Collaborating with influencers is a great way to engage with your audience and expand your company’s reach. Influencer marketing can generate great results and increase your brand’s exposure, but it’s not always easy to achieve. Many people believe that simply selecting an influencer with a large following, establishing a partnership, and watching the increase in sales and followers is enough. Still, each campaign’s recipe for success is unique; for some campaigns, the same strategy can also lead to failure.
Because influencer marketing is still an unknown strategy for some brands, it’s easy to make mistakes when planning and executing it. Here are some of the most common mistakes professionals make when working with influencers:
1. Not having clear goals
What is the purpose of your campaign? Do you want to reach a new audience or increase sales? Strategic decisions about campaign format depend on this, so everyone involved in your influencer marketing strategy must know your campaign goals so you can work together to achieve them.
Defining objectives is an essential step to the success of any marketing strategy, as it will help you measure success once the campaign has been completed. Here are some tips to help you define your goals:
- Identify your target audience: Knowing your target audience is the first step in setting realistic and achievable goals.
- Determine your main objective: The campaign’s main objective could be to increase sales, improve brand recognition or even increase audience engagement with your brand.
- Make sure your goals are clear, measurable and attainable. For example, a clear goal could be to “increase sales by 30% during the week of the campaign.”
- Prioritize your objectives: Identify which are most important to the campaign’s success and prioritize them.
- Align your goals with the strategy: It is essential to ensure that your goals are aligned with the influencer marketing strategy, including the selection of influencers and the type of content to be promoted.
2. Hire influencers without researching
Numerous brands have implemented this strategy, choosing influencers and celebrities to participate in successful campaigns. However, choosing influencers in the public eye will not always guarantee the desired results. It is crucial to select influencers who are in line with your brand’s values and audience.
Therefore, professionals must conduct extensive research to find suitable influencer profiles based on categories, keywords, and audience demographics (including data such as gender, age, location, interests, and income, among others). Hiring a significant influencer in the fashion industry will not have much impact if the product to be promoted is from the beauty sector, for example. In this step, you can use the free HypeAuditor tool, which allows you to search for influencers by niche and keywords.
3. Evaluate only superficial metrics
An influencer’s number of followers and likes may seem tempting at first glance. Still, it is not always indicative of the success of an influencer marketing campaign.
However, the number of followers does not necessarily mean the creator’s audience is relevant to your campaign, as many influencers still have fake followers and bots. It is essential for marketers to carefully verify influencers’ profiles to avoid investing in fake accounts.
When looking for influencers, it is essential to consider metrics such as engagement rate, audience demographics, audience quality, genuine interaction, and follower growth. This data will allow you to evaluate the creator’s affinity with your brand and audience. They will help you avoid partnering with influencers followed by fake accounts or bots.
4. Not clearly defining your audience
Defining the target audience is a key step in influencer marketing campaigns, as it allows you to direct the message to those who are most likely to be interested in the product or service being promoted. Knowing your brand’s audience also allows you to optimize the strategy to meet this group’s needs and wants, increasing the campaign’s effectiveness.
In addition, having a well-defined target audience saves resources by preventing the message from reaching people who are probably not interested in the product. It is also easier to find relevant influencers when you know your audience, as filters can be used in influencer marketing tools to describe the ideal person, for example, male, between 25 and 35 years old, a resident of Madrid, with an income of 10,000 euros per month, interests in children, dogs and family.
5. Not defining the ROI of influencer marketing campaigns
Another mistake brands often make when starting an influencer campaign is not clearly defining key performance indicators (KPIs) and return on investment (ROI). Determining how much each new lead acquired will cost and how much each customer will generate for your business in return is essential.
ROI is a crucial metric for measuring the success of an influencer marketing campaign. To define ROI, collecting data on the number of sales, spending on the campaign, and the return value generated is important.
This will allow the advertiser to evaluate the strategy’s effectiveness to determine if it generates a positive return on investment. ROI can also be used as a metric to compare different campaigns and choose the most profitable one for the business.
6. Not communicating with the hired influencer
Every brand should be transparent with influencers about what they will receive in exchange for their work, whether paid advertising or barter. Otherwise, the chosen influencer may choose to partner with other companies.
It is important to be clear about the frequency of posts and the types of content that will be published. This will target the influencer at the creation time and will be more aligned with your brand’s interests.
Conclusion
In conclusion, influencer marketing campaigns can effectively reach and connect with the right audience, but only if approached correctly. Avoiding the common mistakes mentioned above, such as lack of authenticity, choosing the wrong influencers, not defining the target audience, and not measuring ROI. By avoiding these mistakes and adopting best practices, you can create successful influencer campaigns that generate positive ROI and build long-term customer relationships.
