You're about to launch an influencer marketing campaign. How can you avoid the most common mistakes?

In launching influencer marketing campaigns, I noticed common hurdles like unclear goals, mismatched influencer partnerships, and a lack of genuine audience engagement. Since these problems were repetitive, I started to think of a solution and as a result, we created CreatorTag - a tool that provides deep analytics on influencer engagement and audience behaviour, ensuring brands connect with influencers who genuinely resonate with their values. Our vision with CreatorTag was to offer a solution that not only matches the right influencers to brands but also ensures that every campaign is backed by data-driven decisions, maximising impact and ROI.

Identification is KEY and that starts with authenticity. Yes there are tools and social listening but don't forget that influencer marketing started from the personal "connection" to an influencer. There is no substitute for consuming content. If you have your list, start to watch a few pieces of content, see how the influencers engage in their comments. You will quickly get a feel for those with a healthy authentic relationship with their audience and those who are more distant and may be a poor candidate for the campaign

Um bom conteúdo é a chave para qualquer estratégia de marketing de influência. Números, métricas e dados são importantes, mas não podem e não devem ser o único fator considerado na busca por um bom nome. Encontrar um criador que produza um conteúdo divertido, interessante e que as pessoas consigam se identificar é mais importante.

Authenticity is the cornerstone of successful influencer-brand partnerships and those that master authenticity continue to lead the way. I recommend brands to move away from partnerships solely focused on influencer size. While collaborating with mega creators is impactful, the true magic happens when the creator aligns seamlessly with a brand's values. In this fast-paced landscape, prioritizing authenticity over reach takes center stage.

Influência não é um canal de "uma pessoa só". É muito importante entender sua taxa de acerto em contratações e mais ainda conseguir ter à mão os dados que mostram quais fatores têm gerado mais contratos de sucesso nas suas prospecções. Na Pilea Labs, toda a gestão e organização de dados das ativações e parcerias com influenciadores é pensada para fomentar o máximo de inteligência para otimizar o canal e trazer mais previsibilidade e performance em novas contratações.

First and foremost, you've got to know what you want to achieve. If you don't do this ahead of setting influencers you've already failed TBH. Not all creators can do the same thing so you've got to know your goals so you can ladder your identification into those goals. Do you need traffic and sales or is this about storytelling and awareness? Very different partners may be what you need. Start here! Don't choose partners before you know what you want to achieve.

Set SMART Objectives: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that align with your marketing strategy and business objectives 🎯. Identify KPIs: Choose key performance indicators to track progress. Consider measuring impressions, engagement, clicks, conversions, or ROI depending on your campaign goals 📊. Align with Strategy: Ensure your objectives and KPIs support your overall marketing strategy and business goals for a cohesive campaign approach 🔗. Measure Success: Use these KPIs to evaluate the campaign's effectiveness and make informed decisions moving forward 📈.

I love to simplify things. A huge part of the success of the influencer partnership depends on the campaign goal and letting the creator know about it ahead of time. Otherwise, there will be a lack of direction, which will affect the performance overall. Whether your campaign goal is awareness or sales, the creator needs to know it! His whole approach to the promotion will differ depending on it.

If you do not have a clear concise goal your efforts will fail from day 1, Learning: do not try to measure success by conversion, even on a response campaign. Unless you get an enormous audience sample conversion does not alone determine success criteria when there are so many other variables. Having reliable KPIs with allow you to mitigate risks. Ensure you weight your results as close to the bottom of the funnel as possible for a true picture of performance.

Clear Communication: Share a detailed brief with influencers, outlining campaign objectives, KPIs, deliverables, timeline, budget, and creative direction 📝. Set Guidelines: Specify dos and don'ts, including brand guidelines, disclosure requirements, editorial standards, and feedback processes 🚦. Balance Control and Creativity: While providing clear expectations, allow influencers creative freedom to ensure content authenticity and audience engagement 🎨. Feedback and Flexibility: Encourage a two-way feedback process and be open to adjustments, fostering a productive collaboration 🔄.

It's truly important to provide each influencer with a brief that contains guidelines on how this partnership should go, including the following: 1- Brand summary to make sure each creator understands your brand. 2- A breakdown of how a successful promotion is structured (game changer). Creators know how to make great content but don't know how to sell. 3- The general promotion sequence and main points to be included. 4- FTC guidelines. 5- Dos and don'ts. 6- Link to a personalized strategy call. The brief isn't enough. Hop on a call with each creator participating in the campaign to go over the brief and strategize the best promotion. Not a single company in the industry we saw makes this and I can admit, this is a game changer.

Build an onboarding guide that gives clear and concise instruction as briefly as possible, include best practice videos from other influencers if you have a style that you know works. Otherwise don’t muddy the water until you have tested. If you give a creative person lots of data to absorb, they will not read it much oas the first few paragraphs

Would you expect to lose weight after one month at the gym? The same goes for Influencer marketing where consistency is rewarded heavily. A test and learn is great but to really see impact, you should be looking at no less than 3-6 month campaigns. I say this often but authenticity is essential. Having one or two posts from a partnership feels less consistent and authentic then a longitudinal relationship over 6-12 months.

