Influencer marketing is an offshoot of affiliate marketing that is the most visible to the public. They’re not only aware of influencers marketing to them, but they often seek it. It’s one of the most lucrative and effective means of online marketing and comes with many perks, which we outline below.
But it also comes with pitfalls that can be avoided if you know what you are doing. We’re breaking down the pros and cons of influencer marketing and what you need to do to avoid these pitfalls.
The Pros
But let’s start off light. What are the perks of influencer marketing tactics?
Well, for one you can tailor who you work with to make sure you are reaching a relevant audience. Influencers come in all shapes and sizes nowadays and you can choose which ones fit the demographic of your target audience to make sure you get the most out of them. For example, a B2B brand might want to target the entrepreneur or business advice influencer, while a beauty brand might want to target beauty and cosplay influencers. This gives you a much wider audience than you might have reached on your own. The reality is that no person fits into a neat little package, whether that’s an influencer or a consumer, so an influencer might appeal to someone you hadn’t considered, resulting in new customers.
Influencers also do what they do best: they influence. If your brand has no, or a bad, reputation, influencers giving you shoutouts can build trust and credibility. Because the audience trusts them, they’ll trust you.
It’s also the most affordable option, especially if you go with micro-influencers. Influencers are essentially celebrity endorsements while really stretching the word celebrity: users watch them and want to be like them. So, working with influencers rather than celebrities can be much more rewarding to the wallet.
And lastly, it can really save marketers time, as the actual legwork of marketing, the content, is handed over to the influencer.
The Cons
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Working with the wrong influencer can do damage
There is an ongoing trend of users losing faith in influencers. Influencer “scandals” range from bad apologies for unthoughtful words to outright criminal behaviour. Working with someone in this spectrum can be detrimental to the brand. In particular, big influencers are leaving a bad taste in the mouth of users. They keep doing wrong things, they keep showing off their wealth during an economic crisis, and they keep earning.
The fix:
Micro-influencers are considered the way forward for users and marketers. They’re humble, not as flashy, not as polished, and therefore a lot more trustworthy. They also are usually the king of a smaller, but a more dedicated army. Users look to them and don’t think “I want to be like them”, but more “I am like them, and that product worked for them so…”.
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Marketing mistakes can cost your brand
If you do all the research it takes to find an influencer you like, you’ve hunted through their Twitter for bad Tweets, searched YouTube for “exposed” videos, checked the news for criminal acts, etc., and then they do something you cannot support, it might hurt your brand.
And then there is the fact that you are leaving a majority of this up to the influencer, which means they can make mistakes or post something that doesn’t do as well. Common mistakes include not disclosing in or around the content that it is sponsored, posting content that doesn’t match your target audience, ignoring FTC guidelines, or using bots to inflate their following.
The fix:
There are different fixes to each of these problems and each of them in turn have their own pros and cons. Problematic creators are a matter of case by case. It’s not unheard of for a dogpile to form out of nothing, so use your judgment there.
A lot of the rest of it can be fixed with a basic requirement checklist for content creators. They don’t know your marketing tactics, so some pointers on what the content should or shouldn’t include are helpful.
However, the bots are an instant write-off situation. If they are inflating their followers and video views with bots, you’re going to see because engagement is low. The concept undermines the point of influencer marketing for you, so there is no point in keeping working with them at that point.
And that’s been all the pros and cons of influencer marketing. If you’re interested in more affiliate marketing advice, you can take a look at our blog for all the latest insights (see our post on Influencer marketing for the car industry). Or for a more personalized approach, book a free call with a member of our team.
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