Social media marketing is a tried-and-tested method for enhancing audiences’ exposure to brands. Around 4.65 billion people use social media today, driving brands to maintain their presence. However, successful marketing is more than making consumers familiar with a name.
Influencer marketing is a strategy known for its efficiency. Around 90% of marketers say that it gets them similar or better ROI than other marketing techniques. Additionally, brands now have the option of choosing an influencer marketing platform to build such campaigns seamlessly. However, like all other marketing channels, this particular technique has certain do’s and don’ts. Read on to find out more about the right way to approach influencer marketing.
1. Good Research
Strong groundwork is essential to shortlisting influencers that are the most suitable for your brand. You will have to make sure your chosen influencers put out organic content often. Check their engagement rates on the platform you’d prefer for your campaign; Instagram is the most popular and effective platform for influencer marketing, so make sure your marketing strategy includes it. Be thorough in ascertaining that your chosen influencers’ values align with yours, and go through any past controversies they may have faced.
2. Mutually Beneficial Partnerships
Build meaningful, mutually beneficial connections with your team of influencers. Remain engaged with them and respect their opinions. Convey complete information about your products or services to them and give them the time to test those out. Genuine appreciation of a brand and its products is felt at the viewers’ end, increasing your chances of winning their interest.
3. Building Teams
If you want to reach a more significant percentage of your target audience but are wary of low engagement rates of bigger influencers, building teams of micro-influencers will do the job. Different influencers will have varying followers, even if they create content around similar categories. Investing in creating teams will let you increase your brand’s exposure to different audiences, so it will likely add to the success of your marketing campaigns.
Mistakes to Avoid
1. Chasing Follower Counts
Influencers with an audience constituting less than 10,000 followers are known as micro-influencers; above this number lie macro-influencers and celebrities. Creators with high follower counts are usually known and trusted experts in their field. Partnering up with them may have lower risks and greater reach, but it takes more than that to ensure the success of marketing campaigns.
Effective marketing campaigns turn people into prospects and prospects into customers. This is done by building credibility, and micro-influencers are better at doing that. 2021 saw 91% of all sponsored posts being created by micro-influencers.
Though macro-influencers and celebrities have a high viewership rate, they have lower engagement rates: audiences do not connect with them as often. In addition, such creators receive many partnership offers, which makes them put out sponsored content frequently. This frequency leads to audiences not considering their sponsored products or services as products supported by those creators.
On the other hand, micro-influencers often give more time to trying and testing products. Their audiences connect with them and are better engaged with them. Their viewers will be more interested in products sponsored by them. Partnering up with micro-influencers is also more cost-effective, so you can build up teams to maximize your campaign’s reach.
2. Micromanaging
The goal of partnering with an influencer is to build your brand’s credibility among audiences. Micromanaging on your part can make the influencers’ content feel inauthentic to their viewers, and this will harm both your and your influencer partners’ viewership and engagement. Not granting an influencer their creative freedom can also lead to tension and conflicts that can ruin your reputation in influencer circles. Respecting their space and trusting them with their art is your best bet.
3. Choosing Incompatible Influencers
Your campaigns are only as successful as the number of prospects you reach. The more your influencer’s content deviates from your brand’s themes, the lesser the number of people reached will be interested in your products. For example, a beauty influencer creating content about makeup will not be the best choice for sponsoring a shoe brand. Though the content can be related, the campaign will not be as effective as it would be if the shoe brand partners up with a fashion influencer who creates content around outfits. You will have to stay focused on your goal of gaining customers. Look beyond reach and consider which category of influencers will get you the highest successful conversion rates.
Endnote
Investing in nurturing meaningful partnerships with social media influencers is one of the most advantageous moves you can make for successful marketing. Influencer marketing generates fast returns on investment by ensuring your campaigns reach the right people.
