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5 Ways to Improve Your Next Influencer Marketing Campaign

January 18, 2017
Brand, Agency
  
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With more than 84% of marketers now utilizing the strategy, influencer marketing is no longer the mystery it was two years ago. With a few campaigns behind you and a new year ahead, you might now be looking for ways to improve. Having worked with brands of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to emerging designers, we at Shopping Links have had a front row seat to the evolution of influencer marketing, allowing us to assess common mistakes and how to fix them. Here are the top five missteps we see from brands and how to improve for better engagement, reach, and ROI:  

 

The mistake: You require too many posts per campaign. 

The solution: Focus on high-quality content.  

When you require a great deal of sponsored content within a short period of time, your influencer’s followers may stop believing the influencer’s opinions -- or worse, they’ll be turned off by your brand. Invest your energy and influencer marketing budget in high-quality, visually stunning content that will make viewers pause, rather than hoping to saturate the audience by sneaking in as many posts as you can.


Read More: Planning Your Influencer Marketing Calendar

 

The mistake: You don’t look past the influencer’s audience size.  

The solution: Make sure your product aligns with your influencer and their followers. 

Although 2016 was often heralded as the “year of the micro-influencer,” many brands still equated big audiences with big returns. Choosing the widest reach for your budget might feel like the smartest decision, but when you enter a campaign hoping an influencer’s audience will outweigh their ambivalence, you’re already fighting an uphill battle. Consider working with multiple emerging and mid-size influencers who express enthusiasm in your product. These influencers are more likely to have consumers who are eager to buy your products.

 

The mistake: You’re in a single-channel rut.

The solution: Choose multiple social channels, focusing on content quality.  

When it feels like you’ve finally found the right channel -- Instagram, for example -- it can be easy to stick to what you know. But tunnel vision could be keeping you from reaching new customers and delivering your message in all the ways that resonate most with the people who want your product. Creating a campaign across multiple channels, from Snapchat to YouTube, allows you to assess which types of content convert the best for you. You can also better gauge changes in your audience preferences over time and spot emerging platforms before the competition becomes fierce.


Read More: Tips for Using Influencer Marketing to Enter New Global Markets

 

The mistake: You have unrealistic expectations.

The solution: Keep all factors of success in mind.  

Setting unrealistic expectations is one of the biggest mistakes that new marketers make with influencer marketing, followed closely by using the wrong measures of success. If you expect immediate sales from influencer marketing and use only this measure to determine your success, you’re ignoring long-term benefits that can prove even more valuable, such as long-term engagement and brand familiarity. Our Collaborations Results page allows you to assess all factors of your collaboration to best understand how well it performed.  


Read More: Introducing Our New Collaborations Results Page 


The mistake: You're thinking too small.

The solution: Consider every possible audience for your brand. 

The biggest audience for your product might not be who you think it is. For example, a lot of women prefer men's grooming products, be it men's razors or cologne. The same often holds true for “boyfriend” jeans, flannels and T-shirts. Likewise, you might consider marketing products like concealer and toner to male consumers who already sneak these items from the women in their lives. Gift-giving occasions like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Graduation Day are more good opportunities to reach new audiences. To ensure the widest possible reach, you may need to enlist a variety of influencers who speak to a number of different demographics.


Read More: How to Reach Beyond Your Target Demographic for Collaborations 


The mistake: You're in an influencer rut. 

The solution: Try out different influencers for different audiences. 

 Once you have found influencers that perform well for you, it can be tempting to use these same influencers for each new campaign. And while building strong relationships is important for long-term engagement, you might be missing out on new customers for your brand if you only speak to a single audience. We recommend balancing collaborations with reliable influencers with a mix of new influencers to get the benefits of both strategies. 


These are just a few of the ways to improve your influencer marketing strategies and see even greater returns in the next year. Need more ideas? Get in touch at hello@shoppinglinks.com.