Been pitching influencer campaigns to clients lately and keep hitting the same roadblocks. They always worry about ROI, fake followers, or brand safety issues. How do you guys handle these objections and actually get clients on board?
Had a client obsessed with follower counts, so we pulled the analytics. Turns out micro-influencers with 5K followers drove 40% more qualified traffic than the macro guys. The real kicker? Those authentic mentions in smaller communities boosted our organic search rankings for months after the campaign ended. Just shows how vanity metrics can totally mislead you.
Had the exact same issue with a client who was obsessed with influencer metrics while ignoring their own email list. Their subscribers were way more engaged than any influencer audience we could reach. We A/B tested a simple customer testimonial against an influencer collab announcement - the testimonial destroyed it with 3x higher CTR. Your own customers are often your best influencers.
Had a SaaS client who was scared shitless about brand safety after reading horror stories online. Instead of pushing back, we set up a simple approval process where influencers had to submit drafts first. Turned out this extra step made our messaging way more consistent across all creators, and the client got so confident they tripled our influencer budget next quarter. Sometimes embracing their fears actually leads to better processes.