Carly Ries
After working in both the corporate side of marketing and the small business industry, Gabi Mondejar's passion for social media drew her to work in the social media marketing space as a solopreneur with an emphasis on influencer marketing and now she does this full-time remotely while traveling the world.
What you'll learn in this episode
- What is influencer marketing?
- Why influencer marketing is so great for solopreneurs
- How to reach out to brands and select the influencers to work with
- How brands can attract influencers they want to work with
- Do people need an existing audience to work with influencers?
- What's the ONE thing solopreneurs need to know about influencer marketing?
Connect with Gabi Mondejar
Resources Mentioned in the Episode
Favorite Quote: "If you're not willing to risk the usual, you'll have to settle for ordinary."
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Full Episode Transcript
Gabi Mondejar (00:00):
This is an opportunity for those small brands, those up and coming businesses to really break into the industry without breaking the bank or having to develop a huge marketing budget.
Intro (00:09):
Bigger. Doesn't it always mean better? Welcome to the One-Person Business podcast where people who are flying solo in business come first. Specific tips and advice to find success as a company of one. Here are your hosts, Joe Rando and Carly Ries.
Carly Ries (00:27):
Welcome to the One-Person Business podcast. I'm one of your hosts Carly Ries.
Joe Rando (00:32):
And I'm Joe Rando.
Carly Ries (00:34):
As a marketer, I am really excited for today because we are going to be talking about an area of marketing that quite frankly, I'm not very good at, or even well versed in. This is influencer marketing. We have influencer marketing extraordinaire, Gabi Mondejar to talk us through it. After working in both the corporate side of marketing and the small business industry, Gabi's passion for social media drew her to work in the social media marketing space as a solopreneur with an emphasis on influencer marketing. And now she does this full-time remotely while traveling the world. So, if you do not want to get wanderlust, do not follow her on Instagram or her VAN Blowburn on Instagram. But in all seriousness, you should follow her on Instagram cuz she knows exactly what she's talking about. And so Gabi, welcome to the show.
Gabi Mondejar (01:24):
Thank you guys for having me. I'm super excited.
Carly Ries (01:26):
We are too. Let's just get started and actually let's get started with the basics. Since we have a lot of one-person business owners listening, can you dive into exactly what influencer marketing is, including micro influencers, types of influencers and all that jazz?
Gabi Mondejar (01:41):
Totally. So influencer marketing is essentially when you're using influential internet personas to push a brand agenda or get your business out to a mass amount of people. We've seen it before we had social media, it was celebrities. Basically it's the new form of not having to use a celebrity, using less of a budget and using ordinary people. We're seeing that this is successful because basically brands are saying, okay, we don't really trust the celebrities anymore. We don't know if what they're saying is true. We don't know if it's authentic. Whereas the influencer, although it's somebody that has great influence over a mass amount of people, they're relatable. They're just like us. They live in ordinary cities, they live ordinary lives, but they do it all on social media. So we're seeing that kind of growth in there. There are three different types that I see of influencers the most.
(02:29):
It's nano, micro, and macro. And those are just the different levels of how many followers they have and why their audience is. But we're also seeing a giant jump right now in brands using micro and nano influencers. They're becoming more and more popular seeing that there is need to have a smaller budget. If you have a smaller budget, they're great for that or they're just more attainable than getting to a celebrity who has management or something like that. These nano and micro influencers, they run themselves. There's great opportunity for budget for brand, and there's authenticity because essentially they're just making a recommendation to their friends or family or maybe a stranger on the internet, but somebody that feels really connected to them. So we're seeing this boom in influencer marketing because of it.
Carly Ries (03:12):
Why is this form of marketing so great for solopreneurs?
Gabi Mondejar (03:16):
I think that on the brand side, it's great for a variety in budget. I am an influencer myself and then I work with influencers to help them get brand partnerships. I worked before that in the marketing sphere of working at a marketing agency. I've worked for small businesses on their marketing team and those small businesses do not have the budget to do things so this is an opportunity for those small brands, those up and coming businesses to really break into the industry without breaking the bank or having to develop a huge marketing budget. You're in complete control of your messaging when you use influencers, especially micro and nano because they're more flexible on what they want to say. They don't have the guidelines like a celebrity would or a macro that have strict boundaries on what they can do and say. They don't have agencies controlling their visions. Also with that, these solopreneurs can use influencers to create a vision or create a look for their brand that they want with their brand guidelines that stays within it. I think they're way more flexible than celebrities and it's way more flexible than the stipulations that a lot of mainstream media advertising requires.
Carly Ries (04:28):
I'm so happy you brought up budget cause in my mind you need tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars to really make influencer marketing effective and that's obviously not the case based off of what you were just saying. Can you clear up some other misconceptions that people might have about influencer marketing?
