The Influencer Marketing Strategies Driving Huge Growth for Little Spoon, Ghia, Sakara and More

0:11Hey, welcome to the Female Founder World Podcast. I'm speaking to Julianne Fraser, the creator of Dialogue New York, which is literally the influencer marketing agency for people building consumer brands. I don't speak to a ton of experts who are agency builders or freelancers on the show. We're very much focused on speaking to the brand founders, but I wanted to chat to Julianne because she is the person that founders recommend to each other when they need someone to run their influencer marketing. She has started and scaled super impactful influencer marketing programs for brands like Ghia, Little Spoon, Sakara Life, Gold.

0:54She is the person that is really driving results for the brands that you see all over social media. And people speak so highly of her. I wanted to have her on the show so that she could teach us what she knows. And we get into some really specific case studies and very tangible takeaways. And she does not gatekeep this information. She really, really shares what you need to know if you want to scale or start an impactful influencer marketing program. And because we're focused on launch marketing over the summer, you'll notice that a lot of our episodes are geared towards how to really create buzz and impact when you're launching a new product or a new business, we also really use that lens throughout this conversation.

1:38So there's a lot of stuff that you'll be able to take away and apply to your next launch, or if you're getting a business off the ground that you'll be able to apply to that big moment when you release your product and your business into the world. We also have a download available for our business Bestie members. It is a curation checklist that Julianne uses when she's kind of trying to decide which influences a brand should be working with. So that's a really practical thing that you can go and use right after listening to this episode. I put a link in the show notes and it's available now to our business Bestie members.

2:14Before I jump into the conversation, also just one very, very quick thing. We are giving away an opportunity to be on the Female Founder World podcast and win$1 ,000 cash. This is going to a brand or a person that speaks about female founder world on TikTok and like obviously only nice things, guys. You've got to be saying nice things. If you're sharing one of our resources, speaking about an event, the podcast, something that you've been enjoying about female founder world that's been helping you as you've been building your business, if you share it on TikTok and you get the most views out of all of the other people who are entering in the competition by sharing on TikTok, you're going to win the prize.

2:53You'll be on the podcast. You'll get$1 ,000 cash, a bunch of other prizes as well. There is a link in the show notes for all the terms and conditions, but it's pretty straightforward. Just get on TikTok, say nice things, and tell the world about what we're doing. Okay, let's get into the show. You are now entering Female Founder World with your host, Jasmine Garnsworthy. Julianne, welcome to the Female Founder World podcast. It's so good to have you on the show. Thank you so much. I'm really excited to chat with you. You are one of the very few agency owners slash experts that we have had on the show.

3:27We normally speak with consumer brand founders, but as we're kind of leaning into this conversation around launch marketing and what's working in consumer brands, you're somebody that I really wanted to talk to because you are the person that consumer brands work with and use when they're doing influencer marketing and influencer strategy. Tell us a little bit about your agency, the brands that you've worked with. I just feel like people need to know the caliber of experts that we have on the show today. Well, thank you. I started my consultancy dialogue about six years ago. I've been in this world of digital marketing for the last decade and kind of started my career around the time Instagram had launched and had the good fortune to be able to test and try different things.

4:11And during that time, I realized that the influencer marketing world is what I lovingly refer to as the wild, wild west. It's even more crazy and wild now than it's ever been before. But there's just so many players, so many approaches, so many different creators. And over the time I spent in-house working with different brands, building out these strategies, I realized there was a great opportunity to kind of combine the relationship and creativity side that PR firms are so well-versed in and the tractability and measuring performance that a lot of these performance marketing agencies will engage for influencer.

4:46And then also, all of these platforms that have evolved creator IQ and Grin and Tribe Dynamics that really have helped automate and scale influencer marketing. And so my consultancy and my team, we kind of take a hybrid approach of all three and really build out programs that not only have multiple layers to their influencer community, but also really focus on longevity of relationships, which we'll talk about. We work with a really wide variety from Shiseido and Adidas on the corporate end to Brooklinen and Seed Probiotics and Saqqara Life and Harry's sort of in that mid-range startup. And a lot of early stage startups as well, you know, Ghia, Ami Kolei, Gold.

