Influencer marketing is still a relatively new form of marketing.
As a result, there are quite a lot of misconceptions.
Here I’ll discuss 5 of the most common ones.
Influencers Are Impossible To Get A Hold Of
One of the primary objections to influencer marketing is that people find influencers are possible to get a hold of.
In 99% of the cases, this is simply not true.
Yes, there are a select few of bloggers, call them the top 1%, that are very difficult to reach.
But, even they, are possible to reach, with the right offer that works for them and their audience.
Consider LeadPages’ appearance on the Pat Flynn podcast.
This drove over 700 comments (hoping to win a free one year license) as well as drove people to a follow up webinar, which no doubt drove awesome sales for a company that went from 0 to 25k customers in less than two years.
Or this sponsored post on A Pinch of Yum from the Honest Company, which highlights some fantastic holiday books that the company has to offer.
So yes, we have proven that the top 1% are open to advertising, you just need the right pitch and to put effort into building those relationships.
You Should Always Aim For The Top Dog
Although the top 1% are everyone’s favorite to target because they are seemingly everywhere, don’t forget the thousands of other blogs that, although maybe are not in the top 1%, can certainly drive sales and have a powerful, engaged audience interested in your brand.
The reason so many businesses seem to fall flat on their face when it comes to influencer marketing is that they are all targeting the same individuals, and as a result get no traction.
What you really should do is focus on the top 20% of bloggers, many of which are more open to talking and partnering with businesses, and still have a large enough audience to make it worth your while.
Additionally, because there are so many blogs on the internet, when you allow yourself to work with the top 20% as opposed to just the top 1%, you have thousands more blogs you can work with.
Now the question is, how do you find those guys – since they aren’t always everywhere like the top 1%.
Luckily, we’ve designed our tool to give you the search and filtering capabilities to find the bloggers who are open to working with brands.
I Have A Great Offer And Pitch
I don’t think too many people send out emails and think to themselves.
“well, this is a really crappy pitch”
The fact is most everyone *thinks* that what they’re offering is great.
When in reality, I see so many pitches that are just abysmal, most businesses just aren’t doing it right.
The key ingredients are simple:
- What’s in it for you (this part is usually covered)
- What’s in it for the blogger
- What’s in it for their audience
Win the war on these three and you might have a compelling offer.
The additional problem which we see time and time again is that businesses don’t value the blogger’s time.
They might offer a free sample of their product to the blogger in exchange for a review, but frankly, the blogger was never asking for this product to begin with. Now they might be interested in trying it, but if you’ve ever written a quality product review, it takes time. You have to write the post, take pictures, edit and format the article, publish and promote it.
This can take hours.
If you are offering a $10 item for free in exchange for hours of work, well, don’t expect a whopping reception.
Most people are just not going to be interested.
If you can, try to compensate the blogger for their time directly. Or offer multiple free samples that can be given out to their audience in exchange for more opt ins or social shares – that way the blogger is getting a bit more bang for their buck.
Influencer Marketing Takes A Long Time
Part of influencer marketing is relationship building and no one claims that relationship building is quick.
It’s long for a reason.
When i got Brian Dean, premier SEO blogger, to follow me on Twitter – that was months of effort; linked to his posts, tweeting his articles, and a few email exchanges.
Now, it wasn’t a lot of effort, but it did take time, because it is tough to win someone over in a week.
This is really all the more reason to get started now, because relationships are an asset that you can carry with you to new clients, new jobs, new opportunities.
So it’s worth the effort.
Additionally, our tool, NinjaOutreach, is designed to make the process of finding and engaging influencers much quicker.
No more Google. No more Excel. No more Outlook.
Just fast prospecting and relationships management.
There Are No Influencers In My Niche
There are millions of blogs on the internet, so MOST niches are covered in one way or another.
Now it might be the case that your ultra specific niche does not have a blogger who dominates the market.
In that instance, it is advisable to look a bit broader – what is the broader niche that you are in?
Maybe your business is holistic vitamin supplements, so you want to connect with health and food bloggers.
Or maybe you run an event based business, that involves outdoor activities like running and climbing. Try connecting with fitness bloggers or survival bloggers.
If you’re willing to think a bit more general, eventually, you’ll find the right fit.
