Trying Influencer marketing with Famebit
We launched our store with a product my sister made – a satin-lined cap, on September 1st, 2014. When we started, we were on Etsy and had just completed our website using a graphic designer. We were experimenting with several different types of marketing – Facebook ads, Etsy ads, google ads, had hired an internet marketing firm to do our SEO/SEM, and were going to trade shows to get word of mouth. None of these things worked well for us except for one I didn’t mention above, influencer marketing.
Coinciding with our Woocommerce store’s launch at the beginning of September, we emailed 32 YouTube personalities who had subscriber bases of 250k or higher, and asked them if they’d be interested in doing a review of our new product. It included who we are, what our solution was, and a link to a YouTube video message from my sister, the founder, asking them “face to face” for help reaching their audience that we felt would benefit from our product. (let me know if you’d like a copy of that initial email)
From September to October we didn’t hear anything back, which is why I had assumed the outreach hadn’t worked as well as the ads and other marketing efforts, and by mid-October only three of the 32 influencers that we emailed had even replied and only 1 actually made a video. The results were dramatic – her one video at the end of October built our business.
It drove more than 10k visitors to our store in the next 2 weeks and we sold out of all 1k units of our production run. It took us 4 weeks to replenish inventory and in that time we had 350 backorders from that video and another she did following. (I’m certain that if we would have had more than 1k units in our MVP we would have converted more of those 10k visitors who came purely to buy, rather than having to put out a “sold out” shingle all the way through cyber monday!)
We quit all other forms of advertising and marketing to focus on YouTube influencers and in that time we’ve had 10 videos produced and have sold over $60k worth of product in the last 2.5 months. I’m sure some of that was the holiday push, but we plan to have another set produced by the end of February to know for sure.
Thats been my experience, I’m looking forward to hearing more from other store owners out there as to what their experience has been working with influencers, or other unique high converting acquisition channels?
Respectfully,
Emmanuel
http://www.satinlinedcaps.com/blog – all three of the most successful video’s we’ve had done.
Copy of the email we sent:
Here is a copy of the email that we sent to each influencer:
My name is Grace Eleyae, and for the last few months, I’ve been developing a new product called the Satin-lined Cap, or SLAP. It’s a versatile, multi-use cap that basically combines the beanie and the satin bonnet. This means women can wear the slap to bed to protect from dryness, frizz, and tangles, but then they can also wear it around town if they want to be discreet.
I’d love to partner with you in getting the message out about this product via a review, a repost, or link to our website or Etsy. I specifically chose you because I love your brand message, and I definitely think your followers could benefit from this product. So, let us know how we can get a slap into your hands, because I’d love to send you one, on me.
Here is a link to the website: www.satinlinedcaps.com. Check it out!
If you’d like to “meet” me, here’s a link to a private video I’ve made for our VIP partners: http://bit.ly/slapsVIP
Thanks in advance for your reply!!
Best,
Grace Eleyae
CEO
Grace Eleyae, Inc.
www.satinlinedcaps.com
