What Happens When Your Influencer Outreach Backfires? Em Clarkson STICKS IT To Bootea

It seems like we spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of not only a solid Influencer outreach campaign, but also the ‘virality’ it can achieve if all goes well. Certain Influencers have the ability to really make something catch like wildfire (much like Fyre fest, until it metaphorically burned out) and this can often leave brands with more than they bargained for – quite literally.

BUT, what happens on the flip side of the coin? When your Influencer outreach takes a turn for the worst and comes back to bite you instead?

Influencer Marketing, It’s Perks And Its Flaws

Influencer Marketing, has many flaws, but it also has many perks too.

The main one probably being that the right person can expand your brand’s reach far further than traditional restrictive methods could ever. That’s why it’s still a successful marketing tactic for many, and why it’s still used in abundance. However, while I am an advocate for Influencer Marketing when it’s gotten right, I’m also probably one of it’s worst critics when it’s gotten wrong.

I’ve written previously about the flaws in the system, like when Georgia from Love Island promoted hunger suppressants and received tonnes of backlash. I’ve had a guest post which gave an insight into what Influencer Marketing is really like (including the revelation that most captions are pre-written). And I’ve also more recently questioned whether the Influencer Marketing bubble has burst altogether, after a self-proclaimed ‘influencer’ failed to sell 36 of her own-range t-shirts.

One thing I haven’t yet spoken about, though. Is when the influencer purposely has an adverse effect on your business. When your outreach, that you hope will help you strike gold, actually shoots you in the foot instead.

Introducing, Emily Clarkson. An icon of our generation.

Em Clarkson STICKS IT to ‘Bootea’

One of my absolute favourite influencers, and probably one of the only ones I’m actually ‘influenced’ by is Author, Blogger and Instagrammer Em Clarkson.

The main reason I find this young lady so inspirational, impressionable and influential is because she only cares to talk about what she actually cares about. Much unlike the majority of Influencers nowadays who’ll promote just about anything for a quick buck.

And one of the biggest thing she cares about – if Bootea would have cared to check out her page before hitting send on another generic outreach message – is body positivity. That everybody should be comfortable in their own skin and should be healthy in a way that’s, well, healthy. She’s not – ought I mention – the type to promote laxatives cleverly disguised as ‘booty shakes’ to help, in Em’s words, “people feel shit about themselves”.

Unfortunately, this lame outreach tactic isn’t uncommon in the Influencer Marketing industry. There’s a lot of laziness in all corners, to be honest. From influencers not writing their own captions, to brand churning out the same generic message to everybody. This is just one of the detrimental factors that have flawed the industry as we know it. However, amongst all these cock-ups and mistakes, there’s one common denominator – they aren’t usually called out. In fact, I bet we’re pretty much blind to around 95% of mismatched outreach attempts. Until Em decided to take action.

She started with an Instagram post, which was pretty iconic in itself and already has generated over 1.2k likes, slating Bootea and their poorly judged ‘collaboration’ mail.

But then, clearly still irked about the whole affair, Em went one step further. Creating a whole IGTV post around what probably would have happened if she’d have graciously accepted Bootea’s charming offer. I would highly recommend you watch it. As, to be quite honest, it’s brilliant.

What’s The Impact?

So I mentioned earlier that brands are quick to boast when their Influencer Marketing is successful. But what about when those tens of thousands of engagement numbers are actually tens of thousands of people tuning in to hear your brand slated instead?

Well, if my own personal experiences are anything to go off, I’d like to say that Em has successfully promoted the dangers and implications of using products such of Bootea on both your physical and mental health, to her followers at the very least. Probably putting many people off the product altogether. I for one, am exactly the type of person who’d probably try one of these types of products in a desperate bid to drop some pounds for summer. But Influencers such as Em Clarkson keep me grounded. If anybody else has the same thoughts as me (which I presume they shall), then that’s Bootea about to lose out on a lot of potential profits at the hands of a poorly judged mistake.

Probably not what they bargained for, eh? But I guess that’s what you get for being completely out of touch during your Influencer outreach.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter.