Find Influencers for Your Motorcycle Brand: The Top 6 Mistakes to Avoid
Influencers are trusted by millions of people around the globe. It is also known as brand influencer marketing or social influencer marketing. These influencers can command more trust than brands using their own content on their social media channels.
But how effective is influencer marketing?
When you want to buy something, you want proof that it’s good and surveys have found that as much as 80% of consumers have bought a product as a result of an influencer recommendation.
Think of an exhaust system for example. You want to know how it sounds, so you will watch YouTube videos or Instagram Reels to make your decision. But having a great influencer marketing strategy will give your ideal audience the extra push needed to convince them to buy it. Influencers have a certain number of followers for a reason as they have attracted an audience around their personality and preferences through their authentic content. They know what their audience likes and can powerfully recommend products on a more personal level than more traditional forms of marketing. These influencers can use the trust they have built-in to their communities to raise awareness of your brand and sell your product.
Where Can You Find Influencers?
Influencers are on any social media platform or on lists of influencers that you can find on Google. It depends on the brand, but a large majority of motorcycle influencers are found on visually-based platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. YouTube is up there too for influencers as this is where you will normally find longer review videos, like motorcycle gear or exhaust systems.
Instagram and TikTok take the top spaces for influencer marketing platforms. Instagram stories has 83% of marketers saying it is a crucial influencer marketing platform and TikTok holds the biggest influencer engagement rate.
Which Influencers Should You Approach?
Not every influencer is right for your brand. So how do you pick the right one?
Influencers can be broken down into five categories:
- Nano: between 1.000 and 5.000 followers
- Micro: between 5.000 and 20.000 followers
- Power or mid-tier: between 20.000 and 100.000 followers
- Mega: between 100.000 and 1 million followers
- Celebrities: more than 1 million followers
Almost half (47.3%) of all influencers are in this micro range and are shortly followed by mid-tier (26.8%) and nano influencers (18.74%).
It is easy to get caught up in the numbers, but the best choice for your company isn’t necessarily the people with the most followers. Instead, find yourself a relatively small account as they will have higher engagement rates that make it easier to sway the minds of followers in what they end up buying.
But there are also drawbacks if you don’t choose the correct influencers…
The 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Getting Influencers:
1) Collaborating with the wrong people
Not every motorcycle influencer can sell your product, so make sure you do your research first to get the best results.
2) Cutting communication
After the campaign, you should stay in contact with the influencer for future events and maintain the relationship.
3) Not having clear campaign goals
Without clear goals or briefs, you won’t be able to communicate what you need to your influencer to create the best content.
4) Influencers with fake followers
About 10% of all Instagram accounts are fake accounts. Some people will buy fake followers on shady websites too. But these will only superficially help your image in the short-term and not help your content convert to sales. You need an influencer that cares to connect with their followers and faking it will ruin your reputation.
5) Influencers with poorly written content or images
Make sure that the social media influencer you pick knows how to write good descriptions, uses the correct hashtags, and picks high-quality images to get the best engagement. People buy from people they trust, and influencers build their following through original content that is authentic to them and the brands they work with.
6) Not obeying FTC guidelines
FTC is short for Federal Trade Commission. Every social media platform has FTC guidelines to prevent deception, fraud and unfair business practices. Make sure your brand supporter complies with these federal consumer protection laws before they promote your product.
So now you know what to avoid, here is what to expect:
What You Should Expect from Influencer Marketing
First off, you would never be expected to give away a free motorcycle to an influencer (unless it’s a rare circumstance). Many brands let influencers borrow bikes for reviews and it is more common to give them bike gear in exchange for content reviews. This way, you can use their reviews on your blogs and social media channels to boost your sales. Different companies have different influencer marketing strategies, and some reviewers test the gear over weeks or months as certain content is harder to make for brands because you can’t create everything in the office.
Here are some examples:
SW-Motech
SW-Motech gives their influencers accessories in return for high-quality content which they can repost on their channels and use in catalogues. They don’t focus on a certain type of social media influencer marketing but require high-quality content which they can post as they want real-life examples of how their products are being used. They can attract the riders who need premium motorcycle accessories through their natural persuasion, without the exaggeration or use of sponsored posts.
REV’IT!
REV’IT! works with their REV’IT! Riders and ambassador programs to promote their products (such as the Women’s Adventure Team). Their content speaks to a massive audience, but they search for influencers in their subcategories Adventure, Racing and Urban to create specific content. They emphasize custom-created content that matches their own brand and that will really add something to their strategy and fit their “profile”.
Overall, authenticity and credibility are the two highest requirements for finding an influencer. If they are passionate about what they are recommending, they will have higher conversions for your brand. To get the highest conversion of sales in any collaboration with an influencer, it’s crucial to come up with a good influencer marketing strategy.
If you need help with this, or approaching and managing your influencers, check out our influencer marketing services and contact us at hello@motorcycle.marketing
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