Aligning Brand Values With Influencers In Ecommerce

Nik Sharma might be the 🐐 of influencer marketing. Here are 18 of my favorite lessons from Nik on the power of influencer marketing + the right way to approach it as a brand: 1. By partnering with influencers, brands are able to integrate their products into a relevant community with a high conversion rate at a relatively low cost. 2. Fans expect influencers to promote products they care about. 3. Most influencers only want to work with brands that they believe in and promote products on their social channels that they would use. 4. More than 41% of consumers get more interested in a brand when they partner with a celebrity or influencer they love. 5. Traditional brands follow this template: Select the influencers. Give them free products + discount code. Pay them for a sponsored post. This approach is purely transactional and sets up the influencer marketing campaign for failure. 6. The goal of influencer marketing shouldn't be to pay them for sponsored content. Instead, you should develop a meaningful relationship that is beneficial for both parties. 7. Successful influencer partnerships are based on trust—not reach. 8. If brands are so focused on their return on investment, they can overlook the value social media influencers provide. 9. The best influencer marketing campaigns are multi-faceted. 10. Successful influencer marketing campaigns build brand loyalty, decrease customer acquisition costs, and enable marketers to track influencer-driven impact on a performance level. 11. By forging a relationship with the influencers you’re working with, they’re more likely to post about your brand without you even having to ask. This content is more native than the old-fashioned branded content with #ad front-in-center in the copy. 12. You need to find influencers with audiences that is closely aligned with your target market. 13. Find influencers who believe in your product. If they don’t, the content they create won’t resonate. 14. Offer to provide your product to the influencer to test before they have to commit. 15. When you work with an influencer that truly believes in your brand and appreciates your product, the content that they create is gold. 16. Don’t solely focus on the number of followers they have or their content, but rather, pick influencers that have a high engagement rate and have values, goals, and ethics that align with your brand. 17. Brands that treat influencers as partners as opposed to paid marketing channels will see the value in their campaigns. To take this approach, brands need to work collaboratively and focus on long-term gains rather than short-term revenue. 18. By selecting the right influencers, crafting your pitch, and maximizing your success, you’ll get more out of the partnership than a one-time increase in sales. You’ll get an entirely new audience to work with and an ambassador that’s sharing your product in effective, engaging ways. #influencermarketing #niksharma #marketing

This is the worst thing you can do when partnering with an influencer:  👉Working with someone whose values don't resonate with your customers.  No matter the reach or engagement, that disconnect will eventually burn you. Your audience cares deeply about what and who they support.  If your influencer's principles contradict their own, their interest will cool.  And rightfully so. Authenticity is everything today.  Before working with any influencer:  1. Vet potential partners thoroughly.  2. Make values alignment a top priority.  Anything less risks compromise and rejection down the road.  Your customers deserve influencers who share their convictions at the core.

The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing. We rebuilt our entire creator strategy around this idea. Here's our exact playbook for becoming part of the feed (instead of interrupting it)... First, forget everything you know about the typical "influencer marketing." This isn't about paying for posts and asking them to look into the camera and say “I like this”. It's about building genuine partnerships that compound over time. Let me share what actually works for us: 1. How we find aligned creators 2. Content that actually works 3. Building real partnerships 4. Scaling without losing authenticity 1. Focus on depth over reach Look for creators that are highly aligned with your brand and engaged with their audience. Then help them pick ONE product that will truly resonate. Don’t just throw your catalog at them. Specific stories > Generic promotion 2. Arm them with knowledge, not rules We send creators extensive product knowledge when we start out. But it’s not to control their message. It’s to arm them with the information, background, and assets that they need to succeed. Let them tell your story their way. 3. Trust their creative instincts That video with "poor lighting" or "bad framing"? It often outperforms our polished content. Why? Because it feels real. Like it belongs in the feed. Stuff people would watch if it was their friends or family. 4. Think long-term We don't just send a product + a brief and be done with it. We nurture the relationship: • Do monthly product sends • Share launch previews • Include them in campaign planning • Ask for their input Creators become partners. Partners become advocates. This compounds over time. But here's the challenge: Managing these deep relationships with 100+ creators? It's chaos if you’re doing it manually. Between emails, direct messages, product sends, follow-ups, asset management… It’s a huge amount of friction. And we were dropping balls daily. That's when we use SARAL - The Influencer OS to manage our creator relationships. Their platform lets us: - Build genuine relationships at scale - Track every conversation - Manage product sends - Monitor performance - Process commissions Now we can focus on what matters: Building real partnerships instead of managing spreadsheets. Remember, the future isn't about interrupting the feed. It's about becoming part of it through genuine content that feels true to the platform. #proudpartner