5 Common Influencer Marketing Mistakes Brands Give

Influencer marketing has been the buzzword for two years straight. It has retained the status of a "Breakout" term on Google during 2015-2016 experiencing search growth over 5,000 percent. Hundreds of tools and "influencer networks" have arisen; and more than 80 percent of manufacturers are either already doing it or actively searching towards exploring influencer advertising in 2017.

Simply set, influencer marketing's character might be boiled down to using the clout of tastemakers for the dissemination of advertising messages. In reality, however, it's easier said than done. All too often, brands fail at influencer marketing efforts, and it is not because influencer advertising is "broken." The majority of the failures can be directly correlated to committing particular errors while approaching this delicate, intricate and, in many ways sort of marketing.

1. Confusing Influencer Marketing for Celebrity Endorsements

Leveraging endorsements by electricity influencers dates way back to the 1760s. It was then that the potter and businessman, Josiah Wedgwoodbegan using royal exemptions for constructing the newest of fine china company and his Wedgwood porcelain. Electricity endorsements and quick forward two-and-a-half centuries are still going strong.

But it is shortsighted to revolve influencer marketing to celebrity endorsements only. Stars are 1 type of influencers you might want to leverage. Besides them, building relationships with micro-influencers and "brandviduals," tapping into the energy of brand advocates, and even discerning opportunities with unhappy clients ... all of them (and more!) Represent influencer advertising places.

An Experticity poll of 6,000 net users found out that 82 percent of them were highly likely to adhere to a recommendation produced by a micro-influencer. Observations demonstrate that while influencer advertising campaigns operate through celebrities do yield conversions, activation of 30 to 40 micro-influencers can result in more business. Do not mistake influencer marketing. It is much deeper than that.

2. Prioritizing Influencer's Reach (Rather than Donation)

Much has been written and said about this, yet novices nevertheless tend to reevaluate the amount of fans/followers over anything else. If you are looking to merely broadcast a marketing message, then creating brand/product awareness yes, then reach may be important. If, however, you are looking for the influencer marketing campaign to result in an activity (sort entry, newsletter sign-up, sale, etc) select your spouses based on engagement prices.

I believe that "participation" in the influencer marketing circumstance is twofold: (I) the level to which the influencer is involved with her audience, and (ii) the participation of the audience together with the influencer's attempts. The latter, obviously, flows from the former; and, being the above-quoted study shows, a number of micro-influencers (people who have considerably smaller-than-celebrity's reach) can often yield better outcomes than one "energy endorser."

A 2016 analysis by Markerly, that studied posts of more than 800 Instagram users, also verified that the greater the follower count receives, the lower the engagement trajectory drops.

3. Failing to Police Influencer Compliance with FTC's Rules

The year 2016 was marked by various exemplary cases of when the US Federal Trade Commission went after advertisers whose sway or marketing attempts failed at transparency. At the first eight weeks of that calendar year, a significant motion picture company, a top retailer, along with a firm were all found to be out of compliance with the Federal Trade Commission guidelines resulting in heavy fines. Near the close of the year, two advocacy groups filed a complaint (PDF) together with the FTC, requesting action against these giants like Disney and Google over "child-directed influencer advertising."

Consult with your attorney to be certain that your influencer marketing efforts abide by the laws pertinent to the geography and the audience that your influencer efforts are targeting.

4. Not Placing in Place

James Harrington is notorious for saying that "dimension is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement." If one does not measure something, they cannot understand it, and, so they "can't enhance it."

According to some LaunchMetrics study, performance analysis of influencer marketing applications is among the top 3 challenges that 53 percent of entrepreneurs struggle with.

When measuring your influencer advertising campaigns, you would like to maintain the goals in perspective, as metrics and key performance indicators to measure will probably differ based upon the principal objective of this effort. Generically speaking, your targets will fall into one of the marketing funnel's 3 phases: Consideration, Awareness and Action. Set goals and measure your attainment of them by analyzing KPIs.

5. Fixing It All as a One-Time Engagement

Last, however, it's crucial to understand that successful influencer marketing focuses on the long-term. As Jay Baer stated in a recent interview he's given to mepersonally, influencer marketing works just if you "play the long game." He underscored that "influencer marketing isn't a last-minute effort" but a promotion approach based on "real relationships with real influencers within periods of years or months." I couldn't agree more.

You may learn much more about influencer advertising "done right" in my latest LinkedIn Learning video course on it, as well as at my Influencer Marketing Days conference.

As always, if I've missed a point that belongs to the list, please do chime in with it with the "Comments" area below.