In this episode...

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Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.

Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family, and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day.

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Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. And today, we are catching an interview that we had with Samia from Taqdeer Life. We did this interview on IG TV on Instagram, I would say about a few months back. And I thought what a great opportunity to put it on the podcast so you guys can catch what she had to say about influencer marketing. And you know how I feel about influencer marketing, it is the strategy that we used to help sell more of our products and basically, become a brand in our community that helped Walmart become more confident to carry our products in the store.

So I want you to catch the interview. She does talk about specific things that she learned. During the entire program, she speaks about group coaching sessions that she enjoyed. She also said all the information is provided in bite-sized segments so it's easy to digest and complete the tasks associated with the material. So I want you guys to take away what she has to say and think about how she has transformed as a business owner. You will notice that Samia says she's much more confident now when it comes to approaching business owners. You'll also notice that she feels empowered to approach content creators. And she knows that if she hears something that's not quite right, she's more confident to approach the content creators and get further clarification.

Okay, guys, without further a do, let's chat with Samia from Taqdeer Life. And remember, if you'd like to join the program, it is currently open. And you can head to bossit.club.com/imme, that is bossitclub.com/imme. And now, let's get on with our episode. 

Samia Quddus: So I am creator of an Islamic gratitude journal which is called Taqdeer Life. It is faith and psychology-inspired. And it came about a couple of years ago when I was going through quite a difficult time myself and I was looking at gratitude journals. But I couldn't find anything that had an Islamic element to it. That was also backed by psychology as well had either-or. It was either a little bit of Islamic, some few Islamic principles, or you had other journals which had some science in it. But there wasn't anything that was combined together. And my intention was to try and create something that incorporated both those aspects. And it helps the fact that I was also trained to become a therapist. 

Sophia Noreen: And you practice right now? 

Samia Quddus: Yes. 

Sophia Noreen: A psychotherapist? How has the designations in that in the UK? 

So I am a psychotherapist, and I work with children, young people and adults. So I worked like a therapeutically with a range of different demographics. So yes, my journal really pretty much came about as a result of my work and just trying to find something that people could focus on. And the large part of my work is to try and encourage practices that can support emotional and psychological wellbeing as well. Especially within the Muslim community, when you think about mental health issues, there's a big stigma associated with it. So my intention was to try and encourage practices, which were quite favorable and also in line with faith-based practices which encouraged things like gratitudes. [inaudible] really important thing to cultivate. That's amazing. I just want to touch on the mental health component because I do feel there is a huge stigma in our community. I'm in the Toronto area, we have a large South Asian community. It's not just our community of Muslims, we have all face of South Asian descent that have a huge situation that they're bearing the brunt right now of having multi-generational families in a home and expectations, then the lack of validation of feelings of the younger generation. So I was actually on mental health. I launched a mental health program to the community last year, very short order, within four months. And we hired four psychotherapists and social workers, masters in social work. So that's available in Brampton for anybody who's listening. There is community mental health. So just DM me and I'll send you the link. You can self-refer into the program. And we have the ability for Punjabi speaking and Hindi speaking and Urdu speaking therapists. So if you guys need that level. So that's our pitch with all the mental health talk. We could go on forever probably, Samia, about mental health. If anybody has any comments, you can leave them or ask us. But we're here too to talk about business, and how Samia decided to take the program. And I want to know why she decided to take it and how it helped her with promoting her business with marketing her business. 

Samia Quddus: So I think the most important thing for was, last year, I had completed my studies I had gone into therapist training. And I had launched my journal a year before that in 2018. I wasn't sure how it would be taken. I had absolutely no understanding. Just no idea. Okay, I've got this thing here, and let's see how people react to it. Over the course of the couple of years I've had it, it's done really well. And people have come back with really positive reviews and feedback in terms of how it's helped them and even just stating that benefits. And I've even had a couple of people come back with really detailed emails which I haven't shared with anyone because it's so private. Just explaining how it's helped them through depression, anxiety. Some people feeling suicidal and how it's given them a sense of purpose to look out for things which are things that they can be grateful for every day. Just looking for the positives. 

So knowing that it had that kind of impact and after I'd completed my studies, I was able to like I want to take this forward now. I know this works. I want to be able to make sure that there is an awareness of it that if people need it that they know there's something like that out there.

