Don’t just throw money at hot influencers – get a strategy

Brands can no longer afford to keep rolling their eyes and hoping the influencer bubble bursts. The phenomenon is here to stay. With 85% of consumers likely to purchase from a trusted recommendation, it’s no surprise that the industry is projected to exceed $8bn globally by 2020.

But the days of paying to lob a product into the hands of a hot person on Instagram and hoping for the best are all but over. In 2019, influencer marketing is nothing without strategy. Getting it right can pay off big time and send significant numbers of new customers into your sales funnel. Getting it wrong, though, can damage a brand and waste precious marketing resources. So what does a successful influencer strategy look like?

As social platforms have matured and become more sophisticated, so too have consumers and the way in which they want to be marketed to. With this maturity comes the need for marketeers to treat influencer activity as a legitimate tool, one that requires a clear strategy.

Gone are the days where brands can throw the minuscule off-cuts of their marketing budgets at bikini-wearing ex-reality TV stars to create Instagram content, and see a direct uplift in sales. Or website traffic. Brand affinity, even. The brands that are going to win this newly-matured influencer marketing consumer are the ones who take a strategic approach and create meaningful relationships. And there’s an art to doing this effectively.