B2B marketing has faced major disruption over the past decade. Today's B2B marketers must be nimble, ready to adjust strategies at a moment's notice and anticipate the next big trend before it arrives.

In recent years, one such trend is the rise of influencer marketing—that is, collaboration with social media influencers with a significant and engaged following in your industry or niche.

Through endorsements and product mentions, influencers can help amplify your brand's message, reach a broader audience, and build trust with potential customers. They engage directly with their followers, respond to comments, and share moments from their everyday lives, which helps foster a perception of authenticity and personal connection.

That approach has proven to pack a punch.

But can you ensure brand safety with influencer marketing?

In this article, we'll explore that question and provide practical tips for B2B marketers who want to harness the power of influencers while safeguarding their brand's reputation.

The Importance of Brand Safety

Your brand's reputation is one of its most valuable assets, and it can easily be tarnished if not handled with care. Proceed carefully with influencer marketing so you don't do it wrong.

With influencer marketing, you are entrusting your brand image to another person. If that person (or something they say) doesn't align with your brand's core values, you may end up doing more harm than good. A damaged reputation is hard to recover from.

Keep in mind, too, that the regulatory and compliance requirements around influencer marketing are always evolving. Noncompliance with regulations and guidelines can result in serious legal repercussions and fines.

Consistency is also vital in safeguarding your brand. That includes maintaining a consistent brand image across all marketing channels. If there are drastic differences in how you, influencers, and other channels represent your brand, you will confuse your audience and lose trust.

So, how can you maintain brand safety while engaging in influencer marketing?

Eight Tips to Ensure Brand Safety in Your Influencer Marketing

Use the following tips to ensure brand safety with influencer marketing.

1. Thoroughly Vetting Influencers

Research potential influencers meticulously. Look beyond their follower count—it's not all about the numbers. The key is examining their content, interactions, and marketing history. When vetting potential influencers, ask yourself these questions:

• Do their values align with your brand?
• Do they interact with their followers in a way that you're comfortable with?
• Do they have a history of promoting ethical and responsible content?

If you answered "no" to any of those questions, move on to the next option!

2. Follower Analysis

First things first: check whether the influencer's followers are real—or at least 80% of them. Marketing to a bunch of fake accounts and bots is nothing but wasted time, money, and effort.

Here are characteristics that suggest the influencer has fake followers:

• Very low engagement rate = high number of fake follower accounts
• Very high engagement rate = automated engagement bots or bought likes and comments
• Suspicious comments (e.g., only emojis, short and repetitive, irrelevant)
• The number of accounts they are following is greater than or equal to their number of followers

Note: You can calculate the engagement rate by dividing the number of engagements (likes and comments) by the number of followers, then multiply the answer by 100.

The next step is determining whether the influencer's followers match your target demographic.

Many tools are available that analyze influencers' follower demographics, so search online and find which best suits your needs.

3. Clear Guidelines and Contracts

Develop detailed guidelines for influencers specifying what they can and cannot promote. The document should cover the type of language to use, topics to avoid, and the portrayal of the brand.

Specify what is required for posts, stories, videos, and any other content type the influencer will be creating. Also, establish content boundaries to prevent any negative association with your brand.

Next is the contracts. They should be legally sound and crystal clear, defining the following:

• Scope of work
• Deliverables
• Deadlines
• Payment terms
• Intellectual property rights
• Legal ramifications of contract breaches

Your contracts should also stipulate the process for conflict resolution and outline the terms for early termination.

Contracts serve as your safety net, ensuring influencers adhere to the agreed standards.

4. Content Approval Process