Samia Quddus: And my work primarily is on Instagram. The sales that I receive of majority, 95% of my sales of by Instagram. So it's a big area for me to try and look in. And I don't think that I gave the platform justice, especially the fact that I use it to promote my work. I don't think I actually used it effectively. And I've said this to a couple of my friends as well that, you know, I just feel this or didn't do that. But then I made the intention and actually, I realized that so let me do something about it. And I have actually worked with a couple of influencers on the platform in the last year or so. And I've had quite positive experiences. And it's been a learning experience for me in terms of how to approach, how to pitch my product as well. And it's not for everyone. I think some influencers sometimes because it's got an Islamic element to it. It can put them off. That they want to be completely neutral in a sense of not having any sort of faith aspect related to it. So that was fine. That's okay. It may work for some, it may not work for others. So my intention for joining the course was because I wanted to invest in it and think, okay, right. I can take this forward now. And I want to know the strategies and the techniques that are important, especially when you are working with influencers, especially the legal aspects of it as well, you know, forming all contracts and ensuring that both parties are protected. Because it's not something that I've ever thought about, really. 

Sophia Noreen: Yes, it's interesting because there is not a lot of information on how to conduct a campaign. I don't think it's stressed enough. You'll read blogs and you'll do a little research here and there. But I did not see many areas suggesting to have a service agreement put in place and a legal service agreement. And you don't need to go to a lawyer for it. We do have abilities to get those contractual agreements. Put in place by ourselves and then having it noted. And I was a little bit surprised only because I had done it. I thought that was the way you should be done. But then when I spoke to different business owners, I realized what was happening rather was there was just a verbal agreement. There was no structure to the campaign. Business owners were just sending packages out and hoping that their products will get shared. And in discussion with some of them, I felt like they were pitching themselves to the influencers rather than the influencer pitching. You are hiring them, they're not hiring you. And I just was like, no, that's not the way it works. If you are a brand and you're going to have the ability to either compensate them through monetary means or through a gift, then you are the one who's choosing the influencer. Or you'd both choose each other. They can decide to say, you know, this doesn't really fit with my brand or you're out of my price range. I actually am dealing with more corporations now and less with small businesses, and that's completely fine. But that understanding has to happen at the beginning. And I think that's why a lot of people have a negative impression of influencer marketing, but it is the most powerful tool right now for small businesses. Even big corporations use them. 

I was listening to a chat with marketers that are working for big, big companies and they were working for Walmart, and they use influencer marketing. They hire 200. And they're usually, followers are between 200,000 to 1 million is who they are looking at. But that's because Walmart can afford to pay the price tag for those influencers. And then they hire them for a 6-month contract or a 3-month contract. So that's the reason why, I was like, you know what? This is unfortunate. We need to be able to understand a little bit more about how to use this technique. And I'm really happy that you felt that the program, it helped you with that. You want to highlight anything else from the program that you felt was surprising 

Samia Quddus: I think I wasn't sure what to expect if I'm completely honest. But your program was really detailed. And the objectives that you covered for each module, that you stated that you would cover, you covered it. And I felt that it was beyond as well. It went beyond that too. And I felt that it was really in-depth and very thorough. And the weekly core sessions that you had with us as well, were really helpful. Because that gave us a chance to go over any areas that we just didn't know. I had a couple of areas that I wasn't quite sure about, especially when it came to the numbers and how to figure things out. And it's not something that I'd actually considered prior to doing the course. And I haven't come across anything like your course. It feels so accessible to learn something and then apply it as well. What's really helped me, Sophia, is also the fact that I feel quite empowered. And I feel very confident now to be able to approach influencers like I know my stuff. I feel as I know my stuff. So if something comes back and I'm not sure about it, at least I can say this is why I think I'm not sure about it. Or even the opposite, if it is positive and I know that, yes, actually this is how it's supposed to be done. The media kit that you talked about, that how it's important to look at certain aspects within an influencers media kit so that you know that you're working with someone who's credible and knows their stuff.

