TCM 002: Your first $1M through Influencer Seeding
As a DTC brand owner, one of the best ways to gain exposure for your products is through influencers.
By sending your products to Instagrammers, TikTokers and YouTubers in your niche, you can tap into ridiculously engaged followings and gain new customers in the process.
Notice I said an engaged following – some of my greatest success has come from creators with <10K followers.
In this article, I'll show you how to build influencer relationships and get your products seen by hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions).
This is the exact method I used to drive my "side hustle" to its first $1M while spending $0 on content.
Some of my best-performing Facebook ads, over a year later, have come from influencer seeding.
One sec... What the heck is "Influencer Seeding"?
Simply put: sending samples of your products to creators, allowing them to review them on their platforms and share them with their followers.
But the biggest difference with influencer seeding is it's not transactional.
We're not demanding an influencer create content in exchange for the product.
We're doing this without any strings attached so that these creators become our biggest brand evangelists & partners (more on that further down).
Here are my top 3 tips for building influencer relationships and getting the most out of product seeding:
1. Identify Your Target Influencers
Know your audience first & foremost before you start seeding.
Historically, I've used tools such as Tagger to discover creators with an engaged following in my target market. (Tagger costs a small fortune to access but is incredibly powerful).
These days though, you can get started absolutely free using Shopify's Collabs app (formerly Dovetale) or TikTok Creator Marketplace to discover and build a list of your target influencers.
Budget depending – we are giving away free product here, so know your COGS inside and out – start by building a list of 100-500 influencers.
Identify the micro and macro influencers in your market with a following between 5K-50K followers.
Test the odd creator with 100K+, but typically I find greater success (and audience engagement) with these "micro" influencers with <50K followers.
Export this list of creators to a Google Sheet to keep track of contact details, who you've already contacted, who has opted in, and who has posted.
This should keep everything neat and tidy, plus stop you from completely losing the plot as this scales.
2. Reach Out
Now that you've got your list of influencers reach out with a personalized message explaining who you are, what your brand stands for, what the product is, and that you'd love to send it to them with no strings attached.
And mean it.
Use this template:
"Hey [[ Name ]], I'm part of the [[ Brand ]] team and just wanted to let you know that we all love your content!
We were wondering if we'd be able to send you some product, completely free, no strings attached.
If so, send your address and we'll get it to you ASAP!"
If they reach back out with more questions:
- Answer them
- Engage with them
- Build a real human relationship with them
- Send links to your products for them to learn more
3. Develop a Partnership
Before you even ship the product to them – lean into personalization to make this unboxing memorable!
Things as simple as the following to upgrade the unboxing experience:
- Handwritten notes
- Tissue paper
- Custom boxes (okay, less simple)
They go a long way to making an influencer feel appreciated.
Remember, these are real human beings that we want to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships with.
First impressions count.
If they post – thank them and build on the relationship!
"Hey [[ Name ]], thank you so much for posting us on your story!
We loved it so much.
We wanted to ask your permission to repost this video on our social channels and ad channels for 30 days. Is that possible?
Let us know!"
If they say yes – run this in your ad account immediately.
FAQ #1: How will you know if they've posted?
Again, we used to use expensive tools such as MightyScout – but no more.
Use Archive and the code BRND250. (That should get you 250 free saves)
Archive is going to automatically save content any time your brand is mentioned across socials – stories, reels, posts, TikTok... all of it.
FAQ #2: What if they don't post or even respond?
Don't take it personally.
Most influencers are receiving an ungodly number of DMs and shipments.
So stand out by following up.
"Hey [[ Name ]],
My team let me know your order has arrived safely! I wondered if you'd gotten a chance to check it out yet?
Whether you love it or hate it – genuinely, we'd love your feedback!"
What kind of numbers can you expect?
Side note: when we DM 500 influencers, we typically get the following:
- 400ish that respond
- 300 that say yes to receiving product
- 200 that post 1-3 pieces of content (that's 200-600 pieces of creative)
I'll let you run the numbers on how many eyeballs that is if each creator has 50,000 followers with a 10% engagement rate.
(Alright, fine – that's 1,000,000 impressions)
If you've got an influencer that's organically posting about your product – get them into an affiliate contract or on retainer to create content 1-4x per month.
They love the product, and they're willing to shout about it to their audience without being paid... maximize this opportunity.
In Summary:
Influencer Seeding is a huge part of the success of my brands.
It's one of the ways I'm able to get millions of eyes on my product within 30-60 days and can go from $0-1M in revenue with a new brand and new products.
And it's also how I get hundreds of new creative pieces into my ad account every month.
(And a ton of shoppable video UGC on my store, detailed in last week's newsletter.)
Some of that content won't perform.
Some of that content you can scale and utilize for 12+ months.
Take the learnings of that content that works, and partner with your influencer to create more just like it.
All of this exposure and content comes from just the cost of product and shipping.
Start small.
Know your numbers.
Build meaningful relationships.
That's it for today.
I hope this is helpful & I'll see you next Saturday.
Full disclosure: the first time I did this, I worked with Kynship and spent a pretty penny to learn and execute this strategy.
(However, they don't know I've written this email)
I have zero shame in saying I'd work with Kynship again & again – their team did a phenomenal job in laying the groundwork and running our ad account that I later brought back in-house.
If you'd like an intro to Kynship, by all means, reply and let me know or email Kyn directly and tell them Tom Brown sent you.
Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
- The Ecommerce OS: The exact system I've used repeatedly to go from $0-1M in revenue profitably. (50% off for early birds)
- Work 1:1 With Me: To outline your goals, build a strategy, and develop a tactical action plan to grow your Shopify store. (200+ clients to date)
