Why an Influencer Marketing Campaign Fails: 3 Mistakes that 90% of Professionals Often Make
The perfect influencer campaign does not exist. But there are some dangers we can consider from the start so as not to make the mistakes that are often made in the Influencer Marketing niche!
Table of contents
Why an Influencer Marketing Campaign Fails?
– reason #1
– reason #2
– reason #3
First of all, any influencer campaign starts with a campaign brief. Find out in this article what information is needed in any brief.
Common reactions at the end of an influencer campaign:
- “We didn’t sell as much as we intended!”
- “Traffic has not significantly increased!”
- “People entered the site, but didn’t really order.”
- “The message did not go viral.”
These are some of the phrases I often hear from those who do marketing campaigns with the help of influencers and have not achieved the desired results. It’s like love, it doesn’t always come out perfect at first. But you learn something from every relationship.
What have I learned from 900 influencer campaigns in 7 years? I have learned that we often make these mistakes: we set our goals wrong, we choose the wrong influencers, our success surprises us.
I will explain each mistake in this article.
What it is clear: Not everyone sells everything in stock as a result of collaborating with influencers.
That’s the bad news!
The good news is that your budget and goals can be realistically and strategically set, so that you are among satisfied customers. 91% of those who worked with influencers are satisfied with the results, says a study based on responses from experts around the world, including Europe.
The same study shows that those who manage to master the mechanics of this industry and use Influencer Marketing in their favour, earn an average of $ 5.78 for every $ 1 invested. Almost six times! Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
Even if we do not have a study referring exclusively to the Romanian market, experience tells me that a positive report is valid in all markets where Social Media is widely used. And in Romania, we can certainly talk about high Social Media consumption. The number of 11 million accounts on Facebook has been exceeded this year (source).
Why does an Influencer Marketing Campaign Fails?
What are the 3 mistakes I also made in the last few years, and how can you get around them?
1. Campaign with influencers without a clear goal.
“We didn’t sell as much as we intended!”, the customer says.
But did we set a clear goal at the start of the campaign?
Was it a big, small or no success? In fact, how do you measure the success of a campaign?
The first step, when deciding whether an influencer campaign was successful or a failure, is to refer to a realistic and measurable goal. Ideally, you should set a SMART goal (an acronym often used in marketing):
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time bound
Let’s apply the SMART goal to a specific case!
Example:
You invested 250 euros for an advertorial on a blog that has 500 readers. You want to sell washing machines, but it’s unrealistic to think that this campaign will help your company sell 1000 washing machines. It is not impossible, but it is unlikely that of the 500 readers, all will access your site and all will order 2 pieces of your product. And maybe on the same day!
But what goal can you set?
You can aim that of the 500 readers, 100 to enter your site in a week, and 2 to buy a product in the next month. Thus, if a product sold by you costs 800 euros, and your profit is 150 euros per piece, you managed to sell two products by investing 250 euros. Your profit is 50 euros. You can multiply by 2 or 10 or 50 the data of this hypothetical situation to create a realistic scenario, adapted to the demand for your products, their price, profit margin and market at a given time.
Okay, how does the influencer help in a marketing campaign?
Let’s introduce in the equation the “influencer” variable. The given problem changes radically if the influencer has a suitable audience for your product or service. Either we refer to demographics (sometimes it is important to address only women or only men) or lifestyle (for example, the fitness enthusiasts). The 500 users can be very valuable to your campaign or completely irrelevant. I will detail this below.
In conclusion, if you set out to make a profit of 10,000 euros with the 250 euros thus invested, you can say that the goal was not achieved, but also it was not realistic. Unfortunately, it is the kind of expectation that many set for themselves! They do not consider many aspects related to the choice of influencer, the approach of the campaign or the time context.
Online is the same as a store where many enter, but not everyone buys and anyway does not spend all the money in the wallet.
Basically, it is NOT reasonable to expect that:
- All users who follow an influencer to click on the URL of your business.
- All users who reach your page to place an order.
What expectations are reasonable to have?
Of those who have already developed campaigns with influencers, most (34%) were interested in engagement, more precisely the number of clicks. Others were interested in reach (27%), namely views or impressions. If everything seems clear in terms of clicks, why does reach of a campaign with influencers in the online environment matter?
An ideal scenario would look like this: one saw the message about a store that sells shoes. He clicked and immediately ordered a pair. The reality is this is not always the way a user behaves, and marketers know that.
Research in the field has revealed the process behind making a purchase decision and how long it takes, from one product or service to another, depending on price, functionality, seasonality and many other aspects. In other words, it is important to know what kind of product or service you are promoting in your campaign, in order to understand what motivates the buyer and how to approach him.
Reach can be very valuable in turning a user into a buyer in a certain amount of time. Knowing your brand or product can be the first step in the journey to trust and finally to purchase.
Do not rush to say that you had an unsuccessful campaign if you did not receive an order in the first days after release.
If you read these lines and you are an entrepreneur, you do not have extensive marketing experience and you are not sure of your approach, MOCAPP specialists can help you with advice, either by creating a strategy or giving feedback regarding your plan.
2. Campaign with inappropriate influencers
• You chose influencers solely considering the number of followers, without looking at engagement, approached themes or style (tone of voice).
• You chose influencers without considering the profile of their followers. The back statistics can be surprising! (And we, at MOCAPP, have them!)
We at MOCAPP say: Any good influencer campaign starts with a good research.
I could write dozens of articles about research and influencer choice. Look, I wrote before, you can also read this: “The power of influencers”.