5:24So really wide variety in fashion, beauty, health, wellness, home decor, whatnot. But regardless of the budget, this life stage that the brand is in, our philosophy and our approach really remains the same. And we're going to talk about two pretty specific case studies today. And these are a couple of brands that I think are going to really resonate with the folks who are listening. We have Ghia, which is the non-alcoholic beverage company. We've had Melanie Mazarin, the founder, on the show before. So guys, if you're listening and you're really interested in the story, you want to learn more about Melanie and like the brand as a whole, definitely go and check out her episode.

5:59And we're also going to talk about Little Spoon as well. And I want to start with Little Spoon. I think this is such an interesting case study. So you started working with them back when they were kind of just getting started. I think they'd raised a seed round. and this was what five years ago? Yeah just over five years ago and it's honestly a client that I'm most proud of just because of what we've built together and the loyalty we've had over five years it's pretty incredible. And I was doing some googling I saw that Little Spoon just raised a Series B a 44 million dollar Series B round so they've obviously had a lot of success that you've been working with them through this whole time.

6:39I know that one influencer that you've worked with has driven over a million dollars in sales. And it's all because of this very specific approach that you've had to building their influencer program. So talk me through, first of all, what is kind of the approach that you've had to building Little Spoon's influencer strategy when they were just getting started? And then we can dive into some specific specifics after that. Definitely. So ultimately our approach, we took the Little Spoon and what we take across all of our clients is really a multi-layered strategy. And so what that means is, you know, each month we are building out a pretty substantial seeding and gifting program.

7:19So we're engaging say 40 or 50 micro influencers or mid-tier influencers each month guaranteed to post in exchange for products. So we're gifting them Little Spoon product and we're getting this constant flow of UGC and social buzz always on kind of strategy. And then a second layer to that might be content collaboration. So So if Littlespoon is launching a new product or if they're in dire need of TikTok style video content or lifestyle photography, we'll engage sort of a virtual studio of creators who can follow creative briefs and really capture this great content that the team can leverage across all of their marketing channels and social.

7:57So another layer might be events and experiences. So if there's a great retail partnership that they're engaging or a new launch event that they're working on with their PR team, we'll engage a certain group of influencers to support their affiliate marketing is another layer. And then, of course, paid influencer that we've built to and kind of reached over time. And so through these multiple layers, we build what I like to refer to as sort of this halo effect where you're seeing Little Spoon everywhere. everywhere, you're getting that multiple touch point. And all of the strategies and the different influencer relationships are working in harmony, supporting one another.

8:34So I think so many brands are quick to either just jump straight to only paid influencer or believe in only seeding and gifting. And it's really hard to get that kind of halo impact without building sort of the multiple layers. And the second aspect and philosophy of our strategy is longevity to relationships. So for each new client we work with, we're building out these influencer relationship roadmaps. And so we're thinking, how can we introduce a mom to Little Spoon at day one, maybe through gifting and seeding? Can we invite her to an event at month three? Can we, you know, gift her a collaborative partner campaign package at month five?

9:11And then can we transition her into a paid collaborator down the line? And through this sort of, and again, we're also kind of identifying who is an influencer versus an evangelist that really goes above and beyond and building out these unique roadmaps specific to each creator. So over the last five years, we've built a community of over 2000 influencers. And for each one, we're really being thoughtful in considering the long-term relationships so that, you know, it leads to, as you mentioned, these great returns over time. In the example of the influencer who drove, you know, a million in sales, I know that when you started working with them, they were kind of on the smaller end of an influencer and then they kind of like blew up.

9:54Can you talk to me about how that relationship got started and then how that progressed as like an example of what you were just talking to? Yeah. So I'm such a huge believer in life, in my agency, with my clients, with creators, that relationships are the absolute crucial, most important part of an influencer strategy. I think that is pretty obvious, But I think a lot of brands don't consider that when they're building out their programs and they're not being thoughtful in that these are individuals, they're creatives that we're building relationships with. So in this particular case, the creator that we engaged many years ago as a micro influencer, I think she had 40 ,000 followers.

