The Hinch Effect: The Proof That Influencer Marketing Is Still Alive & Kicking

I couldn’t wait to write about this one, because honestly what better an argument for influencer marketing than none other than Mrs. Hinch herself? The cleaning sensation has far surpassed giving you inspiration to tidy your home. She’s now a fully-fledged Instagram influencer who has over 2 million devoted followers. Recently, she asked her fans: “do you follow me just for cleaning tips, or for my home life as well?” I don’t remember the exact poll result, but what I do remember was that it was a landslide vote for “home life”, I think around 92% or something like that. Thus proving that not only is Sophie Hinchcliff an Instagram user you’ll go to when you need to be inspired to clean, but also one that people engage with on a day to day basis and relate to.

Therefore, when checking through Mrs. Hinch’s stories yesterday (as I do every evening because I too am a HUGE fan), I was unsurprised to see her recommending a small business she’d dealt with only earlier that day. Sophie and her family had a loft ladder installed and after posting a few videos of the ladder in action, she also uploaded a screenshot of the company who fitted it for her, recommending them to her followers. As far as I’m aware, this wasn’t a gifted service nor the product of influencer marketing, this was just Mrs. Hinch genuinely recommending a business she’d had a good experience with.

The ‘Hinch’ Effect

Out of curiosity, I thought I’d click through to the small business, just to see if her sharing their page had any impact on their following (which was a small 49 before they’d been ‘hinched’).

And I must say, even I (who knows the value of Influencer Marketing), was truly shocked. When I checked last night, their following had grown from 48 to just over 28,000. When I checked again just now, guess where they’re at…

Just to put this into perspective, 48 to 33,300 is an increase of 69275%.

The influence of this influencer is off the scale.

How Influential Are Influencers?

Now, I’ve long been a critic of Influencer Marketing that’s not carried out effectively. Because of laziness and deceit, there’s been a lot of cases where the practice has turned out to be anything but successful. However, while I’ve been the first to challenge Influencer Marketing when it’s not done effectively, I’m also a champion of when it’s done right.

For example (and this is a very rough and broad example, forgive me), utilising a beauty influencer to sell homeware products probably isn’t worth your time or money. As is using an ex-Love Island star to promote car air fresheners (which does happen).

And by the same token, another issue of influencer marketing is not only this poor outreach, but the willingness to accept any business offered by some influencers. Some (and there are a few) will accept any paid promotion if the price is right, but this considerably lowers the impact that this kind of marketing will have. If you’re doing sponsored posts every day of products you aren’t passionate about, then you’re not only likely to use following – but you’re also less likely to convince your followers that this is a product or service that you genuinely endorse.

These are the two fundamental things wrong with influencer marketing.

So, enter Mrs. Hinch. Who blows these negative connotations of the influencer world out of the water.

She only promotes products and services she genuinely uses herself. And what’s more, not every Instagram story or grid post from her is promoting sponsored content. In fact, I’d say about 80% of her social media is genuine, honest reviews of products that she’s brought out of her own pocket. That’s what makes her relatable. And that’s why her words have such an impact. It’s all about trust.

These kinds of personality traits are something I look for myself when working with influencers. Follower count isn’t important as genuine engagement and honest influence. I’d rather an influencer have 100 followers who’d be likely to engage with a brand that they promote, than an influencer with 1000 followers with a very low rate of interaction.

Numbers Don’t Lie

But don’t just take my word for it, I also have the FACTS to back up my view that Mrs. Hinch is probably the most influential Instagram user out there.

Ellie Wray, Content Marketing Manager at Rise At Seven, kindly shared with me some research she conducted back in May this year, which found that Sophie has…

• Around 93.6k authentic engagements per POST
• 94% of followers that are highly engaged
• NO paid or fake following

Furthering this, during her Instagram hiatus during her pregnancy earlier this year, research by Silverbean found that search interest in Mrs. Hinch’s preferred cleaning brands fell to an average of 23.3/100, down from 28.9/100 in May 2019.

Not only is she a rising star in the world of social, but her fans are devoted and consistent. You can’t go far wrong with an endorsement from Mrs. Hinch.

Thus proving the argument that Influencer Marketing is still very much alive and kicking. You just have to make sure you’re working with the right kind.

What do you think? Join in on the conversation via this Twitter thread below, or let me know in the comments what you think of Mrs. Hinch’s influence!