A guide to choosing an influencer that truly aligns with your brand’s DNA by Michelle Hespe
An influencer partnership can be high stakes. The influencers you work with– everything from their aesthetic to their ethics– reflect your brand. So choose wisely.
83%
of consumers make purchase decisions directly from recommendations. 60 | I N S P I RAT IO N
In recent years, something has become clear–consumers are no longer happy with straight advertising or obvious selling–they’d rather buy when someone they like recommends that they do so. In fact, in a 2018 study from digital marketing experts and advisors Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin, a staggering 83% of respondents said that their purchasing decisions came directly from recommendations. Influencing today is a bonafide job where ethics, morals, contracts and money are all a part of the equation. An influencer has to maintain a solid reputation and the more followers they have, the more people there are ready to openly and publicly judge. And as technology develops, influencing too has sped up the rate at which people consume content. In a minute an influencer can rise or fall.
To be a successful influencer now, you have to get it right. There’s barely room for mistakes. Look at the recent fall from grace of YouTuber Jeffree Star—a hugely famous cosmetics retailer and former musician who had a strong collaboration with cutting edge make-up brand Morphe. The company cut all commercial ties with Jeffree after stories kept surfacing of his racism, treatment of other YouTubers, bad associations and things he has said and done up to a decade ago. Before hiring an influencer, do the research and know and understand the person you are choosing to represent your brand. Take it as seriously, if not more seriously, than hiring a staff member in your brick and mortar store or that person on the end of the customer care line, because they might well have more reach and influence than everyone in your current business combined.
