Influencer marketing has become an integral part of the marketing mix. Businesses of all sizes are leveraging influencer marketing campaigns to expand their reach and drive more sales.
But why is it gaining so much popularity?
The reason is simple:
People trust the opinions of influencers. These social media personalities have devoted years to building their online presence and nurturing relationships with their followers.
They have the potential to help businesses grow quickly.
That being said, influencer marketing comes with its own set of disadvantages as well.
So, let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of influencer marketing.
1. Trust and Authenticity
Influencers, at least, the reliable ones, are trustworthy. They disclose brand partnerships while promoting a product in exchange of money or other perks.
And the best part?
They tend to share honest opinions and feedback as they are determined to provide value to their followers and have a reputation to maintain.
That’s why their audiences trust them and also heed their recommendations.
2. Affordability and Reliability
Most brands and marketers want quick results. And influencers can help you pursue and close leads much faster than other marketing channels.
By letting influencers create content, you can save a lot of time. Plus, influencer-created content is much more fun and engaging as they know and understand their audiences better.
What’s also great is that influencers come in different shapes and sizes. With nano- and micro-influencers gaining traction, leveraging influencer marketing has become more affordable.
Moreover, since influencers tend to use a targeted approach, you can get more value for your investment.
3. Complex Vetting Process
Finding the right influencer requires you to look beyond their follower count. You need to analyze an influencer’s niche, audience demographics, engagement rate, interests, and content style to see if they are a good fit for your brand.
Often, marketers rush through this process and end up working with the wrong influencer. This can do your business more harm than good.
So, take your time to vet potential influencers carefully.
4. Difficult Evaluation
A crucial part of leveraging any marketing strategy is its evaluation process. You need to track and understand what worked, what didn’t, and whether the strategy is worth pursuing in the future.
However, this can be difficult in the case of influencer marketing. This is especially true if your campaign goals are difficult to quantify.
For instance, it can be difficult to conclude if your influencer marketing campaign succeeded in increasing brand awareness.
Fortunately, you can overcome this challenge by establishing the right KPIs (key performance indicators) at the onset of your campaign.
To minimize risks and maximize benefits, you can leverage an influencer marketing platform. Shane Barker a Digital Marketing Consultant has listed some of the best ones in his post on ShaneBarker.
Check out the infographic below to learn more about the pros and cons of influencer marketing.
