how to get your product into a creator's hands

Y’ALL HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Man, it’s been one of thoooooose weeks. This weekend, I finally move (as long as the new building answers to give me the keys). Moving in NYC is a time and a half and is anxiety-inducing.

Before we get into it, here’s what’s been going down/I want to invite you to something!

• First off, it’s one of my best friend’s birthdays. Please go wish bestie Nik Sharma aka THE DTC GUY a very happy birthday. I met Nik 7 years ago and he is truly one, if not the reason, as to why I get to do what I do every single day.

• Next, my client, Little Sesame, launched their latest flavor, which quickly climbed its way to the top from my POV. Meet their new collaboration flavor with Vista Hermosa: Mexican Street Corn Hummus.

• Finally, I am doing a webinar today (6/28) with my friend Paul, founder of Archive (one of my most used tools!), all about influencer seeding, community building, and organic social. If you want to join, it starts at 2PM EST. Join here.

Today, we’re revisiting one of my earlier newsletter topics and answering one of the most asked questions I get of “how the heck do I get creators my product?!” and breaking it down all over again, but with some new takes. With new brands launching and investing more in organic social (which always makes my day, this one felt needed.

BEFORE WE GET INTO IT

This week’s edition is once again supported by the amazing squad over at SUPERFILIATE! Andy, Anders, and Paul have been such a joy to work with on these editions. Being that we have had almost 250 amazing marketers and founder join in the last month, you might be asking yourself “what the heck is Superfiliate?”

If you’re a brand looking to:

• have a trusty platform that allows you to run end-to-end affiliate, influencer and referral programs

• increase your conversion rate and work more deeply with the creators on your roster to track your ROI on paid initiatives 

• handle product seeding, promotions, payout management for commissions, and more

Superfiliate could be (and probably is) your solution.

The team slacked me recently mentioning that they just launched their HUBS! HUBBA HUBBA!

If you’re looking for an “everything you need and nothing you don’t” build out for your Influencer, Affiliate, and Ambassador Marketing OR for your referral and loyalty program, they literally built you the tooling to do it all efficiently.

Their new Influencer Marketing Hub enables you to do:

• Discovery and Recruiting: See what content creators are tagging you in stories, reels or posts on Instagram and TikTok, DM them, and recruit them to your program

• Creator Communications: Use templates to build personalized emails and DMs (Integrates with Klayvio!!)

• Custom Creator Landing Pages (the reason I originally joined Superfiliate for Graza): Drive higher conversion rates + every page can be automatically customized with the creator's content, favorite products and a personalized review!

• Product Seeding: Mass email creators with a one-click link to access their gift that’s automatically ordered!

• Analytics + Reporting: Track and double down on top performing creators with insights on AOV, revenue, traffic source, earned media value and more!

• Management & Payments: Offer commission or flat rate payouts via ACH, Venmo, PayPal to your ambassadors

With their help, I’ve been able to manage over 600+ ambassadors effectively, grow the Graza ambassador program 120% MoM, and be able to see in real time that the content I am partnering on with creators bring in upwards of $19,000 of sales in less than 72 hours. Kinda cool tbh.

To celebrate, Superfiliate is giving ya a FREE MONTH to try out their platform if you click right HERE. They literally never do this sooooooooo you probably should get in on that. 

OK INTO THE MEAT OF IT.

“WHY IS WORKING WITH INFLUENCERS IMPORTANT FOR MY BRAND?”

Before I start writing more, if you automatically have avoided influencers and working with them simply due to the fees that you hear about, please know that is not the only way you have to work with them. If you keep writing them off, you are doing yourself and your brand a disservice, but that’s just my opinion, ya knoooow.

(Note: If you have been wanting to play more on the paid influencer side of things, you can read an edition I wrote right here)

Also, similar to the belief of organic social, not every product send or video, needs to lead to a sale. Let’s be open-minded. Here are the reasons why I personally work (and continue to work) with influencers and have sent over 5,000+ packages, managed over 100+ paid influencers, and don’t plan on stopping.

1. Increase Brand Awareness: All influencers have a “purpose”. Some may convert more than others. Some may drive more awareness to your accounts. But, why wouldn’t you want to give the effect that your product is everywhere?
   

2. Build Community, Not A Passive Audience: Influencers, despite being a way of getting product validation, should also work as an unlock for expanding into new niches and taking over the category and niche that you’re mainly in. This world is truly a bubble, but the one’s who break it, are the ones that find how to get creative with how they leverage content AND influencers.

3. Get Content to Leverage for your Organic and Paid Social Channels: People buy from people. Being able to have influencers that people respect or just hearing someone’s true feelings towards your product can help efforts across organic social, e-mail, paid media via whitelisting, and more. This User Generated Content (UGC) is an interesting arm to build out, but you segment what you need for your paid channels, your organic, it all falls into place pretty seamlessly.
   

