Influencer marketing has been around for quite some time now, but for some reason, the hype is still the same as it was years ago. Though many predicted its success to be short-lived here we are, halfway through 2025, and still clutching onto influencers to take us through life. Some experts even claim that the influencer marketing revolution might be the best thing that has ever happened to the industry! From dancing TikTok stars to becoming the most sought-after icons in the market, influencer marketing has changed the fate of not only businesses but also regular people. Take a look at Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae. They started as silly TikTokers and are now pop icons. It makes us believe that anyone, from anywhere, doing anything, at any place, can become the next influencer diva! And that’s the magic that influencer marketing brings to the industry - an equal opportunity for all, be it a business or a social media person.
Some popular influencer campaigns that have skyrocketed the charts of businesses are listed below:
- Gymshark partnering with influencers called ‘Gymshark Athletes’
- Dunkin’ choosing pop icons for their campaign
- Dove teaming up with beauty queens
- Häagen-Dazs going hand-in-hand with TikTok
- Coca-Cola Cola going all out with influencers
- And many more!
Like all good things that come with a price, there is a small catch to influencer marketing as well. Though it may seem like all fame and fortune, the perfect shortcut to overnight success, the catch is that to truly embrace the perks of influencer marketing, you really need to understand it to the depths. You need to pay attention to every tiny detail before launching your campaign - who your influencers are, where you’re going to shoot the campaign, what platform you’re using, the time of posting, the colors and the fonts, literally EVERYTHING! If someone fails to unravel influencer marketing from the inside out, for them, it will always be like a mirage that they will keep chasing with no visible output. And that’s exactly the problem that many of the companies are now going through, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
To truly conquer influencer marketing, you need to understand the secret of this illusion. You need to know the common mistakes that SMBs are making and how you can turn the situation around for yourself. Lucky for you, we’ve got your back! In this article, we will take a look at all the common mistakes that SMBs are unintentionally making when it comes to influencer marketing and how you can navigate your way around them. So let’s get started!
Mistake # 1: The Megastar Mirage - Big Numbers, Small Returns
Problem: Over-reliance on mega influencers
Here’s the problem - brands are confusing celebrities with influencers. They are under the impression that hiring megastar influencers, such as big-shot celebrities, for their campaigns is gonna get them better reach and larger numbers. They believe that these megastar influencers are well-known and everyone has heard about them in one way or another, so electing them as campaign leaders is the right choice. But in reality, it's actually the opposite! No doubt, these mega influencers have worldwide fame and the world tends to look up to them, but for an SMB, partnering up with a mega influencer may come off as too pretentious.
There are tons of examples of SMBs where their campaigns went south just because of the mega influencer. A prime example in this case is Pepsi and its partnership with the world-renowned supermodel, Kendall Jenner. Pepsi’s campaign featured Kendall Jenner handing a Pepsi bottle to a police officer during a protest, which sparked controversy that Kendall was not the right person for a Black Lives Matter protest. This campaign reflected a lack of authenticity and how a mismatch between the influencer and the campaign message can cause a massive backfire. In contrast to Pepsi, Coca-Cola gained a lot from this failure and implemented the strategies in its own campaigns. Instead of getting mega influencers, Coca-Cola emphasized more on a personalized experience and how they can unite cultures under tastebuds. Their campaign reflected inclusivity and authenticity and became a game-changer for them among the public.
Another example of the failure of mega influencers can be found in Morphe’s makeup campaign with the TikTok stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio. Morphe partnered up with the TikTok sisters for the launch of their new brand, targeted at Gen Z. Although Morphe predicted scoring sales from their campaign, given the rising fame of the D’Amelio sisters, the results proved otherwise. Morphe didn't quit anytime soon and continued to feature these sisters as the face of their brand, which ultimately led to the campaign’s failure. Many potential buyers had the concern that, though these TikTok stars have all the hype, they do not have any credible connection with makeup. Their lack of credibility and insufficient passion for makeup made the campaign seem totally commercial and inauthentic, with little or no affiliation with true beauty.
