7 Retail Influencer Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Influencer marketing is one of the top ways for retail brands to leverage social media platforms to raise brand awareness. But influencers are people too, so it’s critical that brands have all their ducks in a row to help everything with a campaign go as smoothly and successfully as possible. Check out our list of mistakes you can avoid for a profitable campaign for your brand.

In order to see the best return on investment (ROI) from your retail influencer marketing, here are 7 things that brands need to avoid doing:

1. Lacking a Campaign Plan

You can’t go into influencer marketing without a blueprint. Instead, create a clear action plan by thinking through details like…

  • Whom are you trying to reach?
  • What are your goals for this particular campaign?
  • How will your influencer talk about your products?
  • How are you going to measure success?

Both you and your influencers need to know the details of the campaign before you agree to work together. It is the only way to see if the partnership will benefit both parties.

Sideqik’s comprehensive enterprise influencer marketing platform keeps your campaign details all in one place. Research your target audience, find the best influencers, keep track of goals, and more. Schedule a demo with our team to learn how to customize your campaigns.

2. Choosing the Wrong Influencer

Choosing an influencer simply because they have a massive following, or because they know your industry well doesn’t always mean they are the best fit for your campaign.

You should know your targeted audience inside and out before you enter into a partnership with any influencer. Picking an influencer that may not fit with your target audience or who doesn’t align with your brand values isn’t going to meet your audience’s needs or give you the best campaign ROI.

64% of marketers see influencer fraud as a big concern. One of the biggest challenges is vetting influencers for fit and authenticity — here are a few things to look for when deciding which influencers you want to work with:

  • Does their audience align with who you’re trying to reach?
  • Is their content authentic? Or is their profile a launch pad for exclusively promotional content?
  • Are the topics they care about relevant to the message you want to send with your brand?

 

3. Ignoring FTC Endorsement Rules and Regulations

While influencers don’t want to come off as spammy salespeople, the FTC has particular rules and regulations when it comes to endorsements.

If the proper guidelines aren’t followed, such as social media endowments clearly being marked as an ad, then both the influencer and brands can face potentially severe consequences. This is one mistake you don’t want to make.

Some tools, Like Sideqik, offer FTC compliance monitoring so you can always be assured your influencers are abiding by advertising laws.

4. Focusing on Overall Reach Instead of Overall Engagement

Sure, when an influencer has a lot of fans or followers, their overall reach is going to be great. However, that’s not necessarily the metric you need to watch. Instead, you want to focus on how well your influencer is engaging with their audience.

The entire purpose of retail influencer marketing is to work with influencers that want to help spread the word of your product. If they aren’t helping you do that by answering their follower’s questions or guiding them to your website, are you really going to see any ROI? Probably not.

5. Giving Influencers Little or Too Much Guidance

It can be a double-edged sword considering most brands want to maintain a specific image. Typically, this is why brands give influencers guidelines that should be stuck to. However, too little instruction can quickly become disastrous.

One famous example was when TV personality, Scott Disick, quite literally copied and pasted a staged endorsement to his Instagram.

Not giving influencers enough creative freedom can be pretty bad too, because that can come off too sales-y, driving any possible engagement away. It’s crucial that influencers be able to still use their own voice and style while running promotions or campaigns.

6. Failing to Keep Track of Your ROI

How does a brand know if a retail influencer marketing campaign is genuinely providing any ROI? Tracking this metric is vital because it can tell you if your influencer is vibing well with your standards and audience. If you don’t track, how will you know if the influencer is a good match? You could end up losing some serious revenue!

7. Forgetting to Take Advantage of Enterprise Influencer Software

While there are many things that an influencer marketing campaign should avoid, if done right, these types of campaigns can do wonders for creating brand awareness. One of the easiest ways to keep track of everything in your influencer campaign is to use a tool that facilitates the entire process. Managing and tracking not only your influencers, but the impact they are having with your campaigns is vital. Sideqik is the platform to help you do just that, so contact us today for your demo!

Nancy Rothman

Nancy Rothman

Nancy is a passionate, results-driven marketing executive with more than a decade of experience in building robust integrated marketing programs for brands of all sizes, with specific expertise in the martech space. Prior to Sideqik, Nancy held roles at four successful martech startups, each of which received multiple series of fundraising and included two acquisitions. At CallRail, specifically, Nancy served as the director of marketing where she built the company’s brand and established it as a leader in its space. She also held roles at MeetEdgar, where she oversaw the entire sales and marketing practice, increasing the company's user base and annual recurring revenue, as well as PureCars, which was acquired by Raycom Media in 2015. As vice president of marketing for Sideqik, Nancy is responsible for developing and executing on the company's marketing strategy to drive overall business growth.

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