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Is providing free treatment for "influencers" a good idea?
- Chris Barrow
- Jan 27, 2020
- 2 min read
Since the new year began, I've been asked my opinion three times on the issue of offering low cost/no cost treatment to individuals who have approached practices and described themselves as "influencers".
An influencer is someone who has: the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience. a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages.
On checking Google for a little more information on just who these lucky people are, I discovered a definition that suggested any person with between 1,000 and 5,000 followers on a social media platform can be described as a nano-influencer.
Which means I am one!
I'll be telling my dentist Bob McLelland that I want my next course of treatment free of charge (and I know where he will tell me to shove that).
So if I were a dentist, how would I feel about offering free treatment to "real" influencers?
I have a number of questions to ask:
Size matters - followed by how many? Just exactly how many followers are we talking about here?
Reputation - followed for what? Make-up, handbags, partying, looking handsome? Famous for being famous?
Demographic - followed by whom? Is it consistent with my overall business strategy that I have potential hordes of this particular individual's followers arriving on my doorstep?
Treatment modality - and do I want to be delivering to lots of people what I delivered to my "influencer"?
Family & friends - in one of the three examples I mentioned, the "influencer" has pointedly requested that family are provided with free treatment (that sounds crazy to me).
Satisfaction guaranteed - given that an "influencer" must, by definition, be self-conscious, how are we going to determine what constitutes a happy patient at the end of the treatment - the bar is likely to be set very high.
Conflict resolution - given that dentistry (health) has a degree of unpredictability, what are we going to do if something goes wrong. Does my "influencer" become a curse and not a blessing?
The long term - depending on the type of treatment, is the "influencer" going to be turning up on my doorstep in 10 years from now, asking what I'm going to do to keep them looking as beautiful as they once did? (Followed by all of their followers)
If I'm being unduly cautious here, I'll take the feedback, but it seems to be a scenario that carries considerable risk.
I've heard stories about free treatment provided for celebrity endorsement. For people with real talent; stars from the world of sport or the arts who have a global or national reputation.
Is there are difference between a celebrity and an "influencer"?
Having thought about this for a couple of weeks, my inclination is to politely decline if my business isn't focused on that market - and point my "influencer" towards the dentists who are using the same social channels to promote themselves.
I'm sure there are plenty of TikTok dentists who will be delighted to see them FOC.
Caveat emptor.
This post raised an interesting point about giving free treatment to influencers and how businesses balance marketing choices. My older cousin recently started helping at a small clinic, and she also checked Alpa Insurance for full coverage car insurance because she drives daily for work. Planning ahead really matters when schedules get busy.
Steven Hawk, the discussion on whether providing free treatment for influencers is a good idea raises some really important points about value, expectations, and professional boundaries in modern marketing. It highlights how easily “free exposure” can turn into an unfair exchange if clear agreements aren’t set from the start. I came across this while searching for picture book illustrators near me, and it made me think about how creative services also need proper valuation and respect.
I really like your post about the risks of free treatment for influencers. I run a small skincare business and kept getting requests for free products in exchange for posts. Managing all those requests and follow ups took hours away from making my actual products. Then I invested in custom ecommerce web development to automate my store and now I focus on creating instead of chasing influencers.
I think this blog makes a really fair point about the risks of offering free treatment to influencers, especially when there’s no clear return on investment. It’s easy to assume that exposure automatically translates into paying clients, but in reality, it often doesn’t work that way unless the collaboration is well planned and aligned with your target audience. Small businesses, in particular, need to be cautious because giving away services without a measurable outcome can hurt more than help. It reminds me of how students look for cheap assignment help UK services—they want value, not just promises, and businesses should think the same way when choosing partnerships. If the influencer’s audience doesn’t match your ideal client, the promotion won’t convert.…
I found your take on influencers and free treatment really thoughtful, especially the part about long term risks and expectations. It made me think of when I was struggling with a tough assignment and ended up using Biology Dissertation writing help just to manage the pressure and high standards I had set for myself. Like your point, not every offer that sounds beneficial works out the way we expect, so careful thinking always matters in the long run.