Influencer advertising and marketing has grown exponentially over the previous a number of years. What began as a novelty tactic for a choose few digitally native manufacturers has now turn out to be a multi-billion greenback trade and a mainstay for ecommerce startups and retail stalwarts alike.
On this weblog, we’ll introduce you to a few of these manufacturers in a number of influencer advertising and marketing case research and look contained in the methods which have helped them turn out to be family names of their respective fields. However first, let’s get accustomed to some latest tendencies.
Influencer advertising and marketing stats and tendencies you need to know
Influencer advertising and marketing is now almost a $5 billion trade within the U.S.
Many manufacturers elevated their influencer advertising and marketing efforts this 12 months as a cost-efficient means of driving gross sales and bettering model consciousness amid a looming recession. Within the U.S., influencer advertising and marketing spending reached $4.99 billion in 2022. By 2024, that quantity is anticipated to develop to $7.14 billion.
As of July 2022, the most well-liked influencer advertising and marketing platforms by spending have been as follows:
- Instagram: $2.23 billion
- YouTube: $950 million
- TikTok: $770 million
- Fb: $740 million
Influencer charges are on the rise.
In keeping with a latest survey, almost 300 veteran influencer entrepreneurs mentioned that rising influencer charges was one of the widespread tendencies in 2022. Because of this, many have begun prioritizing nano and micro influencers over their macro and movie star counterparts.
Smaller creators’ typically decrease charges and a better probability of accepting free merchandise in trade for merchandise make them ultimate companions for newbie and enterprise manufacturers alike. Nonetheless, bootstrapped manufacturers desirous about partnering with all creator sizes have discovered success in an affiliate mannequin—a fee construction that solely requires manufacturers to pay influencers who get outcomes.
The trade is shifting to first-party knowledge.
Roughly 86% of entrepreneurs relied on third-party cookies to some extent in 2021. For influencer entrepreneurs, third-party knowledge was mostly used for locating brand-aligned creators to companion with.
Nonetheless, in gentle of Google’s two-year plan to part out third-party knowledge, Meta coverage updates, and Apple’s latest privateness replace permitting Safari to dam cookies and stop advertisers from monitoring customers’ internet habits, most of these entrepreneurs have already begun the transition to first-party knowledge in its place.
The transition from third-party to first-party knowledge highlights an excellent higher want for long-term partnerships with genuine content material creators. And though there may be some preliminary rising pains, shifting to a first-party knowledge technique will in the end present entrepreneurs with extra correct metrics to drag from when choosing the proper model companion.
11 influencer advertising and marketing examples to encourage your subsequent marketing campaign
1. ICHIGO Inc.
ICHIGO Inc. is a startup from Tokyo, Japan. It supplies customers with a subscription field service meant to rejoice Japanese tradition by means of sweet, snacks, and kawaii merchandise.
Purpose
In early 2022, ICHIGO Inc. constructed out an internet online affiliate marketing program to generate buzz for its TokyoTreat and Sakuraco containers. By zeroing in on high-performing creators who genuinely love the Japanese tradition represented in ICHIGO Inc.’s merchandise, the corporate deliberate to nurture a powerful group of influential followers who share their model affinity with engaged audiences.
Execution
ICHIGO Inc. works with creators of all sizes and pays them a flat fee or fee based mostly on the variety of conversions pulled in for the model’s Tokyo Deal with and Sakuraco containers. This system deploys creators on a number of social media platforms however focuses totally on YouTube creators who can attain an viewers within the 18- to 50-year-old age vary. As an additional incentive for his or her viewers, ICHIGO Inc. offers every creator an affiliate hyperlink to supply their followers $5 off a subscription field.
Outcomes
With the assistance of GRIN’s intuitive internet online affiliate marketing options, ICHIGO Inc. may execute a number of campaigns from begin to end and report on the success of every. Because the model continues to develop, ICHIGO Inc. depends on GRIN to nurture genuine relationships with area of interest creators and preserve the model love flowing.
