6 mistakes most brands make with influencer marketing

• Influencer marketing is changing the way brands communicate with their audience.
• When starting off, it is impossible to get it right in one go.
• Sahiba Dhandhania, Co-founder, Confluencr writes about 6 mistakes that marketers can avoid to get their influencer marketing on point.

Needless to say, the influencer marketing landscape has skyrocketed in the last few years. It is changing the way brands communicate with their audience, due to which more and more brands are unlocking the potential of this booming channel in their marketing mix. It is seen that 80% of marketers find influencer marketing effective and 71% of them state that it drives high-quality traffic and customers.


As this strategy gets the priority pass in the media mix, it is not possible for brands to attain huge success in one go. When starting with influencer marketing, it is a path of experimentation of what will run best. Instead of ignoring the mistakes, it is important to learn from them. Basis our rich experience in the industry, these are some factors to look for while you’re crafting your Influencer Marketing strategy.

1. Social Media Is A See-Saw
With the ease of access to vast social media platforms, brands tend to use influencers to endorse their products everywhere. But, it is necessary to make a balance between them. It is like a see-saw. On one end, it is the product content, and on the other end of it is the platform. Brands need to find the perfect balance so that the right type of content is delivered to the right niche on the right platform through the right influencer.

If the product sells on its visual appeal, for example- phone covers, clothing, accessories, etc., it can be endorsed by a simple picture and a short video. A platform for these types of products can be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok.

On the other hand, products like electronic gadgets, home appliances, etc. where people need to see the specifications according to their needs, must have proper tutorials, detailed videos and a proper how-to so that the audience can evaluate and analyze the product from it. For these products, platforms like YouTube or IGTV can work best.

2. Who Is the Right One for You?
Choosing the right influencer for your brand is the most crucial task.

Highlighted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a marketer that has already used influencer marketing, finding the right influencer is ranked among the top challenges for 37% for them. We assume top influencers will benefit us as they have high followings. Let’s identify factors to look out for and how?

- Focus not on size, but on engagement
To stand out of the noise, it has become a necessity for influencers to have a mass of followers in a short span. With the lack of understanding, most brands determine the right influencers through the number of followings, believing to have a larger reach. But, there are tools for purchasing followers. Such followers are called bot followers and are of no use to the brands.

To think about it, do you think they will be your organic followers? Though the following is skyrocketed, will these followers be interested in you? No! It is fake and forged.

No matter how good your content is, it will not be effective unless your audience is interested in you. In contrast, organic followers are people who come to you in a natural way. They are your true audience. It is recommended to keep an eye out for red flags such as comments irrelevant to post or product, following profiles with no photo or data. Well, don’t focus on size, focus on engagement.

- Followers Only Matter If They Interact
Analyzing the comments on the posts of influencers will help to evaluate if the followers and interactions are genuine. People having sincere enquiry or comments on the posts are the true audience. Keeping track of these will aid in targeting the right influencer with a genuine audience.

Do a thorough background check on the influencer before working with them. If they have worked with a similar brand or your competitor before, then track their posts and the engagement on those posts and with the audience.

Though some influencers’ profiles have a promising engagement, many times this engagement is of no use to you. What we mean by this, is that many times the comments received on the influencer’s posts are more directed towards the influencer than to the product their post is about. This is why when looking for the right influencer, you need to have a keen eye to ensure that you pick only the right influencer for yourself.

3. Few Posts by Micro Influencers Won’t Result in Any Sales

The common mistake made by brands is that they go live with a couple of micro influencers and start expecting huge impact on sales or website visits. The normal people, termed as micro-influencers, is someone with followers ranging from 1000- 100,000, whereas the big shots, macro-influencers, have followings up to millions. Targeting both kinds of influencers is justified but should have a balance in their volumes.

Micro-influencers are not famous but are the experts in their niche. Though with the less following, their content is effective and gets greater ROI. If targeting them, the strategy should be such that the maximum audience will remember them. To make this presence the volume of posts/story must be higher in a day. So that every time the viewer sees the post/story, they can recall the brand. So, if you’re choosing barter deals with micro-influencers, do it with at least 20-25 and make them all go live on the same day rather than spread through a month.

Statistically, influencers with 1000-4000 followers acquire 4.5% engagement. The volume of posting can be less as these big influencers will have a lasting impact at once.

4. Have a clear CTA for your target audience

At Confluencr you will often hear me say 'Influencer Marketing creates the shortest path to purchase.' This is only true when done right.

It's an old habit to scroll and scroll and scroll on social media. We may like something, we think of buying something, but are slothful to look it up. Though the influencer posts are top-notch, engaging, etc. but if you do not have a path that takes them to instant purchase, then it will just be forgotten.

Providing direct links in post captions, a direct link to the purchase landing page, swipe-up options in stories, asking to take actions, etc. This will assist the audience to act instantaneously. A custom coupon code gives mutual benefit to the buyer as well as the influencer, and often leads to increased purchases.

5. Don’t fizzle out!

Many brands think that once they get an influencer to endorse their product, they are done. But actually, the game only starts then.

When the influencer posts out on social media, the number of enquiries will flood up via comments on posts, DM’s on accounts, personal emails and phone calls. Due to the high number of followers, it is not practically possible to reply to each of them. But it is necessary to respond to the genuine ones as much as possible.


Once the message is out, one should not break the communication chain. The engagement will build a relationship with the audience. The audience will have the reason to reach out to the brand again.

6. Scripts are a big NO-NO!

Most brands try to curb the creativity of the Influencers by giving them scripts and pointers of what to speak. Most influencers are confined with the agreements issued by the companies and find it difficult to speak against it. This seems more as an advertisement and lesser as a recommendation. If a number of influencers are going to recite the same script on their channels, it will repel the audience instead of attracting them.

Brands should rather get on direct calls with the influencers giving insights on the products, brand mission and vision, finer details of the product, so that the influencer can represent the story right.

They can also ask the influencers to try the product/service on their own before posting. This way influencers can deliver organic and authentic content to the audience.

Everybody talks about the effective and best ways to be successful in Influencer Marketing. But we often forget to talk about the obvious mistakes that can be avoided. It is crucial to look for the factors that must be avoided in your strategy. Even when you have a well-planned out strategy for your influencer marketing, some may fail to execute it well.