Why influence for others, when you could own for yourself? As an agency that specializes in influencer marketing, LMS has seen an entrepreneurial trend rise in the social media landscape. Business-minded influencers are leveraging their status beyond paid partnerships to launch their own, highly-efficient companies, creating the next tier in the social stratosphere: the entre-influencer.
Don’t underestimate an influencer. Though they wear more bikinis than business suits, these unlikely entrepreneurs have proven they’ve got the brains and work ethic to build highly successful brands. Many of whom are doing so in extremely clever and efficient ways, following a lean business model. Take 22-year-old, beauty mogul and world’s youngest billionaire, Kylie Jenner, for example. Fueled by mirror selfies, Kardashian-Jenner family promotion and a well-leveraged cult following, Kylie Cosmetics has become a beauty empire in just three years. The kicker? Jenner reportedly owns 100% of the company and manages a slim payroll of just a handful of lucky employees.
With an average business ROI of $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, it’s no wonder content creators are looking to cut the middleman and reap the full benefits of their influence for themselves. Most influencers and celebrities do not have MBAs and their work experience likely wouldn’t earn them the CEO title at a traditional company. Even still, many are slaying the entrepreneur game through strategically building lean startups. This methodology, made popular by author Eric Ries of The Lean Startup, is based on the idea of cutting corners (in a good way) and getting maximum results from minimum effort. For influencers who do not have the business acumen or time to effectively run a large company, this style of entrepreneurship allows them to focus on their talents and outsource the rest.
Entre-influencers have the unique ability to make a lean business model even leaner by leading their own marketing as the face of the brand. Utilizing their built-in consumer base and inherent audience trust, many influencers have created all-in-one businesses, often with majority or total ownership to boot. Marianna Hewitt, renowned YouTube star and beauty blogger, is the co-founder of the current ‘it’ skincare product, Summer Fridays. As an influencer who consistently promotes high-end beauty brands like Armani Beauty and Becca Cosmetics, Hewitt recognized the value in her voice and turned her following into a foundation for her own business. Hewitt dubs Summer Fridays a ‘social-first brand,’ accrediting the product’s instant (and continued) mega-success to thoughtful use of social media. Within two weeks of its launch in January 2018, Summer Fridays consisting of just one product at the time (the $48 Jet Lag Mask), became the best-selling skin care product on Sephora.com. The brand has since expanded to include three masks and a CC serum.
Blogger, author and health guru, Mark Sisson, is one of the first and most respected voices of the Paleo movement. Getting his start as a health and wellness influencer through his blog, MarksDailyApple.com in 2006, Sisson was able to identify himself as a thought leader in the niche Paleo market and garner a massive, loyal following as the primal diet movement became mainstream. Taking advantage of his ability to forecast this wellness trend, Sisson made the jump from influencer to entrepreneur, founding multiple successful Primal enterprises, including Primal Kitchen, a nationally sold line of Paleo-focused dressings, snacks and more. Primal Kitchen launched in 2015, with just a single item: sugar-free avocado-based mayonnaise. Today the company has been acquired by Kraft Heinz with a robust product line available in over 8,000 retail locations and online markets including Target, Publix, Thrive Market and Amazon.
Influencers also have unprecedented access to direct market research. Celebrity hairstylist, Jen Atkin has ingeniously utilized her platforms to jumpstart entrepreneurial endeavors. With clients and BFFs including the likes of Chrissy Teigen and Bella Hadid, Atkin leveraged her celebrity-fueled social following and industry expertise to launch her haircare line, OUAI (pronounced ‘way’), in 2016. To ensure success, Atkin turned her 3M+ personal Instagram audience into her test market, regularly teasing products to gauge interest and even flat-out asking her followers for their opinions through Instagram Story polls. While other companies would have to pay top dollar for this kind of consumer access, for Atkin and similar entre-influencers it is, quite literally, at their fingertips.
Social media influencers are no longer just a pretty face and a flock of followers on which brands can capitalize. As the viability of being a career influencer and an entre-influencer has increased, so has their intrinsic value. It’s important for companies interested in working with social media influencers to approach them as collaborators and business owners themselves. If businesses aren’t offering meaningful, profitable opportunities, influencers will go elsewhere. It will not do to brush influencers or social media off as a trend unworthy of company time and money.
Over a decade ago, even the earliest of “influencers” were realizing their value. One of the most notable being Marlena Stell, who started her influencer career in the early 2000s as one of the original beauty influencers. As a self-proclaimed “makeup educator,” Stell garnered a vast following and the attention of cosmetic brands through her makeup tutorials on YouTube. After realizing her ability to impact sales for companies with no or little benefit to herself, she decided to leave her full-time teaching career to launch her own makeup line, Makeup Geek in 2008. Eleven years later, a little ole’ influencer in Sacramento is calling all the shots as the owner of a multi-million dollar makeup company.
Entre-influencers are a unique subset of the entrepreneurial world. They’re often underestimated, undervalued and mistaken as incompetent and a soon-to-die-out trend. However, as you can see with the longevity of a company like Makeup Geek , the ever-evolving Kardashian-Jenner empire, and the continued authority that consumers place on their favorite social media stars, the influencer business is doing real good. And it isn’t going anywhere.
LMS was founded with the goal of helping young brands better navigate partnership possibilities and celebrity integrations. Over the past 10 years, the startup landscape has changed immensely, blurring and merging the lines of LMS’ services as celebrities and influencers become founders of their own entrepreneurial ventures. In one of LMS’ marquee partnerships, LMS founder and chairwoman, Denise Lambertson, facilitated the introduction of Modern Family star, Sofia Vergara and Renata Black, the co-founders behind seamless panty company, EBY. LMS has provided marketing and consulting services to other celebrity-founded businesses, including This Bar Saves Lives, founded in part by Kristen Bell, and Lucky Jack, owned by Jillian Michaels. In LMS’ experience, we’ve discerned the best influencer and celebrity founded startups follow these few and simple rules:
Test for the Best
Focus on a small launch, even just one product, and test it out to your ready-made market (followers) to ensure you don’t waste resources building an unwanted brand. The internet isn’t shy. Take advantage of an audience ready to give unapologetic opinions on just about everything. Listen, analyze, revise, share, repeat.
Outsource over In-house
Why put off until tomorrow what someone else can do for you today? There’s a misconception that entrepreneurs have to do everything themselves. Nope! Not a bookkeeper? Don’t be bookkeeper. In keeping your team small, there are inevitable outsourcing needs and taking advantage of this option will free up valuable time and team resources.
No Shame in the Game
Self-promotion is both the most natural and necessary aspect of an influencer-founded businesses. Post it, tease it, give it away – followers will flock to it knowing the product not only has your stamp of approval, but was created by their fearless social media leader. Additionally, friends don’t let friends promote a product alone. Rally a network of fellow influencers and share like you just don’t care.
As the line between brand and influencer is blurred, a new hybrid influencer is born. It’s a new dawn on the social media frontier. It’s the rise of the entre-influencer.
Interested in more LMS insights on all things influencer and celebrity partnership marketing? Check out our blog and bag of tricks here, and send us a shout at imgame@wearelms.com.