Sophia Noreen: Yes. We don't know what we don't know at the end of the day. As a new business owner, I didn't even know. I actually, some of those things that I have put into the course I've done because I made mistakes. Even simple things like choosing an influencer. People will think that they have chosen the correct influencer. But when they go through the exercise, they realize, oh, maybe this is not the right fit for my company. Maybe my ideal customer is not within their cohort. Within the first week we do go through that exercise and we go through and make sure you have money in your margin. If you don't have enough money and you sign up somebody who's asking for, let's say, a large sum, you've essentially taken all of your potential margin and more. And you've given it to your influencer. So it's about really understanding your numbers. Also, really understanding your customer. And I just hope the goal for the program was to really break it down into very bite-sized tasks basically. Because it can get overwhelming. 

Samia Quddus: They were bite-sized. And I think if you have invested the money into it, which I felt was very, you know, it was good value for the course, then you need to put the effort in. And you need to learn, and you need to actually dedicate your time to go through the modules and to go through the activities. I didn't find that it was too overwhelming. 

Sophia Noreen: Okay, good. 

Samia Quddus: I found that it was pretty much okay. But yes, the psychographics that you talked about in the first week in relation to the ideal customer, the psychographics ensuring that who you're looking at that their lifestyle, their beliefs, and their values, in line with the product that you have. Again, these areas I hadn't actually considered before. It was just like, let me see who I can approach. Let me see who'd be happy to promote my journal. But actually, your product may not be suitable for a lot of influencers. And again, you'll know that when you have the conversation. But even looking at your numbers, you will know that as well. 

If you have any questions about the program, Samia is saying, she was reaching out to anybody regarding influencer marketing. She wasn't sure what to look for. And the real concern is by doing that, you're maybe hitting up an influencer who is not appropriate for your brand and for your product. And what that means is that cohort of followers may not be the ones who would actually buy your product anyway. So by investing in their time to provide you content, then you are essentially throwing money away. So we want to make sure that as a business owner, you're taking the most strategic approach. You're calculating your numbers. And we actually have a really amazing worksheet that I love. I use it, that helps you even generate an idea, a mark like basically a high and a low of what an influencer can provide to you. It's, again, it is an estimate but it's better than nothing. 

Samia Quddus: Yes. The estimates are so helpful even just to give our projection in terms of your return on income and if it's worth it if it really is worth it. And you also provide options. It's not just, this is just one way of doing it. There are different ways of working with an influencer. There are different types of influencers. Not all influencers are the same. And you can base how much you invest into that on those aspects as well. But you need to know that before you approach them. And that's what I think the course equipped you with that sort of knowledge that, this is the stuff you need to know before you really get on with it. So yes, and I found it really beneficial. And I'm not just saying that. I actually did. 

Sophia Noreen: I'm very happy to hear that. But considering you guys are part of my community, I did start with founders in our community. And now, we opened up the inner circle. And the reason why was because there were a lot of people that approached afterward asking, so the course wasn't intended to open right now. We were going to open it up maybe again in the fall. But then I realized I'm like, oh no, I feel bad. I don't want to shut it down. And then people need that structured knowledge. Then there's no problem for me to open it up. And we had the one-on-one sessions each week too. So we meet for an hour live on zoom. If there are questions, they're not just left. And we've also done something else, Samia. I don't think your account would have been effective, but we put on a drip. So, people who are enrolling right now, get Module 0 right away. And then they get Module 1 the next day. So what that means is you're not needing to wait. Like the first group needed to wait each week to get the material. We had a set schedule. This time, rather than doing a set schedule,if you enroll, like we have had a few members enrolled and they've already gotten started on Module 1. And then we also have the inner circle. So the price point is for the inner circle and then we will increase it only because it's only fair to the people who have signed up and they've taken advantage of that promotion. So I do recommend anybody who's considering it only because Samia has stated and that I think most members have stated they didn't know what to do with influencer marketing before. They were just going at it as a guess. And it's not a guessing game. This is your real money and your real-time. 

Samia Quddus: There is a strategy. And if you want to do well on Instagram, if you want to use the platform effectively, you need to know how to do that. And yes, it just equips you with the knowledge, to be honest. It's very helpful. 

