Welcome to The Innovators Insight.

Every Saturday, you’ll get an actionable email explaining everything you need to know about physical product concept design, development, fundraising, and marketing so you can develop your ideas from sketch to scale.

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Tired of crickets when you launch your new product?

It’s time to call in the influencers.

Influencer marketing taps into social media stars’ engaged followers to drive sales of your physical products.

But you can’t just send free stuff to any influencer and hope for the best.

You need a strategic plan to recruit, motivate, and unleash the right influencers to hype your product to their fans.

Read on to learn the inside secrets to getting influencers selling for you.

Follow these tips and influencer marketing will become a powerhouse way to get the exposure you deserve and boost sales.

Let’s dive in:

Find the right influencers for your product

Not all influencers are a good fit for your product.

You want to find ones whose followers are likely to be interested in what you sell.

Look for influencers in your product niche.

For example, if you have a new fitness gadget, target fitness influencers.

Check that their audience demographics match your target customer.

A mom influencer may be great for a baby product but not for power tools.

Make sure the influencer's content and brand align with your product.

Their followers expect certain types of posts.

It needs to be a natural fit.

Offer the influencer an enticing deal

Influencers won't work for free.

You need to offer something that makes it worth their while.

Some options:

• Free product - send them your product to feature on their social media. The exposure is their payment.

• Commission on sales - give them a special promo code and pay a commission on each sale.

• Flat sponsored post fee - pay a set fee for a dedicated sponsored post about your product.

• Long-term partnership - negotiate an ongoing partnership with exclusive perks and higher pay.

The more value you provide, the more the influencer can hype your product to their engaged followers.

Give the influencer creative freedom

Influencers know what kind of content best resonates with their audience.

Avoid being overly controlling.

Give suggestions but let them decide what to post.

If possible, send some sample products so they can get creative with photos/videos.

Be open to different post ideas like giveaways, discounts, or real-life testing.

Giving influencers freedom makes the partnership and promotion feel more genuine.

Track sales and engagement

Use tracking links or promo codes to see how much traffic and sales come from each influencer.

Watch for spikes after promotions.

Also track engagement on their posts featuring your product - likes, comments, shares, etc.

This shows how well it resonated with their followers.

Use this data to determine which influencers drive the most value so you can optimize future partnerships.

Follow up post-promotion

Send each influencer a thank-you note along with their commission or fee for the promotion.

Ask for feedback on how the promotion went from their perspective.

Discuss doing another promotion in the future, and brainstorm new ways you can work together.

Strong relationships lead to ongoing influencer marketing success.

Final Thoughts

Influencer marketing works best when you find:

• The perfect influencer match

• Offer plenty of value

• Give creative freedom

• Follow up to build the relationship.

Don't rely on just one…

Build out a diverse group of influencers to promote your physical products from different angles.

Talk soon,

Roy

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Raise crowdfunding: We can help you turn your product prototype into an investible asset. If you’ve got a working prototype, and need funding to scale, send me a direct message on Linkedin (click here) saying “funding” for more details on how we can help.
   

2. Validate your physical product concept: Got a concept (napkin sketch or full concept design) for a killer product? We want to see it. Click here to submit it for review.
   

3. Free Guide - Crowdfunding 101: How to prepare your physical product for a crowdfunding campaign. Click here to learn more.