Inside one 12 months, ICHIGO Inc. was in a position to:
- Improve its creator roster by 30x.
- Recruit and retain creators with a deep appreciation for Japanese tradition and the ICHIGO Inc. model.
- Execute a number of creator campaigns every month.
Take a look at the full case examine.
2. Department Fundamentals
Department Fundamentals supplies direct-to-consumer, non-toxic cleansing merchandise. Each comes with a focus that customers combine with water in refillable bottles which might be lighter on the pockets and the surroundings.
Purpose
Department Fundamentals hoped to scale its influencer program to have a military of name champions offering genuine product endorsements for its non-toxic cleansing merchandise. Along with having its creators put up concerning the model on their private social media accounts, Department Fundamentals wished to repurpose the highest-performing creator content material throughout its complete advertising and marketing combine to get essentially the most out of its partnerships.
Execution
@julesacree Use ‘JULES’ for 15% off @Department Fundamentals starter kits #advert #cleaningtiktok #cleaninghacks #minimalist ♬ autumn – Examine Beats
Department Fundamentals executed its influencer advertising and marketing program in two tiers—affiliate and paid. Its associates work on a fee foundation and obtain hyperlinks to share with their followers. When an affiliate performs notably nicely, the corporate affords them a paid partnership.
However earlier than Department Fundamentals companions with a creator, it at all times sends the prospect a free product to make sure they genuinely like them and might discover ways to use them correctly. This results in extra genuine content material that helps transfer the needle for his or her followers.
Outcomes
Department Fundamentals counts on GRIN to assist scale its influencer program whereas saving the crew time it could use to construct long-term relationships with creators. Department Fundamentals now maintains a big creator roster that genuinely loves the model whereas nonetheless managing to succeed in out to roughly 300 new creators month-to-month.
With GRIN’s all-in-one Creator Administration platform, Department Fundamentals successfully manages:
- 100-150 associates per 30 days.
- 25 paid companions per 30 days.
Take a look at the full case examine.
3. Inkbox
Inkbox is a Toronto-based semi-permanent tattoo and equipment firm based in 2015. With its Freehand Tattoo Marker, customized design platform, and greater than 10,000 artist-created designs, thousands and thousands of individuals in over 190 international locations have used the corporate’s merchandise to specific themselves with their plant-based, cruelty-free know-how referred to as For Now Ink™ that lasts 1-2 weeks.
Purpose
In October 2022, Inkbox ran a gifting marketing campaign to drive consciousness and construct optimistic sentiment for the launch of the model’s prolonged Freehand Tattoo Marker assortment. The crew despatched merchandise to 200 creators, emphasizing those that had used Inkbox earlier than and loved the expertise, hoping they’d fall in love with the brand new suite of Freehand Tattoo Markers and put up about it organically and in a means that feels most genuine to them.
Execution
@joels.tattoodesigns tatted up because of @inkbox, so sick 😎 #inkbox, #tattooideas, #tattoomarker, #advert ♬ Hell N Again – Bakar
As a result of Inkbox despatched merchandise to so many various creators, the model wanted a technique to monitor which of them posted about them organically. The model additionally wanted a technique to carry out outreach at scale, simply generate affiliate hyperlinks, manage content material, and safe crucial content material rights.
Outcomes
With GRIN’s assist, Inkbox has constructed a group of high-performing creators who love the model—a lot of whom have transitioned into long-term partnerships as model ambassadors. And with a rising content material library generated from its latest gifting marketing campaign, the remainder of the Inkbox crew has loads of superb content material it could repurpose throughout the whole advertising and marketing combine.
From October 18, 2022, to December 9, 2022, Inkbox collected:
- 70+ creators within the Freehand Tattoo Marker activation.
- 800k+ attain from creator content material.
- 40% unprompted creator posting fee.
- 2x content material obtained from typical evergreen campaigns.
Take a look at the full case examine.
