Utilizing Influencer Partnerships To Build Retail Brands

Last month, Storylane drove over 700,000+ impressions through influencer marketing. And at the start of the year, I had no idea how to make this channel perform consistently. I had no playbook, no proven process, and no ideas. So, I experimented. A lot. And while we’re still figuring it out, here’s what I’ve learned so far: 1. Smaller creators are outperforming larger ones for us Smaller creators often produce better, more authentic content. They’re typically more affordable, work harder, and deliver results with a hyper-focused audience. Larger influencers charge a premium, and the content often feels average. Exceptions exist, but they’re rare. 2. Build a curated influencer portfolio. There are more great influencers out there than your budget can handle. Start small, experiment, and refine a curated portfolio of creators who align with your goals, budget, and audience. This takes trial and error, so don’t rush it. Your “go-to” influencers will emerge over time. 3. Three months is enough to evaluate an influencer. In three months, you’ll know if the partnership is worth continuing. It’s enough time to assess content quality, audience engagement, and impact. 4. Set up clear contracts with influencers Include everything in writing: - Who owns the content? - Can you run ads with it? - Will they engage with your posts? - How many posts will they deliver? Clarity now saves confusion later. 5. Influencer costs vary... a lot. Pricing is all over the place, but here's a starting point. For this platform, expect $500–$2,000 per post for influencers with fewer than 100K followers. Bigger names might quote $5K or more. The highest I’ve seen is $650k per post (no joke). Decide what’s worth it based on your goals and their audience quality. 6. Influencer onboarding matters. Hop on a 1:1 call to align. Share your knowledge, past successes, and internal data. Learn their creative process and set expectations. The better you collaborate upfront, the smoother the partnership. 7. Influencer program management is a full-time job. I tried juggling this alongside my other responsibilities, and it’s a lot. Between sourcing, contracts, payments, content review, and feedback, the workload multiplies with every creator. Bring in outside help if you can afford it or upskill someone internally. 8. Give creators creative freedom. Over-controlling a creator’s content kills authenticity. Work closely on the brief to give them all the context they need, but let their voice shine through. The results are far better when they feel trusted. 9. Ethics build trust (with influencers and your buyers) Always disclose influencer partnerships (FTC compliance isn’t optional). I see a lot of brands and creators not disclose these partnerships (on LinkedIn, in private communities, Slack groups etc.) and it's WRONG. Don't trick your buyers. Be honest. We’re still learning, but this channel is showing promise, and I plan to scale it further in 2025.

Nik Sharma might be the 🐐 of influencer marketing. Here are 18 of my favorite lessons from Nik on the power of influencer marketing + the right way to approach it as a brand: 1. By partnering with influencers, brands are able to integrate their products into a relevant community with a high conversion rate at a relatively low cost. 2. Fans expect influencers to promote products they care about. 3. Most influencers only want to work with brands that they believe in and promote products on their social channels that they would use. 4. More than 41% of consumers get more interested in a brand when they partner with a celebrity or influencer they love. 5. Traditional brands follow this template: Select the influencers. Give them free products + discount code. Pay them for a sponsored post. This approach is purely transactional and sets up the influencer marketing campaign for failure. 6. The goal of influencer marketing shouldn't be to pay them for sponsored content. Instead, you should develop a meaningful relationship that is beneficial for both parties. 7. Successful influencer partnerships are based on trust—not reach. 8. If brands are so focused on their return on investment, they can overlook the value social media influencers provide. 9. The best influencer marketing campaigns are multi-faceted. 10. Successful influencer marketing campaigns build brand loyalty, decrease customer acquisition costs, and enable marketers to track influencer-driven impact on a performance level. 11. By forging a relationship with the influencers you’re working with, they’re more likely to post about your brand without you even having to ask. This content is more native than the old-fashioned branded content with #ad front-in-center in the copy. 12. You need to find influencers with audiences that is closely aligned with your target market. 13. Find influencers who believe in your product. If they don’t, the content they create won’t resonate. 14. Offer to provide your product to the influencer to test before they have to commit. 15. When you work with an influencer that truly believes in your brand and appreciates your product, the content that they create is gold. 16. Don’t solely focus on the number of followers they have or their content, but rather, pick influencers that have a high engagement rate and have values, goals, and ethics that align with your brand. 17. Brands that treat influencers as partners as opposed to paid marketing channels will see the value in their campaigns. To take this approach, brands need to work collaboratively and focus on long-term gains rather than short-term revenue. 18. By selecting the right influencers, crafting your pitch, and maximizing your success, you’ll get more out of the partnership than a one-time increase in sales. You’ll get an entirely new audience to work with and an ambassador that’s sharing your product in effective, engaging ways. #influencermarketing #niksharma #marketing

The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing. We rebuilt our entire creator strategy around this idea. Here's our exact playbook for becoming part of the feed (instead of interrupting it)... First, forget everything you know about the typical "influencer marketing." This isn't about paying for posts and asking them to look into the camera and say “I like this”. It's about building genuine partnerships that compound over time. Let me share what actually works for us: 1. How we find aligned creators 2. Content that actually works 3. Building real partnerships 4. Scaling without losing authenticity 1. Focus on depth over reach Look for creators that are highly aligned with your brand and engaged with their audience. Then help them pick ONE product that will truly resonate. Don’t just throw your catalog at them. Specific stories > Generic promotion 2. Arm them with knowledge, not rules We send creators extensive product knowledge when we start out. But it’s not to control their message. It’s to arm them with the information, background, and assets that they need to succeed. Let them tell your story their way. 3. Trust their creative instincts That video with "poor lighting" or "bad framing"? It often outperforms our polished content. Why? Because it feels real. Like it belongs in the feed. Stuff people would watch if it was their friends or family. 4. Think long-term We don't just send a product + a brief and be done with it. We nurture the relationship: • Do monthly product sends • Share launch previews • Include them in campaign planning • Ask for their input Creators become partners. Partners become advocates. This compounds over time. But here's the challenge: Managing these deep relationships with 100+ creators? It's chaos if you’re doing it manually. Between emails, direct messages, product sends, follow-ups, asset management… It’s a huge amount of friction. And we were dropping balls daily. That's when we use SARAL - The Influencer OS to manage our creator relationships. Their platform lets us: - Build genuine relationships at scale - Track every conversation - Manage product sends - Monitor performance - Process commissions Now we can focus on what matters: Building real partnerships instead of managing spreadsheets. Remember, the future isn't about interrupting the feed. It's about becoming part of it through genuine content that feels true to the platform. #proudpartner