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There’s no debate around the fact that influencer marketing is an effective strategy for businesses to promote their products in front of a wide audience. When you team up with the right influencer on the right channel, and you manage to develop a great plan that engages your target audience, you’ll eventually notice an increase in sales.
Did you know that 25.2% of U.S. Internet users are blocking ads on their devices? That percentage is expected to rise to 27.5 by 2020. That’s only one of the reasons why influencer marketing goes strong. According to the results of surveys published by LaunchMetrics, almost 80% of professionals implemented influencer campaigns in 2017. Their ads get blocked, so business owners find new ways to reach out to their audience.
But what if something goes wrong? How do you know that you didn’t found the right influencer and didn’t develop a strong campaign? There are seven indicators you can pay attention to.
1. The Collaboration with Your Influencer Isn’t Running Smoothly
You’ll get access to your targeted consumer segment only if you truly collaborate with your influencers. This is not a matter of signing a contract, paying someone, and expecting them to do share random posts featuring your brand.
We’re talking about planned publications. You have to talk about the timing, context, and overall approach.
Carrie Hudson, part of the marketing team at Resumes Planet, explains: “When you contact influencers for collaboration, you choose ones who have a following within your desired target audience. From there on, it’s important to build long-lasting connections with them. You need to define your expectations and understand their terms. Once you reach your contract, you should catch up on a regular basis to make sure your campaign is going well.”
If this person is not responsive to your messages or doesn’t meet the terms of the contract, it’s time for you to replace them with another influencer.
2. The Influencer Is Not Authentic
In 2018, there was a so-called “influencer scandal” on Instagram. It was all about Alo Yoga practically purchasing the yoga community on the platform. The company started working with almost all influencers from that niche. People who followed yoga on Instagram were seeing the brand all over the place.
The problem with this strategy was that the influencers were not being authentic. All people saw were beautiful photos, which were clearly staged. In the caption, they saw a quote or a statement completely irrelevant for the brand, followed with the brand’s hashtags.
It was too much, and the community started calling out the fakers.
You don’t want such a fake campaign. It will be hugely successful at the start, but it will backfire on you pretty soon. Choose a few influencers and develop a genuine marketing campaign with them. Allow them to be completely honest when they talk about your products or services. Don’t ask for obviously staged photos. People are not stupid; they can recognize when someone is lying just because they are paid to say something.
3. Your Influencers Are Not Being Transparent
Whenever someone is paid to promote something online, they must be transparent about it. If we’re talking about Instagram, for example, they must clearly label the post as an ad.
The problem is that many influencers avoid doing that. That’s exactly what got people mad when Alo Yoga took over Instagram – the yogis were not being clear about the fact that they were getting paid.
When you sign a contract with an influencer, make sure they follow the rules. Otherwise, your business will get in trouble for lack of transparency.
4. Your Brand Is Only Being Promoted through Photos
According to The State of Video Marketing 2019 study published by Wyzowl, 87% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool in 2019. 72% of consumers said they preferred videos over text when they wanted to learn about products and services.
Just think about it: if it’s a photo with a caption that mentions your brand, many people won’t even get to read that part. They will just look at the photo. But if it’s a video of the person they like to follow, they will watch through it. This video may be published in the feed, but it may also come in the form of an Instagram story or Instagram Live. If you’re working with Facebook influencers, they can use the same tools there.
5. You’re Not Measuring Anything
This is a serious sign that you need to reinvent your marketing strategy. Try to answer these questions with numbers and facts:
- What’s the ROI?
- Are your influencers helping you to reach the goals you set about brand promotion?
- How many conversions did you achieve with the help of your influencers?
- Is the campaign successful? What do the analytics say?
Do your math! It’s easy to access analytics on social media, as well as on your website. Track relevant metrics to see how these campaigns work. And if you notice that they don’t work, you’ll change your strategy. Maybe you’ll team up with other influencers or you’ll change something in the way you’re promoting the products. A giveaway is also a nice touch.
6. You’re Unable to Work with the Influencers You Want
You’re trying to promote a new brand and you’re reaching out to influencers with millions of followers? It’s possible to start working with some of them only if your brand is too special or you have a huge budget to invest in influencer marketing.
But let’s be honest: there’s tons of competition on the market. These influencers get messages from dozens of brands on a daily basis. If they know nothing about your business, they are likely to ignore your offer.
Why don’t you go smaller at first? How about targeting so-called micro-influencers? They have over 10K, but less than 500K followers, which allows them to maintain a real sense of community on their profiles. They are also easier to work with since they are not that popular among big brands.
7. Your Brand Is Irrelevant to the Influencer’s Conversations
If a resume writing service like Careers Booster was targeting influencers, who would you expect to promote it? A blogger who shares tips on how to get a job or make progress in your career would be great, right? But if someone who generally speaks about makeup mentions a writing service in their videos, you know that their audience won’t be very interested in the promotion.
If you’ve been working with influencers with a niche different than yours, it’s time to change that strategy. Take a look at Kylie Jenner’s profile, for example. She’s heavy on promotions, but you’ll notice that she only recommends products that are relevant to her audience.
Is It Time to Reinvent Your Influencer Marketing Strategy?
Did you recognize any of the above-listed symptoms in your own strategy? If you did, it’s time to start working on it again. The good thing about influencer marketing is that it’s flexible. You can always change something to achieve better results.
NeoReach is the leading social media influencer marketing platform. Get started with us today and renovate your influencer marketing strategy!
Author’s bio: Scott Mathews is an essay writer for A Writer. In his free time, he blogs for Brill Assignment and teaches students how to write through Essay Writing Land. His goal is to convince people that writing is not that hard… they just need proper guidance.
