PR AGENCY DIARIES: WHY YOUR INFLUENCER MARKETING ISN’T WORKING
If you think you know social media and reckon influencer marketing ‘can’t be that hard’, think again…
Compiling a crew of pretty faces to spruik your product by holding it up to the camera and cooing ‘it’s the best’ is no longer/was never the secret sauce to a successful campaign. Nous, narrative and nailing the timing are all required to win in this ever changing game.
Here are ten reasons why your influencer marketing isn’t working and some helpful tips to make it #werk.
1. You don’t know what you’re trying to achieve
When it comes to marketing, intent is everything and knowing your goal is key to the success of each and every touchpoint of your campaign mix, including your influencers. To hit the mark, consider what people think of your brand right now and what you want them to think about your brand after seeing the campaign. Distil this down to one key objective (awareness, education or action) and keep it in mind with every decision you make in the briefing process.
2. You’ve gone too small
If a tree falls in the woods, etc.. It’s all good and well to have a great creative concept and picture-perfect content but if you can’t get it in front of the right people you may as well have not bothered at all.
With top tier influencers commanding the dollar signs that not all brands can afford it may be tempting to opt for small groups of micro and mid-tier players who are amenable to contra deals or smaller pay packets aligned to their follower count, but this too comes with risk.
While micro and mid-tier players offer great engagement their reach is often small. To ensure ROI consider boosting the posts to reach beyond the influencer’s network or opt for a larger spread of influencers to #floodthemarket of your specific bullseye and help you get the word out.
3. You’ve gone too big - in the wrong way
You may be tempted to scrape the budget together for those pricey top tier influencers mentioned above - but high follower numbers aren’t the same as high reach and engagement.
Sure, having 100,000+ followers seems impressive AF in the NZ context BUT are those followers actually engaging with the influencer's posts? You might be able to judge this from the comments and likes on the front end but if you’re dropping cash don’t be shy about asking for (recent) backend screenshots to be sure.
Just as important, take note of how often the influencer is posting and how many of those posts are #ads - even if the content is top-notch it won’t perform well if it gets lots amongst the crowd.
4. Your audience isn’t there
Influencer marketing is like dating, you need to find like-minded partners before you settle down. Make sure the influencers you choose have an audience that aligns to your target market.
In other words, do your due diligence and use some common sense - if you’re promoting a period product don’t work with a female influencer that has a 98% male audience, those thirsty boys aren’t following to get supportive tips for the people who menstruate in their life. Seems simple but it’s often overlooked.
5. You’ve been too prescriptive
While it may sound like an excuse used by influencers (and their managers) to get you off their backs, the talent indeed knows their audience best. Don’t be too prescriptive with the messaging or content style as this will risk losing the influencer’s signature style and will likely flop with their audience. In other words, anything too canned will send your campaign down the metaphorical can.
6. The offer or message is confusing and complicated
Keep it simple, stupid – a statement that ain’t often wrong. In the age of endless scrolling, attention spans are short and trying to cram too much information into one post will only lead the viewer to switch off and move on.
Influencer content needs to be concise and purposeful to make a mark, imagine the person scrolling is actually in a car driving past your OOH advertising – their ability to absorb the information is about the same as that quick two-second glimpse at a billboard so keep that in mind with what you’re putting out.
7. The timing is wrong
Again, this might seem obvious but it is so often the point that a campaign will fall down. Promote something too early and people have forgotten by the time you want them to act or go too late and you’ve missed the boat altogether.
A good rule of thumb is to think about what you want people to do as a result of seeing your campaign and break down the timing of the steps involved. If in doubt think about the warning you would need (or ideally want) in order to get your A into G.
8. You aren’t supporting it with spend
Working with a great influencer and creating great content is one thing but making sure it gets seen by the right people is a whole different ball game. Balancing the investment of making the content with the investment needed to get it seen is a best practice approach that will see your ROI grow tenfold.
If you can, negotiate rights to boost the content from both the influencer’s channel and your own to make the most of it. Use professionals like us to actually target this appropriately.
9. Your wider strategy is letting the team down
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, it’s the sum of the parts that makes a successful marketing plan and you need all elements singing from the same hymn sheet to make a splash. Doing one thing in silo will never move mountains.
10. You’re not using professionals
If it feels like ensuring all these elements converge smoothly is a fraction outside your wheelhouse, get in touch with us. The team is expertly experienced in aligning PR and social media marketing with clients’ business goals, to ensure you nail one of the most essential pieces of your marketing strategy.
