My message for you is

Influencer is dead; Influencer marketing is Alive

 

1. Influencers Die; Brands Don’t Adapt

Influencer marketing is expected to grow but brands are making the same mistake of hiring trendy influencers that die. They die because they are promoting you on Friday and Your competitor the next day.

Making the trust of influencers die.

2. You are doing creator marketing

 

Only 14% of creators are influencers. Not every creator will have a huge impact on your orders. That is why I advise you to take the principle of 11 Brand touchpoints to your Influencer campaign.

Form long-term partnerships with those creators focused on content. They charge less and you can negotiate long-term deals using the 11 Brand Touchpoints framework.

 

3. Calculate Promotional Engagement

 

Don’t fall for the overall engagement rate. Most creators have their viral moments. Making their average engagement rate look good.

Always ask for engagement rates on their last 3 organic posts and engagement on the last 3-4 Promotional Posts.

Some creators might delete their old sponsored posts but they might have numbers to share with you. It is a red flag if they are hesitating to share analytics with you.

 

4. Great Influencer marketing Influences, The Influencer

 

You could have a great influencer marketing campaign but that impact dies when a campaign is over. Because you influenced some of the consumers to buy.

But not influenced other influencers to talk about your product organically. The brands spending millions on Influencers are trying to achieve that.

This requires a heavy budget or you need to growth hack your way into leading a creative growth strategy.

 

5. Overvaluing or Undervaluing Influencers

 

The biggest issue with influencer marketing for agencies and brands is comparing costs to Paid media.

Many creators are uneducated about charging their worth and the same goes for Brands. This is something parts need to work on.

What I advise is like you do networking  at entrepreneurship events. Try to network with Influencers first by hanging out at online spaces where they exist. Or share the messaging behind you reaching out.

Truth is worth more than promising them future influencer partnerships.

 

6. The Fake Agency Model

 

Going back to the roots of Influencer marketing. As Youtube kicked off the big level influencer marketing, the agency model was this:

You cold outreach the brand and pitch them idea of using influencer marketing. And lie about having a network of creators to boost your brand. In reality, you don’t have direct relation with those influencers.

And you do the same thing with Influencers. Pitching them a list of Brands under your belt.

This model is now getting exposed. Creators are brands are connecting with each other.

Only few are standing out, By either focusing on influencers or marketing data. And important for all is building healthy relations with influencers

A good examples are RAD AI using Data and Jellysmack funding their own creators.

 

7. Doing Social Listening to prevent Budlight

 

Yes, you have a new brand messaging campaign going forward. And Influencers are the new hype.

Your content does not impact only followers of an influencer. That content is distributed by users and algorithms to everywhere.

Making the importance of Social listening significant. Listen to audience interests of your existing audience on reddit, twitter and community forums.

Before you deploy your Creative influencer strategy.

8. AI, Influencers and UGC

 

There is a huge disruption in this space now. Because Meta & Tiktok are increasing their Ad targeting capabilities with AI and helping paid media agencies.

And then as I mentioned earlier Influencers losing spark, is causing a move from IGC to UGC (user generated content).

Meaning the new strategies I’m building for people include less influencer focus. But more focus on audience targeting through paid media and better UGC content.

This will affect the influencer world a lot. Especially if Influencer earnings get impacted, they will need to be more comfortable with Ad Creatives and pricing.

 

9. Study Influencer / Ambassador  programs

 

Brands like Lulumelon, Adidas, Amazon & even Walmart have well-structured programs you should study them.

And spy on influencers that worked for them. Try to build relationships with those working influencers.

They are already testing and spending millions on these influencers. You can steal the best out of their campaigns.