Getting mega influencers on board isn't easy. They cost heavily on the pockets, especially for a newly launched SMB. For any new SMB, teaming up with a mega influencer for marketing campaigns may seem very promising, but the low engagement rates they generate are truly disappointing. These marketing campaigns are like plants - SMBs do have the resources, they have the idea, they just don’t know where to plant the seed. Listed below are a few reasons to help you understand why you need to think twice before partnering with a mega influencer:
- Mega influencers’ relevancy to your brand niche is required. If the influencer’s niche is not relevant to your brand, it will surely fail to resonate with the audience
- Most mega influencers fail to preach authenticity to the brand. Where there’s no transparency, there will be no customers
- Brand messages coming from such influencers often get diluted in the audience because of their massive reach. Your brand message may reach a larger number of people, but there’s no guarantee that they can be potential customers
- Since mega influencers are already considered ‘perfect’ in every aspect, their claims with the brand may seem unbelievable
- Mega influencers are bound to break your pockets with little or no return!
Solution
The solution is simple - avoid mega influencers! A recent study has also shown that for SMBs, nano influencers are considered more beneficial as compared to mega influencers. This is because the target audience for SMBs will be able to relate to nano influencers more than the mega ones, thus turning every viewer into a potential customer. Although nano influencers have limited reach, the pool of audience they bring in has greater prospects of becoming customers. The secret all lies in relevancy. If a brand truly wants to connect with its target audience, it needs to team up with an influencer sharing and preaching the same niche. This automatically turns the influencer’s entire following into potential customers. And the best part - they don't even cost that much! These influencers are both affordable and credible!
Instead of spending all your marketing budget on a single mega influencer, you can divide it among 2 or 3 nano influencers and get much better results. When 2 or 3 influencers of the same niche are promoting the same product, the audience tends to lean more towards them. Glossier, a world-famous makeup company that started out as an SMB, followed this technique and became unforgettable. Instead of sending their makeup products to big-shot influencers like the Kardashians or James Charles, they sent them out to several nano influencers, which created such an impact! They encouraged honest reviews from these influencers, which automatically built a community of customers signing up for Glossier products. The high engagement rates, strong communities, and trustworthy relations that nano influencers create for the brand are solid proof that they are the right choice for your next promotional campaign!
Mistake # 2: Content Problems - Why Messages Fall Flat
Problem: Misaligned influencers and undefined audiences
Content is everything! Sometimes you have the right plan, the right influencer, and the right direction, but if you’re lacking in content, your campaign will get off track. Most SMBs are hungry for recognition, and this is where they make the wrong choices - getting renowned influencers on board just so they can reach the masses. They don’t pay attention to the niche relevancy of the brand and the influencer, nor to the type of content they are generating to engage the audience. This often results in mismatched influencers with the campaign's message, which leads to a dead end. As a brand, you need to ensure that the influencer you’re going for is at least relevant to your brand message. For instance, if you have an athletic brand, going for a beauty influencer for your campaign will lead you nowhere. Remember, relevancy speaks volumes, and this relevancy between the influencer and your brand is going to take your campaign to the next level. As long as your influencer is relevant to your niche, your content will automatically get aligned, thus rolling those numbers!
Another drawback of having the wrong influencers for your campaigns is the unaligned audience. Most brands often question the influencer’s capability if they fail to bring in customers, but in actuality, it's not the influencer’s fault. They’ll do what they are best at. You cannot expect a beauty influencer to preach about sports goods; similarly, you cannot expect fitness freaks to advocate fast food. If you pick irrelevant influencers for your campaign, no matter how big they are, you’ll always end up with an undefined audience. Yes, you will have views, yes, you will get reach, yes, you will be noticed, but will you have customers? Absolutely not! The influencer you pick for your campaign is gonna be the bridge between you and your audience. So, make sure you team up with a relevant influencer aligned with your brand values to truly reach out to your target audience.
The sad part is that it's not only the SMBs that are making this mistake, but well-recognized brands are also victims. A few examples of these brands are listed below:
- Take a look at Pepsi, for instance - they teamed up with Kendal Jenner for a Black activist protest and the result was an absolute disaster!
