Influencers

Oprah Winfrey is not the answer (sorry Oprah).

Influencer campaigns take more than a famous personality to be successful in the same way as 'going viral' isn't a marketing or sales strategy.

Dreaming an influencer will solve our sales or fundraising problems is either lazy, greedy, or impatient (and probably a combination of all three).

But it seems like the easiest way to avoid the time and hard work of marketing our brand equity - to jump to the front of the line - but it tends to fail spectacularly and embarrassingly for us.

The three basics of an influencer campaign are...

1. You must give an influencer something of value TO THEM! It's a quid pro quo relationship in which we must provide something of value in exchange for access to the influencer's audience.

2. This 'something of value' can be money, but it may also be a virtue signal of equity your product or organization offers that the influencer wants or needs to boost their credibility.

3. Without your own brand value established, no amount 'going viral' or access to an influencer's audience will translate into increased sales or donations.

So if we wonder why no one will endorse us it may be because we're not willing to do the hard work of becoming something valuable to them.

And if we do reach that level of value, we might not be as desperate for an influencer's attention... maybe... but I'd still like Oprah's endorsement and audience just to see what happens.