Which mistakes one should avoid for influencer marketing?

unboxsocial.com - 7 Influencer Marketing Mistakes Brands Need to Avoid - Unboxsocial

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Influencer marketing is the perfect way to reach your target audience! This marketing strategy has benefitted brands of all niches and is here to stay. Influencer marketing relies on influencers and that makes it tricky. For those who are new to this, influencer marketing is all about collaborating with relevant influencers to market your brand on social media platforms. For an influencer marketing campaign to pan out perfectly, you need the best possible influencer marketing practices. If you want your engagement rates to go up, you need to let go of outdated influencer marketing practices. Just roping in influencers with high follower count is not enough. Social media platforms have undergone several updates and all that impacts the way you plan your influencer marketing campaigns. Right from IGTV to the inclusion of the stories feature on YouTube, it is necessary to play smart when curating content for an influencer campaign. Well, with the new updates, there are several influencer marketing practices that are failing on social media. Influencer marketing fails can not only affect your campaign outcome but can also leave a dent on your brand image. In this blog, we have put together a list of influencer marketing fails that you need to get rid of.

1. Collaborating with influencers only on the basis of follower count

One of the most common influencer marketing mistakes is to opt for influencers with a large following. High number of followers may not always give you a high engagement rate. It is better to partner with influencers that have fewer followers but more engagement. The content quality should also be a deciding factor when it comes to which influencer you would want to bring on board. Pick influencers who may not have very big follower counts but are producing good quality, creative content that is generating engagement. Focusing on quality over quantity will help you generate a reaction from your audience. The larger the following and popularity of an influencer, the more difficult they can be to approach. Moreover, partnering with very popular influencers can turn out to be as costly as partnering with a celebrity. By working with influencers with fewer followers, you can cut down on costs too. If you have the budget for it, you can actually work with influencers from different tiers at the same time. A partnership with an influencer that has a relatively small follower base offers a win-win situation for both parties. The influencer brings his content creation skills and engagement to the table. In return, you may offer some form of incentives to the influencer and more visibility.

2. Sticking with the age-old content strategies

Almost every social media platform is moving towards video content. Brand managers opting for influencer marketing need to make use of these newly launched features to scale up the performance of their strategy. For instance, if you want to plan an Instagram marketing strategy, your strategy should have a spot for Instagram stories and Instagram Reels. It is necessary to include these features in your content strategy because your audience is actively using them! Moreover, if your brand is not dynamic enough it can lose out on potential audience.

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Also, if your competitors are actively curating content to stay in the game you have all the more reason to update your content strategies. Only posting pretty pictures and expecting humongous results is one of the most common influencer marketing fails.

3. Stealing away the influencers’ creativity with overly detailed campaign briefs

As a brand, you need to accept that influencers are primarily content creators. Instead of bombarding them with too many details, brand managers must give them some space to add their essence to the campaign. Influencers are well versed in their respective crafts. They produce great quality content that has generated good levels of engagement. When you enter into a partnership with an influencer, you cannot make the campaign rules too specific. It is important to provide them with a campaign message. However, if you give very specific instructions, they will end up creating poor quality content. Overly detailed influencer marketing campaigns will result in content that will appear to be inauthentic. The influencer will lose their own style and voice in efforts to match up to your expectations. Making them go completely by the book will not bring out the best results. Lay out the ground rules and the basic deliverables. Beyond that, leave it to them. By doing this, you will be able to optimally leverage their content creation skills.

4. Blindly following competitors and not catering to the audience

The aim of influencer marketing campaigns is to produce content that matters to your target audience. Brands rope in influencers because they want to reach out to a particular set of audience that is interested in their niche. It is surely necessary to keep a watch on what your competitors are up to on the platform but it is also essential to check what your audience wants. Detailed audience analysis is necessary to curate relevant content.

Social media analytics tools can also be used to analyse audiences.

Always remember the audience has a lot of content to choose from and if you want them to give attention to your content it needs to be relatable.

5. Measuring the metrics but not analysing

Every influencer marketing campaign is shaped to meet some goals and objectives. Brands make sure to put a lot of effort into curating campaigns but when it comes to measuring the campaigns they often fall short. Instead of only measuring likes and comments, it is also necessary to measure other metrics like reach, impressions, follower growth, and engagement rate. These metrics are not just mere numbers they also tell you a lot about how well your strategy has fared. For instance, a good engagement rate means your content is fetching the right response from the audience. Additionally, brand managers also need to keep an eye on the kind of comments they are receiving. See whether your impression rates are increasing with the kind of posts you are uploading. These metrics can help you find out what kind of content is working with your audience.

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For instance, if your video content is garnering higher impressions then you may want to create more video content. See to it that you look beyond the figures. Sometimes, these figures can also help you see where your strategy is going wrong.

6. Focusing on only one platform for influencer campaigns

A lot depends on the platforms where you implement your influencer marketing strategies. Selection of the platforms is necessary because that decides your audience base and the kind of content you will curate. Brands these days are only focused on Instagram for their influencer marketing campaigns. Well, this is one common influencer marketing mistake! Social media strategies need to be diverse and the same also goes for influencer marketing. Instagram is surely the most preferred platform for influencer marketing but other platforms can also give you the desired results. Focusing your influencer strategies on only one platform might not be of much help. Brands can also collaborate with influencers who are active on multiple platforms. This will also give you a chance to explore new audiences.

7. Curating posts that are too salesy

Trying too hard to sell on social media is a major influencer marketing mistake. Brands must realise that their audiences are not merely passive subjects in their campaigns they are, in fact, a part of the campaign plan. Avoid posting only about your products and services. Instead, try and educate the audience about your niche like giving tips, hosting Q&A sessions with industry experts, etc. This will not only help you increase your audience base but will also improve your brand image. Influencer marketing campaigns work when audience members are getting some value out of it. Influencer marketing if done right can be fruitful for your brand. But to derive the maximum ROI on your efforts, you need to let go off some influencer marketing practices which are outdated. Additionally, having a campaign goal before you frame a strategy can also help you get the desired results. Let’s brush up on the 7 influencer marketing mistakes brands should avoid.