Happy Sunday!
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This past week we were extremely focused on putting together a launch plan for a new cannabis brand we are launching (you can sign up to get notified here on our landing page), and one of the pieces of it was: organic influencers.
Whenever you launch a brand, everyone wants to get the most amount of eyeballs on it as possible, and one way to do that is to prepare an influencer seeding campaign. The clout, following, or influence that the person you send it to obviously depends on your own network, but it's also easy to source creators and build relationships of who to send the product to, and then add them into your campaign. I'm going to break down the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
Let's start with Why?
Traditionally, the ancient AIDA marketing funnel is divided into 4 pieces: awareness, interest, desire, and action. The more modern-day funnel is broken into 3 parts: Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel, and Bottom of Funnel aka TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU (I also laughed while writing this).
In my opinion, the real funnel starts with the first time someone sees an ad, and goes through purchase, all the way through to customer service (if applicable), and then to the point where someone (hopefully) makes a repeat purchase.
Where do influencers and creators come in? Ideally, they are helping you out with the first part of either funnel to bring a mass number of eyeballs to your brand, product, or solution, but if you tried a product for the first time and then saw someone else you follow using it (which makes for extra social proof), you're a lot more likely to re-purchase or order again. So the answer is: they can be used at any time because they are another form of validation and social proof, but for the purpose of launching a brand, it's a fast way to get eyeballs on what you're doing, especially if the creator loves the brand/product and can get behind it in a more meaningful way than what I call the "Zombie Bottle Selfie" like in this example.
You want them to be INTO it, explain why they use it, how they use it, what their problem prior was and how your product becomes the solution. Here are a few good examples:
You can see each one tells a fun story, and if they are organic posts, they relate to their audiences too.
Who should you go after?
This question becomes something that can be specific to your business, but if we're speaking broadly for CPG, I would bet on YouTubers every single time.
Why YouTubers? For starters, they have built a following because they are especially great at speaking directly into the camera and telling a story. In most cases, they also have large followings built because people follow them for their personalities at their core, not just because they take scandalous pictures for Instagram or are good with posting skits on TikTok. YouTubers also out-sell non-YouTubers when it comes to merch: Danny Duncan and NELK are 2 examples of YouTubers who sell well over 8-figures per year in merchandise, all because people relate to them better.
It's similar to podcasters (think Call Her Daddy). You get to see the true, vulnerable, and "normal" side of their lives, not just the post-glam or red carpet life. People follow things they can relate to.
When in doubt, YouTubers are great storytellers, and historically move the most product, compared to other channels.
What should you send?
If you're working with a roster of creators for a new launch, you want to make sure you're really milking every second you're in front of their audience.
My favorite brand that did this was Haus, mainly because they didn't do anything special, but they went above and beyond with their standard packaging. The unboxing itself became their biggest driver of customer acquisition for the first year the company was live.
That said, try to go above and beyond with your own kits. Think through everything from the packing tape on the outside box, to how the box looks when you open it up, what does it say, what colors are there, does it catch your eye? Is there something to make someone really excited about what they're getting, is it clear how to use the product they received, is there anything they need to know? Think through the entire experience.
Separate from just unboxing your product with creators, there is so much opportunity even after purchase to still make an impact with all the things I mentioned above. Take advantage of it.
When should you seed the product?
The biggest impact happens at the launch of the brand, a new collection, or a new product. But, what people forget here is you need to ALWAYS make sure you're paying attention to your creators. It's like any good relationship, it's a two-way street, and if you're not putting in the effort, you can't expect them to.
If you sell cookware and see a creator is moving, hook them up with a new set of pots and pans. The cost to you is just the cost-of-goods (COGs), and that $100 to you will have the highest ROI you could ever think of. Trust.
You can also use it in a funny way. I remember when I saw Sara Dietschy (a tech YouTuber) drinking La Croix (pronounced Le-Crap), I sent her 108 bottles of hint. It made it into her video and was the beginning of a very fruitful (pun intended) relationship between Hint & Sara. You can probably tell Sara and I have become close friends thanks to water and how much I mention her, but it's my favorite example.
How do I make sure creators do it right?
The delivery of this entire process is the hardest part. You want to make sure that if someone is talking or advocating for your product you have your main value props in that script, but also give them enough creative freedom to do it how they want to do it. I can't tell you how many times I talk to creators and their biggest frustration is getting a deck of how they need to talk, look, act, etc.
They're the creator, let them create!
Now onto some fun stuff...
Software/App of the Week
Whoop — yes, the fitness tracker.
Whoop is definitely an unusual pick for this section, but I'll tell you why I want to put Whoop here. This past week I went to dinner with a friend and we started talking about Whoop. He then pulled his phone out and showed me that when he had COVID-19, the Whoop told him he was about to get it, and what signs to monitor.
Because he paid attention to his Whoop, he was able to make sure he isolated himself before the real sickness hit him, and was able to recover within just a few days. It not only helped him, but it also prevented him from going out and getting other people sick.
You can get a free month (I get one too) here: Sign up for Whoop.
If you already have a Whoop, join my team: COMM-A0EC17
Brand of the Week:
Snow Days — An organic, grain-free & grass-fed mozzarella pizza roll!
If you haven't heard the name Jason Karp, you might know of Hu Chocolate, one of his other companies. Jason is an extremely high-performance person, but when his health starting taking a hit years ago, he realized that it was in his diet. He worked himself OUT of his health conditions and made it his life goal to only create the best-tasting alternatives to what the "big guys" put out in freezers or aisles with mass distribution.
This past week Jason's 2nd act after Hu is HumanCo - a mission-driven company creating brands focused on healthier living. Jason and the HumanCo team launched Snow Days and thanks to his generosity, you can get 20% off with SHARMA20 at checkout!
That's all for today! I hope you had an incredible past week, and I also hope this upcoming week is just as great. Eat good, get 30 min of sweat in per day, and get those 9 hours of sleep!