Sophia Noreen: The other thing I think is our community is smaller. We do talk about this aspect of seeing things multiple times in the psychology of selling. We do talk about that in the program as well. As business owners, we don't have the time. As many of us are doing this in addition to another job as well, we don't have the time to pump out content all the time. It's not feasible unless, you know. If it is your full-time, that's great. Do what you can do. But I don't think you get the reach without using the influencer marketing platform. And we're trying this year and I'll definitely keep everyone posted. It is lifetime access to the program. So as I find out new information, you guys do get the updated modules. So we're going to try Tiktok this year as well. Because that is influencer marketing. They will be on the new platform. We're going to see what the conversion rates are like. Is it the same as Instagram? Is it different? And then we can advise. So in a way, we're doing the testing for you guys. And then if it's something that is working for us, then we will definitely share it. Because we want to make sure that brands succeed. We don't want, you know, you just start and between zero to five years, you fizzle out. They call it the valley of death in silicone valley, between zero years and five years. And the reason why is because most businesses don't have enough capital to keep their business running. And the steam of the founders, and then they stop.

So it's the same idea. If you started something, you might as well do it correctly and go full out. And I'm not saying you can't do influence marketing without taking the course. But I just want to make sure you have taken account of everything. I don't want you to start doing it and then realize halfway through your campaign that, oh, I didn't do a campaign agreement or whatever else. They don't have the right ideal customer. Or they ask too much money for too much money, and I don't have an exact idea of how much they're going to bring me in a return. Those are things that I feel like have control over. We're the business owners. So I want everyone to be able to walk away confidently when they start their campaign that they did the due diligence. They have the paperwork in place. 

Samia Quddus: They have a strategy. They know what they're doing. So that they can go in equipped definitely. And I think there are so many brands on Instagram. It's just completely saturated as well with so many different products. And yes, there are influencers as well. So it is important to be able to get your work out there if it is a platform that you use predominantly that generates sales for you. 

Sophia Noreen: Yes, I agree. Samia, do you have a preference of how... if people wanted to ask you about the program. Samia has a code as well. She can provide you a link. 

Samia Quddus: DM is good. 

Sophia Noreen: DM is good? 

Samia Quddus: Yes, Dm is good. 

Sophia Noreen: Yes, so you can reach out to Samia if you have any personal questions. To myself as well. Do you have anything to say about your products? 

Samia Quddus: If you're looking for something that is going to be a meaningful Ramadan gift for friends or family or even something that you'd like to start focusing on yourself in terms of spiritual development and psychological development in a sense of how gratitude can support your wellbeing, then this is a good product to have. Inshallah. I am currently doing a launch good campaign. So I've got the revised version that I am now currently is in print. So if anyone would like a copy, then the link is in my bio to order.

Sophia Noreen: Yes, wonderful. So you're going to head over to Samia's link. And she will have a link to the launch good campaign. So is it the launch good campaign to support the printing of the journal? 

Samia Quddus: That's right, yes. The printing of the journal where you can pre-order and then that automatically ensures that you have got a copy. And that goes towards the printing.

Sophia Noreen: Inshallah. That's awesome. That's exciting. But when you see something in print, it becomes so real. 

Samia Quddus: It does, it does. It's like yay, it's actually happening. 

Sophia Noreen: Yes. Yes, definitely. No doubt. do you talk about whether the number of followers matters? Yes, we do. We go into big depth on that. We talk about what vanity metrics are. We do take an account of followers. But it's not in the sense that you would think. Samia, if you want to add to that.

Samia Quddus: Yes, I think in the nicest way, it's not just about the followers, the number of followers. There are so many other things to look at and you'll know that once you are doing the course, really, there are so many different factors that are important, and the tools that you provide help us to go and research as well. And see if actually these influencers or these affiliates, if they are going to help support the work that we would like them to support. 

Sophia Noreen: That's right. When it comes to influencer marketing, do you talk about the best ways to reach out to them?

Samia Quddus: Yes, I think you do. You do. And I think the most important aspect that you've touched upon is forming and developing that relationship. Again, because there are different types of influencers. There are different techniques and different ways to be able to connect with them. But definitely, yes, the big ones are really difficult, I think, to connect with. Because in terms of their DMs, they probably get flooded. So it's just different approaches. 

