Consumers are growing increasingly skeptical of brands but continue to trust influencers when there are genuine and authentic. This trust makes influencer marketing a powerful tool for brands to build credibility and drive engagement. Learn how brands can cultivate authentic influencer partnerships and execute impactful influencer marketing campaigns.
Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular tactic, with many believing it’s a must-have for brands to reach and engage with consumers in this digital age. With an ROI of $5.78 for every dollar spent and influencer content generating more than eight times the engagement rate of brand-directed content, it’s no wonder marketing professionals can’t stop talking about it.
It is no secret that many consumers respond more favourably to creator content than to brand-created content, given customers’ growing skepticism about brands. In fact, 55% of TikTok users say they are more likely to trust brands when they hear about them from creators compared to other ads in their feed. Through authentic partnerships and content, influencers can create content that increases brand trust and resonates with their audience.
A widely discussed theme within influencer marketing is authenticity. Ensuring authentic partnerships and content is considered an effective way to implement influencer marketing to deliver results and build a positive reputation.
Let’s take a look at why authenticity is important, and how brands can help ensure authenticity in their influencer campaigns.
Why is Authenticity Important?
Skilled influencers have often built their platform and earned their audience’s trust by being honest and authentic. This authenticity allows influencers to be seen as relatable, everyday people, and long-term followers of an influencer often view influencers as friends. For this reason, consumers can often see influencer content as genuine and trust their reviews as if they are recommendations from a friend.
Consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising and seek genuine, honest testimonials from people they trust. According to Marketingcharts.com, more than three-quarters (77%) of US respondents claim that trusting brands is becoming more difficult, making partnerships with creators who have built a trusting and engaged audience an incredible opportunity for brands.
A brand’s relationship with an influencer should (and often does) go beyond a transaction. Influencers provide brands the opportunity to partner with individuals who can authentically amplify their brand’s message to an engaged and trusting audience, boosting positive brand awareness.
The existing trust and authenticity many influencers have with their followers make influencer marketing an effective tactic, setting it apart from other marketing strategies. However, as a brand, it’s important to embrace legitimacy through authentic partnerships and allow influencers to be their creative and genuine selves when representing your brand. Many consumers can spot when influencers aren’t enthusiastic about the product or service they’re getting paid to promote and will call them out publicly. When authenticity is not incorporated, it can damage the reputation of both the influencer and the brand while eroding the existing trust that consumers have for both.
The benefits of authentic partnerships go beyond building positive brand awareness and trust. Many influencers are tuned into their audience and social media trends. They know what their audience wants to see, what they want to know, and what keeps them engaged—often with metrics and insights to back it up. Allowing creators to be authentically themselves when creating brand content can result in more diverse content, increased positive results, and better ROI, as authentic posts have been shown to respond better with consumers than posts misaligned or strictly dictated by the brand.
What is Authenticity in Influencer Marketing?
We’ve discussed why authenticity is important, but what exactly is authenticity?
The word “authentic” can be defined as “not false or copied; genuine; real” or “representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself or to the person identified.”
Authenticity in influencer marketing is the genuine and sincere representation of an influencer’s opinions, experiences, and endorsement of a brand. It is characterized by transparency, honesty, and alignment between the created content and the influencer’s existing voice, all of which are essential when building brand trust and credibility with the influencer’s audience.
How to Create Authentic Partnerships
Authenticity in influencer marketing goes beyond simply asking influencers to be authentic and to create honest brand content. It includes finding influencer profiles that are a genuine fit and believable partner for your brand while allowing influencers the freedom and ability to create content that represents their voice and style.
To strategically implement authentic influencer programs, brands should consider the following:
Encouraging Authentic Brand and Influencer Alignment
Ensuring partnership alignment and a genuine brand and influencer connection is key to creating authentic relationships and driving results through influencer marketing. Partnership alignment refers to how closely an influencer’s values, image, aesthetic, audience demographics, style, affiliations, and overall content strategy align with a brand’s values, mission, and message. For consumers to believe that a product or service is worth purchasing, they must also believe that the influencer’s interest in the brand is genuine and that there is a genuine connection.
Partnership alignment doesn’t mean that all the influencers a brand works with will look exactly the same. Effective partnership alignment will open the door to a range of influencers in different niches or categories, ensuring access to a pool of effective influencers. Authentic partnerships often involve allowing and assisting each influencer in finding and telling their unique angle or story when incorporating your product or service into their content, allowing them to promote it genuinely.
