How Influencer Marketing Can Help Your eCommerce Small Business Thrive — Mark Fidelman

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So thank you Mark for spending some time with us. Very much appreciate it.

Mark Fidelman:
My pleasure.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. So let’s jump right in here. Talk to us about how businesses are approaching social media today. Some of the things that you see we’re making mistakes on and how to fix those.

Mark Fidelman:
Well, I mean there’s B2C companies and B2B, completely different strategies. So in terms of social media, I like to borrow the influence of other people in order to promote my products or services. And hence, that’s why I kind of promote influencer marketing if done well, as there’s many ways to do it wrong and there’s a few ways to do it the right way. And so that’s the big problem. It’s not as easy as it looks and you’re dealing with other human beings. So you never know what’s going to happen.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And it’s so difficult. The entrepreneurs and small business owners that I speak with every day here on the show and our other platforms, they’ll tell us that they don’t know it that well. So they feel like every time they jump in and they try to do something in the area of social media to make an impact, somebody will say, “Oh, you’re doing that wrong, that Google changed their algorithm on that or Facebook or what have you.”
So many times they’ll just throw their hands up and say, I can’t figure out social media. Oh, and by the way, I’ve got a business to run. So many times they feel they don’t have the time to dedicate to it. What do you tell those business owners out there to do? I mean, because they all know that they want to be in social media.

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah. I mean, here’s the struggle. You need a big team these days to make an impact, especially if you’ve got an eCommerce business. But you can start small. Focused niche. Where is your audience on social media? Is it Twitter? Is it LinkedIn? Is it Facebook? Is it TikTok? Instagram? And just focus on that one channel.
I recommend business owners, small business owners do it themselves initially just to get a feel for it. And then once they’re comfortable that they can drive sales with it, then bring on an expert. Not the intern, not somebody with one or two years experience, somebody with 5, 10 years of experience that understands how to drive revenue for eCommerce companies. You’ve got to have that type of person if you’re an eCommerce.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. When you say where your audience is, start out there, how does one determine that? How does one know where their audience is or should be?

Mark Fidelman:
Well, I mean, it’s a very good question. What I like to do are surveys. People that have already purchased from me, I’ll ask them to fill out a survey, give them a discount or something like a Starbucks gift card for $5 and asked them. Where do you hang out? Where do you spend most of your time? And that’s where I focus, just one channel. Don’t go crazy and think you have to be in all the channels. I’m one channel, the most popular one, and build a huge presence there.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay, and one of the other things that I hear a lot from small business owners is they’ll say, “I started out small, kind of like you’re telling us to do today, Mark and I did it for a few weeks and I didn’t see any activity.” What do you tell that business owner?

Mark Fidelman:
I’d say, you’re right. You’re not going to see business activity for six months unless you get an influencer to say, “Hey, this is the greatest thing ever,” and then you blow up. Easier said than done, but it will happen for you. Somebody like small business, they might want to start on YouTube talking about their products and service, because you get an added value of SEO, but also have the influencers come in and help promote that channel, for example.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. But Mark, I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t have a whole lot of camera equipment. I don’t have lighting and I don’t have a teleprompter in front of me. How do I start on video and make an impact?

Mark Fidelman:
You’d be amazed what this little device can do with the right lighting, just a little ring light and a iPhone that’s capable of 4k. You’d be shocked how well it looks on YouTube.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. So how can small businesses… They see Amazon out there and they think, oh my god, how do I compete against an Amazon? Although the good news is they actually can, can’t they?

Mark Fidelman:
They can compete with Amazon. I recommend a dual strategy where you put your product on Amazon and then you set up a funnel so you get their email addresses. The problem with going on Amazon is Amazon controls your customer, but there are ways of setting up funnels so that you get the email addresses of people that are purchasing your product on Amazon and then you bring them into your own, which is much more profitable.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay. We hear so much about influencer marketing, but I don’t know that everyone knows exactly what that is. From your perspective, what exactly is influencer marketing?

Mark Fidelman:
These are people with huge followings in your space, your customers. So let’s say it’s a beauty line, or maybe it’s a Kim Kardashian, I’m just throwing out names people would know. You could do a deal with her to promote your products and services. You’re going to be very smart about it, but you could do a deal with somebody like her and then they’re promoting your products and service for a predetermined time with a call to action. And hopefully you’ve chosen the right call to action to drive business your way.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure, sure. When does influencer marketing work, and just as important, when doesn’t it work?

Mark Fidelman:
It works when you have the right influencer that your customers trust and believe in. That’s with the right message and the right call to action. That’s when it works. About the only time it works. When it doesn’t work is if you just hire a bunch of people that are in this space that have pumped themselves up on social media. They don’t have a true following or true engagement levels and you’re just throwing money into the wind. You got to be very careful.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. And they’re not cheap either. I mean, it’s one of these things that if you have somebody that’s got a million followers and you want to get your product line out there, it’s going to cost you a buck or two. Right?

