Does influencer marketing work?

What is influencer marketing and why is it important?

Influencer marketing is the collaboration between organizations and influential social media figures to promote brand awareness and drive sales. These influencers, or content creators, have earned the trust of a dedicated fan base. Therefore, brands can collaborate with them to create campaigns that feel more authentic and generate higher engagement than traditional methods.

This approach can help organizations of all types -- whether B2B or B2C -- promote their brands and products. For example, Adobe partnered with graphic design influencer Aaron Draplin to promote its Creative Cloud through online tutorials and speaking engagements.

Influencer marketing is important because social media use is on the rise and trust in corporate content is on the decline. Additionally, it's still new and novel compared to more traditional forms of marketing, such as scripted TV commercials and print magazine ads.

"A lot of marketing that used to work doesn't anymore because, at some point, it gets overdone. Influencer marketing is still relatively new, [and] people are still not able to totally catch when an influencer is branding or being paid," said Avni Barman, CEO at media platform Gen She and Inbound attendee.

When does influencer marketing work?

Influencer marketing can help brands reach new audiences, but marketers that invest in the wrong creators or micromanage their influencers can struggle to convey authenticity.

When brands choose the right influencers

In an Inbound session called "Why Influencer Marketing Campaigns Succeed (and Fail)," co-presenter Alanah Joseph, head of creator partnerships at HubSpot, explained that campaigns work best when brands carefully select the right influencers based on audience. For example, an influencer's audience should overlap with the organization's target audience in terms of demographics, location and interests to ensure the brand's message reaches the right people.

Organizations must also consider their campaign goals, such as brand awareness or sales. For instance, an organization that wants to improve brand recognition might partner with a macroinfluencer -- an influencer with 100,000 to 1 million followers -- to reach a mainstream audience. On the other hand, marketers focused on sales might collaborate with microinfluencers -- people with 1,000 to 100,000 followers -- to drive conversions within more targeted audiences.

Phill Agnew, session co-presenter and founder of the Nudge podcast, added that marketers should look for influencers who put a lot of effort into their content. To identify them, marketers can review candidates' press kits and examine their previous partnership campaigns. They can also examine an influencer's average engagement rate, which is the ratio of likes, comments and shares, to follower count. A high engagement rate can indicate the influencer creates quality content that resonates with the target audience.

When marketers give up control

In traditional advertising, marketers have full control over their campaign scripts. However, this top-down approach often defeats the purpose of influencer marketing, which is to appear authentic and unscripted.

"If I'm talking in a very authentic voice on my podcast and then I do a HubSpot ad, which is written by somebody else and not in my style of voice at all, people will notice immediately. They'll never trust it," Agnew said.

Marketers must learn to step back and pass creative control to the influencers because these creators know what their audiences like and how to maintain their trust. Some scripting is often necessary, but marketers can leave room for influencers to be themselves.

"We started shifting our scripts to almost like a Mad Lib, where we're like, 'Here is the key messaging for this month. Here are bullet points. Here are things that you have to say, but we would love for you to interject your own personal experience,'" Joseph said.

When brands build relationships with their influencers

As organizations find influencer partnerships that work well, they can invest in those relationships to unlock long-term and synergistic growth for both the influencer and the brand. For instance, a tech company that partners with a microinfluencer might offer resources to help that creator become a macroinfluencer. This, in turn, can help the brand reach a wider audience.

"We have a team that meets with our creators regularly and says, 'Hey, what are your challenges? What are you struggling with? How can we help you? How can we help you grow?'" Joseph said.

Key takeaways

As consumers spend more time on social media than ever before, influencer marketing can help brands create authentic and engaging digital campaigns. However, marketers must carefully select creators to partner with because a misalignment in audience or values can negatively affect results. Additionally, marketers must avoid overly scripted content and build long-term relationships with their partners.

"Don't focus on the campaign," Joseph said. "Focus on relationships. … That is something you can leverage for years to come."

Tim Murphy is associate site editor for TechTarget's Customer Experience and Content Management sites.