An Influencer Brand’s Strategy For Influencer Marketing

It’s been about six years since I decided to leave my corporate job to pursue a full-time career as a content creator. Since making that leap and growing my platform, I’ve only become a fiercer believer in the power of influencers to build trust between brands and customers. Content creators help brands meet consumers where they’re at, showing followers how a product can fit into their everyday routine, rather than showcasing a less relatable, highly stylized ad campaign.

But many marketing gurus online claim we’re approaching the end of influencer marketing, thanks to the rise of highly efficient affiliate marketing programs through ShopMy, TikTok Shop, and other platforms. The affiliate space is competitive, with some brands offering as much as 40% commission on sales, which can entice many influencers to participate, but eat away at a brand’s margins.

Plus, the priorities of brands and creators can sometimes be at odds. For example, many brands won’t consider a paid partnership with a creator until the creator has proved they can sell products through affiliate campaigns. But, on the other hand, some creators are reluctant to sign up for a new brand’s affiliate program, as it’s more challenging to introduce a new brand to followers and convince them to try it, rather than relying on an established, trusted brand name.

When it came time to plan Annadea’s marketing strategy with Chief Brand Officer Amy Lovell, I knew I wanted influencers to be a big part of how we spread brand awareness. But given we are a bootstrapped company, Amy and I wanted to ensure we were working with creators who were offering real value for the Annnadea brand. We also wanted to create a compelling affiliate campaign via Amazon in tandem with these influencers.

It turns out this was a lot harder than it looked. It required us to be even more thoughtful about the creators we decided to work with, thinking outside the box about who would best be able to help introduce Annadea to the world. Here’s some of what we’ve learned along the way.

When it came to reaching out to creators, Amy and I knew we didn’t want to just stick to beauty influencers. The Annadea brand is about being bold, spirited, adventurous, and balancing many things at once. We wanted to find ambitious women who lived out this ethos at full volume, unafraid to say “Yes” to what they really want and lead multifaceted lives.

We ended up gifting 400 To Dew Glow Serums and around 100 Glow-To trios to influencers, sixty of whom were influencer friends of mine. 75 of these creators came to us through our Annadea Partnerships Gifting Form, where influencers self-selected to be UGC creators for the brand (feel free to fill out this form if you’re interested in this program!). All of the creators we gifted products to were hand-selected, which was a time-consuming process, but ensured we sourced the perfect Annadea creators. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to send thousands of units of product, we wanted to be especially intentional about who we gifted to.

While our largest influencer cohorts consist of lifestyle and casual beauty creators, we also reached out to corporate girl, makeup artists, moms, brides, nurses, active lifestyle creators, as well as creators who are vocal about having acne-prone skin. By partnering with a broad range of influencers, we aimed to show audiences how Annadea fits into a variety of lifestyles, especially for those on their feet all day who reach for long-lasting products and effortless beauty routines. Partnering with makeup artists at launch was also a great way to build credibility as a clean, high-performing beauty brand.

Amy and I also prioritized working with nano- and micro-influencers for the Annadea launch. Nearly 70% of the creators we ended up working with at launch had less than 50,000 followers. While I understand why it might be tempting to put all your energy towards securing mid-tier and macro influencers to maximize reach, we knew that partnering with emerging creators would likely increase our chances of engagement given that Annadea is also an emerging brand, and generate a larger volume of content.

When I was starting out with my influencing career and had less than 5,000 followers, I felt so honored when brands included me in their campaigns. I wanted to pay that feeling forward to influencers who are early in their careers right now.

Across these cohorts, we sought influencers who had big, bold, authentic stories to tell and partnered directly with them to develop content ideas. For example, we found an incredible creator, Isabella, who pitched us on filming her content in Croatia since her friends had just invited her on a last-minute trip. Not only did we immediately say yes, but we encouraged her to make the spontaneous trip a part of her content. Going on an impromptu adventure is completely in line with who we envision the Annadea girl to be.

On the other hand, another creator who is deep in wedding planning used Annadea to get ready for a date night. In her content, she mentioned remembering to find presence in her relationship instead of just focusing on planning the future. By showcasing a breadth of content, we wanted to highlight how Annadea can fit seamlessly into people’s full lives, through special, once-in-a-lifetime occasions and everyday routines alike.

One of the major takeaways from our influencer launch campaign was the importance of product education. Annadea’s makeup-skincare hybrids are unique in pigment and texture compared to other beauty products on the market. We learned that colorless products, such as the To Dew Glow Serum, require extra product education and content guidance to ensure they’re being best showcased on camera. Ensuring our creators understand the intention of the products is essential for capturing captivating images and videos.

Overall, I’m so pleased with how our influencer launch campaign turned out, specifically the breadth and depth of stories that creators told in their content. Seeing all of the products being shared on socials on launch day after solely using the products myself for months was a surreal moment.

Across influencer content, organic social posts, and reviews, it’s been so gratifying to see how Annadea fits in with a variety of lifestyles for women of all ages. Given my history with cystic acne, I know firsthand how personal the experience of beauty and skincare can be, so it warms my heart to see so many of these creators pouring their own personal stories and experiences into their content. I’m proud of the foundation we’ve built with this initial launch campaign, and excited to keep finding creative ways to bring Annadea to life in the months to come.