Influencer marketing has become an essential part of online marketing. Influencers have long been recognized as being powerful content creators. Their targeted followers engage heavily with the posts and stories they share. This means that with consistent posts and engaging videos your brand has a bigger chance at increasing its popularity and exposure. The important question for SMEs is whether to hire an in-house or influencer agency.
Why Influencer Marketing is an Important Strategy?
- Consumers try to avoid the ads they encounter while browsing the Internet.
- Influencer marketing helps make advertising less intrusive and more trusted.
- An influencer campaign can help you reach a wider audience by tapping into existing fan bases.
- You can reach your target audience and new potential customers by reaching out to influencers.
- You can enhance your search engine rankings by working with influencers.
- Influencer marketing can be an effective way to boost your conversions.
However, it can take time and investment to find the right influencer, develop relationships with them, and create an effective strategy. When it comes to influencer marketing, brands typically have two options available: developing their strategies in-house or turning to a specialized influencer agency. There are pros and cons to both approaches, but neither approach is the right one for you. Thanks to Forbes, which has corrected all the advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches.
In-House Marketing Team
Pros:
- A brand always knows its customer best. This makes finding an influencer who is an exact match for the brand easier.
- Directly communicating with influencers provides the opportunity to develop long-lasting relationships.
- In-house influencer marketing is more budget-friendly, especially for startups and emerging brands.
- Brands that directly interact with influencers retain complete control of their campaigns.
- There’s transparency in communication between brands and their chosen influencers.
- With enough influencer campaigns, in-house influencer marketing strategists will obtain all the knowledge of strategies and influencers who are perfect for their brand.
- In-house influencer marketing gives brands the opportunity to train their employees and develop unique strategies.
Cons:
- It takes time to find the right influencers and develop relationships with them.
- Brands that want to hire celebrities or top influencers will have a harder time negotiating contracts.
- The legal aspects involved with influencer marketing, such as writing contracts, setting rates, licensing, etc. may be more difficult for an inexperienced in-house team.
- As influencer marketing is an emerging industry, finding an expert can be difficult.
- In-house teams will need to stay up to date with the latest trends and create marketing strategies centered on those trends.
- In-house influencer marketing teams may not have the knowledge needed to run successful campaigns. So, if you don’t have an influencer marketing expert, you’ll need to invest in hiring one.
- There’s risk from fake influencers and scams.
Influencer Agency
Pros:
- Influencer agencies are experienced in running influencer campaigns. Brands that work with agencies see faster growth and success from campaigns.
- Finding the right influencer becomes easier. Reaching top influencers and celebrities and negotiating with them is no longer a hurdle.
- Top influencer agencies are aware of key performance indicators that act as benchmarks of success. They can provide brands with the right metrics and industry insights.
- Influencer agencies already keep up to date with the latest trends on social media. They can easily create marketing strategies, as well as content, for brands.
- They have legal teams who can write contracts, negotiate the best rates with influencers, meet compliance requirements and handle all other legal aspects.
- Influencer agencies know which platforms will help brands reach their target audiences and meet their milestones. They create marketing strategies tailor-made for different platforms and scale brands within a limited timeframe.
Cons:
- Finding the right agency can be a hurdle. While a top-rated and highly reputed agency can provide great services, not all agencies are the same. Some agencies don’t deliver, or they aren’t efficient enough to meet their client’s milestones.
- Affording top agencies can be difficult for new brands. This limits their access to the best influencer agencies in the industry.
- Brands have limited control over their campaigns and don’t develop direct relationships with the influencers representing them.
- Short-term gains are greater than long-term ROI.
- On average, it will be more expensive to hire an agency.
Conclusion : In-House VS Influencer Agency
If influencer marketing is a core part of your scaling sales strategy, then you should have an in-house influencer marketing team sooner or later. Start by yourself, learning and doing, or hire a skilled professional if you have the budget. On the other hand, if you’re new to influencer marketing, have never worked with influencers before and need a quick and easy solution then you should look for a specialized influencer agency.
Brown more on our Influencer marketing service