The Dos and Don'ts of Influencer Marketing | Simply Measured

• Updated on: 2018-11-18
• Read original article here

Influencer marketing is becoming more and more popular by the day. The main reason behind this is that it strengthens the reach of companies while increasing brand awareness. Influencer marketing allows companies, big or small, to reach a highly relevant audience.

Influencer marketing is now almost a household term for online marketers. However, most of them do not really know how to fully take advantage of this trend. The following are a few suggestions on what you should, and shouldn’t do to ensure your influencer marketing campaigns deliver maximum results and ROI.

You cannot select influencers randomly and start working with them. Influencers need to be chosen wisely. Their niche should match that of your brand’s. If you choose an influencer who has no knowledge in your field, they will not be able to create authentic content, and offer value to the audience.

For example, Reebok teamed up withSophia Angela Collins, who is a New Zealand based dancer, fitness expert, and social media influencer. The following screenshot is one of her Instagram posts in which she promoted Reebok.

Sophia has more than 12,700 followers on Instagram. She is a good choice for Reebok because she’s into health and fitness, which matches with the brand’s niche.

Influencers try their best to get your message across to as many people as possible. This responsibility often puts them under a lot of pressure.

You can help them out by sharing their content on your own social media profiles, and official company website. Any help from your side will be greatly appreciated.

Below is a screenshot of a post from The Body Shop’s official Instagram page. The brandrepostedan image byAlbertine Brandondisplaying three shades of The Body Shop Matte Lip Liquids.

Albertine is a London based beauty blogger, and the Commissioning Editor at Blogosphere Magazine. She has more than 3,200 followers on Instagram. The repost by The Body Shop received more than 7000 likes

Show appreciation for your influencers’ efforts by offering them gifts and other incentives, like discounts and experiences. You can also help your influencers gain more recognition. Doing this will encourage them to spread the word for you more actively.

Do not ask influencers to simply promote content created by you. You should always hire an influencer create the content for you in way that doesn’t reduce the genuineness of their intentions, and effectively helps you reach your target audience.

The following screenshot shows YouTuber Kaushal offering a makeup tutorial using products from The Body Shop.

The Body Shopcollaborated with Kaushal, who runs the YouTube channel,Kaushal Beauty, to create the makeup tutorial for their audience. Kaushal has more than 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube.

Gifts and discounts are nothing more than tokens of appreciation. But they won’t pay the bills. So make sure you offer competitive compensation, as it will make your influencer feel valued. If the compensation is not sufficient, many influencers won’t be willing to work with your company.

The amount of sponsored content created by your influencer determines their level of genuineness. Too much sponsored content may mean they are compromising authenticity, and are likely to lose the trust of their followers sooner rather than later.

Have your influencers worked with other brands? If so, what kind of track record do they have? Check their accomplishments before you finalize the decision to work with an influencer. If the influencer was able to successfully pull off other campaigns in the past, they will likely also be an effective partner to your brand.

When following up with your influencer, make sure you aren’t too persistent and adding unnecessary pressure. Most influencers are very busy individuals, and may not have the time to respond immediately. If you send an email or any other kind of message, allow them time to get back to you.

All too often, marketers try to put their own ideas into the content created by influencers. This ends up in the authenticity of the content often being lost. As a result, the audience is unable or unwilling to connect with the content when it appears to be less than genuine.

For example, YouTube channel,CarsGuide.com.au, recently did a review of the Jeep Compass, as you can see in the following screenshot.

In the video, Peter Anderson gives his opinion about the newly launched car, and its features. His feedback about the car is genuine, and uninfluenced by the brand. Which makes it more authentic, engaging, and trustworthy to the audience.

This is a very important part in any influencer marketing campaign. Don’t just look for influencers who have a large number of followers. Instead, look for the ones who are relevant to your brand, and able to drive high rates of engagement. Then their followers will be more likely to base their purchase decisions on the influencer’s review or post about your product/service.

You should make your terms clear with the influencers before starting the campaign. Giving influencers guidelines doesn’t mean interfering with their content. It means telling them how you want to be promoted, so that you can reach the maximum number of people.

For example, Instagram allows users to tag other users (including brands) in their images. So many influencers use of this feature to tag brands in their images. However, hardly anyone bothers to actually check who has been tagged in photos on Instagram. But they do check the image captions, so that is where you should have influencers tag you to ensure that more people see you.

For instance, Russian actressJulia Peresildrecently promoted RADO watches in an Instagram post.

Julia has more than 123,000 followers on Instagram. As you can see in the screenshot above, Julia tagged the brand in the caption, and not on the image itself. The post has already received more than 13,000 likes.

Influencer marketing has been making major waves in the online marketing community. The above mentioned tips will help you understand, and run influencer marketing campaigns more accurately and effectively. For more great tips and best practices, check out this beautiful infographic oninfluencer marketingby HireInfluence.

For more information on influencer marketing and how you can overcome common challenges marketers face, check out our blog post, How Brands Can Overcome the Biggest Influencer Marketing Challenges.