4. Cuts Clothes
Cuts is a premium clothes model specializing in T-shirts, sweatshirts, bottoms, and hats. The corporate’s objective is to supply clothes that’s skilled sufficient for work and trendy sufficient for an evening out with out sacrificing consolation.
Purpose
Cuts lately executed a product seeding marketing campaign with nano and micro influencers with the targets of rising the creators’ social presence and growing Cuts’ model consciousness on TikTok. Success for the marketing campaign meant establishing a sustainable “content material farm” of high-performing creators to collectively produce 20-30 items of content material with a ten%+ engagement fee and <$120 price per acquisition (CPA).
Execution
@cylussandoval #advert New Fall assortment out now, hyperlink in bio to take a look at the remainder of the gathering. Use code CYSANDOVAL to save lots of. #cutsclothing ♬ unique sound – Marcos
The marketing campaign assigned its creators 1-2 TikTok movies per 30 days, every with a particular theme centered round a brand new product, assortment, vacation, and many others. New creators began on a one-month trial run, with the highest performers invited for prolonged partnerships the place they may turn out to be model ambassadors and work extra intently with the model.
Outcomes
Whereas leveraging the GRIN platform, Cuts created a crew of 15 micro influencers who produced professional-grade content material with little to no raise from the model’s finish.
The marketing campaign generated:
- 30+ unique TikTok movies.
- 10%+ put up engagement fee.
- <$120 CPA.
Take a look at the full case examine.
5. Blue Wheel Media
Blue Wheel Media is an omnichannel advertising and marketing company, serving to magnificence and wellness trade purchasers scale their ecommerce companies by offering superior digital advertising and marketing, content material manufacturing, and market promoting options.
Purpose
For a latest partnership, Blue Wheel helped a haircare trade shopper drive gross sales by leveraging a paid influencer program with greater than 100 nano, micro, and macro creators on TikTok and Instagram. After contributing to the paid marketing campaign, every high-performing creator had the choice to remain on long-term and earn fee by means of an associates program.
Execution
Blue Wheel wanted essentially the most environment friendly workflow potential to juggle the targets of its haircare companion, together with different purchasers counting on the company to scale their influencer advertising and marketing packages. Blue Wheel additionally wanted a means to supply an in depth overview of marketing campaign success to show their efforts have been working.
To maintain all the things working easily, Blue Wheel wanted streamlined options for:
- Influencer funds.
- Communication.
- Hyperlink era.
- Content material administration.
- Reporting success.
Outcomes
GRIN’s main Creator Administration platform has all of the instruments required to assist Blue Wheel’s haircare shopper attain their income targets after which some.
With GRIN, Blue Wheel has entry to:
- Customized Electronic mail Sequences. One-off emails are a factor of the previous. With GRIN, Blue Wheel can talk with all its prospects and companions at scale and generate automated follow-ups. Organized Content material Library. Blue Wheel has all of its creator content material beneath one roof.
- Ecommerce integration. GRIN integrates seamlessly with the ecommerce shops of Blue Wheel’s purchasers, making creating and assigning Affiliate Hyperlinks a breeze.
- Activations Dashboard. Blue Wheel can simply monitor deliverables, analyze content material, and see which creators must be paid, all from a single dashboard.
- Reporting Dashboard. All the information Blue Wheel must report marketing campaign success to its purchasers are robotically uploaded to GRIN’s intuitive Reporting Dashboard.
Take a look at the full case examine.
6. nutpods
Nutpods is the #1 non-dairy substitute creamer model on Amazon. The vegan, kosher, non-GMO, gluten-free, and Whole30® authorised model is consistently tweaking and increasing its fashionable flavors to fulfill the tendencies and calls for of its clients.
Purpose
It didn’t take lengthy for nutpods to develop a devoted fanbase desperate to work with the model. With a strong core of about 50 model advocates working with nutpods from its early days, the influencer advertising and marketing crew’s fundamental objective was to construct out a military of equally passionate advocates keen to share the love for his or her favourite non-dairy creamer firm.
