Here at Olympic Eyewear, we strive to do more than just sell wholesale designer sunglasses to retailers. We want to help our customers succeed. To that end, we are always thinking of ways retailers can market their sunglasses to a larger but more targeted audience. Here is a suggestion: marketing through social media influencers.
Influencer marketing is more appropriate for fully established retailers with good financial resources behind them. However, even a sunglasses startup can hook up with a brand-new social media influencer trying to build an audience. Maybe you can make it work. You supply the designer sunglasses while the social media influencer provides the audience.
Why Consider Social Media Influencers to Market Your Designer Sunglasses
By now, you might wonder why you should consider social media influencers as a marketing opportunity. First and foremost, setting one brand of sunglasses apart from the rest isn't always easy. Let's face it, there isn't a whole lot of variation in sunglasses. So you need to find a way to make your mark.
As for social media influencers, one of the biggest advantages they bring to the table is their ability to influence a targeted and enthusiastic audience. Maybe your preferred demographic is the female audience between 18 and 35. Find an influencer who successfully appeals to them, and you have a very strong audience who, by its very nature, is heavily influenced by the people they follow on social media.
Different Ways to Market Your Designer Sunglasses
If you were to decide to market designer sunglasses through social media influencers, the one thing we would recommend is that you be very clear about what you expect from your influencer partners. You need to know how they intend to help you, what they can do for you, how you will compensate them, etc.
There are different ways to market sunglasses through social media influence. Here are just three of them:
- Sponsored Posts – In a sponsored post scenario, the influencer creates and publishes a post either directly discussing your product or at least giving it a significant mention. Ideally, you would want posts to be direct. Adding pictures and descriptions to the posts helps a lot.
- Brand Ambassadors – A brand ambassador is a person who promotes a product or service for a set fee. You can pay social media influencers to wear your sunglasses, mention them in their content, and otherwise promote them within the context of what they normally do.
- Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is a scenario in which an influencer places ads for your products on their own website. When those ads generate leads that go directly to your site, the influencer earns a small commission. You could also set things up so that the influencer gets paid for sales rather than leads only.
Again, the draw of working with social media influencers is their ability to reach a targeted audience that is already enthusiastic about what that person has to offer. The larger and more enthusiastic an influencer's audience, the better for you as a retailer.
Things to Remember
There are some key things to remember about this form of marketing. First and foremost, audience strength is everything. You should look for influencers whose audiences are loyal and stable. Second, choose influencers based on the people you want to sell your sunglasses to. Do not choose influencers who cater to up-and-coming Gen Zers if you're trying to sell children's sunglasses to middle-class parents.
Social media influencers represent one way to separate your retail operation from the competition. If you are looking for a new and innovative way to market designer sunglasses, at least consider it.