencers is the content they create for the needs of the brand (the so-called branded user generated content). This should be memorable, engage in discussion, and properly present the promoted products. A marketing strategy that includes cooperation with influencers must assume a transparent, non-intrusive advertising message and the creation of original content in accordance with the audience’s interests. The marketing automation tool allows you to get to know your target group even better, and then adjust the relevant advertising message to it.
- Focus on selling the product
The driving force of influencer marketing is not only a blogger or vlogger, but a community they build around their brand. Customers satisfied with the purchased product will probably share its assets with other people, allowing for an even greater range of activities. However, we should not forget that influencer marketing aims not only at increasing sales, but also building recognition and positive company image. Overly intrusive promotion of a product and focus exclusively on sales results may turn out to be counterproductive.
- Lack of cooperation between the brand and the influencer
The key to success in influencer marketing lies in good contact with an influencer and developing a well thought out strategy. That is why it is so important to involve opinion leaders in creating the campaign concept and flexible communications. Brand awareness is about recognising its characteristic features – an influencer should know the specificity of the sector, which will allow them to keep the message credible. Therefore, it is worth providing them with all possible information on the promoted product or service, as well as the values the brand identifies itself with.
