PewDiePie, CarryMinati, Amanda Cerny, Khaby Lame, Flying Beast or BB ki Vines. If these names are ringing a bell, you must be someone who loves their content or you must be someone who associates their brands with these people. In a short span of time, influencer marketing has occupied a huge share in marketing budgets and if done right, it can get you some insane results. According to Altimeter Research, a leading analyst firm, brands are planning to spend their 25% of marketing budgets on influencer backed campaigns. And it seems quite right in this over-communicated digital landscape where almost half of the world’s populations are dependent on smartphones. However, If you’re struggling to get your influencer marketing campaigns off the ground, you’re not alone. In fact, according to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, as many as 70% of marketers believe that their influencer marketing campaigns have failed. If that’s the case with you too, it might be time to take a step back and reassess your strategy.
Here are 5 potential reasons why your campaigns might be failing:
- You’re not communicating effectively with influencers
Influencers are individuals with their own unique voices and methods of communication. If you’re not taking the time to get to know them and understand how they prefer to communicate with their audience, your campaigns are likely to fall flat. You need to put a lot of effort and time into building a relationship with influencers if you want to reach your ultimate goal.
Once you have done your research about that particular influencer, It is time to trust them and do their work as they want it. As much as 83% influencers complained about brands dictating their terms on them as they were paying those influencers and the work should be done as they like it. Giving some creative freedom not only helps influencers to tell your brand’s story in their unique way but ultimately help you to reach your target audience in the best way possible. Can you imagine Khaby promoting your brand in a lame way.
- AssumingPopularity = Influence (It’s Not)
Just because someone is popular doesn’t mean they’re the right fit for your brand. Though popular creators can bring you the desired numbers in terms of reach or views, it might not be an effective strategy for your brand. You need to make sure you’re targeting influencers who align with your values and who have engaged audiences that are interested in what you have to say.
Lack of engagement is one of the most common reasons why influencer marketing campaigns fail. When influencers have large followings but low levels of engagement, it signals that their followers are not really interested in what they have to say. This can reflect poorly on your brand and make it difficult to reach your target audience.
To avoid this, make sure to research potential influencers thoroughly before selecting them for your campaign. Check their engagement levels and make sure they have a genuine interest in your products or services. It’s also important to work with influencers who have relevant followings that align with your target audience.
With our expertise in influencer marketing being an agency working in the space for more than 4 years, we can assure you that targeting right set of influencers can make your life really easy. While working with clients like CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX, we experienced that influencers in category of finance, motivation and infotainment brought better results when compared to creators in entertainment or any other genre.
Another example can be of Duolingo where we found out that working with vloggers was a real hit as they were able to connect with audience by showing how learning a language on Duolingo was easy and fun. One shining example was a vlogging channel that was able to get 40,000 app downloads from once single promotional video on YouTube.
- You’re not keeping up with fast-rising creators.
The influencer landscape is constantly changing, with new creators popping up all the time. If you’re not staying updated, you might not be able to tap into the new charm and audience connection that these rising creators can create. It also has a good commercial aspect where you won’t be burning a hole in your pocket as these rising stars don’t charge that much for collaborations.
If you have been working with influencers in India, you must have heard about Sourav Joshi vlogs. Due to his sheer charm and storytelling in the simplest way possible, he shot to the epitome of vlogging in India. Brands, who were able to recognize his talent and build a relationship in his early days, got the sweetest deal and were able to tap into millions of people.
- Setting up the right expectations
Most brands that work with influencers don’t set proper expectations or develop a good working relationship with them. This often leads to failed campaigns, because the influencer doesn’t understand what the brand wants or how to deliver it.
Here are a few tips for setting realistic expectations and maintaining open communication with your influencers:
-Be clear about your goals from the start. Make sure the influencer knows what you’re trying to accomplish with the campaign, and provide as much detail as possible.
There is a possibility that even after clear communication, you might not be getting the results you expected. This may not be entirely true. There is a possibility that you are only measuring direct downloads/purchases from the customized link you created for that particular campaign. According to Tobias Knoke from Google Play, for each download from play store via a dedicated link, brands should expect 4 more downloads but not from the customized links and it happens within 4 days of that particular video going live on YouTube. This happens mostly due to the fact that people simply download the app while watching the video and never click on the link in description.
However, if you still want to track those downloads there is another way. Influencers always ask for a promo code or in app offers for their audience. It helps the audience to get the best deals from someone whom they love so much and it will help you to track the ripple effect created from the campaign.
-Provide regular updates and feedback. Keep the lines of communication open throughout the campaign, so that the influencer knows what’s working and what isn’t.
-Respect the influencer’s creative process. Influencers are creative individuals, and they need space to do their work. Don’t micromanage them or try to control their content too much – it will only hinder their ability to produce great work.
- Try avoiding agencies
I know you must be raising your eyebrows now considering we also happen to be an influencer marketing agency with more than 4 years of expertise. However, there are some pros and cons of working with agencies and it is not at all about saving agency commissions.
If you are a brand with limited resources and you are just tapping into influencer marketing area, it is the best to connect with a renowned agency and get a slice of their expertise. However, if you are someone with resources and if you can build a dedicated team to work on these campaigns, I will always suggest you to do it. Let’s look at some pros and cons of working with an agency.
Pros
- You can a huge database of influencers without breaking a sweat.
- You get a dedicated brand manager who can help you design, create and launch influencer marketing campaigns with a right set of influencers.
- You can play a long game as you won’t need to research and find good creators that can be a tedious task considering how bots can skyrocket stats of social media accounts. Agencies can help you identify and stay away from such creators.
- You don’t need to create a huge database of influencers and keep them updated.
Cons
- Since you know your brand and customers, you can be the best bet how you want to share your story with the audience. Agencies cannot connect with your brand in such manner.
- If you work with influencers directly, you get a chance to create a good working relationship with them and you can crack a long term collab. It shows that the influencer has trust in your product or service.
- Apart from saving agency commission, you also get to know what works for your brand as you will have the direct analytics of your campaigns.
Do you still think you didn’t get what you came looking for? Or you are still unable to understand why your campaigns have been failing? Come have a chat with us and we would love to take a look at your strategy and help you overcome the issues with your campaign.
Of-course there are many other things you need to consider while getting into this booming influencer marketing arena, but the reasons that we discussed will help you to minimize the errors and get some good results from influencer driven campaigns. Stay tuned for more insights as we are on a mission to help you achieve your goal and we will keep coming with such posts.