The Biggest Influencer Marketing Gaffes and How to Address Them

According to the Influencer Marketing Hub 2023 Benchmark Report, over 80% of marketers now have a dedicated influencer marketing budget – and for good reason. When planned, executed and optimized thoughtfully and creatively, influencer marketing simply works. That said, it’s far from foolproof.

My company, Group RFZ, has measured the impact of countless influencer marketing campaigns of all shapes and sizes for more than five years. We have seen the good (mostly), the bad and the ugly. When we do see things go off the rails from an effectiveness perspective, typically it’s because one of the following gaffes is made.

Putting the “Kitchen Sink” into a Single Post

One of most common gaffes in influencer marketing is what we call the “kitchen sink” effect. How often do you see a post that contains so many messages and infinitely long captions that you get overwhelmed and scroll on? You’re not alone. The human attention span is very short and, if the key message is not conveyed in the first couple of lines, it will easily get lost.

Instead of listing every #hashtag under the sun, and packing in each feature and detail, focus on the two most important elements of the content upfront. From there, you can expand into more points. For example, if it’s a high-end watch for sale at an exclusive retailer, highlight the watch and the retailer right away. Don’t bury the lead or your message will never get the attention it deserves.

Not Making the Brand Connection

This is perhaps the most obvious gaffe, but also the one we see most often. Influencer marketing is a form of marketing – it’s right there in the name. And marketing typically doesn’t work when the intended audience doesn’t know who or what the marketing is for. Yet, we all too frequently encounter posts that are overengineered or try so hard to not resemble an ad that the brand connection never truly gets made. We have seen countless pieces of extremely creative content fall flat because, if you didn’t watch until the last second, you’d never know who the brand partner is. For example, a post for a shampoo that shows the transformation of the influencer’s hair, but never shows the bottle.

Your influencer programs should push creative boundaries and take a soft-sell approach, but not to the extent where the brand link goes missing. Make sure you’re hitting that middle ground where there’s an ample amount of creativity along with brand awareness.

Leaving It All to AI

AI has its place in influencer marketing, but it is not every place. When used with restraint, we have seen AI’s utility in everything from influencer selection to idea generation. However, we have also seen our fair share of programs go sideways with AI, and it typically happens in one of two ways. First, when a campaign relies on poorly conceived virtual influencers – a phenomenon now in steep decline. Second, when influencers rely too much on AI to craft messages and don’t infuse their own narrative, tone or style. Followers can often sniff out posts that seem a bit “off” or over manicured and this can quickly crater trust and authenticity.

AI can be a valuable and time-saving resource for both marketers and creators, but at the very least it still needs a deft human touch. In our experience, there is still nothing more effective than a human influencer telling their authentic story in their own words to connect with their audience and move the needle.

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Using Influencers to Fix a Deep-Seated Brand Problem

Influencer marketing cannot rescue your brand from a crisis or cure a fundamental, well-known issue. Brands that try to use it in this way are destined to be flagged as untrustworthy and unsavory. Shein found this out the hard way when it arranged an all-expenses-paid trip to China for a group of influencers to try and shift perceptions of its manufacturing practices. While the influencers did post glowing reviews about their experience, they received swift backlash about being aligned with the brand and turning a blind eye to the reality of the situation. The brand trip went viral for all the wrong reasons and the Shein brand took a big hit.

Influencer marketing is not a Band-Aid or cure-all for real brand issues. Consumers see right through this not-so-veiled marketing tactic, and the brand almost always falls deeper into disaster as a result.

Not Measuring, Not Knowing

Ignorance can be bliss. However, if you’re going to invest in influencer marketing, not knowing can easily lead to misalignment, mismanagement and grand mistakes. Having a measurement plan that revolves around specific objectives and KPIs is critical. Unlike marketing tactics such as traditional advertising, organic influencer marketing doesn’t really lend itself to simple pre-testing. Therefore, informing future strategy depends on measuring what you’ve done and putting those insights to good use going forward. Brands need to understand which channels work best, which influencers move the needle and which messages resonate. Unfortunately, there are plenty of brands that are either eschewing measurement or measuring what’s easy rather than what’s relevant.

Institute a measurement system where the KPIs align with your goals, whether it’s improving brand awareness, purchase intent or message resonance. Engagement and reach can only tell you so much, so think beyond vanity metrics that fail to tell a clear story about your progam’s impact.

Making Broad Audience Assumptions

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool to reach specific types of consumers with well crafted, authentic messages. Whether you are trying to reach parents with young children or car enthusiasts, partnering with the right influencers can help get your brand in front of the right people. But they are not all the right people. There is a limit on how targeted a campaign can be with influencers just posting to their followers. Influencers can have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers and only a portion of them will fit your exact target audience.

If you have more specific audiences you want to reach, don’t assume that your influencer partners will get you all the way home. Supplement those organic posts with paid amplification, whether it’s boosting Facebook or Instagram posts or running whitelisted ads through the influencer’s account. This will enable you to really dial things in from a targeting perspective and prolong the post’s visibility after its organic shelf-life expires.

 

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