Some may imagine that influencer marketing is quite limited; a well-known ‘influencer’ endorses an existing brand, or one with a smaller following seeks to develop a market for a local product aimed at a narrow market, such as students of a particular institution.
Neither of these would constitute building a global brand. The first would only apply to an established brand and the second applies to a situation where the ambition is much smaller.
However, according to the co-founders of The Pilates Class, influencer marketing can indeed be used so powerfully that it can help establish a truly global brand.
Explaining to Forbes Magazine how they did this, Jacqui Kingswell and Natasha “Tash” Oakley explained what they did to develop their own online pilates workshops in 2020, when most of the world went into lockdown.
Back then, there was no lockdown in Sydney where Ms Kingswell had already established a pilates studio, but they recognised what impact they could have elsewhere in enabling others to access their remote service to continue their exercise regimes.
Ms Oakley explained that once they knew the demand was there, the marketing plan kicked in, with extensive use of influencers being a central factor, alongside other techniques such as content marketing.
“From the early stages of the brand, we began reaching out to a diverse group of positive and inspiring influencers who we thought were amazing role models in their community,” she remarked.
Ms Oakley noted that the key is not just to choose the right influencers who can appeal to the target audience, but begin with a “solid product or brand” and then build a marketing strategy around it.
Clearly, the strategy has worked, whereas there are many ways to fail at influencer marketing.
According to Entrepreneur Magazine, common errors include picking influencers who do not align with the brand, a lack of creativity that leads to promotions looking like bland adverts, and a failure to provide the image of your brand as something with direction or purpose.
Clearly the Pilates Class succeeded by doing the exact opposite of all these things.
The Most Common Influencer-Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (msn.com)
