The 5 most common mistakes in influencer marketing
Online marketing has to keep adapting to a new media reality. The particular form of advertising that involves influencers should therefore meet the ever newer, more sophisticated and more complex needs of the online community. Influencer marketing, as one of the most effective forms of marketing, can bring huge gains in sales and brand image, but, like any advertising message, it also carries the risk of error – resulting in opinions unfavourable to the brand and its products, and in critical comments from the audience. Which mistakes are made most often in influencer marketing?
The wrong person in the wrong place!
In other words, a poor choice of influencer. The profile of the person you partner with should be analysed thoroughly, and the creator put under the microscope. For influencer marketing to be effective and for the campaign’s results to be satisfying enough, you should not push products for endorsement onto the first person you find operating in the world of influencer marketing. The wrong creator may not only fail to deliver benefits but also expose the advertiser to losses. Dissatisfaction among viewers who follow a given influencer can effectively scare off both them and potential consumers close to that community. On the web, as its very name suggests, everything rests on intelligent digital connections. In an age of great possibilities even one small slip in image is worth more than a thousand words.
False beliefs and no opinion of their own!
It is a huge mistake to choose a creator based, for example, only on their looks or their image as an expert – but does that expert hold beliefs in line with the company’s policy? An influencer should be a good representative and a conscious ambassador of the brand and its products. The creator should identify with its image, proudly showing the benefits of using its products or the services it offers. Many companies choose influencers for advertising partnerships from among their own customers – then you can be practically certain that the creator will recommend the product authentically. A lack of naturalness, sincerity and integrity in front of a large group of fans closely following the creator’s every move and message will come to light in no time. Followers are highly sensitive to falseness, to any kind of misrepresentation or pretence. A vegetarian will hardly persuade her followers to visit a newly opened steakhouse, and a cat lover will not recommend a dog bed. Keeping up appearances can pay off only when it is handled skilfully.
A not-so-BAD promotion channel
Bear in mind that even the very best creator will not be able to reach the target audience if that audience is simply not present on the social media platform in question. When you pick a popular TikToker, you cannot expect them to win the hearts of university lecturers by offering a place at a scientific conference, or to persuade a group of older ladies to buy presents for their grandchildren. Right at the start you need to work out where you can, but also where it is worth looking for potential audiences, and only then choose the right influencer profile. By design, they should be active on exactly the channel the advertiser has specified. Every industry has its exceptions, but you should not count on an advertising miracle when you can invest in real, effective advertising activities and reap real returns from them.
Strategic failure
A lack of strategy can sink even well-chosen advertising activities. Chaotic, random content on social media is appropriate only if it is a strategy you have chosen deliberately – then the communication mess is only apparent. A strategy has certain assumptions and solid foundations on which all kinds of activities are based and shaped. Well chosen and conscientiously followed, it sets the right path to achieving your dream goals. Although its direction may sometimes change, and certain practices and activities may drop out of the plan’s regular cycle, influencer marketing certainly requires a strategic approach to conducting and analysing every undertaking. With no marketing strategy at all, you are doomed from the outset to a more or less spectacular failure.
Big Brother is watching
The last of the (listed) mistakes is failing to supervise the activities under way. Without monitoring how things are communicated, analysing the content and the audience’s mood around its publication – whoever wants to succeed will know no satisfying peace! True, an influencer should not antagonise their fans, expose themselves to a wave of hate or publish controversial content, but it is still worth knowing and seeing how much effort they put into the activities entrusted to them. Achieving marketing goals should, by implication, be partly assured and bring a package of benefits for the company, not be merely potentially possible. A good influencer can effectively engage audiences to act and take specific actions, but you still have to remember that they are only human, and nobody is infallible. A regular analysis of your influencer marketing activities will show the measurable value of the partnership.