Execution
@nicole_thenomad #advert The BEST matcha, arms down 🙌🏽🍵 the @nutpods make all of the distinction! #nutpodspartner #matcha ♬ unique sound – Nicole Renard
Nutpods determined to step up its recreation with an associates program along with its ambassador program. Nutpods gave its ambassadors free merchandise in trade for content material, whereas its associates may earn money in a conventional fee mannequin. Both means, the model focused high-quality creators able to share their love for all issues nutpods.
Outcomes
Nutpods depends on GRIN to run its product seeding and affiliate packages from finish to finish. Shortly after signing on with the world’s first Creator Administration platform, nutpods grew its influencer roster to greater than 250 creators and noticed:
- 1,000+ hyperlink code conversions.
- 600+ orders fulfilled.
- 3,000+ items of recent influencer-generated content material.
Take a look at the full case examine.
7. Organifi
Organifi is a superfoods complement firm. Its merchandise are supposed to energy the thoughts and physique with blends made with complete meals, natural components, and fewer than three grams of sugar.
Purpose
Organifi’s mission is to carry the advantages of superfoods into each North American family by means of its line of drink powder merchandise. However Organifi needs to be referred to as extra than simply drink powders—the model prides itself on connecting with its buyer group and following their well being transformations. Organifi works exhausting to foster a group amongst its followers and makes use of an influencer advertising and marketing program to assist with that objective.
Execution
@kelseylynnjones it’s good to eat inexperienced! 🥬🥑🌱🥝🥦#plantbasedtiktok #wieiad #healthtok #fyp @organifi #advert ♬ Summer season Background Jazz – Stress-free Jazz Nights
Organifi hones in narrowly on creators who most intently resemble their ultimate clients. Utilizing rigorously crafted purchaser personas, the crew additionally pinpoints these instantly aligned with the model’s mission and values. The execution required a ton of creator outreach, however in the long run, Organifi had a crew of ambassadors who may really signify the model and what it stands for.
Outcomes
Organifi leveraged GRIN to carry out seamless creator outreach at scale and handle its complete influencer advertising and marketing program with out a hitch.
In only a quick time period, the model managed to:
- Ship 25k+ outreach emails.
- Construct a roster of greater than 250 creators.
- Generate 10k+ conversions.
Take a look at the full case examine.
8. Mari + Gold
Mari + Gold is a full-service inventive advertising and marketing company specializing within the hospitality, tourism, and way of life industries. The company helps its purchasers construct their manufacturers with tailor-made methods involving all the things from influencer advertising and marketing and natural social media administration to public relations, web site growth, and extra.
Purpose
Mari + Gold largely companions with event-focused micro influencers who’re most energetic on Instagram. Ideally, the partnerships final no less than one 12 months, so the creators have sufficient time to construct model affinity and generate the very best outcomes.
Execution
A handbook method to influencer advertising and marketing isn’t possible if Mari + Gold expects to dedicate ample time to every of its purchasers. The crew wants a technique to talk with every creator at scale, fulfill product orders shortly, streamline attribution, and analyze and report on the success of every marketing campaign.
Outcomes
Mari + Gold’s crew has all of the capability it must deal with each shopper like its solely shopper.
From 2021-2022, GRIN helped Mari + Gold generate roughly:
- 4.5x enhance in engagements
- 480+ new creator partnerships (27% long-term)
- 2,000% enhance in hyperlink clicks
- A mean of 88% of marketing campaign emails opened + clicked
Take a look at the full case examine.
9. tentree
Tentree is an eco-friendly attire and way of life model with a mission of planting 10 bushes for each merchandise of clothes offered and finally reaching 1 billion. To date, they’ve planted greater than 42 million bushes everywhere in the world in locations like Madagascar, Nepal, Haiti, the U.S., Canada, and extra.
Purpose
At first, tentree invested in conventional sponsored posts utilizing professionally crafted content material. However with a rising group of passionate followers, the model started reaching out to environmentally pleasant nano and micro influencers to supply extra sensible and relatable user-generated content material that would assist tentree attain its final objective.
