Influencer Marketing: It’s Not As Easy As You Might Think

Influencer marketing has become a very popular tool for brands to use to promote a product or service. It may seem like it would be simple to find the perfect persona to represent your brand since the world of influencers online is vast. However, it is not as easy as you may think! There are MANY factors to consider before entering into a collaboration. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the challenges of influencer marketing and why these points are important to have inform your decision in finding the right influencer to work with. 

Budget

Budget is often one of the most difficult aspects of influencer marketing. Not only do you need to find influencers that are a good fit for your brand, but you also need to make sure that they are within your budget. To keep costs manageable, looking for influencers with a smaller following can be helpful. Influencers are usually grouped into categories from Nano-Influencers (less than 10,000 followers) to Mega-Influencers (up to 1 million followers), with their rates tending to increase with their follower count.

If you have a small budget, it may also be beneficial to look for influencers who are willing to trade services for product rather than payment. Instead of paying them in cash, you can offer them goods or services in exchange for their promotion. This can be a great way to get exposure while still keeping your costs under control.

Following & Engagement 

When it comes to influencer marketing, many people think that it is simply a case of finding someone with a large following and asking them to promote your product or service. However, it is not always that easy. In fact, finding influencers that are the right fit for a brand requires a lot of careful planning and consideration. 

You need to make sure they have an engaged audience that is interested in the products or services you offer. Simply having a large following is not enough – those followers need to be active and engaged with the influencer’s content. When taking an initial look at a profile or portfolio, see what their average engagement rate is and whether or not the comments on their posts are positive or negative (this is called sentiment analysis).

Aesthetic

Next, aesthetics are an important factor to consider when selecting influencers for your brand. The influencer’s aesthetic should be aligned with your brand’s, as this will help create cohesive and visually appealing content. It is important to consider the overall aesthetic of the influencer’s feed when selecting to work with them. An aesthetically pleasing feed will not only look good to potential customers, but will also attract new followers to the influencer’s page. You should also not expect an influencer to generate content that is different from what is already on their page. If you see a specific post you like a lot because of a setting, style choice, or positioning, let them know this during your initial conversation so they can plan to create content along the same lines.

Location & Target Audience

Depending on the product you are looking to promote, it may be beneficial to target influencers in both urban and rural areas in order to maximize the reach of your campaign. For example, if you are looking to promote a product that appeals to both rural and urban audiences, such as a food delivery service, targeting influencers in both locations can help you to reach a larger audience.

Another important factor to consider when selecting influencers is the demographic of their followers. If you are looking to promote a product or service to a specific audience, such as teenagers. It is important to choose influencers who have a following that is consisted of of the desired demographic. By doing this, you can ensure that your message is reaching the right people and that you are getting the most out of your investment. 

Usage Rights

Finally, perhaps the most important factor to consider when working with influencers is the usage rights of their content. Many more established influencers will require that you sign a contract to with usage limitations for their content. This is usually a set amount of time like 6 months, 1 year, or two years. It is also a good idea to credit the influencer whenever you use their content – even if posting it on your own page. Relationships with your content creators will easily start to turn sour if they see you post their content without crediting them, and this can also deter other creators from working with your brand if they see posts using IGC without credits.

Make sure you have a contract in place to nail down these details – no matter how simple! It will help you both stay on the same page and keep clear deadlines for deliverables, payment, usage rights, etc.

Is your brand ready to dive into Influencer Marketing Collaborations? Reach out to us at hello@oliverandco.social and let us do all the hard work of navigating this process!