Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular strategy for companies, particularly for the benefits it brings. Awareness, authenticity, loyalty,… Working with an influencer is often very fruitful for brands, provided it’s done well.
The opposite can be disappointing, and it happens that influencers don’t talk about certain brands and their products. It’s time for some self-reflection! Here are some tips to avoid this pitfall and boost your presence with influencers.
Why Ensure Influencers Talk About My Products?
There are many ways to get people talking about your brand, through different types of marketing and communication campaigns: traditional advertising, for example. However, consumers are already over-solicited: on the street, in every subway line, from their couch, by email, on their smartphone… On average, we see 1,200 advertising messages per day according to France Culture. On the web, many choose to adopt ad blockers for a bit more peace.
It’s in this context that influencer marketing emerges, increasingly popular in companies’ marketing strategies. It allows brands to make themselves known and express themselves on the web through an influencer that the internet user has chosen to follow. The content he or she offers therefore corresponds to them, pleases them, and interests them. Similarly, the brand(s) these influencers represent are just as likely to catch their attention.
To promote their brand and products to this digital audience, more and more companies are choosing to go through influencers. According to a study by Argus de la Presse, one in three French internet users follows one or more influencers on social networks, and among them:
Influencers therefore offer content that encourages their community’s engagement around the represented brand. These contents are effective in increasing brand awareness and visibility. They also appear more authentic and approachable in the eyes of followers (and potential consumers). In the beauty sector in particular, influencers are especially interesting for brands when it comes to obtaining objective and authentic opinions. According to a Rakuten study, beauty influencers are among the most followed influencers, on par with celebrities.
However, don’t think that only cosmetic brands benefit from influencer marketing: hundreds of other business sectors profit from customer reviews. In the tech sector, for example, prospects almost systematically scrutinize consumer reviews before buying their often expensive equipment to ensure its performance meets their needs. In the world of baby products, it’s the same mechanism: parents can read dozens of tester reviews to ensure that the product they ultimately choose is the best for their child.
On Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or even on a blog, social networks should not be neglected for a company wanting to become known and gain visibility. This may be your case, and you have then deployed means to turn to influencer marketing. Despite all your efforts, the contacted influencers may not talk about you and your products. Here are some tips if you find yourself in this type of situation and actions to implement to maximize your chances of being represented by an influencer.
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Trustt is a digital marketing solution that allows you to create a virtuous circle between your brand and your consumers.Why Aren’t Influencers Talking About My Products?
You’ve decided to venture into influencer partnerships, but things aren’t going as planned. The influencer you were counting on isn’t talking about you or your products. Whether by choice or simply due to unfamiliarity with the brand, it’s time for some self-reflection: Have you done things in the right order? How did you start your conversation with the influencer? The reasons can be numerous, and sometimes it’s simply a case of poor communication between you and the influencer.
Remember, a partnership doesn’t establish itself! While influencers sometimes choose to contact brands directly, it’s often up to the companies themselves to make the first move. So if you’re expecting an influencer to talk about you without having contacted them, you’ll likely be waiting for a long time!
This initial contact is essential and must be done correctly to showcase your brand and product.
I’m Not Making My Product Known Enough
An influencer who doesn’t talk about your brand might simply not know about it. When you contact an influencer, it’s important to introduce yourself, as well as your brand, its history, values, and products. You can then propose different types of partnerships. To start, we recommend simply offering them one of your products for the influencer to test and share their opinion with their community. This method of gifting is generally easier to set up and allows you to establish a partnership gradually.
The ideal way to build a trusting relationship is to present yourself as one of their many fans: first show your interest by posting comments on their publications or even through private messages, congratulating them on their latest post, for example. If the influencer doesn’t already know you, they will likely try to find out more about you. You can approach them again later, this time expressing your desire to work with them. This way, they will more easily remember you and be more likely to engage in a dialogue to agree on a collaboration. A trusting relationship takes time to build!
When discussing collaboration with an influencer, highlight your values and the reasons why the influencer should collaborate with you and not with another brand. Also show them that you’ve researched their various pages if they have multiple (blog, Instagram account, and other social networks), that you know them and are interested in their content. However, be prepared to accept refusal and consider the reasons for it: they can be useful for reviewing your approach message for future influencers.
My Product Isn’t Attractive Enough
You may have already completed the first steps properly: the initial contact with the influencer went perfectly, and you offered to send them one of your products. But even after that, they still don’t mention you in their various articles and content.
In this case, send them another message to find out the reason. Be prepared to accept criticism and possible negative comments: they can be useful for better adapting your strategy and reviewing your offer to improve it. It’s possible that the influencer didn’t appreciate it for some reason. In the case of a beauty product, for example, its packaging, sensory qualities, or even its effectiveness might have displeased them. Worse, the cosmetic product could have had negative effects on the influencer who tested it, and they preferred not to talk about it, risking speaking ill of it to their community. In this sense, they almost did you a favor! In the case of a food or dietary product, the sample sent to the person who was supposed to become your ambassador may not have impressed with its taste or lack of effectiveness on the tester. There are therefore many reasons that can excuse an influencer who has chosen not to speak about your products.
When sending this product to the influencer for testing, it’s important to remember that you are entering into an implicit agreement to accept their opinion, whether it’s positive or negative. In the latter case, seize this opportunity to learn more about the reasons for their dissatisfaction and ineffectiveness. Perhaps you simply didn’t send the right item to this person? Take the time to communicate with the influencer, even if it means sending them another product that will suit them better this time, which they will then talk about to their followers through a post or story on Instagram, for example.
I’m Not Targeting the Right Influencers
In most cases, if an influencer doesn’t talk about your brand and products, it’s simply because “they are not suitable for them and don’t correspond to their needs. Indeed, an influencer may simply refuse to” establish a partnership with you if they feel that your values don’t align with theirs and those of their audience. The product you’re offering them to present to their followers may also not match what they typically use or what they want to incorporate into their daily life.
This is a sign that the influencer, and especially their community, don’t match your target audience. It’s therefore important to question yourself again: have you properly defined your marketing targeting? What led you to believe that this influencer was the most suitable to represent your brand? This is also why it’s important to contact the influencer first to determine if they meet your expectations.
In the worst scenarios, the influencer you’ve chosen presents a product similar to yours to their community, but for a competing brand with which they already have a contract. In this case, you probably didn’t research them thoroughly enough, which can give a bad image of your company.
To collaborate best with influencers, it’s also possible to go through intermediaries to better establish initial contact. This is what the Trustt software allows by offering brands the opportunity to set up product tests. Through these ambassador programs, brands are connected with influencers who match their needs and with whom they can establish a partnership and launch an influence campaign. Benefit from real expert advice in influencer marketing to find the ambassador and their audience who will recognize the true potential of your products. Don’t wait any longer to access Trustt’s real-time data, which will help your company more clearly define its influencer marketing strategy!