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah. I’ve seen companies like Casper, they built up a huge mattress business by shipping to influencers. They paid them and they gave them a free mattress. They had a big budget though, but they were able to build their business. You can do it with what I call micro influencers. You get like a hundred micro influencers that you could trade product for and you know how to do that, that could be very effective. You got a hundred people talking about your business that have some influence.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. What’s a micro influencer?

Mark Fidelman:
I mean, it depends on how I define it, as anyone under 25,000 followers with high engagement, not low engagement, high engagement. That’s the key.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay. All right. And what are some of the campaigns that can run, that we can run to bring in quick results?

Mark Fidelman:
Let’s talk about eCommerce first of all. So for me, what I love are reviews. So somebody reviews your product on like a YouTube, a TikTok, Instagram, and there’s a call to action. YouTube’s the best because you could put as many calls to actions and notes as you want. Instagram, you got to go to a profile. TikTok, same thing. It’s more of a three step process, not a one step. So reviews. Review the product, if they like it, have them post it. If they don’t, don’t have them posted. It’s as simple as that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay. And can you share with us a few best practices that business owners should know when looking to start or expand through eCommerce?

Mark Fidelman:
Ooh, on this, we could go all day here. Okay. I go back to again, where is your core audience? Where are they? Demonstrate to them that you solve a problem in the channels that they’re mostly on. Is it email, is it YouTube? Is it Instagram? Where are they? Make sure you’re demonstrating constantly.
Here’s the problem we solve, the problem solved, and do it in fun, creative ways. This is a TikTok generation, fortunately or unfortunately. So you got to be cute, fun, exciting, comical about it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And if there were a couple of social media sites, are there some that are just like you’ve got to have a LinkedIn and you’ve got to have a Facebook page? Is that a must or is it really just depend on where your audience is?

Mark Fidelman:
It really does depend on where your audience is. As you grow, you got to have a presence basically anywhere because people are going to want to find you there. But initially, again, I go back to think small, think go all in on one channel, become the best. Make sure your customers are there though, and then build from there. You’ll accumulate revenue. You can use that revenue to take on the next biggest channel and so on and so forth. So that’s how I promote the eCommerce companies I work with.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And how long should you give one particular platform before that platform is where your customers are and it’s working?

Mark Fidelman:
I know it’s going to be frustrating, but it’s three to six months, unfortunately.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Three to six months.

Mark Fidelman:
I mean, there’s ways of speeding it up with influencer marketing for sure, but then you’re using budget. Or you’re just a Gary V where you’re going in day and night and just engaging with people left and right. It took him five years to build up a business from YouTube. Right. So you just have to know that going in. If you’re okay with that, then do it. If not, don’t do it. There’s other ways.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right, and when a small business owner wants to do this, how many hours or minutes of the day should they allocate to social media?

Mark Fidelman:
Some entrepreneurs are not going to like this answer. So if you’re running your business during the day, I would be working till midnight or even later on social media. As often and as long as I can until I’ve got that following that’s buying my product on a regular basis.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.

Mark Fidelman:
If you can’t do it, get somebody competent that can. That’s assuming you can afford them.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. And the word there is competent. And I think that’s one of the most difficult situations that a lot of entrepreneurs have, is to determine if that person is capable, if they’ve got the skill set necessary to win in this area. Because you get so many people out there that they know how to post, or they’ve posted maybe for their own social sites, but they don’t really have the capability to build a strategy for your small business in the area of social media, right?

Mark Fidelman:
It’s not their expertise. They just want to sell their product or service. That’s what they’re focused on. So social media is this whole other marketing thing that’s now become very complex. And so I totally get it. I understand.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, for sure. So you’ve written a book about this, right?

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah, it’s been a while, but yeah, I wrote it for businesses actually. I said, here’s how you win in social media. And I think for the large part, most of my predictions came true. We’re beyond some of this stuff now, but at the time I’m like, you got to get into it. You got to remember back when I wrote this, companies weren’t allowing people to be on Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter. It was a while ago. Now of course…

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Now it’s our prerequisite, right?

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s incredible. What is your take on TikTok?

Mark Fidelman:
Whoa. You really are putting me on the spot here. Okay. So TikTok is a place to be. It’s hard to sell on the platform unfortunately, unless you advertise. If you advertise, it’s fine, but you got to be entertaining. You got to keep up with trends. You got to constantly be producing content. And since it’s video content, it’s expensive content. If you want to really up the game for yourself, you could do it in a no frills way. There’s absolutely possibilities of that. But you got stuff to be created. You got to have a team of people that are coming with these ideas and shooting it. So if you got the team and you got the know how, do it. But still, the connection to eCommerce for me isn’t strong unless you advertise.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And are you doing it? Are you on TikTok?

