As the influencer marketing landscape evolves, what do marketers say are their biggest challenges when it comes to working with influencers? New research from AI social media analytics platform and influencer marketing transparency firm HypeAuditor uncovers the most impactful challenges in 2022, which could redefine how the influencer industry works with brands moving forward.
Key challenges
The survey reveals that researching relevant content creators to work with is the most time-consuming aspect of influencer marketing for 58 percent of marketers. Negotiating contracts ranks second for 12 percent of them, and working with influencers on content comes third, for 10 percent of respondents. For the wide majority (57 percent), running sponsored posts is the most popular type of campaign.
Campaign time commitment
Overall, from start to finish (that is, from the initial message sent to the influencer, to the posting of content and final payment), a typical collaboration can take 4 weeks for 32 percent of marketers, while some (22 percent) revealed it can take up to two months.
To gain in efficiency and speed, 54 percent of marketers wish they could identify and contact more than one influencer at a time, while 45 percent said that tracking different statuses, when managing multiple relationships with influencers at once, would help them be more efficient.
Campaign management
The firm’s new global data also highlights the rudimentary processes adopted by marketers to run their influencer marketing campaigns. The survey, which polled marketers from brands and agencies globally, showed that 44 percent of respondents rely on Google spreadsheets to manage their partnerships with influencers. Only a third (33 percent) rely on dedicated influencer marketing platforms, while a tenth (10 percent) stated they use CRM platforms.
“When considering that by the end of the year, the influencer marketing industry is going to weigh $16.4 billion, it is astonishing to learn that the majority of marketers rely on rudimentary tools, such as spreadsheets, to manage their partnerships with content creators.” He added: “As influencer marketing is turning into a mature sector, it is crucial that marketers have the right tools to run more efficient campaigns, otherwise brands can’t expect to get the true value of influencer marketing.”
The firm has launched MyNetwork, an innovative CRM platform for businesses and marketers to manage their influencer campaigns for free. The platform combines all the key features already available on the HypeAuditor platform into one main hub to enable influencer marketing teams to better collaborate between themselves.
Download the survey results here.
HypeAuditor’s analysis was conducted as an online survey in September 2022. Overall, 62 marketers or professionals, globally, who are involved in the management of influencer marketing campaigns, participated.