A great first step when looking for authentic influencer partnerships is to consider existing customers who already know and love the brand and might already be talking about it. Having actual customers as influencers is about as authentic as you can get, as their product recommendation is real and doesn’t require a created angle. These influencers are also typically more excited to be offered a deal and tend to go above and beyond as they already love the brand. They have an existing brand story that is ready to be amplified to a larger audience.
Outside of actual customers, brands can help ensure they’re implementing authentic partnerships by considering influencers who fit with their target audience or customer personas and who would have a genuine reason for recommending the product. In some cases, this will be obvious; if you’re promoting cat food, you’ll probably want to work with influencers who frequently post about their cat. In this example, other influencer options can include pet or cat experts who focus on health or training, cats who are influencers, and veterinarians.
In addition to the type or categories of influencers that are a genuine fit for your brand, brands should also try to make sure that an influencer has built their audience based on trust and authenticity. Brands can look at their audience’s comments and questions and how they interact with the influencer’s content. By reviewing what followers are saying to the influencer or about their content, brands can get a sense of how much their audience trusts them and how much influence they actually have. An audience’s existing trust in an influencer naturally generates a feeling of authenticity as their followers already trust them to tell them about products they already generally like or believe in. Similarly, influencers who engage and respond to their audience build trust and show a genuine relationship with their followers.
In general, the most successful influencers are those who build a community by being their authentic self. When it comes to publishing sponsored content, their audience does not need to be convinced that a product is of good quality because they already trust the influencer’s opinion.
Empowering Influencers with Creative Freedom
Creative briefs and post instructions should encourage influencers to authentically integrate the brand into their content in a way that feels genuine to the influencer’s personal brand and story while allowing brands to guarantee their voice and message shine through.
Brands can provide influencers with creative briefs that define the post requirements. These may include:
- Speaking points
- Instructions on how to showcase the product/service
- Details about the desired setting, tone, and lighting
However, allowing the influencer the creative freedom to give their honest opinion about a brand in a format that works best for them is key.
To receive authentic content from influencers, brands may need to create unique creative briefs for some or all influencers or maintain additional communication throughout the influencer onboarding process. Doing so can help convey brand information and values as they work with the influencer to find the angle or story that best aligns with both parties.
One of the goals of influencer content is that it doesn’t look identical to brand-created content. In fact, an authentic post often looks more like a product review than an infomercial or ad. When looking at promotional content on social media, viewers want to feel like they can relate to the people in the photo or video. Different members of a target audience are attracted to diverse content that they can relate to or are inspired by, leaving a positive brand impression while being top of mind when making a purchase decision related to your product in the future.
Fostering Authenticity Through Long-Term Partnerships
Another way brands can build authenticity in their influencer content is through long-term partnerships with well-aligned influencers who perform well for the brand.
One-off campaigns or shorter-term partnerships can have fantastic results when done correctly but can feel more transactional instead of like a genuine partnership between the influencer and brand. Through longer-term partnerships, consumers are more likely to feel that the influencer is genuinely aligned with the brand and that they actually use and love the products or services.
Influencers can immerse the product or brand into their daily lives, confirming to their audience that the influencer is a loyal customer. Long-term partnerships can play an important role in infusing an authentic connection between the brand and the influencer; they allow the influencer to live and breathe the brand benefits while also showing and telling their story about the brand over a longer period.
Disclosing Posts as Paid Partnerships
Another important part of authentic influencer content is being transparent about the partnership. This includes clearly disclosing the content and partnership as sponsored and ensuring that followers know the influencer’s relationship with the brand. Not only does disclosing the content and partnership as paid or sponsored comply with legal regulations, but it also demonstrates integrity and honesty, further strengthening audience trust for the brand and the influencer. Whether it’s a sponsored or organic post, followers trust that creators will provide genuine recommendations that align with their interests. If creators post a sponsored post without a disclaimer, it can feel disingenuous and result in a loss of credibility for both the influencer and the brand. It can also lead to penalties for both the influencer and the brand.
69% of respondents state they are likely to trust a friend, family member, or influencer recommendation over information coming directly from a brand.
And with 56% of consumers aged 18-44 years old having purchased a product after seeing an influencer use it, indicates that consumers are not turned off by sponsored content.
Authenticity is a cornerstone for effective influencer marketing. In today’s world, authentic user and influencer-generated content is becoming increasingly important for building brand trust and engaging with consumers.
Authentic product recommendations from trusted individuals can be far more powerful than any other form of advertising in today’s marketplace, as trust is one of the strongest forces driving sales in today’s market. When an influencer has an authentic connection with their audience, their sponsored posts become high-value, word-of-mouth recommendations.