10:33We gifted her. We built that loyalty. She absolutely loved Little Spoon products. She talked about it really authentically as she was serving it to her children that were growing. And over time, as TikTok evolved and launched, she blew up and now has over a million followers on TikTok. And so the authenticity of that relationship, her followers and her community have seen that she uses Little Spoon every single day and genuinely absolutely loves it. That you can't replicate. You can't replicate it with, you know, a huge amount of money in a paid campaign. That sort of authenticity is what leads to these incredible returns.

11:11returns. I think it's important to not only look at it in a short-term perspective, but also with expectations that not every single influencer is going to drive that kind of result. So it's important to have sort of that high volume of collaborations and diversity across the types of influencers that you're working with. And also level set that someone with a million followers might drive no sales and someone with 20 ,000 followers might drive you 500 new customers overnight. So it's really looking at it holistically as a community and as an overarching strategy rather than individually per relationship.

11:46How do you find or identify who the right influencers and creators are for a certain brand to be working with? What does that process look like? I'm sure that you can work with all of these different brands. I'm sure you and your team just like pull out of a hat and just know, you know, the landscape so well, but for somebody who is launching a product in maybe a new category, they are starting a new business. How can they be identifying the right people to work with? So with all of our clients, we develop this, you know, initial strategy and we start by defining influence. And I think, again, we go right to the basics.

12:21I think oftentimes people have perceptions of what an influencer is and there's such a diverse definition of that. So we start by defining what is a traditional digital influencer. This is someone whose full-time career is focusing on building content, their communities, and they are experts at photography, videography, whatever it might be. Then we define casemakers. So these are individuals who might be entrepreneurs, activists, athletes, and they've amassed a social following as a result of their passion. This isn't their full-time gig, but they have this great influence. Then there's experts, there's doctors, nutritionists, there's stylists, there's people who are absolute experts in their field.

12:59Again, Again, not their full-time career, but something that they've amassed over time. So it's really important to kind of define those categories and think of the right approach per, because if you approach a digital content creator the same way, an expert, you're not going to get the results that you're hoping for. And second to that, we really kind of develop a curation checklist for our clients and making sure that we really deeply understand their target consumers. And that checklist looks like demographics. Are they in coastal metropolitan cities? Are they in middle America? Are they, what's their age range?

13:30Where do they shop? What is, you know, their household income, hypothetically? Obviously, we're not asking each influencer for the household income, but having those parameters of demographics help us kind of narrow down curation. Then we look at the different categories. Just because you're a beauty brand doesn't mean you can only work with beauty influencers, you know, travel, lifestyle, moms, culinary. There could be a really wide variety of influencers who can translate your brand story. so then we define categories uh values being really important so specifically with someone like sakara life you know we're not going to engage someone that just talked about mcdonald's the day before so we really are identifying what are the values that are important to those creators and then the metrics the average reach their engagement rates and whatnot and we present that to the client we get on the same page we'll tinker with that you know curation checklist and then from there we're starting to build out our list and yes we have built a you know a database of creators that, you know, over the years, we know their dress sizes, we know their child's names, their dietary preferences.

14:30But I think if you are starting off having that checklist, and, you know, building out your North Star of this is an ideal creator for us to work with. And then from there, you can find others similar to them. So it's definitely doable without, you know, the really, really expensive platforms or software, it can be done very grassroots, But I think it's so crucial to have upfront that checklist so that you're not going completely off base and engaging influencers that aren't speaking to your target consumer. Hey, it's Jasmine. And I am just jumping in to remind you that we are launching Launch Lab, which is a workshop series all about launch marketing.

15:10You will have noticed that over the summer, we are speaking a lot about launch marketing tactics that folks are using to drive real results, generate buzz for consumer brands, right now. And if you're enjoying this content, you are going to love this workshop series that we're going to be hosting at the end of the summer. We have a wait list open right now. Once you're on the wait list, you're going to get notified as soon as the series drops. Everything is going to be taught live by brand builders and founders, but also experts like Julianne, who you're listening to right now. The link is in the show notes, get your name on the wait list and join Launch Lab.

