Last August, we shared three long-lived myths about influencer marketing. In this sequel blog post, we uncover seven more misconceptions.
Influencer marketing myths
Myth #1: You have no control about what the influencer puts out there
Truth: A detailed brief is essential for every influencer collaboration
Even though you should never restrict the influencers in their creativity, you can and should define concrete guidelines for your collaboration. One part of our influencer activation process is to review the influencer’s content. This way, we can make sure that the content aligns with your message.
Myth #2: It’s easy to do influencer marketing in-house
Truth: It requires time, experience and the right tools
If you have no experience in influencer marketing, you should consider getting professional help from an agency. Only if you have previous experience, the right tools, enough resources as well as an elaborate strategy, you can create a successful influencer marketing activation.
Read this post, if you want to know what advantages a collaboration with an influencer marketing agency has.
Myth #3: Influencer marketing shows fast and extraordinary results
Truth: Like every other marketing channel, influencer marketing requires a long-term approach
As social media platforms are agile and flexible, it’s easy to think that the results align with those benefits as well. But to be successful with influencer marketing, you actually need to embrace continuity and have patience to be able to see long-term results. It’s like going to the gym one single time won’t give you big muscles.
In this post, we explain why an always-on approach is beneficial for your influencer marketing strategy.
Myth #4: The bigger the influencer – the better the results
Truth: Micro influencers often seem more credible and authentic
Therefore, we advise working with smaller influencers who have a strong connection to their followers. In most cases, you achieve better results with those influencers because their followers value and follow the recommendations of them. Further, they are usually more cost-efficient.
To dig deeper into this subject, read our blog post “micro influencers – small, but mighty”.
Myth #5: It’s impossible to know if the followers are fake
Truth: You can quality assure influencers through the help of certain tools
As credibility is an important success factor for your influencer marketing activation, it’s essential to detect if the engagement is real or if the followers are fake. The easiest way to ensure this is to work with an influencer marketing agency or an influencer specialist. They can check the authenticity, quality and similar aspects through advanced tools and experience. To put it in a nutshell, it’s possible to avoid fake followers if you have the right tools and know which data to look at.
Learn more about how to quality assure influencers in this blog post.
Myth #6: Influencers always resemble their followers
Truth: An influencer and its followers can display very different characteristics
It’s important to keep in mind that there are various reasons for someone to follow an influencer and it’s not always because they feel, or have a similar lifestyle, to the person. For example, a 30-year-old influencer might not have followers in the same age but could instead have mainly young people between the ages of 18 and 25.
Myth #7: Influencer marketing is just a trend
Truth: Influencer marketing is here to stay
In the minds of many, influencer marketing still remains as a non-professional field. In reality, an ever-increasing number of companies are shifting greater and more significant budgets to influencer marketing – with no signs of slowing down. For this reason, we believe that partnering up with an always-on influencer marketing agency will help you achieve sustainable success with the channel.