Sophia Noreen: Yes. So we go through the different levels of influencers and what's the best strategy to reach out to them. In the program, we have spoken to the small brands. I don't know, Samia, if you notice this, but we did steer you a little bit more to the micro-influencers and how to best... And the reason we did that was that not everybody has the budget for somebody who is a hundred thousand to a million followers. So again, it depends on your budget, and we go through all of that in quite a lot of detail. If the followers is a vanity metric, we do consider it and we definitely talk about that in the program. Do you consider reach over followers? So it depends on what you mean by reach. We do talk about engagement and how to consider that when you're evaluating your influencers. We have the spreadsheet to help with that as well so you can take a calculated analytical approach. And in regards to reach, if you're looking at the demographics they're following, if that's what you meant by reach, that would be then, you could definitely ask for that. And we speak about with a media kit, and how you're going to assess their media kit, and what follow-up information you need to ask to ensure that you have actually selected or you are selecting the right person for your campaign.

 So a very good example is right now, although we have the ability, Also Sophia has the ability to just ship to the UK. Because all the commercial airlines are grounded, our ability to send realistically, like our shipping prices too high right now for the UK because we don't have our warehouse yet set up and the UK. So because of that, I did not aim at influencers who had a large UK following. Because it's not fair that you go now and you showed all of these amazing products and you have 50% of your following is in the UK. So I don't know if that's what she meant by reach, but we do talk about that. Okay. Do you discuss marketing to abandoned carts and getting those loss sales? I don't know, Samia, if you've gone that far yet in the program. 

We talked about how you can use retargeting ads to help bring back your customer. And then in a live Q&A, I can go on further. So when you join the live Q&As, we have had students that ask other questions about marketing. And then I share my tricks that I've been using. So it is part of that strategy to bring back your customers. And so we don't want to forget about it.

Okay Does the course talk about how to approach influencers' emails and DMs? Yes, we do which is the best strategy. It depends on what influencer level they're at. And then we give you some strategic approaches. And then, do you provide an easy way to understand conversions? Are we actually making money? 

Yes. 

That's the biggest thing. We want to make sure that you actually walk away in the green or we know that you've taken the appropriate steps to give you the best opportunity to walk out in the green. Now, when I say green it's profitable rather than at a loss. The caveat is, in my opinion, that these are estimates. And influencer marketing like business in general is an experiment. So when you approach an influencer, and if this is your first time doing a campaign, you may not know exactly who your ideal customers or you have a good guess, for example. But it's hard sometimes to say with confidence that my ideal customer is following this influencer. You know what I'm saying? So I'll give you a good example. For Also Sophia's campaign last year, I obviously picked a Muslim mom. And I then naturally thought, okay, well, if she is showing the Muslim lifestyle and she's open to decorating her house or cooking food or whatever, I just assumed that the followers that she had would naturally also like my product. But that wasn't always the case. And the biggest example I gave was the person who was doing fashion. And the reason why I gave that, is because I thought, yes, just because she has fashion doesn't mean that her customer or her followers don't also like home decor and celebration. But it didn't convert as well. And so I misunderstood my ideal customer. And another time that happened was for the conscious kitchen at home, a few of the influencers didn't perform as well because I realized that it's not necessarily the eco-friendly that my customers are after. They're actually after the convenience. So being able to use eco-friendly cooking tools like to put them in the oven, like freezing it, defrost it and then putting it directly in the oven. That's what they're more after than they are from the eco-friendly. So any influencers who are focused on eco friendly, that was fine. But I misunderstood my customer. So what I'm trying to say is, yes, we do focus on numbers. But the biggest component of that is that you need to understand that it's an estimate. And we've been basing it on what we know to date. 

Another example is conversion rates from Instagram or conversion rates from Tiktok. We've talked about that specifically as well. I just want everyone to be prepared that, yes, we talk about numbers. But you do have to do more than that. You have to know your ideal customer. And we go through all that. We talk about all that in detail. Again, you can email me or DM me, or email Samia or message Samia. I think that's all. So do you have anything else to say? 

Samia Quddus: I enjoyed it. I've still got to go through some of the modules. But overall, it's been really helpful. So thank you so much for putting it together. 

Sophia Noreen: I'm happy to hear that. 

Samia Quddus: And teaching for something. Yes, it's really important. 

Sophia Noreen: Great, great. Thank you guys for joining us and Inshallah. I hope you have the great Jummah, rest of your Jummah. And we will chat soon. Bye. Thanks, Samia.

Sophia Noreen: Thank you, guys. And remember, make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all. We'll talk to you guys again next week. Bye for now. 

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