Dear PR Matters,
While my work is more on the admin and finance field, I often have a lot of discussion with my colleagues in marketing regarding our work.
One of the topics we like to discuss is influencer marketing, which is on-trend right now. While brand ambassadors or celebrity endorsers can enhance a product or institution, we have observed that not all these campaigns have been successful.
We hear about colleagues in the industry remark that there is a clutter of influencers who endorse multibrands, resulting confusing campaigns; some choices are not appropriate; and many times, these simply cost too much.
Can you give us some tips on how we can improve our influencer marketing programs? I am sure that many will be interested in how this can be done.
Sincerely,
Carlo V.
Dear Carlo,
Thank you for your letter on a timely, and as you say, on-trend concern. Many companies are now utilizing influencer-marketing programs, utilizing the celebrity status of brand ambassadors to create more awareness and excitement.
However, as you have pointed out, not all these programs have been successful, as Brendan Lattrell has observe d in an article in PR News, Influencer Marketing Isn’t Broken; You’re Just Doing It Wrong.
“Influencer marketing is here to stay, and getting it right doesn’t have to be complicated,” Lattrell says. “Like any other business decision, make sure it is the right fit, find out how much you want to spend, and apply expertise from the countless tools available that can help both to narrow down the best influencer for the job and to measure results.”
What is true is “that many brands are approaching influencer marketing the wrong way, souring results and leaving them less impressed with the ROI [return on investment].”
With that, he lists some things to think about when planning an influencer-marketing program. Here are some mind-sets to avoid:
“We threw too much money at them, and did it too quickly.”
While many marketers believe in influencer campaigns, they also realize how expensive this can be. While costs are inevitable, Lattrel points out that there are also influencer-marketing platforms and social analytics services that can help brands understand what influencers should be paid and even what ROI they will generate, so brands always know where they stand in relation to the bottom line.
“It’s easy for influencer marketing to get expensive fast, “ he points out. “Often marketers make the mistake of focusing on subscriber count as an indication of a creation’s value.” Instead, “ engagement metrics are much more telling of an influencer’s overall reach and impact, and that is what pricing should be based on, not on subscribers alone.”
Instead of basing your decision solely on the influencer’s number of followers, “a good approach is to look at the average views of the influencer’s previous 10 videos [or posts]. That is approximately how much you can expect the creator to get on his or her next sponsored video. Then calculate CPM to get an idea of cost range.”
“Oh, my kid likes this guy”
We hear this all the time when marketing groups mull over a decision to work with an influencer. But for Lattrell, “this is the equivalent of investing in McDonald’s because your kid likes Happy Meals. Though it’s great to get advice from members of a younger generation on the types of influencers they like, it shouldn’t be a company’s sole methodology for selecting whom to work with.”
That is because “consumers can see right through a forced relationship between a brand and creator, which can have negative and lasting effects.” As such, “identifying the right types of creators for a campaign—those who reach your target audience highly engage the audience, and align with your brand—is crucial to a successful influencer-marketing campaign.”
But even before going there, “you have to go in knowing what your campaign goals are, have to set expectations and have to have a way of making sure the creator meets those needs.”
“Now, if you work with some big YouTube guys, the Casey Neistats, those types of people charge $300,000 to $500,000…”
“The bigger, the better mentality has traditionally been indicative of a successful advertising, marketing campaign,” Lattrell says. “The long-held belief is that brands shelling out for the most popular social-media sensations are the ones that get remembered a drive the best results.”
Today, Lattrell says, “that approach is dated—and expensive.”
It’s also why more and more smart brands are turning to micro-influencers—or influencers with a smaller, devoted fan base. These micro-influencers “typically gave a passionate audience and they are much more willing to work with brands collaboratively to get the brand messaging and image just right.”
That’s because “a lot of them are getting to the point where their socia-media presence can be a full-time career instead of an exciting side hustle, and they’re willing to put in the time and effort to make it work for them and the brand.”
Case in point. “Walgreens has opted to work with more smaller creators, rather than a few YouTube superstars. The strategy is not only budget savvy but also often more successful.”
Lattrell cites one particular Walgreens campaign that significantly outperformed that of a competitor that chose to work with bigger name social-media stars on a similar campaign boating 41 percent more views and 76 percent more clicks, and costing approximately $7 less in cost per click.
In the end, the key would be to know your brand and your goals, and research well on the best influencer that would enhance this with budgets in mind. It also means keeping up with the fast-paced world of social media, marketing and trends, which are changing every day.
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PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the UK-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for Marketing and Communications of SM, is the local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.