I don’t know about y’all, but I always side-eye people when they say that you can’t bring your own personal flair into influencer marketing. Point in case: this week, Danielle Bernstein‘s new namesake brand launched at Macy’s, and within a matter of 24 hours, the brand had already reached a million dollars. Wait, in 24 hours the brand had made over $2.5 million for Macy’s, period. So what is the big deal you might be asking?
Macy’s has always been a staple for womenswear and career wear clothes. But y’all know exactly what kind of clothes Macy’s tends to sell — things that are a lot more conservative. And maybe modern or even slightly contemporary, but not really things that are trend-driven and focused on what we might see down the runway. On the opposite hand, Bernstein’s collection, which if I am reading everything correctly, even has things like puff sleeve cardigans, dresses, tops, and bodysuits, is not really Macy’s first thought when it comes to influencer or marketing or even alignment they would present.
But what I really love about this collaboration is that Bernstein makes a case that if you really are true to who you are, and if you create the kind of content or the kind of capsule collection in this case that you wish to see, bigger brands will have to pay attention, and they will want to work with you.
This is something that I think all of us can learn from, especially as influencer marketing continues to grow.
And as more people are beginning to delve into what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and what it takes to be sought after by brands, I think that the first thing you always have to do is be authentic and true to yourself and the person that you want to build. Because as you continue to gain more notoriety and more money comes in, it’s going to be hard and harder to change some of those core values and foundations that you laid when you had a smaller following and not as many eyes on you. Trust me, I know.
That being said, once you’ve built an authentic and trustworthy brand in an audience that seeks you out for very particular things, you will immediately find that bigger brands are gravitating towards that. I always love to tell people how, even as a nano or micro-influencer with technically less than 10,000 followers on my Instagram, I am still doing things in the industry that people with 100 times my following are not doing.
It’s not a thing to brag, but it’s more of a thing to realize that brands are looking for people who can really help push and shape the culture. People who are going to be able to sell a narrative and who are brand storytellers. That has no technical number on it. My 8000 followers can be just as impactful.
Nowadays, brands are looking for people who have something to say, and who are not afraid to say it with their chest. So, when building partnerships with brands, it’s important to remember that authenticity will always be the key to organic influencer marketing. And that more importantly, you should never feel intimidated to want to work with a brand or reach out to someone simply because they may not be your core demographic.
According to Bernstein, in a Bof article, she wanted to move away from contemporary markets and introduce herself to the mass market. As someone who has based a lot of her career off social media, I can imagine that Bernstein’s shift in the influencer marketing space required evolution and growth.
To go to the mass-market? That is exactly what Macy’s does and what it does so well, because many of the items Macy’s carries are available on Amazon, often at the lower price tier. And even though it’s a department store, it definitely can use a little bit of uplifting, so really, this was a mutual partnership for both parties.
If you feel like there’s a brand that you want to work with, but you feel maybe that their swag and your swag are a little different, don’t be afraid to pitch them. After all, they might be looking for new ways to freshen up their work, or freshening up their social media, or they might have things in the works that will actually be more on-brand for both parties. And it can create a long-lasting relationship that can be lucrative for both of you.
So always remember that as an influencer or as an entrepreneur, you are your biggest investor in your brand. Always invest in yourself and be true to who you are, and true to the content that you create. Because unbeknownst to you, somebody is watching and the right partnership exists out there.
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