Forget reaching out to “influencers.” BE the influencer.
This is tip #10 from my report, “10 Anti-Marketing Tips: How to Sell Without Being Sellout.”
The idea of reaching out to influencers to promote your product to their lists and their followers is seductive. On the surface it seems like a good strategy for getting some buzz.
However, when you look deeper, it’s often an indication that you’re running away from learning how to sell your own product.
You think that someone else will be able to sell it for you… someone with “lots of followers.”
The most vital skill any business owner can have is knowing how to sell their own product.
Humans tend to over-complicate things. Many business owners over-complicate selling their own product. (I know I did.)
We take courses, hire coaches, read books, read 1000-page “how to” guides, and do everything BUT make a sale.
In the end, the sales process is very simple:
One person pays another person money, in exchange for something they want.
With an online business — where you’re reaching thousands of people simultaneously — this process can be automated in a simple way.
The vital first step is to get the fundamentals created:
That includes a landing page that collects email addys from your ideal customers; a sequence of pre-written email autoresponders to send to those new subscribers; and fine-tuned, razor sharp sales copy that inspires a sale on the spot.
These fundamentals make the ordering process simple, easy, and a “no brainer” from the customer’s perspective.
(Btw, all of this is included in my Anti-Marketing Jumpstart Kit.)
Often business owners skip this vital step of getting the fundamentals in place. Instead, they jump directly into “reaching out to influencers”…AKA people who have large social media followings.
They think an influencer will be able to sell their product for them.
(Never mind that a lot of those “followers” could be bots, fake followers, or purchased followers with no value. The New York Times posted an expose called “The Follower Factory,” showing how celebrities, athletes, politicians, and other famous people have millions of fake followers on social media. Nothing is real anymore.)
Let’s say, however, that you DO reach an “influencer” with a large social media following — say someone with 100K Instagram followers. Now what?
That person plugs your brand or mentions your product in an Instagram post. Suddenly you’ve got an influx of maybe 500 additional followers in one day. Now what?
Some of those new followers may or may not click on your link in your Instagram bio…which leads to your home page. Now what?
Nothing happens… because your home page lacks the fundamentals required to make a sale.
The result is “no sales.”
Or at best, a handful of sales.
The campaign isn’t “successful” because in the end, you didn’t influence anyone to buy your product. You thought the influencer would do all the work for you.
Instead of reaching out to influencers as your primary marketing strategy, I emphasize the anti-marketing approach — BE the influencer.
This requires some thinking, some diligence, some sacrificing of distractions, and a willingness to create high-quality content.
Fact is, you have the power to influence people through your content. Are you using that power, or giving it away?
You have the ability to open up someone’s eyes with a well-written landing page that inspires them to give you their email addy.
You can make people re-think their behaviors, and change their life, by writing excellent email content and sending it to them.
And yes, you can drive sales by making your sales copy shine.
You can do all of this with or without the help of outside “influencers.”
Either way, make sure you’re not secretly running away from figuring out how to sell your own product.
The “marketer” wishes and hopes that other people will sell their product for them…because they can’t figure out how to do it themselves.
The anti-marketer learns how to sell their own product, over and over again, and thrives in the age of Internet.
Imagine in the above scenario if, BEFORE you reached out to an influencer… you already had all the fundamentals already in place, courtesy of my Anti-Marketing Jumpstart Kit.
You would guide some of those social media followers to your LANDING PAGE, which is specifically designed to collect email addys of ideal customers.
After they’re subscribed, they’d receive your pre-written emails designed to educate, motivate, and inspire… while teaching them about your brand, your company, your philosophy, what makes you different, and what makes your products a no brainer.
Then, they’d click on your sales page link (from your emails), read your product details, and place an order on the spot.
They’d love your product and become a customer for life. Then they’d tell everyone they know about you.
THAT’S what it means to be the influencer.
You make it happen proactively.
Nobody should be better at selling your product than you.
(My Anti-Marketing Jumpstart Kit includes landing page, email autoresponders, design, and coding, and is only available to my newsletter subscribers. If you’re not subscribed to the Anti Marketing email list, add yourself here. It’s free.)
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter, copywriting mentor, and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 