How DTC Brand Casper Avoids Influencer Mishaps

in Influencer Marketing

Casper’s social media influencers started to repel consumers and adversely affect their reputation and their returns. In its Initial Public Offering (IPO), Casper warns that “influencers with whom we maintain relationships could also engage in behavior or use their platforms to communicate directly with our customers in a manner that reflects poorly on our brand.” Casper utilizes many social media platforms and relies heavily on influencers to post on Instagram and YouTube to spread the word about its products.

There are ways to avoid an influencer scandal and here are three important steps you should consider. First, look for more authentic influencers that are not celebrities so you can still get exposure while avoiding the risk for negative attention. Seek out micro-influencers for more meaningful engagement because they can provide genuine recommendations that consumers seek. Lastly, consider the relationship you have with your influencer network and look into having a contract so the poster’s content is not completely out of your control.

Casper Mattress Brand’s Influencer Marketing Approach

Casper has managed to build a successful eCommerce business by selling consumers mattresses that are supposed to last nine to ten years sight unseen. Casper disrupted many brick-and-mortar companies by using a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model. Before Casper brought DTC to the mattress industry, people went to brick-and-mortar retail locations to try out mattresses and then they went through a long sales process to purchase them. A robust referral-marketing program was another way for Casper to bypass the need for an on-site salesperson by tapping into the power of social proof and peer recommendations. Recommendations from friends, family, and influencers help to ease people’s fear while making a big-ticket purchase online. Credibility was built up from these recommendations and Casper soon became a trusted source propelling them into one of the most recognized mattress brands.

Choosing a Scandal-Less Influencer

It is bad news for brands if your chosen influencer gets caught up in a scandal or negative public discourse. A good influencer is not only a passionate influencer but they are also authentic, have a good reputation and are loyal to a brand. When choosing the right influencer, look for things they may have said that could be embarrassing to your business. Their commentary can influence their subscribers, followers or fans and if anything negative is out there, it will reflect poorly on your brand.

Sideqik is a great resource to find the right influencer and our research allows you to partner with an influencer that is the perfect fit for your brand. It can seem overwhelming on your own but Sideqik makes the process easy to find qualified influencers.

Look Beyond Follower Counts

One of the most crucial steps to launching an influencer marketing campaign is deciding on your goals. It is necessary to measure more than just the sheer number of followers, engagement and ROI are extremely important in gauging how successful your influencer partnership and campaign will be. If your campaign is going to boost sales conversions and brand recognition, then you don’t have a choice but to look at engagement as your most predictive metric.

Sideqik Authenticity Score

The new Sideqik offer looks at an influencer’s followers and can sort real from fake. It also gives brands a score of how “authentic” that influencer and their following is. This is a great resource to have before partnering with your influencer and it helps to reinforce their authenticity and mitigate any risks. This is also a great way to avoid any potential issues with your influencer that could ultimately hurt your brand.

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Nancy Rothman

Nancy is a passionate, results-driven marketing executive with more than a decade of experience in building robust integrated marketing programs for brands of all sizes, with specific expertise in the martech space. Prior to Sideqik, Nancy held roles at four successful martech startups, each of which received multiple series of fundraising and included two acquisitions. At CallRail, specifically, Nancy served as the director of marketing where she built the company’s brand and established it as a leader in its space. She also held roles at MeetEdgar, where she oversaw the entire sales and marketing practice, increasing the company's user base and annual recurring revenue, as well as PureCars, which was acquired by Raycom Media in 2015. As vice president of marketing for Sideqik, Nancy is responsible for developing and executing on the company's marketing strategy to drive overall business growth.