15:47You mentioned before when you were talking about Little Spoon and you now have a community of over 2000 influencers that are involved with the brand in some way. That feels like a lot. Did you, what did you start with and how did that grow over time? I think that, you know, folks who are maybe like starting out or who are, haven't really been in the space for a while and thought of like building a relationship with 2000 influencers feels like a really big job. What do you, you know, do you start with like 10 a month or like, where do you, what are the first steps there? Yeah. So going back to how we define it, I think Little Spoon is a perfect example of it.

16:26So content creators, we would reach out and really speak to the mission behind Little Spoon. And I think it's the same with PR. It's the same with brand marketing, having that, why having a really compelling story and something that differentiates you is crucial across all marketing mediums. So knowing that and really being able to communicate that with the influencer community has allowed us to build, you know, these in-kind gifted content collaborations month over month. And so, yeah, you can start off with 10. I always say that it's very much doable to hire someone junior in-house who can build out those lists, who can start the relationships, who can outreach.

17:08And a lot of that can be done grassroots in-house. You don't need an agency to do that. I think where we come in is we help just scale and build that, the kind of momentum over time. But starting off with gifting and seeding, Tastemakers, for example, Little Spoon's co-founder came up with a editorial platform that she developed in partnership with Arianna Huffington. And it was called Is This Normal? And as a new mom, Jasmine, I'm sure we both can relate to this, but all those questions that you ask yourselves, like, oh my god, is this normal is this normal. So they developed this editorial platform.

17:41And we were able to engage some incredible tastemakers like Chrissy Turlington and Rebecca Minkoff and Bobby Brown and all these incredible moms who participated in interviews and on the site and supporting the brand is this normal because of the really compelling storyline. So that's an example of another layer where we were now tapping into the tastemaker group of community of influencers. And then we built out some amazing photo shoots and and collabs for these new product lines so it kind of it built over time but like I said it's so important to define the different types of influencers and approach them strategically if you go up to a Rebecca Minkoff and say will you post in exchange for product you're not going to get the same sort of you know response and so really being thoughtful in, you know, how can you benefit those individuals?

18:35And what is it about a micro-influencer that Littlespoon can support in their journey and making it a two-way street, not just all about asking, but, you know, building out ways that we can support these creators that are up and coming. And I think the example that we spoke about earlier is a great example of that, you know, supporting her and nurturing her as much as we can in her career. She's led to over a million followers on TikTok now. So making sure it's a two-way street in those relationships is crucial. What are some of the best practices for outreach? Are you, you know, are you DMing on whatever platform they're using?

19:09Like you DMing on Instagram, are you finding an email address and reaching out there? Like how do you reach out to an influencer in a way that what you say is going to be well-received? I'm a big believer of email. I think when you start getting to the volume of communication that we're doing, it's very challenging to do that over Instagram. That said, I know of brands that do manage, I think Set Active is a great example where they're managing their phone's relationships over text message. So there's not a one-size-all model. Wow, interesting. Yeah. So if you're part of the influencer community of Set Active, you have a direct texting relationship and direct line with their team.

19:48So I don't think there has to be a specific way, but we focus with email. So we might reach out by DM and ask for contact information if we need to. We send out personalized emails and really speak to the benefits of why you might be interested in Little Spoon and how it can make your life easier. Again, it's so rudimentary and so simple to think about. But I think, you know, looking at how brands often pitch influencers, it's very focused on their needs and very cut and dry. And we take the time to really be thoughtful in the way we present our clients in the way that we're curating our lists there I think oftentimes especially now with I think the number 16 billion dollars being invested in influencer marketing this last year alone that number has 10x'd in the last five years since I've had my company so huge amounts of money being put into this tactic and it's becoming very very competitive and with that investment I think brands are looking for concrete returns immediately.

20:49And I'm always the biggest proponent on every new business call, every brand I speak to, I really believe that influencer marketing sits at the subset of brand and performance marketing. And if you think of it only as brand or only as performance, you're really missing out on the magic that it can drive. And so again, from a performance standpoint, yes, you could reach out to a thousand influencers with a one line and offer for money. And you're going to get that quality of content in return. You're going to get that quality of collaboration. If you take the time to be thoughtful, personal, creative, coming up with really unique campaigns that are going to pierce through the social noise, that's the results you're going to get.