Mark Fidelman:
I’m on everything.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
You’re on everything. And you’re-

Mark Fidelman:
I’m saying I’m the best at everything, but I have experts that are experts in each of these areas. There’s no way I could be an expert on these platforms. There’s no way.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right, but if you were to open up another business tomorrow and you had an eCommerce business and you wanted to get it out there, would you feel as though it was necessary to your bottom line to be on all of the platforms out there?

Mark Fidelman:
Here’s what I would do. I would be on YouTube, for sure. That’d be my number one. Then I would take shorts and I’d put it on YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and TikTok. And you could shoot it in a way where the same content could be on all three of those platforms. That would be me. But I’ve got a whole editing team.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. And how many times during the day do you recommend being on one particular platform such as TikTok?

Mark Fidelman:
TikTok, three to five times a week. YouTube, you could do get away with a couple times a week. And I’m talking when we just starting, right? Frequency is important, but it’s still got to be high quality or funny or comedic or something like that. But not as often as you think. If it’s Twitter, it’s multiple times a day, for example.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. And I think so many small business owners that are listening to you today are saying, “Geez, I’m really trying to figure this thing out,” because they spend so much time on it and then they get very down about the fact that it’s not bringing the results that they think it should bring, or they hear that it brings. If you’re on social media for any longer than an hour, you see all these huge success stories out there about people on social media and what they’ve sold or maybe what they’ve made because the number of visits and what have you. And it’s pretty easy to get down over it, isn’t it?

Mark Fidelman:
Totally. And just remember those counts usually took years to build. Or they had a bunch of influencers or celebrities talking about their services and products. So don’t get down on yourself. You could do it the marathon way or you could do it the sprint, but you’re going to pay a lot of money for the sprint.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, for sure. Or they can hire a company like you. I mean, do you provide these services to small business owners?

Mark Fidelman:
We do. I mean totally eCommerce services. I call it a CMO office where one of us comes in as a CMO and sets it all up for you according to a budget. Yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
And you’re turnkey, I mean, if they’re looking-

Mark Fidelman:
We can be or we could just be-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
There’s companies looking for that solution. Right?

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah. Completely. Or we could be a one-off and just provide experts for whatever area I think they need to focus on.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay. So you’d kind of do an assessment of the business and then together with the business owner really decide what they need and then focus on that.

Mark Fidelman:
If you’ve got a company not doing that, I’d recommend not working with them.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Really? Okay.

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah, they don’t know your problems, they don’t know your customer base. They’re just plug and play, which is not good for you. You need somebody that understands really what’s going on in the market with your customers and your product that knows how to devise a strategy to execute on that brings revenue. You want revenue. That’s the bottom line.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Yeah. There was a friend of mine that put out some content that I didn’t really think was very favorable to his own brand or the market that he was selling to.
And I called him, I said, “I can’t believe you made that post about, it just doesn’t seem like, it doesn’t seem like that’s the information you want to get out.” He said, “What post? What are you talking about?” He said, “I have a company that I hired and they pushed, let me see what they did.” He called me back, he said, “Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you pointed that out,” he goes, “because I didn’t even go on that particular platform and I didn’t know that they had posted that.”
So you got to be careful of that too, right? That somebody takes the liberty to post for you and meanwhile they completely miss the mark and could potentially get a lot of your clients or your market mad at you for making that post.

Mark Fidelman:
Yeah. I mean, you could lose a lot of clients that way. So it is important to do an assessment, review it with that agency and make sure they understand, here’s what we represent. I use movie characters for example. Here’s what we represent and would this movie character say that or do that? That’s the type of thing that we do.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. For sure. For sure. Fanatics Media, thank you so much, Mark. I really appreciate you joining us today. Hopefully we can have you back to a follow-up and for those small business owners and entrepreneurs that want to learn more about Mark and what he can bring to the table for you, this is an area that I highly recommend. This is just me. If you don’t have market in your corner, you should have somebody. It’s kind of like going into business without an accountant or an attorney.
There’s areas of the business that you have to have covered by a professional. And unless you consider yourself a professional in social media, don’t leave this up to, to Mark’s point, some school kid or some person at college goes, “Oh yeah, I can handle that for you.” Maybe a niece or a nephew or something. Or maybe your own kid. It’s too important. I mean, that’s really where your brand begins and in some cases ends. So Mark, thank you so much for joining us on the show. Very much appreciate it.

Mark Fidelman:
My pleasure. Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thanks.