Influencer Marketing – You Got to be Doing it Right, Avoiding Top 6 Blunders
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The world of marketing is all about creating influence. Unless you influence, you cannot market anything. Well, influencing is not a piece of pie, and rather requires you to be at your wit’s end, to play the pied piper. In present times, influencer marketing has become the most crucial aspect of marketing. To influence today, you don’t really need to run after big celebrities. Influencer marketing is better done with ‘lesser glamor’ owing to the fact that the consumers look for authenticity now, and not just the shimmer in the face value. No matter, how big the celebrity is, if the product is not appealing to them, it won’t sell, as simple as that!
The rise of social media birthed the concept of influencer marketing and led every ordinary non-celeb entity turn a head honcho for brands on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Yes, anyone can build a brand, without having whopping figures in their fan-o-meter. The influencers are mostly bloggers who do not carry a glamor quotient to maintain, and so focus only on promoting the brand. So be it the girl next-door, or that pantry-boy who loved blogging too, or even a net-savvy grand mommy, they can certainly draw crowds to their business page as people find them quite relatable than the big-wigs in the blaze of glory. They consider what seemingly the other pea in the pod has to say, and so engage with their posts better.
Influencer marketing during COVID is acting high and mighty in marketing industry, so much that by 2022, brands are all set to invest up to $15 billion on influencer marketing, as estimated by Business Insider Intelligence. Joining the bandwagon here, can certainly be the wise move on your part, provided you do it right, staying clear of some of the serious blunders while looking for a smart influencer for promoting your brand!
Tip #1: Unclear & Undefined Goals
Performing an unambitious action is like no action performed. Before stepping onto the influencer marketing pad, you need to be very sure about what is it going to get you, and this can be done when you set your goals and objectives clear. Are your goals clear to you? Do you know what to expect from your influencer? An Influencer marketing agency is for ‘influencing the people’ but that doesn’t answer these questions, and won’t clarify your goal.
There are specific objectives of influencer marketing strategy like – spreading brand awareness, driving engagements, introducing a promotional offer, or directing the crowd to the website.
Unless these objectives are defined, expectations are set, and shared with, and communicated to your influencer, you cannot leverage influencer marketing firms, and just be beating about the bush, no matter, how big budget you may have invested.
Tip #2: Focus on the Follower Count
It is a general tendency to look for what is flaunted, rather than the genuine, and that’s where the businesses trip over. Followers are not ‘medals’ or ‘certificates,’ and therefore, cannot be considered as the measure of authenticity or any other goodness. Anyone having n number of followers, may not necessarily be great for your brand. There are lot many other important factors like content quality, target audience, location, and budget, that are pushed under the shadow of this far afield criterion.
According to Mediatrix, following should be the criterion for selecting an influencer, for branding purpose.
Tip #4: Commanding the Influencer
Yes, being an investor is a big deal, but that does not authorize you to take command over anyone. Well, that’s what businesses do with the influencers they hire. They try to control their every move and action, killing their ability to perform, leading to failed activities and campaigns.
Remember, influencer marketing effectiveness is not possible just by ‘hiring’ an influencer who will be ‘working for you’. It rather means collaborating with the influencer and ‘working for the brand’ together. It’s about following the values, and building relations.
Create a marketing plan on a calendar, share them with your influencer. Request their inputs, as they may have something really worthy to share, owing to their expertise which is why you hired them in the first place; however, their implementation will be absolutely your own decision.
Tip #4: Laying Branding on a Bit Thick
Overdoing anything indicates deception on one’s part, no matter how genuine may it be!
There’s nothing wrong on marketing own business but hollering around at the same pitch may simply drive the audience away, as they wish to stay a mile away from any message that smells marketing.
Of course, your objective may be to draw attention and engage the customers with your brand, but that has a way of doing it as you have to influence, and not sell straightaway. Influencing is an art in which you convey the message, and the person receives it without even realizing about the intention to market or sell.
Try to convey the message quick on the uptake, embedded in the conversation, and that’s where lies its effectiveness.
Know about Latest Social Media Marketing Trends During COVID.
Tip #5: Hanging on to Just One Medium
Social media doesn’t just mean Facebook or Instagram, it means all the platforms through which you can connect with the audience and socialize. Of course, there are some major platforms where you may have more followers, getting you more recognition than others, and that is the reason, despite having your social presence on all these platforms, you tend to stay active only on one or two, and rarely on others.
With over 1 billion of active users, Instagram has become the most popular influencer marketing platform, among the brands!
It may happen due to the influencer as well, who may have a big fan base on Instagram, leading you to focus only there, somehow ignoring the rest. This limits your brand’s exposure, and does not allow you to leverage from influencer marketing.
It will be better if you espy the influencer who carries an identity to influence, on other platforms as well, though it’s not a sitting target. You can even come down in favor of finding influencers on other platforms.
Tip #6: Skipping on Assessment & Evaluation
Not evaluating the outcome of your efforts is like all your efforts getting wasted! Whatever you do, all the roads will be leading you to Rome, yielding nothing.
Yes, just like the way you need to set your goals and objectives of the campaign, you need to evaluate them in the end too, to conclude about the extent of success of your campaign.
Evaluate all your efforts on certain metrics. It not only gets you the visibility of the result, but also motivates you to optimize your upcoming plans of action for better outcomes. Whatever you do, right from spreading your brand awareness to promoting an ad, or selling your offerings, you need to measure it on a scale, to know how your efforts fared, or else it will be directionless flight, landing you on stagnant waters.
Conclusion
The carping attitude of buyers of today, has made them unwilling to be at the receiving end in a marketing conversation. They rather wish to buy on their own terms. Pitching them with any traditional marketing means, may get them up in arms.
Influencer marketing may make sense to them, as it does not market, it influences, and that too in a subtle manner. Influencer Marketing can undeniably be extremely beneficial for promoting your brand, but only if done the right way, without committing the blunders. After all, it is about building relations with trust and credibility.
According to a recent report published by Influencer Marketing Hub, 90% of marketers agree that there are influencer marketing benefits. Additionally, three-fourths of marketers are already intending to dedicate an investment or budget to influencer marketing at some point in the year 2021.
Influencer marketing has essentially become an integral part of digital marketing.
Know about Influencer Marketing Tips For Business Owners.
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