Stefan

Stefan

Apr 28, 2024

The old process was both costly and time-consuming

Wonderstripes is a cosmetic brand that offers a range of skincare and beauty products designed to enhance...

Wonderstripes is a cosmetic brand that offers a range of skincare and beauty products designed to enhance natural beauty and combat signs of aging. Their product lineup includes eyelid lifting strips, hydrating eye patches, and moisturizing face masks, all crafted from high-quality, dermatologically tested, and cruelty-free ingredients. The brand emphasizes simplicity and effectiveness, providing solutions that aim for a more youthful and radiant appearance.

People reached
147k+
Impressions
220k
UGC pieces
100+

Niche

Skincare and Beauty

The Challenge

When asked about the challenges faced in influencer marketing at Wonderstripes, the team highlighted:

"The process was both costly and time-consuming."

This happened especially in the early stages. They initially sought creators "directly on Instagram or on Facebook, mostly on Instagram". However, this approach led to multiple challenges.

The Solution

In the early stages of their marketing efforts, Wonderstripes primarily aimed to boost sales conversions through collaborations with creators. The team initially believed that by partnering with influencers, they could directly increase their product sales.

However, as their strategy unfolded, they encountered a pivotal realization. "At the beginning, I was looking for more conversions," they reflected, "But with time, we have seen that it is not something that we can reach with creators." This insight led them to shift their focus towards building brand awareness instead. They discovered the true value of these partnerships lay in "awareness and creating some traffic for our social media and our website," rather than direct sales conversions.

Philippe (the owner) elaborated on the strategic pivot, highlighting a significant change in their approach to working with creators.

"I think, initially, because we decided to change all the approach to pay the creators. In the beginning, because we were just looking at the content, we were mostly doing gifted."

This initial strategy involved primarily unpaid collaborations, where the exchange was content-centric. However, the team decided to experiment with paid collaborations, hypothesizing that this could enhance the quality of their partnerships.

We tested to see if paying some collaboration would increase the quality of some of the influencers that we can reach, and also reaching creators with a larger audience."

Philippe

This strategic adjustment was driven by the desire to partner with more professional influencers, those with a broader reach and potentially a more significant impact on the brand's visibility and audience engagement.

The Results

Collaborations completed
34
Avg followers per influencer
13k
People reached
147k
Impressions
220k
Influencers cost
$1089
Pieces of UGC
100+
COGS
$238
CPM
$7.54
Social Cat fee
$290

Check some of the collaborations

Would you like to get started with influencer marketing? Start a free trial with Social Cat and collaborate with micro-influencers to get sales, brand awareness and user-generated content.

Comparison with other Influencer Marketing platforms

For this comparison, we'll have a look at three different platforms: Upfluence, Insense, and Grin.

For an accurate comparison, we must have an understanding of the following:

  • Platform Fees - We're comparing entry-level plans for each platform.
    • Upfluence - $700/mo (starting price)
    • Insense - $450/mo (billed quarterly)
    • Grin - $999/mo
  • Influencer fees - → Since the brand worked with Instagram micro-influencers, we will use this as the main comparison point. We're using the lowest fee ($100) for this comparison.
    • 34 x 100 = 3400
  • Content licensing fees
    • 34 x 25 = 850
  • Product cost (retail price) - We're using the average price for the products gifted to the influencers in this comparison.
    • 7 x 34 = 238

Social Cat costs

  • Platform fees - 11 x 99 = $1089
  • Influencer fees - $0 (gifted & affiliate collaborations)
  • $0 (included in the Growth package)
  • Total cost of products - $238
  • Total cost = $1327

Comparison with Upfluence

Upfluence bills more than $12000 for its services for the same period of time.

  • Platform fees - $8400
  • Influencer fees - $3400
  • Content licensing fees - $850
  • Total cost of products - $238
  • Total cost = $12888

Social Cat

    Free trials available for brands
    Cancel anytime policy in place
    Manually vetted and verified influencers - through TikTok and Meta integration
    Integrated communications - inside the platform
vs

Upfluence

    No free trial period is available
    12 months minimum contract
    No vetting process in place - it is an influencer database
    Extra tools needed to communicate with influencers - email marketing software

Comparison with Insense

  • Platform fees - $4950
  • Influencer fees - $3400
  • Marketplace fee - $680
  • Content licensing fees - $850
  • Total cost of products - $238
  • Total cost = $10118

This is the total cost of the campaigns if Wonderstripes decided to work with Insense in this specific comparison. One aspect to take into consideration is that Insense bills quarterly, and there's no cancel-anytime policy in place.

Social Cat

    Free trials available for brands
    No other fees except subscription fee and influencer fee (if paid campaigns)
    Billed monthly cancel-anytime policy in place
    Multiple brands per account
vs

Insense

    No free trial period - $500/mo to trial the platform
    Marketplace fees of 10 to 20% on top of subscription and influencer fee
    Billed quarterly only
    One brand per account

Comparison with Grin

GRIN is another popular Influencer Marketing software, and the above is a breakdown of the costs of working with this platform compared with Social Cat. The comparison is made on the same length and same types of influencers.

  • Platform fees - $11 x 99 = 10989
  • Influencer fees - $3400
  • Content licensing fees - $850
  • Total cost of products - $238
  • Total cost = $15477

GRIN doesn't do gifted collaborations for a more accurate comparison. Even if we compare with Social Cat from the paid collaborations perspective, Social Cat still ends up more affordable due to its accessible pricing: almost ten times more affordable than GRIN and due to its content licensing feature.

Social Cat

    Free trials available for brands
    Vetted and verified influencers - through Meta or TikTok integration
    Gifted, paid, and affiliate campaigns - with influencers
    Cancel anytime policy in place
vs

Grin

    No free trials available
    No vetting process is in place at the moment
    Mostly just paid opportunities
    No information about the cancelation policy - Book a demo to find out

Final notes

The main lessons from this use case are:

Adapt and pivot: Initial strategies might not yield expected results; flexibility to pivot towards more effective goals like brand awareness is crucial.

Value beyond sales: Influencer collaborations often offer value beyond direct sales, such as enhancing brand visibility and community engagement.

Invest in quality: Transitioning from unpaid to paid collaborations can attract higher-quality influencers and extend reach, contributing to better content and broader audience engagement.

Would you like to get started with influencer marketing? Start a free trial with Social Cat and collaborate with micro-influencers to get sales, brand awareness and user-generated content.

Social Cat - Find micro influencers

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