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LULA Magnificence is a female-founded model that makes clear and cruelty-free skincare merchandise with a less-is-more practicality. Inside its first yr of enterprise, the model has constructed a loyal buyer base, received recognition from business publications like WWD, Attract, and Properly + Good, and launched in huge retail shops like Anthropologie and Saks fifth Avenue.
The shocking half? LULA’s advertising and marketing group is simply two individuals, and influencer advertising and marketing is their solely technique for reaching customers on-line. Within the article beneath, we element the three influencer advertising and marketing ideas which have made this small model mighty.
Increase your influencer community to search out key companions
“When vetting potential influencer companions, ask your self when you can see your model working with them in the long term. At LULA we make this evaluation simpler through the use of Traackr to research whether or not they’re aligned with our model, hitting the proper demographics, and assembly desired efficiency benchmarks.” — Giovanna Rienzi, influencer advertising and marketing supervisor at LULA Magnificence
With regards to influencer discovery, entrepreneurs are often coping with two competing priorities: discovering the proper influencers, and discovering sufficient influencers. You want a baseline of loyal companions that you’ve got deep relationships with, however, you additionally want sufficient quantity of mentions to interrupt via the noise (i.e. a sufficiently big influencer community).
LULA Magnificence overcame these challenges through the use of Traackr to guage 4 key components in each influencer profile:
- Viewers demographics. Is the influencer’s viewers in the proper age vary, location, and revenue vary? There’s nothing worse than sending out a bunch of merchandise to an influencer, after which discovering later that almost all of their viewers is in a non-relevant market!
- Viewers authenticity. Is the influencer’s viewers made up of precise individuals? Or have they got a excessive share of bots and mass followers spiking their numbers?
- Model alignment. Does the influencer’s pursuits, values, and previous content material align? Rienzi typically appears for influencers which have talked about elements or scents which might be current in LULA Magnificence merchandise.
- Efficiency benchmarks. Does the influencer create content material that really captures viewers consideration and conjures up interplay? Rienzi appears for influencers which have fascinating feedback on their posts, in addition to excessive engagement and video view charges.
This strategy has helped Rienzi decrease the time it takes for her to search out and vet new influencers (she is simply a group of 1!). It additionally helped her discover a host of latest influencers who weren’t initially on LULA’s radar, and establish high quality companions who drive web site site visitors, e-newsletter subscriptions, and even gross sales.
Tip: In case you are a model that receives inbound requests from potential companions, it’s possible you’ll want a strategy to set up your course of. Traackr has a characteristic referred to as Studios that generates branded touchdown pages for campaigns. Influencers who obtain this touchdown web page will be capable of decide in to campaigns, learn artistic briefs, and share their product preferences.
Hone your technique with an influencer advertising and marketing platform
“My primary tip is to put money into an influencer advertising and marketing platform that you simply belief. Utilizing Traackr has taken out plenty of the guesswork and made our lives simpler. Generally persons are scared to put money into a software program as a result of it looks like an enormous dedication, however I promise it should repay in your model.” — Sarah Uslan, superstar make-up artist and founding father of LULA Magnificence
When LULA launched in 2021, its aim was to make an enormous splash with an influencer advertising and marketing marketing campaign. Although these companions had been nice for model consciousness, the marketing campaign didn’t have the specified impression on gross sales. In line with Rienzi, issues may need turned out in another way if they’d a device like Traackr to vet their influencers primarily based on overarching targets. Though investing in an influencer advertising and marketing platform takes assets (each money and time), it may possibly in the end save your model from inefficient spending.
Since then, Rienzi and Uslan have shifted their technique away from conventional paid partnerships. Not solely can these one-off paid partnerships be costly (making it troublesome for small manufacturers), they will typically lack a sure model affinity/alignment and even come throughout as inauthentic.
Since bringing on Traackr as their influencer advertising and marketing platform, Rienzi and Uslan have been in a position to establish what methods and companions are working for their model. A few of these embody:
- Seeding campaigns. Just like different manufacturers, LULA found that influencer gifting campaigns are an environment friendly strategy to construct model consciousness. Not like sponsored posts, the one price that the model wants to soak up is the value of delivery the merchandise.
- Associates. Whereas seeding campaigns are nice, they don’t at all times assure that an influencer will submit, a lot much less drive gross sales. LULA found {that a} extra inexpensive strategy to drive gross sales with influencer advertising and marketing is thru associates. Each the model and the influencer get a minimize of the sale, making it a very good deal for everybody!
- Particular influencer varieties. Whereas LULA is regularly increasing its influencer community, it has additionally managed to outline sure sorts of influencers that make nice companions. After conducting analysis and efficiency evaluation on Traackr, Uslan and Rienzi discovered that nice companions for LULA are usually: magnificence obsessed, development setters, wellness gurus, lifestyle-focused (house and inside designers), up-and-coming make-up artists, and multitaskers with busy lives (e.g. mothers).
Tip: Preventing a worry of lacking out (fomo) on nice influencer companions? Learn this text on discover excessive performing influencers in your model.
Preserve model values on the middle of partnerships, merchandise, and influencer collaborations
“Keep in mind why you’re on this area and keep true to your values. This can be a very oversaturated business! You ‘make it’ by understanding what makes you distinctive and sticking to it. There’s an enormous distinction between staying related and promoting out the center of your model for a second of virality.” — Sarah Uslan, superstar make-up artist and founding father of LULA Magnificence
When Uslan based LULA Magnificence, she needed to create a model that was impressed by worldwide good. She named the model after her daughter, Tallulah, as a dedication to creating the planet higher for future generations. This mission is what guides the model in all issues, together with:
- Influencer technique. There are a lot of over-the-top influencer gifting campaigns which have extravagant unboxing experiences and extreme waste. Uslan and Rienzi attempt to consciously keep away from this drawback by taking a “much less is extra” strategy. As an alternative of sending customized mailers to mass influencer lists they go for evergreen mailers that make the most of common delivery bins. If personalization is required, they merely add in a small customized notice or reward aspect that may be stored by the recipient.
- Product. LULA’s merchandise are clear and Leaping Bunny licensed as cruelty-free. In addition they search to cut back environmental impression via water acutely aware product formulations. Two out of three of LULA’s inaugural merchandise include .02% water or much less, considered one of which (their Past Balm) is totally anhydrous or water-free. The model’s dedication to sustainability has additionally led them to packaging their merchandise in recyclable supplies, and utilizing Terracycle’s Zero Waste Field platform to maintain empty jars and bottles out of landfills.
- Model initiatives and partnerships. This notion of intergenerational good has additionally impressed LULA to broaden their focus to incorporate water conservation and cleanliness. They work in the direction of this aim via a partnership with nonprofit NEU World, whose mission is to offer clear water supply infrastructure to communities in Rwanda.
If you wish to keep updated on the unbelievable work that the LULA Magnificence group is doing, comply with them on Instagram or TikTok at @wearelula! If you happen to’re curious to be taught extra about influencer advertising and marketing greatest practices from different business specialists, subscribe to our e-newsletter.
