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Meet The Woman Who Helps Fashion Influencers Get Rich Quick

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Amber Venz Box

'Work from home' and 'get rich quick' schemes have long been idolised as the Chupacabra of career choices. The idea that someone's skillset - however specific - could not only create a sustainable income but a superior lifestyle has titillated the everyman for decades.

Only now, it is achievable. Not only by those who innovate and challenge the status quo, but by those who post pictures of their outfits on social media.

We are in the hey day of influence. The literal likability of a person can build a money-making brand in months, if not days, based solely on their style and interests.

And it's happening far easier than you might expect. Rather than traditional advertising methods where a model or celebrity might be paid to endorse a product or brand, billionaire bloggers and designer-wielding digital nomads are making serious money through platforms like rewardStyle (an affiliate tool used to earn commission on promoted products) and LIKEtoKNOW.it (an app which makes social media shopable).

It is now as easy as: 1) wear a watch, 2) Instagram said watch with a customised link, 3) sit back and watch your passive commission roll in.

For Amber Venz Box, president and co-founder of both aforementioned companies, the business model was an unexpected necessity. In April 2010, she launched a blog to act as a marketing tool for her personal shopping business and quickly discovered her audience preferred to use her recommendations to shop online rather than book and pay for time with her.

Box said: "My business quickly moved online but I did not have a digital monetization plan. Offline, I was paid a commission for the sales I generated, and I wanted to have that same model for my new online business so I could continue to support myself - that was the impetus for rewardStyle."

Of course, bloggers had little to no mass consumer clout when the platform launched in 2011 and, in turn, the company only managed to find a handful of brands willing to honour traditional commission models in a digital capacity.

Today, rewardStyle is the indisputable backbone of the global influencer industry. The invitation-only platform powers the profits of nearly 40,000 influencers worldwide, providing each user personal product links to over 4,500 brands (with another 1,500 applying for access to the influencers every quarter).

Consumers now purchase more than $1 billion in fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle products through rewardStyle influencers.

"Every year we welcome new rewardStyle millionaires - those influencers who earn more than $1 million per year through the rewardStyle platform," Box continues. "With rewardStyle providing a platform for sustainable monetization, Influencer is now a career choice. Brands are investing well over $100 million in the rewardStyle platform annually and enterprise clients are doubling their investment year over year, on average, and this is still an emerging part of the marketing industry.

"Thanks to proprietary tools, we provides the most detailed level of reporting available in the influencer industry, including retail performance cross-channel and on a geographic level.

"In the digital age, brands are looking for rationalization in marketing - increasing ROI and reducing CAC - and our campaign casting tools empower them to invest in the most rationalized way. Brands tell us that rewardStyle earns more of their budget each year because it is a top three channel for them, sitting alongside Google and Facebook.

"As the market creator, leader and innovator, we are proud to have reached a point where influencer marketing is such an important and effective marketing strategy."

It is important to remember, however, that the reason businesses aren't Mad Men-ing their way around the internet - the reason these tactics are working - is because the very nature of marketing guarantees the eventual fatigue of all strategies. This billion dollar industry, however fruitful, is subject to change.

LIKEtoKNOW.it

Box weighs in: "We are entering the post-web world, as consumers migrate into native mobile channels. rewardStyle powers influencers, not YouTubers, Instagrammers, Bloggers, Tweeters - but influencers. We believe that the platform does not define them, but is instead the current medium of choice for their content.

"As consumption habits change, we are focusing on building and growing technologies that meet consumer needs, so that our influencers and brands can continue to grow their businesses."

'Influencer' is a job rewardStyle has helped promote to an astonishing cultural norm and, thus, become one of the most desirable paths for future-glancing teens.

"Influencer is a career choice and like any career, it takes time to build, it takes relationships and partnerships, and a real plan and strategy," Box said. "Influencer success is not found, it is earned.

"As far as practical advice goes, you must know your niche, create compelling content that provides real value to an audience, be professional, always be learning, be a friend, ask for advice, lean into your business partners for more, set goals, and don’t confuse business success with personal value.

"Your follower count is not your bank account and it is not a gauge of your personal worth. Don’t look to your career for your happiness - set boundaries around your work life and don’t settle."