4. CONVERSION: Ah, yes, the KPI that should not be #1 for organic social and not all creator activations. Some will convert and that’s for sure and some won’t, but once you learn the type of creator and the type of format that works for your brand and double down on it then you know how to balance expectations. However, seedings should not be a “they didn’t sell” or “there’s no attribution”. With that said, stop giving affiliate links off the bat to people who have never tried the product. Sorry, can you tell I get really into these when I write them? Anyway, increase traffic and the amount of eyeballs on your brand (seedings, for example) to increase the amount of people saying “hmmm i’ve been seeing it everywhere and might buy it” to increase conversion and your sale 🙂 Also, please remember that more followers ≠ more dollars, followers, etc.

“HOW DO I EVEN FIND INFLUENCERS FOR MY BRAND?”

With thousands of influencers out there, how the heck are you supposed to know where the good ones are for you?!? It’s a valid and overwhelming thought. But, it’s really not that deep.

When it comes to finding influencers, here are quick and easy tactics for any and all level brands:

• Use tools that are accessible to get started as you begin building your influencer lists. For example, Shopify Collabs has a free sourcing tool on the backend. You can also, if you want to put budget towards a tool, use platforms like HypeAuditor.

• Use the “suggested follows” features on Tiktok and Instagram. For every person you love, you can find another 10 you might similarly want to send to. Better than paying 5-30K a year for a sourcing tool that can look up lookalike audiences for the time being or until you have the luxury to.

• Use the search function on Tiktok as SEO! Looking for folks who have reviewed similar items in your space or a competitor? Looking for a influencer who is good as doing specific types of recipes? Search!!! Did you know that 40% of younger folks use Tiktok as their search engine? Yeah, it’s that good. I love it and that’s why I wrote about how to use it to help you also get seen on Tiktok here.

Make the communities that influencers have built work for you. Go through their comments to see who else is commenting on their content or perhaps even mentioning your brand in the comments saying “i’ve been seeing that everywhere” or “ been wanting to try”. Easy way of social listening. You can also go through who those influencers are also following to find like-minded folks.

“I’VE FOUND MY INFLUENCERS, BUT HOW DO I TALK TO THEM!?”

You just be a human being. It’s that simple. It’s 2024 and a lot of these people have gotten the same generic DM. Get creative, form a connection, and put in effort. If you’re sending the same generic copy and paste message, you cannot complain that people aren’t answering you or wondering why the relationships drop so quickly if you aren’t putting in the ongoing work to nurture it.

When it comes to outreach, I personally am a DM girlie. I will usually keep everything to DMs and more “serious” matters to e-mail, which in this case is talking about anything more than getting product to them so those I may work with on paid partnership with, etc.

DM Outreach: When it comes to my outreach, I am a huge fan of asking a question that is rhetorical. Your goal should be to ask something where the answer should be an instant “yes” or make them consider it, but also when you see a situation of a creator posting something where you could act - have fun with your message and positioning.

You can read a bit about my strategy and thoughts on that here, but we’ll also be talking about it today on the webinar at 2PM.

Email Outreach: If I am reaching out to a influencer in the hopes of doing content or a paid partnership, this is the easy structure that I use:

[INTRODUCE YOURSELF]

[WHAT DO WE WANT TO DO WITH THEM]

[WHAT CAN WE GIVE THEM IF THEY PARTICIPATE] - BE HONEST!!!!

[CREATIVE EXPECTATION] [REMEMBER TO ATTACH BRIEF TO EMAIL]

[ IS THERE A DEADLINE? ADD IT]

Of course, if they haven’t tried the product, offer to send or re-stock them if they have tried or get them a second unit if it a more long-term and used product.

BRAND OF THE WEEK: SOFIE PAVITT FACE

Brand of the week is when I share a brand that I love because of their product, social, or both! This week comes from someone I have followed for years on social: Sofie Pavitt Face. If you don’t know Sofie Pavitt, she’s literally the acne whisperer and is just overall a very smart, funny aesthetician in NYC. Last year, she launched her own skincare line.

The other week, I treated myself to her entire line after religiously using her Mandelic Acid Serum. As someone who deals with eczema-ish flare-ups after dealing with chronic skin infections for years

I also just love her brand’s social. She isn’t afraid to get on as a founder and own the education on the brand account or to have fun behind or on camera. Education weirdly gets so kicked under the rug for so many brands, but man, they put it at the forefront as any skincare company should. They also are pros at repurposing and repackaging their content.

Her transparency behind the products/ingredients, their customer service, and their take on Skincare for Dummies approach on social has not only helped me, but has definitely the results to prove that she knows what she is talking about by leveraging clients who have been using her products for months.

If you’re looking for some new skincare, I highly recommend checking her stuff out. The Mandelic Acid Serum, Nice Ice, and Clean Clean Cleanser will be in my rotation for a very very long time aka the rest of my life.

LOGGING OFF

Also, we have had some new faces in the last week that joined so HELLOOOOO!!! If you have a friend or coworker who you think would love to join the part, just shoot them the link below. It would mean the absolute world as he are about to hit 1,100+ subscribers.

Link: https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

If you want to catch up and read past editions, click here.

Time for me to go chug some coffee and get goin’ to my workout class. Fun Fact: I often wake up at 5:30AM to write these since I do my best work under pressure and am a morning person despite my lack of sleep this week. Pressure makes diamonds, right?

I’ll see you next week! Have an amazing weekend 🙂 Also, happy early Q3 (scary)!

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