3 Myths About Influencer Marketing

Brands are leveraging influencer marketing now more than ever with 1 in 4 advertisers adding this tactic to their marketing stack, but what about the rest? We've outlined the top three hesitations or more accurately myths as to what's stopping more brands from investing into influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is too expensive to invest in. 

In 2021, 69.7 percent of U.S. marketers in companies larger than 100 employees were expected to use influencers for marketing purposes, but this number is drastically different than the first statistic we provided. Part of this is due to the idea that influencer marketing is a hefty investment. We're here to tell you, that's not the case. You don’t need to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on influencers. The first step to understanding costs is to understand the types of influencers out there. Influencers are categorized into five main tiers based on their follow count: 

1. Nano-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers)
2. Micro-influencers (10,000-50,000 followers)
3. Middle-influencers (50,000-500,000 followers)
4. Macro- influencers (500,000-1 million followers)
5. Celebrities (More than million followers)

The less “influence” they have,  the cheaper their content creator rates will be, and oftentimes, it’s easier to manage the outcome of their work for a brand as they are more receptive to the brand’s guidelines and objectives. You can even find nano-influencers that accept the exchange of free products for content production, which keeps costs relatively low for a brand.  Nano influencers enable brands to build a larger network of brand ambassadors, amplifying their reach and brand credibility. Besides 61% of consumers trust products from influencers on social media, while only 38% of consumers trust a brand’s product when its coming directly from the brand. 

Results don’t directly translate into sales for influencer marketing. 

When coupling paid media with influencer marketing, brands are able to measure the result of their partnership with all of the major KPIs available from cost per acquisition, engagement metrics to ROI. This can be done through white-labeling paid influencer posts, so the content is distributed directly from the influencer’s profile account. Brands and marketers are now able to identify the value of an influencer and over time, make smarter partnership decisions based on this data.

Influencers are difficult to work with and don’t follow a brand’s guidelines or objectives for the partnership. 

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While there can be half truths to every myth,  this particular frustration only happens when brands aren’t aligning themselves with the right influencer partners. The ideal partnership is when the creators are already using the brand’s services or products in order to maintain authenticity. Additionally, content creators have their own tone and voice that they need to stay true to, and brands need to build their guidelines around the influencer, as they are the ones who know their audience the best. If done correctly, then you avoid falling victim to this 'myth.'

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When it comes to influencer marketing, be sure to set clear guidelines for the influencer or content creator (this includes payment terms that fit within your margins of profit), and always, always be sure to set KPI goals that can be tracked.

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