Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer Marketing
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Overcoming the Challenges
of Influencer Marketing
MAR-1923
90% of consumers report that word of mouth is a leading
factor in purchasing decisions. What matters most in the
modern buying landscape is what other people say about your
brand, not what your brand says about itself. The power of
social influence is no longer under-estimated, but harnessing
its potential and managing the challenges that come along
with it, is no simple feat.
Influencer marketing can be a worthwhile investment for a
brand’s bottom line — but it’s often a complex strategy to
manage. From the unpredictability of social trends to an
ever-changing landscape of tools, tracking the return on
investment over time can prove challenging.
Influencer marketing is what you make of it. You can center
your strategy around transactional relationships with social
influencers or approach it from a different perspective
by investing in a tool that allows you to build authentic
relationships with everyday consumers who consumers trust
for advice to create a system of unpaid, organic influence.
No matter what kind of influence you’re investing in, there are
a few inevitable pain points you’ll encounter within this form
of marketing.
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer Marketing
Top 3 challenges of
influencer marketing
Here’s a look at the three most prevalent challenges marketers face while
building out an influencer marketing program.
What do you see as your top concerns in using influencer marketing in 2021?
Determining ROI 65%
Finding the right people 42%
Scaling your solution efficiently 51%
Data from: https://www.linqia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Linqia-The-State-of-Influencer-Marketing-2021.pdf
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer Marketing
1. Proving the ROI of influencer marketing
Marketers still struggle to figure out how to prove that investing in
influence is paying off. Influencer budgets are growing across the
board, but 65% of marketers say that measuring the return on
investment of influencer marketing continues to be their biggest
challenge. Influencer Marketing Spend
US, 2019–2023
Spend on influencer marketing vs. ability to $4.62 B
measure its ROI $4.14 B
$3.69 B
$4B Spend on influencer marketing is projected
to surpass $4B in 2022
$2.42 B
$2.76 B
however
65% of marketers say that measuring the ROI of
influencer marketing continues to be their
biggest challenge.
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
The bulking up of influencer marketing budgets tells us that the Data from: https://www.emarketer.com/content/
us-influencer-spending-surpass-3-billion-2021
buy-in is there, but what about capturing the impact these efforts
have on your business long term?
Beyond just the quantifiable metrics — does your influencer
program generate assets you can use outside of your social media
strategy, like reviews and UGC?
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer Marketing2. Engaging the right people
The pool of people willing to promote your products is probably
vast. But at the end of the day, if consumers don’t trust what
your promoters have to say, you won’t see substantial results.
So how can you be sure that you’re picking the right ones? That
they’re well-versed enough to accurately speak for not only your
products but your brand’s backstory? It’s the question on top of
all marketers’ minds — how can we be sure that we are picking
the best people to represent us?
56%
Only 22% of brands Medium
consider it easy to find 22% Difficulty
Very Difficult
appropriate influencers
22%
Easy
Data from: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report-2021
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer Marketing3. Scaling influencer marketing
for the long-haul
Marketers are equipped with plenty of tools — each one requires buy-in,
training and, ideally, proves its value for your strategy in the long term.
When your influencer strategy is spread across multiple platforms and
involves the employment of paid content creators, it can be challenging
to capture the holistic ROI of your strategy. Ask yourself, how much time
do you spend managing your influencer marketing tech stack? Finding
new influencers? Adjusting payments and drawing up new contracts?
Securing permissions to use UGC?
Approximately how many marketing tools does
your marketing team use on a regular basis?
1 to 9 10%
Most marketing teams 10 to 19 30%
are using between 20 to 29 34%
20 and 29 tools to
accomplish their goals. 30 to 39 18%
40 to 49 7%
50 or more 1%
Data from: https://www.airtable.com/guide/2021-marketing-trends
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer MarketingAddressing challenges
of influence
So, how can you ensure that you get the most from your
influencer marketing investment? Social media influence is an
everchanging, unpredictable landscape. Between algorithm
updates, short-lived trends, and un-verified purchases,
your brand’s narrative is largely out of your hands — and in
the hands of consumers. As much as we may want to, it’s
impossible to predict the future of retail, every social media
trend, or global event — but you can build a community of
advocates, in which you control the narrative, that will stick
around for the long haul.
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer MarketingFour steps to more robust influencer marketing:
1. Invest in one central platform.
Managing your influencer program with an advocacy platform that
brings together analytics, a library of authorized user-generated content,
and influencer relations all in one place makes managing your strategy
and tracking its ROI manageable.
2. Reassess the way you measure impact.
If tracking down and getting approval for user-generated content is
eating up your marketer’s time, imagine the impact that a bank of pre-
approved, useable images and recommendations at their disposal could
have. Beyond the value of hours saved, consider tracking the effect that
syndicated UGC has on buying behaviors.
3. Find a tool that’s always working for you.
Marketers’ time is spread thin so finding an “always-on” tool is an
immense value add. Utilize an automated tool that allows you to set up
and then step back, continuously gathering recommendations, photos,
insights and data.
4. Build relationships that don’t have an expiration date.
By building relationships with real-world experts, think retail sales
associates or industry pros, you’ll avoid the constant re-upping of
contracts and get to focus on leveraging the authentic voices of the
people consumers trust out in the world. Investing in these relationships
will also build a community of advocates who understand your products
and can serve as an organic user testing pool.
MAR-1923
Overcoming the Challenges of Influencer MarketingThe future of influencer marketing is still taking shape. But
investing in a community of authentic, experienced and
trusted advocates to speak on behalf of your brand everywhere
consumers look for buying advice is a great place to start.
Real expertise. Real efficiency. Real results.
Find out how ExpertVoice can help you build advocacy for your brand.
Learn how it works. Visit expertvoice.com/lets-talk to schedule a demo.
MAR-1923
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