Execution
@annevasea #advert @tentree 🌲 #seattlelife #seattlewashington #tentree #seattlethingstodo #seattlecheck ♬ Younger – Holidays
Tentree reached out to quite a few brand-aligned content material creators who couldn’t wait to assist the corporate fulfill its objective of planting 1 billion bushes worldwide. By means of the usage of low cost codes and affiliate hyperlinks, tentree may monitor which creators drove essentially the most gross sales for the model and transfer its mission in the best path.
Outcomes
With GRIN’s strong Creator Administration platform at its disposal, tentree shortly generated:
- 13x creator ROI.
- 1,000+ conversions.
- 800+ items of influencer-generated content material.
Take a look at the full case examine.
10. MVMT Watches
MVMT is a Los Angeles-based retail model promoting high-quality, inexpensive watches, jewellery and equipment for women and men.
Purpose
Effectively earlier than Instagram dominated the social media panorama, MVMT’s crew instinctively knew its objective needs to be to work with gifted IG photographers and content material creators as a content-sourcing technique. Years earlier than influencer advertising and marketing grew to become an on a regular basis buzz phrase, the model’s younger, hip identification made working with influencers a pure match.
Execution
@lucabish Prepare dinner with us after which use code LUCA for 30% off @mvmt ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
MVMT started sourcing its iconic social media imagery by reaching out to Instagram creators with 30,000 to 500,000 followers keen to supply content material in trade totally free merchandise. Because the content material gained traction on-line, MVMT realized leveraging creator partnerships was ultimate not just for content material, however as a cheap resolution for driving gross sales.
Outcomes
Discovering GRIN enabled MVMT to maintain up with the fast progress of its influencer program and turn out to be an indispensable device in its workflow.
With GRIN, MVMT has seen:
- 7x influencer progress.
- 39k+ items of influencer content material generated.
- 100k+ affiliate and low cost code conversions.
Take a look at the full case examine.
11. Trifecta
Trifecta Diet supplies athletes and health-conscious individuals with recent and natural meals delivered proper to their door. As one of many nation’s largest natural meal supply providers. Trifecta feeds tens of 1000’s of individuals all through the US every day.
Purpose
As a result of Trifecta’s product is ideal for elite athletes, the model’s fast objective for its influencer advertising and marketing program was to construct relationships with professional athletes like UFC fighters, bodybuilders, and Crossfitters. Trifecta accurately assumed that the partnerships shaped would supply invaluable social proof for the model and assist drive gross sales.
Execution
@jeanlucdecoster Teaming up with @Trifecta to provide you guys a reduction on some SOLID meal prep 😮💨 use the code START40 tobsave 40% when making an attempt it oht for the primary time… hyperlink in bio! #trifecta #trifectapartner #mealprep #foodie #workouttips #fyp ♬ She Share Story (for Vlog) – 山口夕依
Along with constructing relationships with skilled athletes, Trifecta expanded its creator program to on a regular basis health-conscious people who may generate relatable content material and set up a group really feel for the model. Earlier than lengthy, Trifecta collected an enormous library of high quality creator content material it may use throughout its advertising and marketing combine, getting essentially the most mileage potential out of every put up.
Outcomes
Shortly after approaching board with GRIN, Trifecta managed to:
- Add greater than 170 creators to its roster.
- Compose 1,500+ threads of organized e mail communication.
- Produce 2,000+ items of influencer-generated content material.
Take a look at the full case examine.
Key takeaway: Irrespective of your targets, influencer advertising and marketing can assist take your model to the subsequent degree.
From growing model consciousness to driving conversions and gross sales, partnering with genuine content material creators has been the reply for 1000’s of manufacturers in search of a cheap method to advertising and marketing. The trade has grown exponentially and exhibits no indicators of slowing down, making now the proper time to implement or increase your influencer advertising and marketing program.