The O-Word
A Common Influencer Marketing Mistake
BEAUTY OPINION
EXPERT OGAKI
TOPIC INFLUENCER MARKETING
There are many reasons for beauty brands to build an influencer marketing program, i.e.:
Growing sales (for DTC or retailers)
Growing awareness with a specific demographic
Strengthening luxury positioning
Building credibility
But creating a successful program to meet these goals can be challenging. One of the foundational areas where we often see brands missing the mark is target development — deciding which influencers to work with, and based on what factors.
When going about the process of selecting influencers, it’s critical to start by thinking about the goals and objectives of the program. There is a different type of influencer best suited for each of the above goals, and while one influencer might be great for one goal, they’re likely not going to be great for all.
If growing sales is the primary goal of your program:
Resist the urge to make aesthetic and beautiful content the #1 focus. Luxury content creators are great for strengthening your positioning and providing a content bank to work with across your brand channels. But if they’re not focused on sharing shopping recommendations and product links with their audience — a good sign that their audience likes shopping through their channels — they’re likely not the right target.
Don’t focus on follower count – this isn’t a metric that always correlates directly with conversion. We’ve worked with influencers with 20k followers who have outperformed influencers with over 500k.
And stop making engagement a key metric – engagement is also not a metric that is directly correlated with sales performance. We’ve worked with influencers with under a 0.5% engagement rate who have incredible click-through rates and conversions through their Instagram Stories.
When working with platforms like ShopMy or reviewing affiliates on TikTok Shop, utilize their conversion metrics to help understand who might be a top sales performer. But review their content as well to determine if they are a fit for your brand – they might be a better converter for fashion brands or mass items.
“One of the foundational areas where we often see brands missing the mark is target development — deciding which influencers to work with, and based on what factors.”
If growing awareness with a specific demographic is your objective (whether that be women with mature skin or Gen-Z first adopters in LA):
Don’t just look to see if the influencers themselves represent that demographic. There are plenty of influencers of a certain age whose audience is much older or younger, or who live in a certain city but reach an audience elsewhere.
Dig into their audience insights through an influencer platform (i.e. Lefty or Tribe), affiliate platform (i.e. ShopMy or LTK), or by asking the influencer directly to share their audience breakdown.
Think about influencers with channels beyond social media. There are influencers with incredible audiences on Substack, blogs (yes, still blogs!), and podcasts that reach a specific, niche group.
Whether you’re sending out product gifts, partnering with influencers, building an affiliate program, or running whitelisting campaigns, start by clearly outlining the goal of the program, and thoughtfully targeting the influencers that make sense for that goal — it makes all the difference in the results.