- Microsoft made a similar mistake when it partnered with PewDiePie. His off-track content for the brand came off as offensive, leading to not only campaign failure, but also permanently cutting ties with the brand
- Adidas teamed up with Snapchat influencers which was a mega failure in terms of alignment with the influencers
- Gillette Venus grouped with Indian influencers for their campaign which backfired because of cultural sensitivity
- Revolve’s makeup campaign met failure for only partnering with extremely thin and mostly white models, neglecting several segments from their target market
Solution
If even the big fish are making this mistake and facing the same problems, then you must wonder - does a solution even exist? Yes, it does! And it’s quite simple. The secret lies in alignment. All you have to do is reflect on your brand and highlight the brand message. Figure out what your brand’s niche is and only hunt for those influencers sharing the same niche as you. For instance, if your brand is about sports goods, no need to sign agreements with the Kardashians. The key is alignment. If you pick the right influencer, your content is bound to align as well. Your content will reflect authenticity and transparency, which is all that your target market requires. The more honest and upfront your campaign is, the greater the impact it will create, and hence, a bigger pool of customers you will get!
Apart from alignment, you need to explore what your audience is interested in. If your target audience resides in TikTok then you need to focus on creating TikToks in the form of content. Similarly, if your target audience is on Facebook, then extensive captions and regular postings is the direction you want to head in. For instance, on Instagram these days, carousel posts have a higher engagement rate, almost 2.62% more than other types of content. The best way to figure out which engagement formats you need to use for your content is to partner with the right influencer. They know what they’re doing, and they know what’s working. Only the niche influencer will be able to tell you best whether you should go for the reel format or the carousel format for your campaign because they are the ones engaging on a daily basis with your target audience. So know your influencers, and everything else will automatically fall into place!
Mistake # 3: Gifted Collaborations - Wasted Potential
Problem: Underutilizing gifted campaigns
Who doesn’t like gifts? We all do! Especially influencers. Gifted collaborations are probably the easiest way through which you can generate absolute 100% honest and credible content for your campaigns. You send out a gift to any influencer, of course, relevant to your niche, and they create content for your product. By receiving the product as a gift, the influencer will be more invested in creating engaging and authentic content just out of goodwill. This tactic may seem a bit trashy from the logistics point of view, but as a brand, you really need to emphasize the psyche of the influencers. According to research, gifted collaborations created 2.19% more engaging content as compared to paid collaborations (1.94%). This is because gifted collaborations sprinkle an emotional aspect into agreements. The influencer feels valued by this gesture and becomes more invested in creating content for the brand.
Though gifted collaboration is an easy way to get your desired results, many brands and SMBs are completely ignoring it. They believe everything needs to be strictly business and only tend to focus on the logistics point of view of the campaign. They are of the mentality that if we are paying the influencer, then that itself is enough for them to generate content. This makes the relationship between the brand and the influencer strictly business and lacks any emotional contact. On the other hand, sending out gifts as a part of a campaign creates more joyful, authentic, reliable, and transparent content. You can see the difference between gifted and paid collaborations yourself! From the expressions of the influencer down to the engagement rates, everything differs! But yes, gifted collaborations are not the permanent solution because if you keep sending out gifts for every campaign, you’ll go bankrupt before you can land some customers. What you need to do is start with gifted collaborations and then slowly transition them into paid collaborations.
Most SMBs often make the mistake of only relying on gifted collaborations and failing to turn them into paid ones. The drawback of this mistake is that the influencer becomes disassociated with the brand if the brand doesn't lead to paid collaboration in the long term. Gifts are a form of hope for the influencer that the brand is seeking out to build a relationship with them. If this relationship breaks midway i.e., doesn't turn into a paid collaboration, not only will you lose a potential influencer but your campaign will become stagnant as well. A few brands who made this mistake are listed below:
- Fashion Nova sent out gifts to dozens of nano influencers but failed to turn them into brand ambassadors. This led to weakened brand loyalty
- Glambot followed the same strategy but didn't convert to paid relationships, which made the brand’s hype only short-lived
- SugarBearHear Vitamins relied on gifts, but failing to turn them into business led to the loss of credibility in the brand
- Gymshark became another victim of this mistake initially when they only marketed through gifts, but they pulled the strings in the early phase and shifted to paid collaborations before it got too late
Solution
The solution lies in balance. You need to create a balance between gifts and paid collaborations. Remember that gifts are a symbol of sentiment, you can only use it to build relationships. If you want your marketing campaign to be a success, you need to build a valuable relationship with the influencer based on trust and loyalty to extract the best engaging content from them. And gifts can help you achieve that! Once you send out gifts, an emotional relationship instantly develops with the influencer. After the initial emotional contact, kick things up a notch and transition into paid collaborations. Trust us, the difference you’ll see after sending out gifts will be reflected in your engagement numbers! The influencer knows you’re trustworthy, you mean business, you started out friendly and converted the campaign professionally - it's sufficient enough to make the influencer dive completely into your campaign!
