As far as comparisons go, she’s more Fifty Shades Of Grey than literary great. But when it comes to shifting her books, Mrs Hinch shows levels of Shakespearean genius.
The cleaning ‘influencer’ with 3.2 million Instagram followers is releasing her third book, The Little Book Of Lists, next month.
It has received twice as many orders as double Booker winner Hilary Mantel’s latest offering, and her last two books brought in £5 million combined. But why on earth are so many spellbound by a woman telling them how to clean their sinks? ANTONIA HOYLE finds out…
The cleaning ‘influencer’ with 3.2 million Instagram followers, Sophie Hinchcliffe (pictured), is releasing her third book, The Little Book Of Lists, next month
BECOMING A SUPER-CLEANER HELPED TAME HER ANXIETY
Ironically, Mrs Hinch — real name Sophie Hinchliffe — wasn’t a tidy child. ‘My mum was like, “Do your pyjamas live on the floor?”’ she said.
She was nervous, though, and would ‘fret about getting to lessons on time or having a PE kit on the right day’. By her early 20s, having got a sales role with a job-search company, she discovered cleaning helped quell her anxiety. ‘I began to notice it helped if I kept busy. If I was mopping or vacuuming, then it kept my mind occupied and I wasn’t sitting there thinking too deeply,’ she said.
She soon quit her corporate job to train as a hairdresser, and has said, ‘Deep down, I’m still a hairdresser’, despite her newfound fame.
MILLIONS OF SOLDIERS IN THE LOYAL HINCH ARMY
In July 2016, Hinchliffe bought a £307,000 home in Maldon, Essex, with husband Jamie, and started posting her interior design photos on Instagram. The following March, worried about ‘boring’ friends and family, she created a separate account, and made friends with lifestyle Instagrammers to build her following. Her Instagram videos showing how she cleaned the house on a budget, with power-ballad soundtracks, became her trademark.
Her enthusiasm for £1 Zoflora disinfectant, coupled with her Barbie-blonde looks and spotless home, gained her fans who couldn’t fork out for products other Instagrammers were plugging. ‘She added a touch of glamour and a modern twist to a dull area,’ says Andrew Bloch, founder of Frank PR, which aligns influencers with brands. ‘She made the mass market feel aspirational.’
Her enthusiasm for £1 Zoflora disinfectant, coupled with her Barbie-blonde looks and spotless home, gained her fans who couldn’t fork out for products other Instagrammers were plugging
Signed to Gleam Futures, the social media agency that has lifestyle influencer Zoella, one of the UK’s biggest YouTube stars, on its books, she had amassed one million followers by September 2018. She calls her fans the Hinch Army. Of course, every army needs its lieutenants. ‘I’m sure she’s doing her posts herself,’ says Bloch. ‘But undoubtedly there’s a team helping her behind the scenes.’
PERFECT HOUSEWIFE POSE . . . AND A DUSTER CALLED DAVE
Hinchliffe cleverly set up her Instagram account under the name @mrshinchhome, even though she was Sophie Barker at the time.
She didn’t marry Jamie Hinchliffe, who she met aged 23, when he was her sales line manager, until August 2018. Perhaps realising a married moniker would make her more appealing to domesticated followers, Hinchliffe — now mum to eight-month-old Ronnie — won fans over further by naming her cleaning utensils, including Vera the mop, Dave the duster and Stewart the scrubber.
She didn’t marry Jamie Hinchliffe, who she met aged 23, when he was her sales line manager, until August 2018. Perhaps realising a married moniker would make her more appealing to domesticated followers, Hinchliffe — now mum to eight-month-old Ronnie — won fans over further by naming her cleaning utensils, including Vera the mop, Dave the duster and Stewart the scrubber
Her kitchen sink storage is described as ‘Narnia’, her shopping trips are ‘Hinch hauls,’ she never tires of telling us she loves a ‘barg’ (bargain) — and everything she touches turns to gold.
Singing the praises of her £2.50 cleaning cloth ‘Minky’ led to a 10,000 per cent rise in sales. Posting a picture of a £10 bamboo bath rack from Dunelm prompted it to sell out, and her endorsement of floral-scented disinfectant Zoflora led to staff doubling production at their Huddersfield factory.
BUSINESS BRAINS BEHIND THE BEAUTY
Last month, Hinchliffe applied to trademark her online name, Mrs Hinch, which would allow her to put her own name on items from cleaning products to clothes — and earn her yet more money. Hinchliffe said last April: ‘It’s not like Instagram has made me a millionaire.’ But that’s almost certainly not the case now, says Bloch, who believes ‘without a doubt’ that Hinchliffe has made her first million. Could she be a multi-millionaire? ‘I would think it’s not unrealistic to say she’s on her way,’ he says.
‘I get the impression she’s very commercially astute. Bringing out her own products, she’s got total control over how they are marketed.’
