INFLUENCER MARKETING: My Experience

Trial and Error

As a new entrepreneur, this was not a new concept that I had to become familiar with. We grow up most of our lives living through trial and error and the consequences that come with it. For example, if I scream like this, I will get that. But as an entrepreneur, you are more inclined to make certain decisions and changes that may be successful or detrimental to your business.

A learning curve for me was studying and understanding the ins and outs of Instagram (IG). At first, using IG, as a personal user, was liking pictures that resonated with what I liked and moving on to the next. IG, as a business owner, is a whole different world! It is all about the algorithms and engagement, figuring out what to post and what people and your customers want to see. Where IG was concerned, my mind was spinning! I was on another level.

Luckily, I have a friend who is well versed in this world and has helped me tremendously, which led me to the unpredictable world of Influencer Marketing. As I started my business IG journey, I posted pictures of my bracelets and custom pieces that I made for friends and family, but I found that this in itself was not enough, I needed to add more of a personal touch to my feed.

Gifting Collaboration

When I first started my company last year, I knew I had to get my brand out there to be the place where you can shop for mala bracelets for your friends, family and yourself! I knew that IG was a great place to start, but did not know how or where exactly to begin. My friend mentioned to me that I should reach out and send bracelets to IG accounts that had many followers and so I started reaching out to people whom I thought matched what my brand represents. I set out on a journey sending messages to influencers. They started responding right away, and I was thrilled! I asked them if they wanted to choose a bracelet from my shop or make

a custom piece for them in exchange for a shout out or a post on their feed. What I have learned from gifting is that the content seems more genuine. The influencers receiving the gift are a little more grateful and are genuinely happy to spread the news of your products. It even led to one of them giving me a lead to stock my bracelets at a wellness centre. I am forever grateful for that and could not thank them enough!

Paid Collaboration

I partnered with a company that works with brands and influencers. It was a paid venture, and the outcome was not what I expected. This experience does not suggest that working with companies that provide these services are all a bust. There are many influencer marketing companies that are available; you have to choose the right one that will work with your company and brand within your budget. Shop and Shout is one of the many influencer marketing companies that I was eager to work with, but sadly my budget did not allow. I had a telephone meeting with them during which they explained to me the ins and outs of what they had to offer. They were very knowledgeable and friendly. It sounded amazing! You could post your product for influencers to claim (similar to the company I was working with before doing it on my own). The influencers are held accountable for the content that they post; they must follow the guidelines you put into place, for example, the theme of the content, any captions or hashtags. They have different options to choose from, for example, if you wanted an influencer to do a shoutout, host a giveaway, or become brand ambassadors.

In my experience, I had to chase influencers to see if they received the bracelet I sent them, find out when and what they were going to post; it was an added stress that I did not need at that point on my journey. I had to seriously evaluate why I was paying for a service where I was doing all the legwork. So, I decided to do it on my own. Let me be clear; it is challenging! To send endless amounts of Direct Messages (DMs) and either have no response or a response where they want compensation for their plans – I do realize that this is a reality of today’s IG world, however, being a small company with a limited budget, this was just not an option for me at the moment.

Some takeaways from this experience were that it was reasonably cheap to do it on your own, but a lot of work – reaching out to the influencer, making sure they received the product; making sure they followed your instructions when posting; following up on when they will post; the list can go on forever. The content that you get in exchange is either amazing or can be a bust. When it gets down to it, you will have to base your decision on whether you can fit a paid partnership into your budget, and if not, be prepared to do the extra work – remembering that your time is of value as well. If you decide to do it on your own, you will need to ask yourself questions like – are you drawn to their feed? Does it resonate with your brand and image? Once you get that down to a science, then you will be well on your way to getting your brand and products out there!

I have met some wonderful influencers that I have and continue to work with. They have posted some amazing content that I can repost on my feed. I have found and continue my journey of finding influencers that would like to receive my product for free in exchange for a post/shout out and hope to one day have a budget big enough for paid partnership services. There are still so many things that I need to figure out on this journey, and I know that there will be many more trials and errors to go along with the experience. As long as I am learning and growing on this path to developing my business, I am happy to continue the journey.