Let’s Have a Chat About Influencers

*Disclaimer: This is my own personal & professional opinion based on direct experience in this industry*

Influencer Marketing: The beginning (sort of)

Influencer marketing has been around for longer than my career in marketing. I, unfortunately, didn’t get to experience the boom in YouTube and Instagram bloggers before Tik Tok and reels were even a thing. However, I was able to jump in right before the peak of Tik Tok, and before Instagram coined itself as its own version of an e-commerce platform (still not sure how I feel about this).

I always knew that influencer marketing was effective. Somehow back in 2012–2015, beauty YouTubers and lifestyle bloggers basically paved the way for what the average teenage/young woman was buying (who remembers Tarte Palettes and Baby Lips chapstick?).

Nowadays, you can find influencers in almost any niche you can think of who are ready and willing to promote products or services to their audience. However, once I started my career in marketing, I learned the ugly truth of influencer marketing… and that is what I will be sharing today.

The Flawed System

I hate to say it, but the influencer marketing system is extremely broken. Influencers have learned that brands will blindly pay upwards of $80,000+ for a single video or post (yep, more than the average American makes in a year). And brands don’t take the extra step to consider whether or not they should be paying these large amounts of money. But how did it get to this point? In my opinion, it was due to a weird snowball effect.

Once the demand for influencers rose and it became the go-to marketing tactic for brands, influencers realized brands will throw money at them for just about anything. This meant they were able to “test the waters” per se and start throwing out these absurd numbers for a sponsored post.

Then, you start seeing an influx of influencers openly discussing that they charge high rates and that these rates are justified because of their following, content usage rights, etc.

Now, why didn’t brands say anything about this? Because they “needed” influencers so bad that they didn’t want to piss off their “golden ticket to success”. They didn’t want to be called out as the company that “low-balled” the influencer with 2 million followers. Yes, influencers many times would publically shame companies who quoted them way less than they felt they deserved.

Side note: this is so weird to me because there are low ballers everywhere. Literally, with any service being provided, there will be someone coming in with a low rate. So I’m not sure why influencers think they’re the exception.

Anyways, combine the demand for influencers and the fear of looking like a jackass, and now you have influencers holding brands by the balls/vag.

What Companies Don’t Realize About Influencers

I’m probably going to get a lot of backlash for this, but influencers know they are greedy. They openly admit it all the time. They talk about how you can get away with charging clueless companies thousands of dollars and the kicker is that they get praised by other influencers for doing so.

A lot of companies won’t even think to negotiate a rate or ask for analytics. 99% of the time an influencer will send their media kit and call it a day (which again usually never includes their recent analytics). Analytics are so essential to determine if an influencer is a good investment.

And don’t get me wrong, analytics can fluctuate and algorithms can change, but this is when influencers need to be honest and adjust their prices to reflect the decrease in reach.

Another solid point is some influencers know their reach is down or the audience isn’t aligned, but justify their high prices because the brands are multi-million dollar companies. What they don’t realize this does is makes the people (like me) who secure their collabs look bad when things fall through. They are also tarnishing the reputation and credibility of influencers which will lead to the downward spiral of influencer marketing as a whole (it’s bad enough that consumers are starting to trust influencers less and less when they see it's a paid post).

Influencers can be low, mid, and high-level options in your marketing strategy depending on how you look at it. But many influencers will justify their prices and say you’re paying for brand awareness and content usage. The last time I checked, UGC was free if your audience produces it. Affiliate marketing is a cheaper alternative to brand awareness. And never in my life have I ever paid $50,000+ on a single ad for the sole purpose of brand awareness (these budgets are typically allocated to campaigns with direct conversions as the goal).

What’s Next?

Overall, I firmly believe the entire influencer marketing system needs to change. The influencer marketing world is like a huge abscess that keeps growing and growing in size and will eventually burst unless of course some changes are made.

For starters, influencers need to be more honest not only with companies but with themselves. If your analytics are down or you know your audience isn’t aligned, lower your prices to reflect this value. I also think influencers should make the extra step to ask the brand what the conversion rate was for the collaboration. Did it actually benefit the brand or completely flop? This information is helpful for influencers to justify their prices, but also makes them more informed in the marketing world.

Influencers should also be willing to learn about marketing and how it works. They clearly have no clue what the different types of marketing goals are and how each one benefits a business. They think brand awareness or 50,000 views on a video pays the bills. News flash, it only pays the bills if that brand awareness turns into conversions.

Next, brands need to think a little and not be afraid to stand up for themselves. Ask influencers for their analytics and don’t be afraid to say something if their rate seems a little high given their analytics and views. Remember, FOLLOWERS ARE NOT EVERYTHING! This is why I love micro-influencers. Brands also need to consider other avenues for marketing. Affiliate marketing is a great low-cost option that can result in double/triple the brand awareness that influencers can bring from a sponsored post. Hiring a kick-ass social media marketer can do a brand really good too. Think of Duolingo for example. Do I think it’s the best account? No… But I do think they are a great success story.

Overall, there needs to be more transparency in this industry and critical thinking. I hope that some changes can be made, otherwise, we’re going to see influencers slowly fade out in the next 2 years or so.

Of course, this is all my professional opinion. I would love to hear what other people have to say and their experience with this as well!