Though balance is optimal in this strategy, keep one thing in mind - you need to know your industry! The influencer campaign strategy varies from industry to industry. You first need to evaluate what kind of industry your brand lies in and then chalk out a gifted collaboration plan. For instance, jewelry brands milk out more from gifted collaborations as compared to paid ones, so if your SMB is in the jewelry domain, it's best to carry out as many gifted collaborations as possible. However, if your SMB is about sports gear, it’s best to transition into paid collaborations as soon as possible after the initial gifts. The blueprint for gifted collaborations is the same; all you need to do is tailor it according to your industry-specific strategies.
Mistake # 4: Neglecting Relationship Building
Problem: One-off campaigns
When it comes to influencer marketing, relationships matter the most. The healthier the relationship you have with an influencer, the more flourishing your campaign will be. Working with influencers is not all business - you need to connect with them, hear out their suggestions, and most importantly, trust the process. It requires patience and calmness to truly achieve the campaign results that you desire. Having good relationships with your influencers can also help you in the long run for future campaigns. Since you’ll already have a working history with the said influencer, hiring them for future projects will streamline your operations.
As important as relationship building is both for brands and influencers, some SMBs are still very reluctant towards this aspect. They believe that influencers are like their employees, getting paid at the end of work. They don't strain much on the brand’s relationship building with the influencer and only view them as one-time workers. The major drawback of this business mentality is that if you treat your influencer like an employee, they’ll treat you as an employer, and knowing that it’s only a one-time thing, the influencer won’t even invest their efforts wholeheartedly. You can even see the deviation in results. However, in reality, brands and influencers are like partners, both supporting one another and relying on each other for mutual growth. The sooner the brands and SMBs realize the relationship's significance, the quicker they’ll see promising outputs.
What brands nowadays do is that they don’t even reach out personally to the influencers; they have people for that. They treat the influencer who’s gonna run their campaign like an outsider. The worst part - they completely forget about the influencer as soon as the campaign is over. This not only hampers your relationship with the influencer but also makes your potential customers wonder that something must have gone wrong with the brand, hence, limiting your sales. The more loyal you are to one influencer for your campaigns, the greater impact it generates in the eyes of the audience. For instance, Huda Beauty always reaches out to the same influencers for every campaign. Though Huda Beauty does add new influencers to the mix, but they never forget about their old ones, which brings them greater sales. Once the target market constantly sees the influencer advocating for a brand and its every product, their loyalty towards the brand instantly gets maximized.
Relationships are everything and are essentially crucial if you want your marketing campaign to be a success. Below is a list of a few brands and companies that were ignorant of their relationships with the influencers and later paid the price:
- Nivea did a one-time collaboration with several influencers without any regard to cultural connections
- Samsung initially did a one-time campaign with BTS for their smartphone, but after they got to know about the relationship significance, their campaigns rebounded
- Uber Eats did collabs with several TikTokers but since it was a one-time thing, the whole campaign seemed irrelevant and off-track
- PureLeaf Ice Tea partnered up with Billie Eilish, but the campaign failed because of a weak relationship between the two
- Revolve started doing luxury influencer trips for their campaigns but instead of getting sales, it backfired as influencer vacations
Solution:
Poor relationships can cause long-term damage, be it between family, friends, or even brands and influencers. Since tons of money is involved in campaigns, having a weak relationship with the influencer is not an option. Not only can this cause you tons of bucks but can also blacklist you in the eyes of other influencers as well. The key is to build and savor long-term relationships with these influencers. For instance, skincare companies often tend to stick to one influencer for every campaign. This not only reflects the trust and understanding of the brand and the influencer but also influences the audience to stay loyal to the brand via the influencer. Transactional deals with the influencers are short-lived and lack emotional affiliation. They come off as business deals lacking all sorts of personalization, making it seem even more fake and unauthentic. Go for long-term relationships so you and the influencer can be each other’s companions through every obstacle campaign.