In my experience one of the best ways to start building influencer and creator relationships is through gifting programs, the secret? Gifting and explicitly making it clear you have no expectation of them posting but are looking for genuine feedback and if they love the product and it's something they would actually use you'd love to discuss paid partnerships in the future. Using this strategy my sustainable eyewear company had 86% posting rate through our gifting program even though we explicitly said we didn't expect them to post. These were then the creators we knew genuinely love the product & brand and we build longer term paid relationships with them.

Brands are sometimes too quick to want to sign long term to a creator. It’s important to go through trial phases for each influencer to ensure their audience is receptive to the brand/message and test the process of working with that specifically influencer. We look at testing on a macro level; based off influencer categories & content style, then we go by the individual. Once we see a specific category or style works, then we look at doubling down at investing in more influencers within that space and typically only resigning the top 20% of creators from each batch / phase. This ensures the brand is always searching for the most relevant and emerging creators to work with.

Create long term relationships with the influencers who are aligned with your brand and your marketing strategies. Develop a strategy between like minded influencers who think of your brand not just as a business but as a relationship that they can trust and even refer people to you.

Creators got used to one-off partnerships. To ensure success, have strategy calls with each creator, articulating goals and expectations. Emphasize the potential for a lasting collaboration if they put in the effort. Showcase previous successful examples and their effective promotional strategies to inspire commitment. A direct, personalized call is vital; a mere email won't cut it. This strategy ensures meeting KPIs and establishes a unique connection with the creator. Importantly, this distinctive bond enhances the potential for long-term partnerships. If the promotion succeeds, discussing and building upon a lasting collaboration becomes much smoother.

After the campaign, it's not a wrap; it's a "what's next" moment. Collecting screenshots from creator promotion analytics on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok is key. We dive into the stats – audience retention, engagement rates – peeking behind the scenes. Finding patterns in successful promotions is the game-changer. Implement these patterns in the next campaign. It's not just about wrapping up; but seeing what worked, learning the lessons, and doubling down on it.

Utilize insights to enhance future campaigns, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Make necessary adjustments and improvements based on your findings. Celebrate successes and share learnings with your influencers and team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration.

Como profissional de inteligência de mercado, tenho um olhar orientado por dados. Dessa forma, penso em primeiro passo na coleta sistemática de dados durante toda a campanha, incluindo métricas de engajamento, conversão e alcance, o que nos permite uma avaliação objetiva do desempenho. Aplicando a metodologia do "Ciclo PDCA" podemos aprimorar continuamente a campanha, fazendo ajustes ao longo do processo e mensurando melhorias esperadas. No meu dia a dia, recordo-me de processos semelhantes ao lançar empreendimentos no mercado imobiliário, onde aplicamos pesquisas no stand de vendas para mensurar o impacto das campanhas online e offline, ajustando comunicações semanalmente para garantir que atinjam o público-alvo estabelecido.

Treat every marketing campaign as an investment in your branding. Therefore measure your influencers as strategic partners. If your data analytics indicate that their campaign had the highest engagement then by all means use them again. Likewise if the reverse is true. It’s not personal. It’s a business decision. Treat it accordingly with respect and professionalism if you have to part ways with the influencers who don’t serve you well.

Not giving your influencers creative freedom to express their personality and style. influencer content looks very different to an ad. thats why it is so effective. so stop treating your influencer like your ad agency and stop micro-managing them. give them clear objectives and clear boundaries, but enough creative feedom to do their own storytelling

However, to maximize its success and avoid common pitfalls, consider the following strategies: - While it's important to have guidelines, allowing influencers creative freedom can lead to more authentic and engaging content. Their followers trust them for their unique voice and style, so let that shine through. - Establish clear expectations and communication lines. Ensure influencers understand your campaign goals, messaging, and any specific requirements or guidelines. - Be aware of legal requirements and guidelines for influencer marketing, including disclosure and hashtag use. Ensure all partnerships are transparent to maintain trust with your audience.

A mistake brands make about influencer marketing is viewing it as a one-off IG or TikTok video. In reality, it's about nurturing a relationship with both the influencer and their audience. 1.Set KPIs: Define your goals - whether it's increasing sales or creating engaging content.Align them with the influencer's strengths 2.Track Performance: Utilize codes, URLs,clicks to measure impact and make adjustments as needed. 3.Follow-Up: Building rapport goes beyond a post.Engage in follow-up activities like extended campaigns to reinforce the brand's connection with both the influencer and their audience. What works for one brand may not work for another. Be flexible in your approach and know that each influencer requires a tailored strategy.

From my experience, the best way to guarantee the message will be conveyed authentically as well as to avoid noise in the communication is to build a community of influencers who are close to your brand, with an always-on strategy. Instead of searching for new influencers every time a campaign is designed, try building a pool of people who believe and care for your product on a daily basis. Treat them as important stakeholders - be with information, relationships, meetings, etc. - and feed them regularly with your upcoming news and gifts. When the time for a campaign comes, you can just pick the profile that better matches the initiative, and "voilá": you have authentic, trustworthy, and reliable content for your company and your audience.