As an award-winning influencer marketing agency, we hear questions like this quite frequently.  ‍

“Should my brand be doing influencer marketing?” Or “Does influencer marketing pay off?” And our favourite, “Is influencer marketing even worth it?”.

There’s a fair bit of discussion on LinkedIn and TikTok with creators suggesting that influencer marketing is dying, or in some cases, already dead. We’ve seen marketers predict that in 2024, influencer marketing will be a thing of the past. But we don’t think so. In fact, we think our fellow marketers may have got it wrong.

I decided to speak to BIG little LDN’s Head of Influencer Marketing, Holly Eddleston aka the OG of influencer marketing, about these predictions and seek out the truth from an experienced influencer marketer of over 12 years. Grab a cuppa, it’s a good’un.

Are influencers with bigger audiences better?

Holly: “No, it’s not true! At BIG little LDN, we always look at the engagement rate rather than vanity metrics such as followers. Followers are not always engaged and sometimes can be bought or bots, so follower counts, apart from sounding impressive, are irrelevant.  

We look to work with influencers with a 3%+ organic engagement rate, the average is now under 1% and is constantly decreasing so doing your due diligence upfront and looking at more meaningful metrics is really important.

The partnership needs to be relevant for the brand and for the influencer’s audience. Campaigns that are inauthentic are going to be detrimental to the investment.”

Is influencer marketing expensive?

Holly: “Not all influencer marketing is expensive. We should know, we recently won Silver at the Global Influencer Marketing Awards for 'Best use of a Small Budget’. This was using a micro-influencer over an 8-month period and the results were incredibly impressive.  

Make sure that you plan your campaigns properly, be smart and plan how the content will be used, think about where it will sit and how many assets you can create during your talent shoot to really sweat the budget.”

Can you measure the results of an influencer marketing campaign?

Holly: “Yes, of course, you can. At BIG little LDN, we measure all influencer marketing results from impressions, engagement, positive sentiment, brand lift, clicks to the website and sales. But there are also new ways that results can be measured, for example, cultural impact and brand affinity.

It’s important to know what you want to measure before the campaign starts so you have the right tools and software in place to analyse the performance. Doing this means that you can optimise the campaign whilst it is ongoing and then collect results when the campaign completes.”

Can anyone manage influencer marketing campaigns?

Holly: “There are a lot of intricate processes that go into influencer marketing. From sourcing, accessing audience data and engagement, negotiating with agents, creating bespoke scripts for talent and creating thumb-stopping content in collaboration with the influencer.  

Many marketing managers have already got a busy day job and influencer marketing is a full-time job in itself. Influencer marketing can be done in-house, but unless there's a person dedicated to that project, it probably won't be as successful as it could have been.  

There’s no shame in outsourcing a marketing requirement to an agency with experience. That’s why we’re here. We want to help brands achieve more BANG for their buck and get you to the top of the BIG leagues!”

Will influencer marketing improve sales?

Holly: “Depending on what the end goal is for the campaign, messaging can be flexed to generate awareness, clicks, sales and more. Influencers should be used as a mouthpiece to speak to their own loyal audience about a product or service.

Ideally, the influencer would take their audience on a journey to educate, create a buzz and build engagement and then generate sales. This absolutely can be done, all BIG little LDN's influencer campaigns have generated sales and we've won awards off the back of their success.”

In conclusion...

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective methods of generating sales and engaging audiences online. We believe the influencer doomsday predictions are thinking about one-off ads rather than proper, 360 amplification influencer marketing.

If you want help with your next influencer marketing campaign, speak to Holly, Emma or Alice.