Influencer Marketing Challenges Brands Face
Using influencer marketing generates excellent returns on advertising expenditure. Even so, there are challenges that come with the use of influencer marketing; even more than the effort required. Social media platforms provide an option of buying their services; you can buy Twitch followers and others from reliable sellers. But how do you know the reliable sellers? It is therefore imperative for firms to find ways of dealing with these challenges before diving into them. If you think about it, it’s always advisable to enumerate expected challenges when doing any project and countermeasures to deals with them. Some firms have in the past jumped into influencer marketing without considering what transpires there and as a result, they have had very expensive advertisements.
Some entrepreneurs say influencer marketing is difficult, some have said it’s for niche selection of companies while to others it’s not workable. All these aside, influencer marketing is new, and just like anything new in the market, it takes time to come up with the best way to benefit from the activity.
Social media audience is very complicated. Moreover, there are different products for different groups of people; for generations x, Y, Z, and even for baby boomers. Generation z for instance knows when they are being fed with advertisements and have mechanisms of avoiding blatant marketing. They want to be in control, they want to do everything on their terms. Here are the challenges that brands face while trying to use influencer marketing.
1. Understanding different types of influencers
Do you use influencer marketing? Are you aware of the categories there are? As a brand marketer, you should at least try to understand the difference between micro, macro, and celebrity influencers. Most people are used to celebrity influencers and they think it’s the only way of using influencer marketing. This is not the case though.
There are several ways of using influencer marketing and the use of celebrities is just one of them. To the surprise of many, some managers aren’t aware of the categories of influencer marketing as well. It therefore your responsibility to inform them in case you intend to use other forms of influencer marketing; inform them that you don’t want to use Kardashians to promote your cookies.
Only celebrity influencers indeed existed. Far from it, things have changed as through social media, other types of influencers have also evolved. Somebody would ask why celebrity influencer isn’t so popular; Is it because of the cost involved, is it because of what the celebrities do, or is it because of the market for other competing companies. Come to think of it, celebrity influencers can attract close to a million followers. But are they celebrities because of their talent or your product? Are they being followed because of the talent or your product? A micro-influencer is the most important type of influencer. They are engaged with their audience and generate 25 to 50% conversion rates. The only challenge is in knowing them.
2. Proving the value of influencers to the executives
Most marketing departments of firms have a deep understanding of effective marketing techniques. However, a keen look at the executives or even the C-team shows that most of them are made up of generation x and this presents a lot of challenges as they require you to prove the success of any marketing strategy and the associated returns which at times is impossible. Do these traditional executives know what influencer marketing is? What is their perception of it? In most firms and companies, older executives annotate influencer marketing to celebrity marketing which involves flashing large amounts of money without any significant return.
3. Convincing influencers why they should work with you
How do you convince someone to work with you? How do you tell them working with you is worth their time? This is the next big challenge after deciding on the kind of influencers to use. You must ensure that the words you use are commensurate with their ethos. For instance, if contacting an influencer whose target is generation z, you want to avoid using corporate language.
Try and know the paraphernalia of influencers before contacting them; the type of content they produce and even their target audience. Micro-influencers are the type of influencers you want to work with as they are glad for having recognized their importance. A picture of them receiving your products may work wonders. Even so, it’s important to understand them before deciding to work with them.
Are you an entrepreneur? Do you face any marketing challenges? If so, here are some of the challenges. Familiarize yourself with them just they might not give you a difficult time if they come.