Another tip for creating long-lasting, valuable relationships with influencers is to engage with their content. The more you, as a brand, engage with their content, the greater will be your positioning in the influencer’s mind. Offer them exclusives, which makes them feel even more honored and welcome on your campaign. Allow them to add their own personal, unique touch to the campaign instead of giving them a script. Trust the process with them and witness how it increases your numbers.
Mistake # 5: Poor Content Optimization
Problem: Overly salesy or misformatted content
You’ve got the product, you’ve got the campaign idea, you’ve got the influencer, so what’s lacking that might cost you your campaign? Many SMBs, as well as large companies, are caught up in this very question. They have everything aligned and have the perfect influencer, but their campaigns still seem to be underperforming. This is where content optimization comes in. Content is the one thing that you cannot simply ignore because your content is what your audience views and what motivates them to make the purchase. You need to ensure that the influencer’s content is not too flashy to scare off the customers and nor too minimal to attract them. There needs to be a balance in content, and this is where you need your optimization skills.
Some influencers make the mistake of over-crowding their content, which comes off as ‘trying too hard’ to gain the customers’ attention. This scares away potential buyers. In fact, some experts even believe that you need to avoid using CTA’s so you don’t push away any target audience. Where once CTAs were considered crucial in every content post, now research says that no use of CTA can boost your engagement rates by 70%! This is because a larger segment of the target audience is occupied by Gen Z, and luring them with CTAs is never the solution. The more your content seems less like advertising, the more your customers will be drawn towards it.
The content patterns are constantly changing, and as a brand, you need to make sure that the influencer stays updated with these changes. Where once scripted captions worked like magic, now they seem too salesy. Where once the audience preferred scripted campaigns from the brands, now they are seeking the influencer’s own personal touch in the collaborations. Similarly, voiceovers had tons of hype when it came to marketing content, but according to the new numbers recorded, voiceovers can reduce your engagement rates by 25%. As a brand, you need to stay up-to-date with these varying audience patterns, otherwise, you’ll meet the same fate as Nokia - a king that rejected change and became forgotten. Know your audience, trust your influencer, and see those numbers rolling.
Solution:
The solution is simple - play with your content. Get creative and experiment with all sorts of content, see which ones work best for you - be it TikToks, carousel, reels, or blogs. You can even try mix-matching the content for maximum results. All you need to do is figure out which content offers you smooth and seamless integration. You need to slip in your advertisement without making the content feel like an ad. In this process, trust your influencer and go with their suggestions. They can either seamlessly integrate the product into their lifestyle and create a series of content, or come up with a solution of their own. The more integrated your content is, the greater your chances are of reaching up to 90% engagement rates.
Since voiceovers are known to bring down engagement rates so politely ask your influencer to experiment without the voiceovers. They can use magic, ASMRs, or even simple captions. Voiceovers make the content seem too prolonged and boring, and we don’t want that. Do whatever it takes to get the eyes of your customers!
Conclusion
As long as you steer clear of the above 5 mentioned mistakes, trust us you’re good to go! Just make sure your content is aligned, the influencer shares the same niche, the campaign is relevant, and you have a happy and healthy relationship with the influencer. As long as you keep these simple 5 rules in mind, your campaign will for sure go off the charts! We know that content planning and influencer hunting can be a tedious job, which is why we’ll recommend that you use SocialBook Product Launcher to keep things aligned. Just subscribe to SocialBook, sit back and relax, and witness SocialBook Product Launcher do the job for you!
We hope you found this article helpful. Stay tuned for more!
