Viewing influencer marketing as a simple transaction—exchanging money for audience access—is a fundamental error. This approach misunderstands that influencers primarily build awareness over time (demand creation) rather than driving immediate sales (demand capture), leading to disappointing results like spending £30k for five signups.
Companies often run small, short-term influencer "pilots" and are underwhelmed by the results. This approach is set up for failure because it wrongly assumes consumer trust and perception can be altered with a single piece of content. True impact requires repeated, consistent exposure over a longer term.
To guarantee authenticity, make regular product usage a mandatory condition for influencer partners. This filters out those merely trading their platform for money. The real value is unlocked when advocates genuinely use and recommend the product in their private, high-trust networks, not just in paid posts.