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Misapprehensions of Influencer Marketing

Martech Outlook | Tuesday, July 05, 2022

It is important to focus on the education of all the players involved in influencer marketing so that they all correspondingly prosper.

FREMONT, CA: Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that utilizes product mentions and endorsements from influencers. It involves a brand collaborating with an influencer to market its products or services. An influencer is an individual who can influence the purchasing decisions of their followers because of their position, authority, expertise, or relationship with their audience. An influencer can also be someone who has and engages with followers in a distinct niche.

Influencer marketing has evolved greatly in the past few years. Investments in this segment are expected to increase in the near future. But, the progress in the arena of influencer marketing is hindered by certain myths and misconceptions. Following is a list of some prominent misconceptions regarding influencer marketing that need to be resolved.

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A better influencer is one with a larger audience.

There is a misconception that the bigger the influencer audience, the better the influencer. It is often not true. Quality always triumphs over quantity. Particular product categories require niche communities and strong expertise in a certain field. Instead of heedlessly choosing the influencer with the highest follower count, brands should focus on credibility and relevance. In order to influence its audience, the brand should opt for influencers with creative and consistent flair.

Influencer marketing involves only online content.

Influencer marketing is not all about online content. Influencers can share their product  experiences offline with their friends and relatives. A complete network of nano-influencers works offline by organizing product trials, distributing vouchers, and spreading the word. Offline word-of-mouth campaigns can be really impactful in affecting retail sales.

There are only paid influencers and all of them are driven by compensation.

Most of the nano-influencers (having less than 1,000 followers) and micro-influencers (having 1,000 to 100,000 followers) collaborate with the brands for free or for free products. Such influencers are inherently pivoted to the brands they like. However, celebrity and professional macro-influencers expect to get adequate financial compensation for their professional work.

Influencers thrive only on social media.

Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube and Tiktok are certainly important mediums for influencer marketing. But, the right medium depends on the brand’s objectives and its target group. The online world is a broad spectrum. It also includes online forums, brand websites, and e-commerce platforms where influencers can rate products and publish reviews.

It is easy for brands to manage influencer campaigns.

It is arduous and does require definite knowledge to identify the right macro-influencers, negotiate contracts with them and not fall for fake audiences. Engaging with thousands of nano-influencers and hundreds of micro-influencers requires not only expertise but also technical tools, data and algorithms. Marketing teams and companies should tread with care while running influencer campaigns.

Influencer marketing is a very expensive affair.

The fees of the influencers depend on a variety of factors including the number of followers of the influencers, the task they have to perform for the brand, the quality of the audience, the duration of the contract and exclusivity. Influencer solutions are available for all kinds of budgets. This makes influencer marketing engaging for startups and niche brands.

Only the millennial audience is targeted by influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is not only relevant to the millennial audience. Anyone can offline recommend a product or service to people of any age group.  For online platforms, statistics suggest that influencer marketing is relevant to all age groups. The median age of Twitter users is 40 and 35 per cent of Pinterest users are aged between 30 to 49.  40 per cent of the senior population, aged 65 and older, is using Facebook in the US.

Influencer marketing is only about promoting a product or a brand.

Apart from recommending products and services to their acquaintances online and offline, the influencers can also influence marketing teams through direct dialogue. It is valuable to collaborate with influencers at any stage of a product’s life cycle to continuously enhance its marketing. Influencers can help marketers make the right decisions in terms of product, packaging and communications even before the brand is launched.

The measurement of the ROI of an influencer’s campaign is not possible.

For calculating a campaign’s sales impact and its ROI (return on investment), one needs to identify the right data. This data, consisting of short-term sales and long-term brand equity impact, are measured by different available tools that actually depend on the type of campaign, social media channel and the influencer.

Influencer marketing does not work for B2B brands.

Influencer marketing undoubtedly makes sense for B2C brands in the food, fashion, beauty, or lifestyle industries. But, it can also yield great results in the B2B world. This can happen by incorporating innovative ways to target those individuals that have deep industry knowledge, can influence corporate buyers and seamlessly tap into major business-to-business conversations.

Influencer marketing isn't a legitimate form of marketing.

Influencer marketing is a legitimate strategy. There are influencers in every industry, no matter how niche it is.

Influencer marketing is a burning subject of today’s era. It has become a vital part of B2B as well as B2C campaigns. Myths and misconceptions associated with influencer marketing must be busted so that marketing companies and consumers can thrive.

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