Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular method of getting your brand and its products in front of the appropriate audience online. While there are the obvious benefits of getting your brand out there, increasing awareness and hopefully sales, influencer marketing can have its drawbacks.
THE “PROS”
TARGETED AUDIENCE
One major benefit of influencer marketing is being able to reach a specific audience online through someone they find engaging and trustworthy. With there being so many influencers online, covering a vast range of subjects, there will be plenty out there with an audience that matches your brand’s existing customer base. Influencers have spent a lot of time and effort establishing their expertise in specific field so will have a very targeted and dedicated following, allowing you to tailor your content and get it directly in front of your target audience, saving you a lot of time and funds.
ONE-TO-ONE
When you reach out to contact influencers, you are (most of the time) landing directly into their inbox as opposed to dealing with an agent. You can then build a direct relationship with an influencer, and gain a better understanding of who they are, what they do and how you can work together.
BRAND AWARENESS
Having your brand featured by your an influencer can help not only promote a specific product, but your brand as well. Always consider the possibility of links through to your website too – successful campaigns can not only mean a high click-through-rate, but an increase in conversions.
A TRUSTED VOICE
Influencers gain their popularity from building up their reputation as a trusted voice within their field. This means that the audience already values their expert opinion and, if they share only positive reviews and comments on your products with their audience, it will translate as a genuine recommendation rather than a pushy sale.
INCREASE YOUR FOLLOWERS
Having an influencer feature your brand is a great way to increase your social media following. If you do the hard work in researching the audience, this can pay off in the long run for not only increasing your own followers, but gaining potential new customers.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
After working with an influencer to promote your brand, it can lead to an incredibly beneficial partnership. If they liked your products, and you kept a good working relationship throughout the activity, this can lead to more collaborations in the future. Influencer marketing can be a great tool for building a mutually beneficial relationship that can lead to opportunities in the future.
SALES, SALES, SALES
While it isn’t all about the figures, they are a crucial part of any business. Influencer marketing has been known to effectively drive purchasing decisions (if done correctly!) leading directly to sales.
THE “CONS”
SPONSORED CONTENT
Sponsored content is a grey area online – while there are rules and regulations in place where an influencer must specify if they have been gifted or paid for a post, some still do not. Social media influencers must be more transparent to keep the trust they have built with their following, otherwise this could have negative repercussions on the relationship. More recently, influencers with a large percentage of sponsored/unsponsored content can seem ingenuine and may lose followers because of this. Sponsored content can also come across as inauthentic and as if the influencer has only promoted you on their channel for a payday.
FINDING THE PERFECT FIT
In a world where anyone can be an influencer, there are a lot of people who now do this for a full time career – more than ever before! It can be difficult to find the perfect fit, matching your specific criteria while also having an engaged audience that reflects your brand. Working with influencers does come with a cost (they have bills to pay too!), so do your research and check if this is the right channel for you.
NO GUARANTEES
While it is never guaranteed that an action will prompt sales, influencer marketing can be quite tricky. There has always been a demand for honest reviews, even if the content is paid for. This means that while a brand can be paying an influencer to review its products, don’t expect them to give you a positive review every time.
SEEING RESULTS
When using influencer marketing it can be difficult to track the results. Without access to an influencer’s analytics, you need to ensure you are clear on what metrics you’re tracking and what information is required. Have an agreement in place before any work is undertaken.
TIME CONSTRAINTS
Building a relationship with an influencer can be a long process. The better you understand each other, the better the activity and relationship you’ll have with one another. Not only that, but they will input a lot of hours into their channels, like you with your business, and that needs to be respected.
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