7 Influencer Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Ahana Machaiah
Influencer marketing platform
Product Marketing Manager - Qoruz

Influencer marketing is not a new strategy; it is an old practice to recruit celebrities that trace its origin back to the 1800s. 

It is different in the digital age & the rules have been completely changed. You don’t need to be a celebrity to work as an influencer. All you need is to choose a better influencer marketing platform to run a successful influencer marketing campaign.

Influencer marketing revolves around all the social media personalities with a huge following. What does it mean? 

This means that some of the biggest brands are more inclined to partner with a social media celebrity than a Hollywood celebrity.

The most crucial part of Influencer marketing is word of mouth, 92 percent of consumers trust recommendations from other people – even if they don’t.

Influencer marketing is a great way to get your product in front of the right eyeballs, but it can also be a trap.

So, before you ramp up your influencer marketing platform efforts, here are the 7 influencer marketing mistakes you must avoid:

Sticking to Old Marketing Strategies

We all know that sticking to old strategies can be a disaster. You’re writing the same thing over and over again, hoping it will resonate with your audience. But what if there was a better way?

The truth is, we’re all guilty of this at one time or another. And when you’re trying to get people excited about your product again, it’s easy to get stuck in old habits. 

But here’s the thing: your readership doesn’t care about what you’ve done before! They want something new and exciting. 

So stop creating strategies like you did last year and start strategizing like you’re passionate about your subject matter!

If you’re not sure what else you can do, try these three tips:

1. Stick with social media trends. If your audience is trending toward certain things (like reels and shorts), try to write about those things too. You’ll be more likely to attract their attention and keep them coming back for more.

2. Use multiple features to cover an audience. For example, if your audience likes cooking shows and recipes, put those two things together in one post! This will give them something new and exciting and get them interested in both of those topics at once.

3. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with new ideas. Just make sure that whatever new approach you take won’t alienate too many of your current readership.

As long as you keep an eye on trends and try not to stick to some overly-simplified version of yourself, the sky’s the limit for your influence marketing strategy!

Stealing Influencers Creativity 

The fact is, your influencer isn’t an employee. They’re partners and should be trusted to help you make the best decisions possible.

The problem with the current model is that most influencers are hired as “one-dimensional” content creators. That means you’ll get a campaign brief that’s very specific about what kind of content you want and how it must be shot. 

And because of this one-dimensional approach, you end up with generic, uninspired content that doesn’t really reflect your brand in any meaningful way.

But let’s say your brand is all about being trendy and fun but also sophisticated and smart what should you do?

Your influencer should take on a role more like an ambassador than just another producer: they should be able to provide creative direction for their own content. 

If the influencer has a strong voice in their own right, they’ll be able to make sure that your brand’s unique style and tone come through in their videos while still maintaining their individuality!

Influencer marketing is not a one-time event. It’s a long-term strategy, and you need to be invested in it to make the most of it

Prioritizing Popularity Over Relevance Using an Influencer Marketing Platform

It is a common misconception that the more followers an influencer has, the more your brand will benefit from it, right? But you are wrong.

The perks of influencer marketing are that you can tap into selected audiences that currently lean toward your industry. The bigger their name is, the less related their audience would be.

For example, if you are selling marketing software, then going with a marketing thought leader with 10,000 followers is far more helpful than a fashion blogger with 1 million followers.

Learn more about influencers’ real-time engagement rate in our influencer marketing platform-Qoruz. 

The count of followers of an influencer is important, but another aspect is the engagement of an influencer with their followers. 

You will have to check how relevant their audience is & the engagement level of the audience with the influencer’s present content. If the posts lack retweets, comments & or likes, then it is time to steer clear. 

Sticking to Only One Platform

Your brand might have the largest followers on Facebook, but that doesn’t mean your influencer should have many followers on Facebook. 

This is the most common mistake by the brands. There are other platforms, such as Snapchat, Twitter & Instagram, that boast a total user base of more than 2 billion live users. So, if Facebook is covered, you should focus on other platforms.

To avoid these mistakes, try our dynamic influencer marketing platform now!

Delivering Freebies and Miscommunication

There are plenty of new influencers who are willing to work for free merchandise, goodies & other deals. 

But you can’t simply think about building long-lasting relationships with the influencers if you will only give your influencers freebies. 

Influencers are professionals like anyone else, so one must respect their work and pay accordingly.

When you start an influencer campaign, you have to make sure that someone from your team is present to answer the influencer’s queries. 

When you offer the support, it will, in turn, build rapport with influencers & they will come back to work for your brand again & the plus point would be that they would be already familiar with your requirements. 

Our influencer marketing platform provides end-to-end support for your influencer marketing campaign.

You should make it clear to the influencer about your expectations from the start. You can tell them your expectations and do not change the requirements midway through the campaigns. 

Following these simple courtesies will allow building friendliness with the influencers who will become important to your brand in the years to come. 

Influencer marketing platforms fill the communication gap between influencers and brands.

Not Analyzing Performance Data

As discussed in the third topic about prioritizing followers over the reach an influencer can provide you, this topic is a continuation of the same. 

The conversions & increase in traffic are some indicators of success, but the analysis shouldn’t just finish here. Every social network allows knowing data like likes, views, comments, impressions, and reach. 

You should monitor these things through influencer marketing platforms to know when your campaign is getting weak/strong.

It is not only sufficient to do influencer marketing, as you must do it correctly. The Qoruz Influencer Marketing Platform is equipped with all the tools you require for a successful influencer marketing campaign. 

Not analyzing an influencer’s metrics is one of the common mistakes many marketers make. But following this could save you from waste spend and hours of effort in bringing a campaign live. 

Following Only What Your Competitor Does

Don’t worry, we’re not here to talk about how you’re falling behind on your competitors. It’s not about them. It’s about you.

The truth is, if you keep following the same content that everyone else is doing, you’ll end up in the same place as everyone else: a pile of dust and empty promises. So what should you do instead?

Instead of blindly following other brands, start thinking about what makes YOU unique. What makes YOU different? How can you make YOUR brand stand out from the crowd? And then just do it! Don’t listen to anyone but yourself when it comes to making this happen—you have to do it for YOU!

The world is full of copycats.

And if you’re not careful, you’ll be one too.

But what if you could avoid the pitfalls of copying by looking at your own audience as a source of inspiration? What if you could build something that was unique and made sense for your customers?

We call this approach “customer-first.” It means putting your target audience at the center of everything you do, not just what they say, but how they feel about it, too. And then making sure that every single piece of content you create is designed to make their lives better.

Are you a business that follows the competition, or are you one that knows what your audience wants?

Make your content matter to your audience, and not just because it’s good. Your audience should want to see your content so they can feel like they’re getting something they need or want. If they don’t care about what you have to say, why would they care about how well you say it?

Takeaway

Not adding this point as a mistake in the article is worth mentioning as a final point. Regardless of avoiding all the mistakes mentioned above, ensure your influencer marketing strategies or content is not too salesy. 

Being a brand owner or marketer, you might know how annoying salesy marketing advertisements or content can get. That increases the customer bounce rate, and none of us would want that. 

In addition to avoiding/controlling the mistakes we have discussed above, ensure the word salesy is not peeking into it, and your influencer marketing strategy will be a hit. 

In case you feel making all there is too much and costs a lot of your time, sign up on an influencer marketing platform like Qoruz to save money, time, and effort for your influencer marketing campaigns. 

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