Influencers are great at creating world-class content, but most influencers are less business-minded than they think. Let us tell you how influencers should act to receive 50 to 100 times more financial value, and at the same time, become more authentic in their content creation.
Let´s start by defining what an influencer is. We don´t believe influencers are the traditional Instagram stars only. To us, an influencer is generally every person or community with a digital following, independent of channel or area of expertise. It´s simply a person or community with high trustworthiness and a digital reach, which makes it possible for them to influence people. This could be the traditional fashion star on YouTube or Instagram, but also the bird-watcher with his or her niche podcast, or the fisherman talking about the latest fishing gear in his or her newsletter. The thing that unites every influencer is that they create world-class content - content that brings great value to their following.
Influencers have historically monetized their following in mainly three ways:
(1)
By receiving free product gifts that hopefully would be promoted by the influencer.
(2)
By charging for marketing services to promote products and services through the influencer’s channels.
(3)
By creating inauthentic collections for product companies, selling these through the influencers channels.
We believe influencers are here to stay, but that the way influencer marketing is performed is developing rapidly. All of the approaches above are only creating a short time value for the influencer.
How would an influencer not only increase both the received short- and long term value, but also monetize their following in a more authentic way? The answer is by creating their own product brand company. This way the influencer not only receives short term incomes from the company profits but also gets to build a long term company value. The thing is that this approach gives the influencer a 50 to 100 more value in terms of $ in the long term. It is also less artificial and much more authentic, and creates fluid content that is more genuine to the influencer than someone else’s brand ever will be.
There are many exciting examples of how massive value has been build by influencers who chose to start their own product companies. Kim Kardashian, as an example, has reaped the benefits of starting her own brands instead of doing collaborations. We will examine these success stories is separate blog posts ahead.
If you are an influencer that gets excited about this - get in touch with us! Fashion Tech Group develops, manages, and scales authentic product brands for category-leading influencers who want to establish their lifestyle brand. We offer a seamless procedure regarding the concept, production, logistics, marketing, operations, and e-commerce solutions. We are the go-to partner for you to realize your dream.