Influencers are everywhere. They are photographing their eggs Benedict at your favourite restaurant; they are queuing up to catch the perfect Golden Hour lighting at premier holiday destinations; they are displaying the latest must-have clothing on the streets of cities around the world. It would appear that they are unstoppable. 

The most successful brands realised their potential early, which is why we’ve seen the rapid growth of influencer marketing. As an industry estimated to be worth $17.4 billion as of 2023, according to Fortune Business Insights, influencer marketing is not only thriving but also projected to grow steadily in the coming years. For brands looking to leverage this market, the question is this: How do you use influencer marketing to its fullest potential while adhering to best practices and maintaining ethical integrity? 

Let’s cover the best practices for influencer marketing and explore some of the ethical considerations that are crucial for building trust with your audience.  

Understanding the Influencer Landscape 

Before diving into influencer marketing best practices, it’s important to understand the distinct types of influencers that operate on social media platforms, their audience numbers, and their market potential and limitations.  

 1. Nano-influencers (1K – 10K followers): Highly engaged audiences and strong personal connections. Best for niche markets and targeted campaigns. 

2. Micro-influencers (10K – 100K followers): Often experts in specific niches. They boast higher engagement rates than macro-influencers and are more cost-effective. 

3. Macro-influencers (100K – 1M followers): Broad reach and influence across various topics, but often have a lower engagement rate due to the size of their following. 

4. Mega-influencers (1M+ followers): These influencers, including celebrities, have massive reach, but at the cost of a less engaged audience. Their fees are the highest, but they can provide brand visibility at an incredible scale. 

Knowing which category of influencer appropriately aligns with your brand’s goals is crucial for success. For example, a niche beauty brand might see better Return on Investment (ROI) working with a micro-influencer known for authentic beauty product reviews rather than a mega-influencer with a general audience and a less loyal and emotionally invested fan base. 

Best Practices for Influencer Marketing 

1. Your Brand Needs the Right Influencers 

Not all influencers are created equal, and it’s vital that brands choose those those who align with their values, audience, and goals. Don’t just go for influencers based on follower count – take the time to have a proper look at their content style, engagement rates, and audience demographics.  

How to evaluate potential influencers: 

• Content relevance: Does their content naturally integrate with your brand’s offerings? 
• Engagement: Are their followers actively engaging (comments, likes, shares, reposts) or is their audience more passive? 
• Audience fit: Use tools to analyse influencer audiences to ensure their followers align with your target market in terms of interests, age, and geography.  

2. Set Clear Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Influencer campaigns need to have a clear goal, whether that’s to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or grow social media followings. Keeping this in mind, it may be best to create specific, measurable, and time-bound KPIs to track campaign success. 

Common KPIs include: 

• Reach: The number of people who see your content 
• Engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and saves 
• Conversions: Sales, sign-ups, or leads generated through influencer campaigns 
• Click-through rate (CTR): A key measure for affiliate links or Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) -tracked URLs to assess interest levels.  

3. Prioritise Authenticity

One of the most significant reasons people follow influencers is authenticity. Consumers crave genuine opinions and unfiltered content, which is why influencer marketing can be so effective – when it is done right.

Avoid scripted or overly promotional content. Audiences can tell when an influencer’s endorsement doesn’t feel real, and that can harm both the influencer’s and the brand’s credibility. Encourage influencers to review your product or service in a way that feels natural to their style and resonates naturally with their audience. 

4. Create Long-Term Partnerships 

The best influencer-brand relationships are built on long-term partnerships. One-off collaborations can be effective for short-term goals, but long-term relationships create deeper trust and authenticity. When an influencer repeatedly features your brand over time, their audience is more likely to see the endorsement as genuine and trustworthy. 

A strategic, long-term partnership can also help foster loyalty from the influencer’s community. Repetition reinforces brand recognition, and consistent messaging over time increases the likelihood of consumer trust and conversions.

5. Measure and Optimise Performance 

After launching an influencer campaign, measure its effectiveness against your initial goals and KPIs. Use social media analytics, affiliate tracking, and influencer management platforms to assess what worked and what didn’t.  

Some elements to review: 

• Did the content meet engagement expectations? 
• Which platforms or influencers provided the highest return on investment? 
• Were there any unexpected insights from the campaign, for example a demographic you didn’t expect to engage with your brand? 

 Once you’ve gathered these insights, you will be able to optimise future campaigns based on your findings. Whether it’s choosing different influencers or adjusting the format of the content, constant refinement ensures sustained success for your brand long-term. 

Ethical Considerations in Influencer Marketing  

With influencer marketing growing rapidly, ethical concerns have become more prevalent. Consumers are increasingly aware of sponsored content and have higher expectations and demands for transparency and honesty. 

1. Transparency and Disclosure 

One of the most important ethical considerations is transparency. Influencers must clearly disclose sponsored content, if they have been paid, given free products, or offered a discount. Platforms like Instagram and YouTube have clear guidelines for this, but brands should ensure that any influencers that they choose to work with are compliant.  

When brands and influencers aren’t transparent about partnerships, it can damage trust with their audience and lead to penalties from regulatory bodies like the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK or the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. 

 Encourage your chosen influencers to use hashtags like #ad, #sponsored, or #partner, and make it clear within their captions or video descriptions that the content is part of a paid partnership.  

2. Authenticity vs. Over-commercialisation 

It can be tempting for brands to push for overly promotional content, but this can often backfire. Influencers should be free to craft messages in their own voice, making for more natural content that more strongly resonates with audiences. Overly commercialised content can disappoint and alienate followers, leading to lower engagement or even backlash against both the influencer and the brand. 

Brands should collaborate with influencers to ensure that the product integration feels natural and aligns with their regular content style.  

3. Diversity and Inclusion 

Ethical influencer marketing also involves promoting diversity and inclusion. Working with influencers from a wide range of backgrounds ensures that your brand resonates with a broader, more diverse audience. Partnering with influencers who represent different ethnicities, body types, genders, and lifestyles helps promote a realistic representation of the world in which your brand plays a significant role.  

However, it is important to avoid tokenism. Rather than working with diverse influencers solely to tick a box or fill a diversity quota, be careful to choose influencers who genuinely align with your brand’s mission and values. Authentic inclusion fosters deeper connections with audiences, and remember, audiences will know when they are witnessing something that is inauthentic.  

4. Sustainability and Responsible Promotion  

Influencer marketing has an impact on consumer behaviour, and with that comes a responsibility to promote products and services ethically. Brands and influencers should be cautious not to promote harmful or unsustainable products. Conscious consumerism is on the rise, and audiences appreciate when influencers champion ethical products – whether it’s eco-friendly packaging, cruelty-free beauty, or locally sourced goods. Kindness and consciousness is playing an increasingly important role in brand marketing.   

The Future of Ethical Influencer Marketing  

Influencer marketing shows no signs of slowing down, and for brands willing to invest in it, the potential for growth is massive. By following best practices – like choosing the right influencers, fostering long-term partnerships, and prioritising authenticity – brands can drive meaningful engagement. 

Equally important is the ethical dimension of influencer marketing. By emphasising transparency, diversity, and sustainability, brands can build trust with audiences and contribute to a more responsible and impactful industry. 

When done right, influencer marketing isn’t just about generating sales – it’s about building a community that values your brand for its authenticity and integrity.