Influencer Marketing: A Threat Or A Necessity For Your Business?

How relevant are influencers to your business?

"You don't want a vegan talking about how your chicken is legit…"

Social media is buzzing with influencer marketing and paid partnerships! They are all the rage. Super effective when used appropriately, but abysmal otherwise. Influencer marketing has been known to promote sales - Fit tea for example claims to have the “best Dieters tea and fat loss tea in the world” and their large number of followers and tagged pictures seem to back their beliefs. Fit Tea has about 1.7 Million followers which is significantly higher than their average competitor. In addition, with celebrities like the Kardashians promoting their brand, it’s nearly impossible for their marketing practices to be bogus. These ladies charge up anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000, so the ROI has to be worth it for Fit Tea to continuously partner with these celebrities and other top influencers.

On the other hand, there have been some horror influencer marketing scenarios - two very famous ones were Scott Disick posting the caption VERBATIM from Boo Tea *slaps head* and Naomi Campbell copying the entire message for the Adidas sneakers. These were both embarrassing to the brands as well as the influencers themselves. Being intentional about who you choose and holding them accountable is essential to the success of this marketing tool.

Here are a few things to consider before diving into influencer marketing:

• Your customer - Having a good understanding of your target customer will guide you in your choice of influencer. Knowing who they like and the things that sway their buying decisions is gold!

• Your brand messaging and voice - One thing that is a constant in the Fit tea narrative is that the tea is effective in addition to exercise and a healthy lifestyle. So every influencer they work with must exhibit those traits. Likewise, your choice of influencer must share the same ideals and core values as your brand. You don't want a vegan talking about how your chicken is legit…FAIL!!

• The influencer - In choosing an influencer to promote your brand, you should take into consideration their interactions, their content style and the demographic of their followers. These variables need to be the right fit for your brand in order to achieve the maximum ROI.

• Being Organic - Nobody likes to feel like you are trying to sell them something, so the posts and features need to be believably curated. The influencer needs to have buy in and some semblance of understanding of your brand. We can see through the BS!!

Finally, lnfluencer marketing is an amazing tool which I use frequently for my leather goods brand Apaart. My biggest take away however is to stay on top of the numbers, get your cost/ benefit analysis and know your ROI, influencers may talk the talk, but the numbers don't lie! Get useful and practical tips on how to grow your business from startup to success. Sign up here(www.startupstar.ng) to preorder. Wonuola Okoye Principal Coach Big Startup Sign up HERE for one of our tailored services, designed to meet the needs of new and existing fashion entrepreneurs and you’ll be on your way to building your fashion brand and becoming a Startup Star.