Typically, fans aren’t skeptical in purchasing an item if it was endorsed by their favorite celebrity. For instance, people would love to try out and spend hundreds of dollars for a hair supplement that was promoted by a famous celebrity with natural-born silky and shiny hair.
That’s how persuasive celebrities are! But as an entrepreneur or aspiring business owner, you definitely wanted to add noise in the marketplace, and get a celebrity to promote your products or services.
So the real question is, “How Can You Get a Celebrity to Endorse Your Product?”
How to Get Celebrity Endorsement?
A recent study obtained by the Harvard Business School concluded that celebrities prompt the increase of a brand’s sales by average of 4%.
As a matter of fact, one doesn’t necessarily need an A-Lists of celebrity to choose from. Besides being too pricey, you won’t really be offering your products to the world.
This is why it could be a celebrity or even an influencer that is famous in a certain industry or market niche that you want to sell to, and add value. As the number of social media users rises, the effectiveness of using influencers has proven to be true. They are more well-converse, honest, and loyal.
So the first-pro tip here is to connect through using their social media account, specifically, Instagram. As a start-up business, you don’t necessarily need to get more followers or views for you to start inviting celebrities and influencers.
Have you seen those business emails or inquiries attached at the ‘bio section’? Or have you seen YouTube channels with meta-descriptions? This is how they typically get connected to various businesses.
You might be surprised how responsive celebrities are in conversing using these emails. In some cases, they are the one who’s personally talking without any manager or middleman in between. So what are the best ways to convince them?
Pay A Celebrity
The most common and simplistic thing to do is to actually ‘pay a celebrity’ to endorse your product. Almost all celebrity doesn’t have any reason to reject your offer as long as it involves *cha-ching*, money.
However, the only cons with that is the fact that their fee is as expensive as you could imagine. Unrecognized celebrities can accept a $100 offer while the mainstream would require a much more extravagant value.
Think of it this way, you’d like Brad Pitt to endorse your product yet you only have $100 in your pocket. How certain are you that you’re Brad’s going to accept your offer? Probably never!
This is why small- and starting- businesses want to resort to alternative ways of doing so. But how?
Free Items - Who doesn’t love free ‘anything’?
It may not be as enticing for other celebrities yet it could be an effective way. See, most people believe that all celebrities have fortune and fame. But little do they know is that only a few percent of these celebrities got these two. Others have fortune with no fame while some have fame without fortune.
If you have a cosmetic brand, try to target celebrities and influencers that are die-hard fans of make-ups. To be honest, it could be anything, a lipstick, foundation, and even make-up brushes!
Just make sure your brand name is noticeable, and your contact email, address, and social media accounts are there as well. People love generosity!
Offer Equity
When you tied down to a famous celebrity endorser, chances are, they would be the face of your brand.
You can lock them in, and fans would know what their favorite celebrity is currently endorsing. Plus, you don’t have to pay money upfront.
You can offer equity in the form of ownership or by offering a consistent chain of product and services just like what most athletics are doing. Remember Stephen Curry and Under Armour? Something like that.
However, this also means that your brand is tied to their name. So if anything happens to your endorser such as facing issues, scandal, and such, it can definitely affect your brand. Much worse, it can damage your reputation.
So you can choose offering equity (because of its effectiveness), or choose a short-term contract which could also be a possible choice since every now and then, people get out of the flavor.
Align with a Cause
If a celebrity is an advocate of non-profit organizations or charities, then might as well keep an eye on them. It creates a common ground - you need promotion, they need a good image (and other benefits).
You can even refer to Michael Jordan and Nike or Jennifer Aniston and Aveeno. They weren’t randomly chosen by these brands. It has something to do with what they are truly passionate about, and their lifestyle.
This creates a common interest for consumers, fans, endorsers, and the brands. Believe me, pitching your idea to these kinds of celebrities is way easier.
It doesn’t necessarily have to reveal that they are endorsing your products. Just a simple, “dine-out at my favorite restaurant” instead of following the traditional way of promoting products that you commonly see in televisions with scripted narration, could make a difference.
Always think about what your consumers prefer, and what is your target niche. Stay true to your vision, aim for your mission, and create a long-lasting loyalty bond with your consumers.
So no matter what stage are you in the business - starting, small-, well-known, or a corporation, getting celebrities to endorse your products is one of the most, if not, the most effective advertisement nowadays! aSo far, what are your thoughts on these?
