If you ever hired an influencer and the influencer marketing campaign failed spectacularly, don’t worry - you’re not the only one.
Many business founders and marketers fail to develop a successful influencer marketing campaign. There can be many reasons for it, and all of them are easily manageable and fixable.
We at Brybe Marketplace interact with many influencers daily, and we know what it takes to create an excellent campaign and how easy it is to make mistakes in this field.
That’s why in today’s article, we’ll talk about the common reasons why your influencer marketing campaigns fail.
Let’s start.
Undefined/unrealistic marketing goals
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up anywhere.
While this unwritten rule may be fun when you’re traveling, it can have multiple negative effects on your campaign.
Like most business decisions you make during the day, the one about launching an influencer campaign should be based on valid, measurable, and achievable goals. You may want to increase your brand awareness or increase the number of leads, or you’re focused only on your sales number. There are plenty of goals you may want to achieve with your influencer marketing campaign, but you need to clearly define them.
You should aim for each one of your influencer marketing goals to be SMART, because, at the end of the day, it’s your time and money.
Choosing the wrong influencer
This is one of the most common mistakes marketers make, and there are several reasons for it.
Most marketers don’t have the necessary experience to research, hire, and collaborate with influencers. In order to do that, these professionals need to be part of the industry for quite a while. The ability to do proper research on the influencer, reach out to them and ask the right questions are all equally important aspects of the job of a qualified marketer.
If this is the case, many marketers go with the second-best solution - hire the most popular influencer in the industry. Worst-case scenario, they hire someone not even remotely related to your brand, but they may seem like a valid choice so why not go with it, right?
All of these approaches will eventually fail you, and you may still end up wondering where it all went wrong.
To avoid this follow this one simple rule - do detailed research on your influencer.
The influencer is the center of your influencer marketing campaign. You may have clearly defined goals, but they’re only reachable once you start discussing them with your influencer. Every influencer has its own style, way of work, connection with the audience, so you need to take all of this into account when deciding to work with them.
The bottom line is that the wrong influencer can cost you a lot more than choosing the right influencer but failing to reach your goals.
More is not always better
Brand owners have trouble choosing between micro and macro-influencers but it all boils down to your campaign goals.
Regarding the dilemma between micro and macro-influencers, one of the reasons why your influencer campaign isn’t working is your focus on the number of followers, instead of on the other aspects of the influencer.
If you’re just starting out with your business, hiring a macro-influencer is not only an expensive investment, it might not bring the desired results. Macro-influencers don’t have loyal followers as micro-influencers, and their engagement rates are quite low. On the other hand, micro-influencers are focused on building relationships with their followers, which makes them perfect for startups, and small businesses. Plus, their engagement rates are much higher.
Choosing between micro and macro-influencers is not an easy choice, but if you don’t make the right decision, your influencer marketing campaign may fail tremendously.
Not providing a comprehensive brief on your products or services
A comprehensive brief can make or break your influencer campaign.
In the brief, you should explain every detail of the campaign - goals, expectations, outcomes, etc. This is where the biggest misunderstandings happen between the influencer and the marketer. You need to make sure that both of you are on the same page.
What kind of content will the influencer create - images, videos, or reels?
Is it going to be a review, a test, just a regular promotion, or something entirely different?
What about the content, what needs to be included in the description?
All of these aspects need to be covered in the brief, and you need to discuss them openly with your influencer. You don’t want to end up being the brand that Scott Disick promotes, right?
Difficult purchasing experience
Even if you choose the best influencer for your campaign, your goals couldn't be more precise, and you have enough budget to make it all work, your influencer marketing can still fail if you don’t offer a simple user experience.
This is not an issue for the brand owners who want to increase their brand awareness, but it can be an issue for those founders who want to increase their sales. If the users are having a hard time finishing their online purchase, or the entire website experience is poor, the number of sales won’t increase. In fact, it may even plummet a bit.
That's why when launching an influencer marketing campaign, it’s crucial to build a landing page specifically for that campaign, with a clean design and easy-to-understand website copy. You’ll be able to track the conversions much easier this way, and you’ll see exactly what your users love, and what they don’t.
When launching your influencer marketing campaign, bear in mind that there will be things out of your control. How the campaign will be perceived, how the audience will react, etc. But, you can do as much as you can to decrease the chance of negative effects of the campaign.
You can always hire one of our influencers to be part of your influencer marketing campaign and increase your chances of launching a successful influencer campaign.