Gabi Mondejar (04:45):
Yeah, I feel like everything is so fluid and flexible in the influencer industry. If you have a smaller budget, you can use micro or nano influencers, they work for way less. Usually is mostly what I'm seeing. But we're seeing a shift in the industry for sure as more people take this job seriously as a full-time career. Most micro nano influencers, don't work full-time as influencers. They have a little bit more wiggle room, they're willing to work for free product, they're willing to work for a hundred to $200 here or there, but they also have great influence with their small community because they are a friend or a family member or somebody that is connectable. They're responding to people's dms, they're not letting things go completely to the wayside. So it kind of creates this opportunity for smaller budgets to really work.
(05:36):
I always recommend to anybody I work with, if you have a great budget that's maybe anywhere from 5,000 to $10,000, I would do two macro influencers and I would do a couple of micro nano and split that budget so you can see what works best for your brand. Sometimes you do need that macro to push to an audience. But if you've got a really reliable product and then people from there are using word of mouth, you might only need a micro or a nano influencer. So that's a huge misconception. I feel like we see often people not realizing that you don't need a huge budget and that macro is not as successful as micro or nano all the time. I also think that there's a misconception that influencers are commonly stay-at-home moms or that cliche that it's now not their full-time job or that they don't need to necessarily make money off of it.
(06:27):
We're seeing where this is no longer not taken seriously, it's their full-time income. And as we see that shift, I think we're seeing a really big shift in creativity for branding as well, now that people are taking it so seriously. It's not just the pretty girl sitting and holding a box, it's now how can I make this ad pop out? How can I make people ask questions about the brand? I think that it's really taking on an art form that's really cool. It's not getting enough attention yet, but I think it will start to get more attention as we move on through the industry.
Carly Ries (07:00):
Got it. You were talking about mixing and matching the types of influencers and everything you were just saying Honestly, to me was really inspiring. I was like, okay, I wanna go out and do this. But I think a big thing that people struggle with is just the actual outreach. They're like, okay, I have the budget? I know I want to do this. And then they don't know what to do or who to approach or how to approach. So, how should they select the people they work with and how should they reach out to them?
Gabi Mondejar (07:26):
I think I normally tell brands, Really figure out what your niche is and what you're going for. I'll have a brand come to me and be "oh well we wanna work with fashion bloggers" That's all fine and dandy, but you're competing with all these different fashion people. Sometimes I like to say, okay, can we narrow that down more or if you're in the travel industry, who specifically travels in your location? so nicheing down I think helps a lot. Also searching hashtags on those social media platforms, whether it's Instagram or TikTok or anything like that. Searching for people that are specific to your brand, to your location, to your age demographic makes a huge difference because you're not gonna wanna advertise with somebody who's a 19 year old girl. If you're trying to do something in the alcohol industry, you need her audience to be of age.
(08:16):
Things like paying attention to those little details really make a difference. Also making sure you vet your influencers before you work with them. Watch their engagement for a week or two, watch and see art you think they're buying. Do you think that it's kind of weird that the following doesn't match up with how many comments they're getting on a post? Those things make a difference and I think a lot of brands overlook that. Then they waste money on the wrong person. Also just making a budget and sticking to it, but also being flexible with it. This is something on the other end that I have to remind my influencers of. Often they'll go into it with the mindset of, I want X amount of dollars and I'm not budging, but when you don't want to work with a brand, they stop wanting to work with you. There's no flexibility with either party and usually there's a lot of wiggle room with that. So we can't pay you as much, but we can give you more in free product or something like that. Just having an open mind when you're reaching out to brands or if you are the brand reaching out to an influencer.
Joe Rando (09:19):
In terms of finding these people say from the perspective of a solopreneur that wants to find influencers to help them grow their product or their business, is there a marketplace out there like Fiverr does for freelancers? Is there something out there that they can go to or does this just have to be done kind of manually?
Gabi Mondejar (09:40):
So, manually in my opinion, I see, has worked the best in terms of finding quality. There are multiple platforms right now that are blowing up that it's difficult for me to want to be on those platforms because, on the influencer side, they don't pay out as much. They aren't big contracts to make money off of on the influencer side, but a lot of people will put their brands on these platforms. There are some such as Cohley, AspireIQ, those brands will get on there and what I'll do as an influencer, and I know more and more people are doing this as well, if I don't think the price is right, but it could be a great brand fit for me, I then go and reach out to them on my own accord.
