Amber Venz Box started her blog Venzedits as a marketing tool for her personal shopping business in 2010. But she quickly realized that her readers preferred to use her recommendations to shop online instead of booking a session. She wanted to be compensated for her time, so she and her then-boyfriend, now-husband Baxter Box brainstormed ways to monetize Venzedits. They took something retailers and sales associates understood — commission for sales — and made it work for people like Box who were generating sales online instead of in-person. They launched their company RewardStyle in 2011. When a reader clicks an affiliate link in a blog post, the link stores a cookie on that person’s computer for up to 30 days. If they purchase anything based on that affiliate link within 30 days or before they click another affiliate link to that retailer, the blogger makes a commission off the entire purchase. RewardStyle takes a cut of each sale.
Today the RewardStyle team says they work with more than one million brands and 45,000 influencers in more than 100 countries and drive more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. Although the couple started out of a studio apartment, they now have seven offices worldwide and manage a 250-person team. In 2017, they launched LIKEtoKNOW.it, a shopping app that lets influencers monetize their social media channels by linking to products. I spoke to the Box, a 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 alumna, about the business of being an influencer.
RewardStyle works with more than one million brands and 45,000 influencers, according to your site. Was it initially difficult to get brands and influencers to sign up? How did RewardStyle grow so quickly?
In 2011, blogging was not yet a common social activity, and most people did not know what blogs were. When we launched RewardStyle, I invited a handful of my new blogger friends to use it. One by one, we recruited retailers to RewardStyle and in 2011, only a handful were willing to honor the traditional model of commission on sales in a digital capacity. I joke that I would throw my body at cars to get in front of brands.
We grew so quickly because we created simple-to-use products that solved a real problem for all of our audiences — influencers, brands and consumers. For brands, it was low-risk with high-reward and our model works for marketers. We have continued to innovate and invest in tools, and today influencer marketing is no longer a marketing black box. Influencer marketing is no longer a tactic, it is a strategy. In 2018, brands invested nearly $150 million with RewardStyle.
With LIKEtoKNOW.it, you allowed influencers to monetize their Instagram content before there were ways to shop directly from posts. How did you come up with that idea and build the tech?
In 2013, Instagram became the new preferred publishing platform. Our influencers began to create more content there than on their primary web domain. Their followers were dramatically more engaged on Instagram and the platform provided their fastest growing, most visible audience.
At that time, we provided monetization tools on every platform except for Instagram. We needed to create a tool that empowered our influencers to provide the same high level of service on Instagram that they were able to provide on their primary domain and other social platforms: linked product information that made their content actionable and therefore more valuable to readers and followers.
In early 2017, LIKEtoKNOW.it expanded beyond Instagram and is now a platform-agnostic tool and also a channel of its own. LIKEtoKNOW.it is a shopping app and in November we released product search, allowing users to search for products and get results in the context of real, influential people’s lives. Last year, 9.9 million people shopped LIKEtoKNOW.it.
RewardStyle generates more than $1 billion in annual sales, according to your site. What are your top three pieces of advice for a new influencer who wants to monetize?
Influencer is a career choice and like any career, it takes time to build, it takes relationships and partnerships and it takes a real plan and strategy. Influencer success is not found, it is earned. Know your niche. Create compelling, authentic content that provides real value to an audience. Lean into your business partners, build relationships and always listen.
You founded RewardStyle with your then-boyfriend, now-husband. I read that working together originally caused strain in your relationship. What advice do you have for other people who start a business with a significant other?
Set boundaries! It took years, but Baxter and I have set boundaries around our work time and family time and once we get home, we stop working (and talking about working) and we focus our energy and attention on the kids. If we need to talk about work, we email each other or set up a time during office hours to talk about it. We also limit our evenings away from home. Internal events and partner events and travel add up quickly, and we are more intentional than ever about time away.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned at work, and how did you learn it?
Having a bad plan is better than not having a plan at all. Create a plan, assign quantifiable success metrics and execute against the plan. This will help you sleep at night.
As our team grew to 250, it became increasingly difficult to hold people accountable with quantifiable goals. Also, with so many people, it is critical that you all share the same set of priorities and are running together, and that requires an agreed-upon plan from the executive and senior leadership and a commitment to goals.
What is one thing that you wish you had known when you were starting out your career?
Make the more expensive, experienced hire. Don’t rake pebbles, move boulders.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Listen more than you speak.
What is your business advice for other young professional women?
The most valuable education is gained outside of the classroom. Once you choose your industry, work on all sides of it and work for the best. Work is the only thing that will get you ahead—relationships, money and social status do not guarantee you professional success; experience and work ethic do.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