EMBARRASSING INVESTIGATION
Rather than using Hinchliffe’s earnings to splash out on a bigger house, the couple have extended their new-build in Maldon, near where Hinchliffe grew up. Their renovation project has also provided ample opportunity for freebies.
In the living room, these include two Loch Leven sofas from DFS — one four-seater costs £1,799 — while a gifted Barker and Stonehouse dining table (a similar version sells for £859) takes pride of place in the dining room. Mirrors, wallpaper and chairs are donated, as is her Amtico Spacia Parquet flooring, which sells for £42 per square metre in John Lewis. Even the mirrored tissue box cover in the master bedroom was free.
In the living room, these include two Loch Leven sofas from DFS — one four-seater costs £1,799 — while a gifted Barker and Stonehouse dining table (a similar version sells for £859) takes pride of place in the dining room
Although every freebie appears carefully flagged on social media, last year the Advertising Standards Authority investigated Hinchliffe over concerns she had plugged Procter & Gamble’s Flash and Febreze without declaring she had been paid to do so.
Afterwards it said that the contact with Hinchliffe resulted in her ‘labelling certain posts as ads, meaning we can infer that she now understands the need to disclose where there is a commercial relationship in place’.
A Beauty That Belies A Battle With Her Weight
Five foot ten, with carefully contoured cheekbones and immaculate nails (her manicurist Tracy-Lou’s Instagram following has swelled to 80,000), Hinchliffe has all the prerequisites to be a photogenic social media star.
Hard to believe, then, that aged 20 (left) she was mousy and twice the size.
After putting on 8st she borrowed £6,000 aged 21 to get a gastric band.
She later had an operation to remove excess skin from her arms, which left one arm so infected she risked losing it.
‘I’m still not 100 per cent confident with my body but I’m getting there,’ she has said.
Hinchcliffe says: ‘I take the responsibility that comes with having a large social media following very seriously. Being authentic and transparent is important… In fact, I’m overly cautious when it comes to these guidelines and will continue to be.’
BALANCING THE BOOKS
Hinchliffe’s debut book, Hinch Yourself Happy: All The Best Cleaning Tips To Shine Your Sink And Soothe Your Soul, prompted an 11-way auction, won by Michael Joseph, part of Penguin Random House. It reportedly resulted in a six-figure deal for its author.
Upon its release last April, it became the second fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, selling more than 160,000 copies in a week.
The follow-up, Mrs Hinch: The Activity Journal — ‘packed with over 100 activities to help you relax and plan your hinching’ — topped Amazon’s bestseller list two months before it went on sale in October.
Hinchliffe’s third effort, The Little Book Of Lists, which she describes as ‘a book filled with just lists’ to help boost your productivity, has been pre-ordered two times more than Hilary Mantel’s new novel, The Mirror And The Light was.
THE FAMOUS BEST FRIEND
One concession to a showbiz lifestyle lies in Hinchliffe’s new friendship with fellow Essex girl Stacey Solomon. The reality TV star invited herself round for ‘a cuppa’ after messaging Hinchliffe upon hearing that the pressures of fame had put her in ‘a dark place’.
Last September, Hinchliffe wrote of that meeting: ‘We sat down, we ate junk food, fed our babies and talked.’ She said she will be ‘forever grateful’ to Stacey for helping her ‘face this public eye’ again.
Of course, the friendship has boosted both their profiles. Solomon, who, like Hinchliffe, has suffered from anxiety, has three million Instagram followers and a baby son named Rex. She now also posts tidying tips, including pictures of her neat drawers and colour-coded crisp packets.
But in response to accusations that she has copied Hinchliffe, Solomon posted a picture of the pair hugging, with the caption: ‘When they try to pit you against each other but there’s no gaps here for your cruel wedges.’
One concession to a showbiz lifestyle lies in Hinchliffe’s (right) new friendship with fellow Essex girl Stacey Solomon (left)
KEEPING IT REAL ON THE HIGH STREET
Adored for the fact that she treats her followers like friends, Hinchliffe seems genuinely humbled by her success. Her clothes — at least those she wears in public — are from the High Street, and she once posted a picture of herself in an £8 dress from Boohoo.
‘I think people believe I walk around in Louboutins, but the truth is, I don’t own a pair,’ she says. ‘People are like, “Mrs Hinch, you should be walking around with a Louis Vuitton handbag”, but I love my New Look.’
Her management firm, Gleam Futures, somewhat incongruously claims Hinchliffe is so authentic she didn’t know what an influencer was before she became one. She insists, ‘I was so happy before Instagram. I don’t want my life to change.’
Granted, she honeymooned in the Maldives . . . but she claims not to know what a film premiere is, and says ‘the boring life’ is the best life. Is she for real? Andrew Bloch thinks so. ‘As a consumer you have to believe the influencer is genuine,’ he says. ‘You don’t look at her feed and feel she’s sold out.’ Quite what she’s going to do with those millions is another matter.