6 reasons why your influencer strategy isn't working (and what to do instead)

Influencer Relations is relatively new to the PR and Marketing scene in the grand scheme of the field. Not only that, but it seems like new content creation platforms and features are rolling out at the speed of light, and every brand you know is working with a celebrity or influencer. If you want to get in on this expanding area of PR, but either don’t know how to go about it, or have been trying to hack it with little meaningful results, we have some tips to help your efforts succeed.

Here are six common reasons why you might not be getting the results you want with influencers and what to do to turn things around.

1. You’re approaching influencers as a marketing tactic and not a customer relationship building strategy.

It’s in the name so it’s hard to not think about “Influencer Marketing” as a marketing tactics, and therefore using the same KPI’s as traditional marketing. But the customer journey to a POS is not so straightforward; their journey is winding, and oftentimes lengthy (as illustrated by this infographic), so you can’t expect an instant or even guaranteed return from one influencer post on Instagram or TikTok. If you’re paying to work with an influencer, your fee is only guaranteeing visibility – not results such as new followers or revenue growth.

Instead, acknowledge that influencer relations is a relationship builder to your customers, very much like public relations (and why at FACTEUR PR we bundle influencers with PR, not social media marketing). In other words, you’re introducing your brand to an influencer’s audience, just as you would view a shoutout in a gift guide on a major media website. The customer may not buy your product at that exact moment in time, but now they will recognize your brand down the road, at which point maybe they will finally make it to the point of sale.

At FACTEUR, we consider influencer relations as a companion to traditional PR, as you’re paying for brand awareness in this new and ever-changing arena of digital communications. The more visibility your brand amasses over time, the more recognition and ultimately revenue you will garner when it comes time for the customer to make a purchase.

You need many touch points before you can expect a conversion these days, and there is simply no way to control or even predict the exact journey that a unique individual needs before they convert to a paying customer of yours.

2. You’re not partnering with the right influencers for your brand.

An influencer may look like they’re a perfect fit for your brand, but you always want to make sure the people who will be looking at their post look like your ideal customers, too! There are software programs available that will give you a sneak peak into an influencer’s followership, but they aren’t always accurate. Instead, ask the influencer for their media kit (which they should always have on hand to send to brands) and be sure it includes screen shots of their analytics. If their audience is made up of your potential customers, then you’re golden, but if it’s the wrong age, gender, location, etc., you need to find someone new. You don’t want to work someone who has an audience who all live in a country that you don’t even sell in or with engagement rates so low your investment has no chance of converting. Data-driven decisions when it comes to working with influencers is essential; aesthetic or celebrity status alone is not enough.

3. You don’t have budget.

While gifting is great and can yield a lot of results when it comes to visibility, there is absolutely no control over those results. If you bring budget to the table, you have much more say over the final post, copy, style, and you can even request edits to the delivered content. A good mixture of both gifted and paid influencer relations is a great foundation to build your strategy upon. Someone who really roots for your brand as a gifted influencer may become a fantastic partner down the road on a paid campaign! This is also a good time to mention affiliate commissions, which can be a great incentive for partnering with influencers whether you do or don’t have a budget.

4. Your team isn’t very responsive.

Given all the opportunities that working with influencers affords, you now also have additional responsibility. You and your team need to make sure you’re on top of requests, shipping, communicating with influencers or their managers, all the way down to commenting and being active on the posts once they’re live on social media. Even with gifted partnerships, an influencer is unlikely to keep mentioning your product beyond an unboxing if they feel like you (or your brand) don’t care that they posted. Engage with them, DM them, and leave comments on posts. It’s a business relationship that you need to nurture, and be attentive to every step of the way, just as any other relationship.

Responsiveness isn’t just outward, it applies to your internal communications, too. Working with your team internally needs to be a smooth and quick process. For example, if someone lags behind on sending a product, timelines are pushed back, and messaging, posting schedules, and edits will all become delayed and possibly need to change, resulting in much more unnecessary work for the whole team.

5. You don’t have a (flexible) plan in place.

Although it will most likely be subject to change, you should always have a broad plan in place for your influencer strategy in your overall marketing and communications plan. Define your goals, but be realistic. And make sure you have the processes in place behind the scenes to ensure successful execution. A large-scale outreach for gifted influencers won’t result in anything if you don’t have product and PR boxes ready to send, or you don’t have any plans or incentives for influencers to continue posting after their first unboxing. Good ideas here come from themed and timely outreach, whether a national holiday or a specific event happening with your brand. Responsiveness (see point 4) is also crucial here!

If you’ve been sending products to influencers and not seeing the results you want, it’s time to step back and reevaluate. Important questions to ask yourself or your team:

What does success look like?
Are we partnering with the right influencers?
What do the analytics tell us?
Are we niching down enough?
Are we staying on top of communications and timelines?
What is working for our brand?
Are our expectations unreleastic?

Which of the reasons listed here are you falling into? Readjust both your execution and your expectations. Just like traditional PR, patience is REQUIRED.

6. Your only goal is to go viral.

Going “viral” on social media is sometimes the most important goal that your bosses or managers have – we know, because we hear it all the time. However, as much as we would love for there to be a specific formula or set of guidelines, one does not exist. Otherwise, everyone would be going viral which would mean nobody is going viral! You can set yourself up for success and for the possibility of going viral, but there is simply no way to ensure it.

You might be wondering, “Well, how do I set myself up for success?” There are many ways, but before you expect to go viral on social media, you need to have your business in order. Is your website up to date? Is your branding a reflection of who you are and who you want to attract? Are you prepared for the volume of sales if you do, in fact, go viral? And most importantly: are you willing to sacrifice control for authenticity (as is one #hottip we have for what makes a post go viral). You can set yourself up for success by following and pondering some of the points in our companion blog post, “11 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Any Press Coverage.”

And, it might happen without planning at all, as is oftentimes the case. Someone just happens to post a video that happens to be a success, and you’ve never even been in contact with that person. We have had clients have products go viral from a 10 second video posted by someone with 64 followers on TikTok. There is just simply no way to predict that!

In summary, recalibrating your approach to influencer relations might be the thing that guides you to success. Working with influencers increases visibility for your brand and serves as another touch point for your overall brand awareness and is most successful when coupled with an intentional marketing and PR strategy. When you view it as simply a marketing tactic or advertising tool, you’re missing an opportunity to go deeper with your customers and develop what every business strives for: a legion of brand loyalists.

If you’re ready to partner with us to take your PR strategy to the next level, get in touch!