Strategy
The Influencer Pay Gap: How Your Brand Can Help Close It
Recent data informs us that an influencer with up to 50,000 followers can expect to earn anything between $40,000 to $100,000 per year. Despite these typically high salaries, it is paramount that influencers are paid fairly and accordingly for the various content they produce. Netinfluencer discusses the troubling influencer pay gap and offers advice on how brands can defeat this divide.
With a variety of unique influencers spread across the market, the concept of payment can be increasingly complex. Every influencer offers a brand a unique service and depending on their personal engagement rates, meaning that the price for this service can vary.
What Type Of Influencers Are Affected?
The data described above shows a striking difference between the earnings of white influencers and BIPOC influencers, as well as the differences in gender. However, the influencer pay gap affects influencers on a much larger scale.
With more and more businesses less likely to pay influencers equally, more minority groups are being shunned from the industry. Influencer marketing agencies such as Purple Goat help disabled influencers make their mark on the industry. This UK-based institution describes that although there are 22 million disabled people across the UK, only 0.06% of advertisements provide disabled representation. Thus, this suggests that another demographic is not receiving as many financial benefits as others.
Why Is This So Harmful?
Although variations in pay rates can signify a competitive and dynamic industry, too much variation can make the influencer marketing industry inaccessible. With so many BIPOC influencers in America facing dire financial prospects compared to their white counterparts, many of these influencers feel pushed out and may not be able to afford their basic needs.
Not only does this pay gap display a divide between various races across America, it inadvertently creates a lot of tension within the industry. More data sourced from the MSL report expresses that ‘59% of Black influencers and 49% of BIPOC influencers reported that they felt negatively impacted financially when they posted on issues of race versus 14% of white influencers’
In order to create a more unified and stronger influencer marketing industry, it is vital that influencers of all races and genders are paid well enough and do not feel rejected when they promote content that is close to their hearts.
How To Close The Influencer Pay Gap?
With recent data predicting that 17% of corporations will donate more than 50% of their budget to funding new influencer marketing campaigns, it is vital that brands work harder to close the influencer pay gap. By paying influencers fairly, brands are more likely to receive more effective content and earn profitable relationships from these influencers. Listed below are just four ways your brand can help close the influencer pay gap.
- Use market rates to compensate influencers fairly
When choosing an influencer for your next campaign, it is essential that you conduct a large amount of research to ensure that this influencer is the right choice. During this research process, brands are also encouraged to assess market rates to check whether the price allocated in your budget is acceptable. You can also communicate with an influencer to ask them about their standard rate for a social media post. In turn, this is an effective step in making sure that an influencer feels financially secure when working on your campaign.
- Create more content on platforms that have financial equality programs
Pay gaps are unfortunately common across a wide majority of industries, including social media. As such, many platforms have created various programs and schemes to ensure that diverse content creators are not only paid the same as other influencers but are also made more visible in certain niches. For example, in 2020, Facebook devised a Black Creator Fund, applying $25 million to resources that can help black influencers gain more reach and engagement across social media. Programs such as this allow brands to learn more about what type of resources and support influencers need, further encouraging brands to meet an influencer’s expectations and necessary desires.
- Hire more diverse influencers
Diversity has been a key selling point for many brands over the years, highlighting how their product or service can be used by an assortment of different people. When sourcing your next influencer, try thinking outside of the main competitors and reach out to an influencer from another demographic. In September 2021, TikTok hosted a #BlackVoices challenge, compiling an array of black influencers onto one platform and encouraging them to show off their vibrant personas. This campaign allowed influencers such as Krystal Lake to educate her audience more about the history of Windrush, creating more engagement on her many social media profiles.
- Researched your desired audience in more depth
If you are responsible for an established brand, you may feel like you know your target audience very well. However, a brand’s audience can change on a daily basis, inspiring more diversity within your respective market. Thus, your brand must keep track of the ranging demographics within your selected audience. This can simply be assessed using the analytics data from your various social media profiles, or from geomarketing data collected from your website.
The harsh realities of the influencer pay gap cannot be solved overnight. Instead, brands must take forceful action to ensure that the market is kept fair and controlled for all types of influencers. As such, brands are more likely to work with influencers who can provide incredible results. To learn more about the benefits of influencer marketing, visit our website.
