Has anyone successfully used influencers for their business?

[username48583]

Since launching our business we have been inundated with influencers asking for free things in exchange for promoting our business on social media. One of these had over 40,000 followers, however, that came to an abrupt end as she wanted a fee alongside the 3 fairly expensive products we planned to give her for free. We are a very small new business.

Despite me not really liking it. We are literally giving rich/better off people free stuff. I was advised to see past it and that's it's just a new way of marketing. That I should start with a micro influencers with say 4000 followers but with a high reach. So after research we found someone who fit that criteria. Gave them some free items to advertise. Their post got over 1000 likes and comments. However, we literally got nothing. Not a single new followers or sale.
Perhaps this was my own fault for not doing enough research before hand but we soon found the reason. All the likes/followers were other 'influencers'. They just seem to be one big community liking and following each other.

I have since looked into this and can not find an influencer who this isn't the case with unless they have a really big following.

Has anyone had success with this way of marketing? Am I missing a trick somewhere?

I use Instagram a lot and it really annoys me when I see people that can easily afford items being gifted them. It’s always the same people and then yes you’re right, other influencers that like and comment on the post (the cynical me thinks they do it so they’ll be gifted the same). It certainly doesn’t influence me to buy especially when there are affiliate links attached to the posts. I don’t know what the answer is though

Hi OP, I also use Instagram fairly often and have been very much put off by the majority of influencers 'selling' products that their followers often can't afford. I would say your best bet is to look into someone who reposts stories of followers who have been influenced to make a purchase thanks to said influencer. This is mostly done through providing a discount code for the followers for the initial purchase. I do feel for you since the new way of marketing is through influencers, most of whom will only do it if they receive free items or ask for a ridiculous fee.

I was a micro influencer at one point, had about 6k followers but big reach. I got sent quite a lot of free or discounted stuff and I know I really helped one woman’s small business take off. Baby/toddler clothes so I’d take a nice photo of my baby and toddler wearing them. She always gained likes and followers after I posted and I had a couple of people message to thank me for showing them the company. Not sure whether I helped the other businesses much but I enjoyed getting freebies- I’m not wealthy!

I stopped doing it a few months ago and deactivated Instagram all together because some of the companies became quite pushy and demanding.

Should say I never asked for free stuff, I either applied to be a ‘brand rep’ or they’d contact me and ask whether I wanted freebies.

honestly when i see an ‘influencer’ promoting something i wouldn’t buy it on the principle, even if i liked the product. i hate seeing sponsored posts, they really annoy me. also a lot of the time you can guarantee that the person hasn’t even used the item they are promoting, so their praise and enthusiasm for their free goodies isn’t always warranted.

What is your product/business line? That may help with insight into how to better position your product via influencers.

E.g. I follow a lot of home renovation accounts, and notice a lot of baby products advertised on those accounts. That sort of marketing makes a lot of sense: lots of their followers also have babies, and are more likely to be receptive to the promotion as it’s less obvious than the typical “I just love this #gifted wallpaper stripper”.

Surely you should say that your policy is that the influencer buys the thing at full cost, then they promote it, after a set number of sales the influencer gets a percentage off whatever else they want to promote.
as a new business it’s not good sense to give things away for free

Or have I misunderstood

Give nothing. These parasites need to be driven off. Some thickly made up millenial promoting stuff is likely to stop many people from buying it. Bad enough with celebrity endorsement, people famous for nothing need to be ignored.

@Heatherjayne1972

Surely you should say that your policy is that the influencer buys the thing at full cost, then they promote it, after a set number of sales the influencer gets a percentage off whatever else they want to promote. as a new business it’s not good sense to give things away for free

Or have I misunderstood

I can’t imagine “influencers” (hate this term) paying for anything! They want immediate payment or free goods - for what they will then shadily call “PR products” or a “PR review”. This industry needs a huge shake up and tougher rules that are actually enforced.

Op, you don’t need to use them. Be aware as well that a lot of these people follow each other and buy followers to make up their numbers! They could have hundreds of thousands of followers but their reach will be insignificant because of that. I would spend money on your own social media pages before doing any other kind of marketing.

You have to be really careful when using some influencers. Always ask to see their engagement because aside from the likes and dodgy looking comments, the engagement numbers rarely lie. That way you know what you're getting sort of?
If you're offering free product or service, make sure you are clear about what the exchange is and draw up an agreement with the terms. i.e are you expecting a post on their page, a reel, a story post, a review, a video on their youtube etc? what results are you expecting from that and what exactly can they guarantee. If the products are expensive and you get nothing in return you may aswell throw the products down the drain
Don't be afraid to press them an ask questions! A lot of influencers expect to just use your stuff and then you do the leg work posting like "so and so used my stuff". Many of them use the fact they've been gifted things to strong arm other businesses into giving them stuff.

I've always found that giveaways and competitions for select products do really well, especially competitions that encourage engagement on your profile (tag a friend, tell us why you would like this product, tell us a joke, repost to your story etc) the average joe/joanne would be a lot more appreciative of the product and would actually be inclined to share with other potential customers!

Sidenote: if you've ever seen them promote skinny/fit tea or slimming tea or tablets, RUN LIKE HELL!

It would put me off your product seeing someone else else who is better off than me getting it for free.

Oh, and they all buy followers. I was in the game once. Unless they are a major celeb (which a mum posting mundane shit about her family isn’t), they will be bought.

Totally agree about influencers buying followers - there's one at the moment - gains a crazy amount of followers after losing lots - can see loads of followers are BOTs - she only really posts ads and crap reels - her actual engagement is terrible - I get more with only 1700 followers compared to her '185000' bots.

Influencers follow influencers too - to get numbers up, sometimes the ones with fewer numbers are the better ones as they have more engagement and will do more to help xx

OP rather than influencers I would use someone like @commscreatives who can really help you harness the power of social media. I work in comms (internal rather than social media) however there is lots you can do without spending lots or engaging influencers.

Board on MN that could help

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/geeky_stuff

We've avoided using influencers, even to attract younger audiences, because all it takes is for them to do something stupid and your business is tarnished too.

Publicity is tricky there was a big row in ig this week about 2 similar sized influencers/producers swoping products and being unhappy

Neither has come out of it looking good

I was approached by a newspaper/magazine type thing but I've said no because I can't control what happens and I think with influences it would be the same (plus being an eco business advertising/appearing in print which is disposable doesn't seem right)