21:29So I think it really has to be that balance of thoughtful, creative brand marketing with, you know, a lens of tracking performance. Okay. So that leads us perfectly to gear and the work that you've done with them. You've kind of taken this non-influencer influencer model, engaging creatives and different kinds of folks who are aligned with the brand's values to really drive buzz. Talk me through what's been working at gear and how you've been building that program for them. Yeah. So, and I think, again, like as much as there are opportunities to streamline and become more efficient in your influencer work, because as you mentioned, it's a ton of work.

22:14You're reaching out to so many different influencers, so many different relationships. But I think it's so crucial what we do with every single new client is thinking through what is core to their brand and their ethos and what's the best way to translate this. So we don't have a cookie cutter approach across all kinds. So with Kia, you've interviewed Melanie. She's such a visionary. She has such a strong point of view and direction in what she wanted the Kia universe to really represent. And in speaking with her, we recognized how important the values of creativity and creative collaboration were to her brand.

22:51And so we really took the approach of sort of fewer collaborations, but far more in-depth and meaningful collaborations. We knew that she had Ghia House in LA that we could leverage from an in-person perspective. We knew that she does really beautiful high caliber photo shoots for her new launches and campaigns. And so we were specifically looking for creatives who could activate at the physical house. So whether it be a ceramicist based in LA or a fitness instructor that could host a great event or a chef that could collaborate with the team to host a dinner at the house. Likewise, for content collaborations, we were finding photographers that really inspired Melanie that she could collaborate with for her photo shoots.

23:38So again, it wasn't about really, really high volume and diversity. For Gia specifically, it was how can we build these really niche communities of offline influence? And I think Melanie really recognizes and her team really saw the value in that. And it's something that you can see rings true in her marketing strategy across the board. She's so integrated into these small communities, whether it's Williamsburg, where we live, in the retail bodegas or the restaurants. You see Ghia in these really thoughtful ways. And so we mirrored that same approach when we were building out influencer relationships of not going far and wide and mass, but really thinking of niche, small communities that have offline influence that can really offer creative value in terms of the collaboration to the brand.

24:27We kind of chatted a little bit before the show and about how Melanie and her tie to the brand has also impacted the way that you think about influencer marketing. Talk me through that approach and what that means. And for people who are working in or building a founder led brand, how does that impact the way that you approach influencer marketing? Oh, immensely. So we've worked with quite a few brands that are founded by influential individuals. So whether it be Lo Bosworth of Love Wellness, Callie Rosa, Celebrity Founded, with Giada or Gold with Trinity, I think there's a unique opportunity when you have an influential founder to really tap in and build these meaningful relationships.

25:09And I think the first question I always ask in an audit is, are you comfortable with engaging you know this community just because it works for other brands if that's not your personality if you're not very social or you know love you know being sort of the the face of it to force it is more detrimental than than good and so that sort of first question is are we comfortable with it if we are then thinking through the different opportunities and ways that we can build direct connections with the founders. So with Melanie, again, it was identifying and trying to find out what photographers and creative directors inspired her and reaching out to, to build sort of these more in-depth relationships, whether it be product collaborations or really, you know, creative photo shoots or event collaborations.

26:02And with someone like Lo, for example, she's so, I know you just interviewed her. She's so involved in her. incredible, incredible, so inspiring and so engaged in her brand and her community that she's built. So when we, we just kicked off with their team and we presented to them last week, our influencer strategy, and a huge part of that was getting Lo involved and finding ways that she can really build community across the brand. So again, don't force it, but if the opportunity is there, it's immensely valuable as a part of your influencer strategy. So in a really practical sense, like what kind of things are the founders doing that's helping build those relationships?

26:42Like how do you get low involved? How would you get, you know, Trinity at gold involved? She's been on the show as well. Also another amazing founder. Like what are some things that they're actually doing that's helping kind of drive the influencer strategy? I'm a big believer that influencer marketing is the cherry on top of a great brand marketing strategy. So when we're auditing and learning about a new brand, I'm asking every single minute detail I possibly can from what is your PR strategy, your social, your content strategies, you have an editorial blog strategy, what's your CRM email marketing program, do you have retail partnerships, all of these details.