Selecting the right influencers is the biggest challenge the marketers face. 67.7% said so, according to a study quoted by Business Wire, no wonder 2 out of 3 say so given the huge range we are referring to in 2020 – 2021. Zelist Monitor monitors 95,000 active blogs in Romania. There were over 4.5 million users on Instagram in September 2020 (source NapoleonCat). Of these, many have plenty of followers: global statistics show that 30% have between 1,000 and 10,000, and 36% have between 10,000 and 100,000.
So how do you select them to communicate with your brand’s target audience?
The audience’s affinity with the product or service you are promoting is one of the keys to success.
The numbers do not speak for themselves, and this makes that search engines in databases with influencers which only consider the number of followers and the language they communicate to lead you on the wrong track. More directly, we can say that it does not (only) matter how many people the message reaches, but who it reaches.
MOCAPP comes with answers to questions about the content produced by the influencer and can help you choose the most suitable voices for your band. Contact us!
A careful assessment of the values and addressing style of the influencer, the interaction with his followers and his consistency in approaching certain topics will help you prioritize the choices according to the loyalty of the audience and its receptivity to certain messages. One important thing: an influencer with 50,000 followers may send more users to your site than one with 500,000 followers.
How?
This reality has been discovered by many marketers and many brands. According to a study quoted by Chief Marketer:
• 66% collaborate with influencers with average numbers (10,000 – 100,000 followers)
• 59% and with micro-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) and
• 44% use macro-influencers (over 100,000)
An advantage of influencers with small or medium communities, in addition to more careful segmentation of the audience, is that they have lower fees or accept barter collaborations, (35% of them) says the same study. But we, the ones who work in the field, also know. However, the above statistics show that for the best results, if you can, it is good to make a mix: to distribute your budget having several types of influencers in the campaign.
What is the niche of the influencer and what is the profile of the follower?
This question deserves to be printed and framed.
If you have the full answers, you solve the main problem of the campaign.
It is important to understand if a blogger posts simple video recipes and is followed by beginners in gastronomy or if he is a niche specialist on sophisticated desserts and is therefore followed by other professionals in the field.
Obviously, it’s not the same. And you have to differentiate between these content creators and especially to understand their audiences if you want to promote a professional food processor, for example.
One mistake you can make is to assume that an influencer’s followers have the same passions and lifestyle as him.
A vlogger followed for the nonconformist style can be followed by the so-called “white-collars”.
Let’s call them corporatists, who appreciate his expression, but do not necessarily have the opportunity to express themselves stylistically as they would like, being constrained by the rules of the company where they spend 10 hours a day.
They might not buy a skateboard, but they would go to an alternative music event. To understand the audience means to understand what needs and goals these followers have, what brands they value. That’s why the updated statistics light and guide you to reach the relevant audience.
Analyse your target and sincerely accept who he is. It must be neither cooler, nor younger, nor richer than he really is. Just as your influencer should not be chosen because he is cool, but because he is the right voice.
3. The campaign didn’t work because you didn’t align your own calendar with the influencer’s actions
If I planted a tree every time I saw campaigns where a company’s website fell after the influencer started the campaign or how many times the discount code offered to followers didn’t work, we would all be in the shadow now. 😉
Efforts to choose influencers, create the brief, implement feedback are so high that sometimes a vital aspect is lost: the fact that your business must synchronize with the demand created by the campaign.
What does to align with the influencer mean?
- To work strategically and create a realistic campaign calendar. Your campaign does not have to be limited to Social Media, and your strategy must cover all aspects, including:
o selecting the platforms where your audience is active
o selection of influencers and their approach
o negotiating the collaboration terms
o creating content (text, photo or video) and implementing your feedback
o publishing the content
o answering user comments or questions on his page.
Keep realistic planning in mind if you want to ship test products by courier!
Do your homework in advance! All these actions can take months.
For example, an Ecommerce store
Specifically, if you’re going to promote care products used in the summer, such as sunscreens, self-tanners, or water-resistant makeup products, it’s certainly not an inspired idea to start planning them in June and to develop it in August, when demand no longer exists or dramatically decreases. Also, if you are going to campaign with influencers on Black Friday or Christmas or another important occasion for the general public, you will not be the only one who wants this and you can be rejected by influencers who already have full calendars.
• Have the store ready: be functional, user-friendly and have stocks. Too much success can surprise you unpleasantly: incredible, but true.
Be sure the server will not crash due to the large number of visitors. I often say: “Are you ready to succeed?”. In my experience, everyone wants success, but few are ready to receive it.
Therefore, check every button! Place orders to check the user experience and the validity of the discount code, if applicable. Last but not least, be ready to deliver the product or provide the service to those who want it.
Your investment will be in vain if you will not be able to honour, for various reasons, the possible orders.
It is important to align the message in the brief given to the influencer with your own channels:
- from the homepage – to focus on the same products you promote through the influencer marketing campaign
- to social media – during the campaign, no other messages should be found on your pages, without any link.
Here is an example from Ecommerce:
If the influencer will promote a 20% price discount for his community, the same discount should not appear on your page for any other buyer, because you disqualify your ambassador.
You shouldn’t even have a homepage with other products, making the user search for a long time for the product promoted in the campaign. In short, the campaign must include all these elements and synchronize them, so as not to sabotage your own effort.
Conclusions:
There are many things to consider when running an influencer campaign. Avoiding these 3 mistakes can help you create campaigns with outstanding results.
The context is positive: customers are receptive and want influencer campaigns. And you can take advantage of the experience gained by professionals specializing in Influencer Marketing and existing digital tools to simplify and streamline your work.