(10:20):
So being on those platforms can be helpful. There are countless out there. That being said, I know that they control a percentage of how much the brand has to pay and how much the influencer makes. It's a middleman. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that, but I do think that there's more potential for bang for your buck when you have a team set up that can help you do that. Or if you are just a solopreneur then really just searching for your favorites. Being active on social media, which I know can be hard when you're so busy, but just taking 10, 15 minutes to scroll your explorer page a day, you're gonna find so many creators on there because with all the algorithms, your Instagram, your TikTok, your Facebook, your Pinterest, it knows what you want to look at and it's gonna find you people. There are plenty of platforms as well.
Joe Rando (11:15):
Awesome, thank you.
Carly Ries (11:16):
Gabi, my assumption is that when people reach out to these influencers, they don't always get an immediate yes, we want to work with you. As important as it is to make sure your outreach is on point, what can solopreneurs be doing to make themselves attractive for brands to want to work with?
Gabi Mondejar (11:35):
I see every day on the influencer side and on the brand side, where I don't see it being attractive, is the lack of flexibility. I kind of talked about that and touched on that a little bit above, but, I think being flexible on budget. I'm seeing a rush lately of influencers that once one influencer does a partnership with a brand, all of a sudden I see a ton of other people in that community also run in similar circles. Also doing it there is kind of a little bit of, fear of missing out mentality in the influencer community of, oh well they worked with them, I want to work with them too. That's essentially what we're trying to always do with branding, make people feel like, I need that product.
(12:21):
I need this opportunity, I need to do this, I need to do that. And influencers create that. The best way is finding one person that you see as really involved in the influencer community. They follow other influencers. They talk to other influencers and you can tell that by, when you're looking at someone's profile on Instagram especially, have they posted and tagged another person that is also an influential person? Stuff like that. It's going to make all those other people want to work with that brand as well. So that's a good driver. Just finding one person and doing regular things with them or asking them too, Do you have a friend in the community that you feel would be on brand for us that we could bring in as well? I think those are always great options.
Carly Ries (13:05):
So is it important for people to already have a little bit of an audience or followers or does that not matter to influencers wanting to work with people?
Gabi Mondejar (13:14):
Like a brand on social media?
Carly Ries (13:17):
For solopreneur. Let's say a one-person business had say 50 followers. Is that okay for brands or do they need a little bit more substance before signing on and wanting to work with them?
Gabi Mondejar (13:32):
It actually is going to be easier to find people and people will want to obviously work with you more if you do have that falling, but I have never had one of my influencer clients say, oh, I don't wanna work with a brand because they don't have enough followers. I think if the product is the right fit for them, if the pay is right for them and it just clicks, then they're willing to advertise anything. I've seen a lot of brands where they launch their social medias via an influencer platform. They'll do a giveaway or they'll line up five influencers and they'll say, okay, we're doing a giveaway on your platform and we're gonna drive that traffic back to our social media and that's how they grow their social media. So I don't think it's a requirement at all.
(14:14):
I think that you just have to strategize the right way on how to do that. I think giveaways are great for that. Also and as marketing you guys know this, we normally as a consumer, need to see something three times before you actually buy it. First or second time, but you're not gonna actually buy it until about the third time that you see something. They might click on your profile the first time but not follow it. But if you have an influencer that you're like, okay, we're gonna do a TikTok, a reel, a story and maybe you're gonna do some pins for me, another audience is gonna see them so many times that they're going to get that followed. They're going to get that by. So I think you don't need to start with a platform in order to do that. You can use specifically influencers to drive to your platform.
Carly Ries (15:01):
Got it. If there is one thing you want a person who is flying solo business to take away about influencer marketing, what would it be?
Gabi Mondejar (15:09):
I think that a lot of times there is a little bit of a stigma with using influencers and thinking you're not gonna yield results or that you're kind of selling out on that aspect. I think that the best thing you can do is not worry about what other people think. Put yourself fullheartedly into it. You can't do the influencer thing half. You have to fully go into that. So I would dedicate whatever budget you have for a quarter and really push for that whole quarter doing influencers, that's how we're gonna ride that rollercoaster. The industry is a complete killer and kind of a mess because it's so new. So you're not always gonna get exactly the results you want out of it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't work. I've worked with a lot of brands on the other side where they're like, well, we tried the influencer thing and it didn't work. And I was, :but how targeted were you niche wise?" There are so many little variables. Try and if it doesn't work the first time, take a break and then re-evaluate and try again. I'm seeing brands blow up overnight because they do it just the exact right way and if there had been one little tweak or difference, it wouldn't have worked the way they wanted it to. So you kind of have to find where that works for you and it does take a minute.
Carly Ries (16:19):
So aside from signing on with you of course, do you have any resources you think would be helpful for people that want to dabble in influencer marketing as one-person business?
