It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to ignore the power of influencer marketing.
A recent survey by Matter Communications found that 61% of consumers are likely to trust recommendations from an influencer.
Influencers –social media uses who have amassed large followings–offer brands various advantages.
Through collaboration, brands can capitalize on an influencer’s impact on the purchase decisions of their followers, reach their target audience directly, and drive new consumers towards their products and services.
As a result, businesses are allotting an increasing amount of their marketing budgets towards influencer marketing.
With the rise of business process automation, many marketers are curious about the potential automation holds for influencer marketing campaigns.
This begs the question:
Can you automate something as human as influencer marketing?
Can Influencer Marketing Be Automated?
Yes and no. At least not fully.
There are plenty of influencer marketing platforms that aim to solve the challenge of finding the right influencers, analyzing their content, and measuring the success of influencer marketing campaigns.
As tools to supplement your company’s influencer marketing campaign, automation can make any marketer’s life easier. However, software is incapable of developing the most important aspects of influencer marketing.
“The core qualities of a successful influencer marketing campaign requires a human touch,” according to Scott Gordon, a marketing writer at Origin Writings and 1 Day 2 write. “The development of your strategy, as well as the relationship between you and the influencers, can’t be automated.”
Influencer marketing in essence is dependent on human relationships.
Attempting to fully automate such an inherently human-based marketing method could result in poor execution as this article in The Wall Street Journal warns. Influencer marketing automation could target the wrong audience or lead to ill-fitted brand mentions.
Moreover, many influencer tech intermediaries offer a database of influencers they haven’t signed or have no prior relationship with so companies have to do their own outreach.
Consequently, some experts are concerned that too much automation could ruin consumer trust of influencers and reduce the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
Automation As A Supplement Not A Solution To Influencer Marketing
While influencer marketing requires a specialist or consultant such as 551 Media, LLC. to develop a strategy and execute it well, marketing automation could serve as an effective supplement.
Partial automation can save brands and marketing specialists from the more tedious aspects of influencer marketing.
“The key is to find the right balance between human expertise and influencer marketing automation,” advises Kristina Fernandez, a journalist at Brit Student and Write my X. “While full automation of influencer marketing is inconceivable, businesses should consider partial automation to streamline the more time-consuming aspects.”
Identifying Influencer Marketing Processes To Automate
To effectively leverage business process automation in influencer marketing, companies must first determine which processes have automation potential and which require a human touch.
Using an automation software to source influencers could potentially save marketers and influencer marketing consultants a lot of time.
The selection process can be streamlined with databases that filter influencer profiles according to a company’s needs.
Although an influencer marketing automation platform can narrow down the pool of influencers based on your criteria, the decision should ultimately be based on human analysis.
A specialist or consultant should analyze the influencer’s content, persona, and followers to ensure the best match with your brand’s objectives.
Utilize other marketing automations to capitalize on consumers driven by influencers. Influencers will frequently include links in their content stories or profile bio leading to a product page, free trial, or other call-to-action.
These pages and business processes can be automated to further generate growth or convert sales. If an influencer link leads to a product page, encourage their followers to sign up for an automated weekly newsletter with a discount code or other offer.
Similarly, if an influencer link takes their followers to a service page, convert them into a customer by offering a free trial through a free trial email automation.
Although influencer marketing is difficult to automate, the automation of other marketing campaigns can enhance its effectiveness.
Campaign analytics is an influencer marketing process that benefits from automation.
According to a benchmark report by Influencer Marketing Hub, only 67% of companies measure the ROI from influencer campaigns.
The power of influencer marketing lies in its ability to produce incredible returns on a company’s investments. Platforms enable specialists and consultants to measure the revenue generated by collaborating with influencers.
The automation of measuring the ROI from influencer campaigns equips real people with the knowledge to create a more informed influencer marketing strategy.
Influencer Marketing Processes That Can’t Be Automated
Influencer marketing, at its core, depends on a human element. It requires real people to cultivate authentic relationships and building trust with each other.
Such human aspects are impossible to fully automate.
Your influencer marketing strategy needs human insight.
Software may give you the tools to succeed, but it will not create an effective influencer marketing strategy for your company.
Brands that lack the time to do their own research of suitable influencers will benefit from the expertise of a consultant.
The communication between brands and influencers cannot be automated either. In order to ensure an influencer understands your brand and your campaign’s goals, a real person must build a relationship with them.
The better your influencer knows your company, the more authentic their recommendation will seem to their followers.
Conclusion
The previous survey shows that 82% of consumers trust the recommendations of influencers enough to either purchase or research a product or service.
This trust is only possible because of the human elements of influencer marketing.
A real connection with your audience is required for your influencer marketing campaign to be successful. However, this is not to say that automation deserves no role in influencer marketing.
Automating the most time-consuming and tedious aspects allows marketers and consultants to focus their time on nurturing relationships with influencers.
The development of these relationships provides influencers with a better understanding of your brand which in turn, generates authentic and valuable content for your target audience.
Thus, striking the perfect balance between automation and human expertise in influencer marketing is challenging yet crucial.
Need help?
We can help your company select the right mix of influencers, build a strategy and create a campaign targeted to your buyers.
George J. Newton is a business development manager and content writer for Write my assignment and Thesis writing service. He has a very patient wife of over ten years, who is his biggest supporter. He also contributes his work to websites such as Next Coursework.
