Influencer Marketing - The Do's and Dont's

Last year I collaborated with Vamp, a leading Influencer Marketing agency based in Central London who work with some incredible brands such as ASOS, Airbnb, Samsung, GAP and Pottery Barn. Together, we hosted an event all around Influencer Marketing, leading trends, and strategies that could work well for your brand, whilst looking into previous briefs and successes they have had with brands and Influencers.

So, a few takeaways from the evening that could be useful for your brand…

1. Choice of Influencer

This might seem obvious, but your choice of Influencer, their reach, and the type of brand you are and who you’re aiming to reach, is actually something you need to research for a strategy to work.

Nowadays, you can find Nano influencers, who typically have up to 10,000 followers, all the way to Macro influencers, with over 500,000 followers (think of all your Kardashians, Bella Hadid & Rihanna people). Either of them could be good for your brand, depending on your audience and the direction you want to head in — and there’s obviously pros and cons to both, as with all things.

Nano Influencers-

Pros:

1. Followers tend to be more interested in their personal style

2. Closer relationship with their audience

3. Usually tailored to a specific subject (boho fashion, sustainable fashion, even white/beige sleek looks), who could get loyal customers

Cons:

1. Smaller reach

2. Less credibility than perhaps a famous person

Macro Influencer-

Pros:

1. Larger outreach

2. Devotion to their person and style can induce people into buying (because if Kim says her bum is big thanks to a cream that costs £200, I will stop the squatting and buy it)

Cons:

1. Following isn’t relevant to one certain style or brand

2. Possible fake followers

There is of course the Influencers who sit in the middle with around 10,000–100,000 or 100,000- 500,000. Some believe these influencers have the best reach and engagement whilst maintaining a large following, so it’s worth doing your research, it’s not all about the number of followers.

2. Content

Influencers are now expressing how restricting brands are becoming, in terms of what content they can produce. If the brand has chosen this specific Influencer, you’d think it would be related to the kind of content they produce and their own personal style. So, is it right for them to determine exactly what content they want from the Influencer? Some brands can be so restrictive, that Influencers refuse to work with them as they have no creative freedom and the end result is content looking forced, and essentially fake. Brands need to remember that it’s not only them that are on show here, one bad post for an Influencer can have a severe impact on their following, and nowadays their career. So how much freedom will they be willing to give? We understand brands can’t allow Influencers to run riot and need to have some aspect of control — they’re the ones paying after all. But how do you help each other? Easy.

3. Communication

It’s all about collaboration and communication with the Influencer, combining creativity, giving them options and what works best for them. If you can work together to create a piece of content that works in partnership with the brand and the Influencer, you are on to a winner

4. Strategy

Since Influencer marketing has grown so dramatically, brands have panicked a little and put together strategies, without knowing how they are going to measure ROI so they can see if it is benefiting their sales. But this couple of tips could help you stay on top:

- The value of your content is crucial. There’s no point adding content for the sake of it, especially if it doesn’t align with your brand and the direction you are following. It’s not only confusing for your audience, but is could also be perceived as a ‘spread and prey’ approach, reaching out to a wider audience.

- If you can reuse an Influencer’s content on your own platform and channels, then do so. You have to know and understand the channels you are using to push specific content out on, and the content the Influencer produces for you can be recycled on other channels to increase engagement. If it’s high performing content — it makes sense to make the most out of it. The more content you can reuse and measure across different channels and connect to the same target audience, the better.

Thank you Vamp for providing some of our valued clients with key insights and knowledge on the Influencer Marketing industry. All these points are incredibly important when it comes to your Influencer Marketing strategies and the key things you need to consider when working with an Influencer.