Gabi Mondejar (16:30):
Definitely like I talked about earlier, you can get on those platforms just to even get your name out there to influencers even if you're not expecting a ton of campaigns. That could be on Aspire IQ, Cohley, the list goes on and on. You can look up those online and there are a lot of influencers that will even talk and list out their favorite platforms they find work on. So that's something to look at. I would say my biggest advice would honestly be not to waste your time on too many platforms though because you're not going to get exactly what you're targeting. It's such a vast platform with a variety of people. It's a lot more energy versus actually getting and yielding back results you want. Make sure that you're growing your account authentically even as a brand. Often what a new startup brand will do is they'll go and they'll buy like a thousand, 2000 followers and then when an influencer goes back and looks at your account, even as myself, personally I'd much rather work with a business that has 50 to a hundred followers, but I know that all 50 and a hundred of those are real and they're trying to grow their brand rather than with a company that has 40 k but they're getting 10 likes on a post.
(17:44):
That kind of then hurts me and my business and my authenticity. I want to be real and authentic. So as a brand, don't get suckered into, it's so easy. Buying followers is like a couple of bucks and you get a hundred dollars or a hundred followers, try and avoid that. You can hire outside agencies to find you partnerships. I mean that's kind of what I do with my business is on the brand side or the influencer side, you hire me to find you partnerships and with those agencies you have to be very careful because there are people that will try and charge you upfront and rip you off. With these agencies, there really shouldn't be upfront charge. It's all based on commission. So for every partnership secured, whatever X amount of dollars that is, it's 20-25% and that's the industry standard for that. So if it's just something you cannot take on the capacity to do, consider those outside agencies, but make sure that you're with the right agency for you, that they're well-versed in your niche and that they're not charging you up front.
Carly Ries (18:45):
Well that is super helpful advice, thank you. We're actually going to our last question. I feel like this is flown by so fast. This is something we ask all of our experts on this show and that is "what is your favorite quote about success?"
Gabi Mondejar (19:00):
Okay, one of my favorites, I have so many, but one of my favorites would be "if you're not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for ordinary." So basically in this industry, it's not an ordinary industry. Because it's so new, it's never going to be a nine to five kind of structure set up. When you're starting your own brand, as I'm sure many of you know, you work all the time because this is your baby and you're trying to get it off the ground. If you're really wanting the usual nine to five normal kind of life, then this industry is probably not for you. But when it does work out and you put in that work and all of those hours, you can grow such an awesome community, an awesome platform, and your sales will skyrocket if you do it right.
Carly Ries (19:46):
Love that. Well, Gabi, I have so enjoyed this conversation today. Where can people find you if they want to learn more or just follow your journey?
Gabi Mondejar (19:57):
Well, social media wise, I am, and of course it's a long complicated one. I'm so sorry guys, but I'm the_ gadabout_gab and then for business inquiries on the brand side or anything more of influencer marketing, you can check me out at Sage Coterie
Carly Ries (20:19):
And those are will both be in the show notes. So, if you have trouble spelling it or anything you can just click on the link there. Gabi, this is so great. I am so glad we had you on. I know I learned a lot and I feel like a dinosaur right now even though I'm not that much older than you, It's like you said, it is so new and it's ever evolving. So this was just super helpful information,
Joe Rando (20:43):
To me as well. Yeah, it was really interesting. I had no idea of I guess the subtleties involved in dealing with influencer marketing now given the trend, and the rate at which it's changing.
Gabi Mondejar (20:58):
Yes And it changes every day. And this isn't just an influencer marketing, but just social media. I know we all see it daily when we're working with our brands, but I mean, Instagram is constantly changing their rules. Like all of these platforms now were video driven, so even these influencers are making changes. I think that's been one thing I've even had to adjust with some of the people. It's not photo driven anymore. We have to switch to video content and brands are picking up on that. They want TikTok and they want reels. And even though TikTok can be really unreliable in how many views you can get, unlike Instagram. You kind of have a set number in Instagram, TikTok not so much, but brands are willing to risk that for that one viral video and we're learning every day. I like to remind people, take every learn about influencer marketing with a grain of salt because it'll be completely different next week.
Carly Ries (21:52):
So Gabi, what you're saying is we'll have you on again in next quarter and you'll have a whole new thing to say, <laugh>
Gabi Mondejar (21:59):
Only thing to update you on for sure.
Carly Ries (22:01):
Awesome. Perfect. We'll get you scheduled <laugh>. Well thank you so much again for coming on the show. And listeners, if you like what you hear, please do not forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts and we will see you next time.
(22:13):
CLOSING
(22:13):
You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes running a one-person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures. At Lifestarr, we're creating a One-Person Business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com
