Brands see their competitors engaging with Instagram creators and think it looks easy. If they bring on a handful of creators and get some creator engagement, everyone should be talking about the product soon after. Instead, the process is messier, slower and costs more than brands anticipate upon initiation.
Establishing a real presence through creator engagement isn’t through one creator going viral or one campaign that explodes. It’s months, if not years, of trial and error. Those brands that succeed are the ones who temper their expectations coming in about what this process actually entails.
The First Few Campaigns Don’t Result in Home Runs
Most brands think the first time they engage with an Instagram creator, it will solidify an immediate return. They’ve looked at creator engagement percentages, gauged likely impressions and created conversions based on a percentage of the estimated audience that would be reaching out to learn more or purchase. The engagement goes live, and results are okay. They’re not dismal, but they’re also not at the skyrocketing anticipated response.
This is expected. But it’s also unexpected. The first few campaigns are about learning. Learning which types of creators appeal to the audience. Learning what messaging works. Learning what secondary measures can gauge success outside of immediate sales made from the link provided. This is about an investment in understanding, not content.
Furthermore, many brands give up after one or two unsuccessful campaigns, deeming Instagram creators not worth their time. Those brands that stick with it and evolve their approach based on what they’ve learned are likely to be the ones that receive legitimate returns.
Finding the Right Creators Takes Longer Than Brands Expect
Here’s where brands miscalculate the timing. They think they can find potential relevant creators in no time, send a message or two, and finalize a decision. Proper creator sourcing is something that can’t be rushed.
A creator may boast high engagement percentages but attract an audience that’s the completely wrong target customer. A creator may attract the right person but have a content style that doesn’t work. The professional with whom someone works seamlessly may find that someone else on another platform is problematic. Such distinctions are found through time spent before selection.
Many brands investing in instagram influencer marketing spend a few months testing different creator relationships before figuring out who’s worth the long-term investment. That trial and error period costs time and money, but skipping this step typically costs even more when brands jump into partnerships that don’t deliver results.
Often, the creators who mesh the best as long-term solutions aren’t the most obvious choices from the start; they aren’t always the largest creators, either. They may be middle-tier creators whose audiences boast high engagement with an audience perfectly aligned with what the brand offers. Those diamonds in the rough take time to find and effort.
The Budget Discussion Gets Messy
Most brands enter engagements with a solid budget for creators, which is great, but this often doesn’t account for everything that needs to happen. Yes, there’s creator remuneration. But there’s also product seeding, potential post-boosting, content usage rights should the brand want to use any creator content down the line, and time administered internally to manage relationships with multiple creators.
Furthermore, there’s debate on whether a brand should partner with one larger creator for one price or ten smaller ones for the same price; it’s dependent upon goals, but after testing both approaches to determine what’s most effective requires time.
Sustainability plays a role, too. A one-off campaign with a creator may get them buzzed up, but it’s not going to build a legitimate presence over time unless consistent partnerships are made. This means budgeting for not just this quarter but next year or beyond. Many brands don’t account for this length of time, and by starting and stopping their partnerships, they don’t account for cumulative efforts made.
To legitimately establish success, it’s important to work with creators over time and ensure there are no gaps where current perceptions ween.
Content Performance Fluctuates More Than Brands Anticipate
Everyone probably hates the reality of this flexibility, but sometimes a creator will engage a product via content that’s incredibly successful then switch it up and find a lull in performance; however, everything else remains equal, the brand, the product, the creator, yet the results aren’t as well received.
This happens because of how fickle social media can be; Instagram isn’t always conducive and even if an audience boosts engagement percentage at 100%, it may drop to 93%. It’s likely that a post went live while the creator’s audience was perfectly active, but that’s not too within a brand’s control.
Brands need to let go of this flexibility and realize what’s at stake with the bigger picture of multiple contents with multiple creators over time. One engagement that didn’t work well doesn’t denote that the strategy is flawed, it just means that execution didn’t hit home.
Recognizing a Brand Takes Repetitive Exposure
Here’s where brands fail to recognize that until people see a name enough times, it’s not going to register on their radar; one post from one creator is going to fall flat to most audiences who won’t memorize what’s going on unless there’s repetitive exposure.
That’s why establishing real brand presence takes sustained effort, it’s getting in front of an audience so they see it constantly from different sources with similar voices over time that gives valid credit to what’s being pushed with enthusiasm.
Some brands think that engaging one larger creator will give that big push needed to put them on the map, it rarely works that way; instead, many creators at different levels giving authentic integration at different times usually works better than any larger partnership.
The Attribution Issue Never Gets Resolved
Brands want to know how much money they’re going to see returned, for understandable reasons, but attribution doesn’t work with social media creators; someone’s going to see someone talk about something on social media then a week later remember that’s what they need, even though they’re not going to attribute that positive outcome until it’s too late.
Most attribution solutions don’t capture delayed responses; they also don’t look at cumulative results over time from different engagements through different channels, although web traffic from nowhere suggests success.
This creates tension because brands want results compiled and easy, but that’s not always how this happens nor turns out to be true later on down the road.
What Success Ultimately Looks Like Over Time
Brands that cultivate a real presence through social media creators all have common factors down the line, they give themselves at least six months up to a year before pivoting significantly; they work within different types of creators instead of dumping everything into one good campaign; they allow for creative license and freedom instead of forcing specifics.
They gauge success broader than quickened returns as well; while it’s important to compile sales numbers, it’s equally as important to recognize how perceptions, audiences and growth compile over time with other valuable creator relationships developed along the way.
They also support a longer game in reality building since it’s clear if businesses don’t see social media influencers as a fast win. They rarely get what they’re hoping for but those who develop realistic expectations compound over time without them worrying about how they ever lived without them.
This takes place over quarters, not weeks, and it involves more residual budget than expected once everything’s itemized to create total value added. It involves practicality beyond anticipated investments. But for those who can come to terms with reality versus expectation, their success will more than make up for it.
