Word-of-mouth influencer marketing cuts through chaos and offers a less invasive, highly profitable alternative to traditional digital advertising.
So why are marketers still hesitant about using influencers? What are brands getting wrong? Boom Creative Lab deconstructs some of the myths:
Bigger is better
Sure, it would be great to have Kim Kardashian endorse your hotel, but her Instagram post will also include #promoted and everyone will know she’s been paid big bucks to stay there. Also, once a social media influencer reaches a critical mass of followers, audience engagement actually begins to decrease.
A Kardashian might be a highly visible, one-stop-shop for brand endorsement, but for the same price, a couple of micro-influencers yield a significantly higher conversion rate.
Anyone can endorse anything
When searching for an influencer, relevance is of key importance. Too often, brands and marketers pick an influencer who don’t fit the brand story. The end result is an endorsement so inauthentic it could end up doing more harm than good.
The disconnect between brand and influencer is one of the reasons this type of marketing fails. But with a bit of research, you can establish meaningful connections in your ideal niche. Like any good investment, finding your perfect influencers takes time and patience.
Influencers are “hired guns”
While this may be true of some social celebrities, getting an influencer to carry out a word-for-word, scripted endorsement of your brand is a surefire way to make an audience lose interest. The best engagement happens organically, and subtlety is key.
Your ultimate goal is to get the influencer themselves to believe in your brand. Nothing compares to someone who is genuinely excited to show off your product. Get into the habit of engaging and adding value to your influencer’s life. The return is worth it.
The ROI is unmeasurable
Influencer marketing has had a bad rap for vague results. But as analytics get more sophisticated and data-focused, this proving to be largely untrue. Word-of-mouth generates more than 2x the sales of paid advertising while having the added benefit of a higher consumer retention rate.
Fantastic content is expensive to produce, and brands are often limited to sharing on their own channels. Instead of paying for content creation AND distribution, you could use an influencer to create authentic, engaging content that statistically drives a higher ROI than all other forms of digital media.
Influencer marketing is a fad
Influencer marketing is here to stay. Consumers are overwhelmed. Between endless product choices and the ever-growing onslaught of traditional marketing, they are installing ad blockers and doing everything in their power to “opt out.”
But humans are social beings. We make decisions based on the opinions of others all the time. And that will never change.