In this interview we’re meeting up with Sebastian Møller Sardemann, Performance Marketing Specialist at Sinful, to take a closer look into what it’s like to work with influencer marketing with a brand that operates in a sector where the subject and products normally can be taboo to talk about openly.
Sinful is an erotic online shop where everyone should feel welcome. Sinful’s international team work passionately on their mission to bring more love, play and intimacy to everyday life, and since 2008 they've inspired their customers to have a more playful sex life.
Sebastian, what’s your role at Sinful?
Glad to take part in this interview! I work as Performance Marketing Manager at Sinful, with responsibilities that include influencer marketing and surrounding strategies within our digital marketing.
When did Sinful start with influencer marketing, and why?
We started working with influencer marketing during the last quarter of 2019, and started our collaboration and partnership with Interlaced Influencers in the middle / end of 2020. Since then we’ve had a lot of successful collaborations and campaigns - and we’ve also of course learned a lot during this period.
In comparison to other market activities, how important is influencer marketing to Sinful?
Influencer marketing is really important for us. Both as an individual marketing strategy, and as a mix of many activities. We’re working with influencer marketing with a few KPIs, but we really value building trust and generating both sales and traffic via influencer marketing.
When it comes to influencer marketing we usually talk about nano-, micro- and macro influencers. Do you work with all types of influencers, or do you focus on a specific size?
Great question! We work with all types of sizes when it comes to influencers. Many of our micro influencers we work with are connected to Interlaced Influencers, but also many of our macro influencers. Nano influencers are a bit more rare in our daily collaborations, but are not excluded just because they’re a bit smaller than normally. Our focus is to always reach our targeted audience - no matter the size of the influencer.
Many e-commerce brands find big success in influencer marketing, but sometimes brands struggle to find the right collaborations. What’s your best tip for these e-commerce businesses?
If I had to give one tip to other e-commerce businesses it would be to always focus on the targeted audience. Compare the influencers followers with your target audience and always make sure that there’s a clear match between these two parameters. The only scenario really where this is not as important is when the activation of a specific influencer is made with the intention of reaching a new audience. Audience is key, basically.
Since Sinful is based in Denmark, how is it to work with influencers in different countries?
Sometimes it is difficult establishing a dialogue to begin with if the influencers don't know about us already. Though this is a part of our long term strategy since we’re always building brand via influencers in other countries, and given that we’re doing this successfully - we’ll for each day eliminate this difficulty.
As an e-commerce business, what’s the biggest advantage when it comes to influencer marketing?
The biggest advantage is that you have an authentic way of reaching your audience, since social media is consumed daily by most people that are a part of our audience. Also, a big advantage is that everything is trackable and transparent regarding results, traffic, clicks and sales since everything is digital.
How do Sinful make sure that the content that is created by influencers keep a high quality?
We put a lot of trust in the influencers that we work with in order to keep it authentic as possible, and in most cases we don’t have anything to mention regarding the content that has been produced since the influencers know their audience the best. Though, we always look into the content they make and follow up if there is something to mention and adjust for future collaborations.
Influencers are individuals who take some great pride in their work and making sure that the content that they create is personal. How do Sinful make sure that the content is personal, but also match the Sinful brand?
We always provide our influencers with a short campaign brief to make sure that all influencers know what we’re looking for, and what we want them to focus on in every campaign. The rest regarding the content creation is up to the individual influencer.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions Sebastian. Lastly, if e-commerce businesses should take on things with them from this interview - what would that be?
Thank you so much for letting me answer these questions! This answer is easy - just get started! :)