The Benefits of Professional Influencer Services vs. DIY Approaches

Influencer marketing is expected to capture $24 billion by the end of 2024, a market size that’s tripled since 2019. However, brands without a sizable marketing team may struggle to keep up with DIY approaches to capitalize on this high-ROI tactic.

If your team has been tasked with launching or ramping up influencer marketing campaigns, it may be time to weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing the work to a company that offers professional influencer services. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of handing off this component to allow your in-house marketers to focus on their current projects while reaping the benefits of well-managed influencer marketing.

The DIY approach to influencer marketing

The typical DIY influencer marketing strategy entails the following steps:

Determining your goals for each campaign, like boosting brand awareness, reaching new customers, increasing sales
Identifying the audiences you want to reach
Selecting influencers with engaged followers who represent your target audience
Managing the content creation process and influencer relationships
Drafting contracts for influencers
Choosing key performance indicators for which you’ll measure campaign performance
Performance analysis

Businesses that choose to go the DIY route may opt to perform the above tasks individually and manually, or they may choose to outsource individual pieces. Many turn to influencer marketing software or comprehensive platforms to take advantage of the built-in suite of tools. These include influencer databases, discovery tools, customizable campaign metrics, AI tools, and tracking links.

Advantages of professional influencer services

Although a common reason some brands choose not to invest in outsourcing professional influencer services is budget restraints, the ROI for well-crafted influencer marketing campaigns is typically high enough to justify the costs. Just look at the advantages of outsourcing managed services to an experienced, reputable company.

Expertise and experience

Choosing the right influencer marketing services provider can give your team access to industry knowledge and best practices. The key is to look for a company that can provide proof of successful campaigns.

Time efficiency

Your own marketing team doesn’t just need to make the time to handle the intricate details of influencer outreach and negotiation, campaign management and tracking, and analysis and insights. It’s also about ensuring they’re knowledgeable and skilled enough to do so efficiently.

Outsourcing your start-to-finish influencer marketing responsibilities allows your team to focus on core business activities that help grow the brand.

Access to resources and tools

Service leaders in the influencer marketing industry have access to cutting-edge tools for analytics, tracking, and campaign management. These technological advancements, combined with experience and skill set of their professionals, allow them to work effectively and efficiently to give your brand the best possible results.

The top professional influencer services also boast established relationships with content creators and their agents, saving time on identifying and researching the best influencer partners for your campaigns.

Strategic approach

One-size-fits-all marketing rarely works and yet it’s often the only option for teams who are limited in terms of people, time, or budgets. Rather than using a blanket approach for all your influencer campaigns, professional services are tailored based on your brand’s goals and target audience.

Additionally, professional influencer services are well equipped to provide comprehensive metrics and insights, allowing their clients to learn from analytics. By adjusting efforts based on what worked well and what didn’t, brands can strive for continuous improvement to grow with better campaigns each and every time.

Risk mitigation

When done well, influencer marketing offers an exceptional ROI, but it’s never without risks. Brand marketers who choose the DIY approach need to be aware of potential pitfalls, including:

Problems with influencer vetting, such as unintentionally choosing creators with controversial content, unethical practices, or inappropriate behavior, or whose values don’t align with the brand
Contractual issues, such as financial negotiation failures, low-quality deliverables, and missed deadlines
Lack of compliance requirements (accuracy, clear disclosures)
Unlawful data privacy collection

Outsourcing your brand’s professional influencer services to industry-leading companies will help ensure that every part of your campaign is compliant thanks to disclosure automation technology, monitoring, and enforcement of best practices.

Large-scale campaigns

Brands seeking to scale content production or promote multiple campaigns at once need an experienced, knowledgeable, and skillful influencer marketing team supported by state-of-the-art influencer marketing solutions.

While DIY approaches may suffice for small promotions, the sheer volume of coordination, tracking, and analysis needed for large-scale campaigns isn’t manageable for novice marketers.

Disadvantages of the DIY approach

It’s understandable that budget constraints might make decision-makers hesitant to even consider professional influencer services. But an unbiased understanding of the limitations of a DIY approach to influencer marketing is likely to reveal that the disadvantages can be far more costly.

Here are just three of many disadvantages facing brand marketers who attempt to handle their brand’s influencer marketing campaigns on their own.

Learning curve

Understanding the influencer marketing landscape and which strategies work best isn’t knowledge you acquire overnight. Inexperienced marketers who take a DIY approach risk wasting time and money on ineffective campaigns.

Difficulty in accessing top-tier influencers

Inefficient outreach to influencers can cause brands to miss opportunities with better-suited, top-tier influencers. By working with a leading professional influencer service your brand will have built-in access to many of the top-tier influencers who share your target audience, produce great content, and have experience working on industry-specific campaigns.

Time-consuming

DIY approaches to influencer marketing can put a strain on a brand’s manpower and resources. The exhaustive nature of managing campaigns alone can tie up your team’s time, attention, and energy.

If your brand is only running small campaigns and you’ve established relationships with well-matched influencers who share your audience, a DIY approach may suffice. But for larger campaigns that include multiple influencers—such as launching new products or entering new markets—it’s best not to stretch your limited internal resources. Instead, choose a professional influencer service that can manage everything and focus on the best results with an impressive ROI.

Understanding influencer services

Combining cutting-edge services, technology, and data insights, influencer marketing software allows brands and ad agencies to create, manage, and organize campaigns on social media by harnessing the trust that influencers have earned with their followers.

For teams who are already knee-deep in the trenches of marketing with little room for additional responsibilities, IZEA offers managed professional services. Offering everything from strategy development and influencer identification to campaign management and analytics, these services are designed to maximize their return on investment and ensure teams can justify the marketing spend.

Not sure whether you should consider professional influencer services for your upcoming campaigns? Start by assessing your marketing needs against your team’s experience, knowledge, skills, and time. Then, consult with us to see if our full-service team can better help your brand scale its influencer marketing efforts to help your company grow.