TUNG Brush influencer marketing case study from Kristen Matthews

Over the last two weeks, I have discussed what clients want and expect from influencer marketing and what influencers want and expect from influencer marketing, each according to influencer marketing guru and creator relations goddess, Kristen Matthews.

The Proof is Always in the Pudding

This week, I wanted to share what Kristen Matthews, herself, wants and expects from her clients, influencers, and creators. I didn’t have time to actually interview Kristen last week; however, Miss Matthews did share a case study with me that is much closer to PROOF==PUDDING.

Sometimes a Tongue Brush is More than Just a Tongue Cleaner

Kristen recently wrapped up a campaign for TUNG Brush, the largest tongue brush brand in the United States. The campaign had 3 goals:

1. To drive sales. Kristen was able to track sales giving each influencer a unique code that they could share with their readers. This unique code was a code the readers could also use to purchase TUNG Brush products and receive and discount so they were able to track sales from using those codes.

2. To increase the Instagram presence of TUNG Brushes and to drive high-quality images. Kristen and her team asked influencers to post blog posts and creative Instagram posts. To ensure the Instagram posts looked professional, Kristen offered a $250 Amazon gift card to the influencer who posted the most creative Instagram post. (Here’s a link to the winning post).

3. To make a business decision. TUNG Brush wants to release new brush colors, so Kristen sent all 10 of the possible tongue brush colors to her influencers. TUNG Brush took the product pictures, and Kristen set up a TUNG Brush Shortstack landing page for their readers to vote on their favorite brush color. Again, to encourage votes and engagement, every vote was entered in a drawing to win a $250 Amazon gift card. Kristen received 5,000 votes and that also meant that Kristen was able to contribute 5,000 new people to TUNG Brush’s email list. (Here is the link to the landing page if you’re curious.)

Best of Blogs

Kristen provided me with a couple best-of-show blog posts that are her favorites:

• Who Doesn’t Want Fresh Kisses For Valentines?! Avoid Bad Breath With One Simple Tool X Tungbrush from Carolyna Bauer
• Free Clean Mouth Checklist for Kids | Adding TUNG Brush to our Routine from Elle Olive & Co.

Much More than Lipstick on a Pig

These posts exemplify how Kristen was able to take what could arguably be a boring product and elicit some pretty awesome content.  And while tongue brushes might be a boring–or even a gross–product, the client surely was willing to meet Kristen halfway by turning those weird co-op and hippy-dippy tongue scrapers and tongue brushes into something cool and colorful, playful, and even whimsical.

The Product Needs to Meet You at Least Halfway

So, maybe Kristen wouldn’t have had as much luck if she was trying to promote something that was so retro and traditional and so old-school that people weren’t actually excited to become a part of something pretty, cool, and also quirky and uncommon to us in the West, like tongue scrapers and brushes. I grew up in Hawaii and in Asia tongue scrapers are pretty normal, but I haven’t seen them outside of the vegan hippy-dippy co-ops myself–and maybe in Whole Foods–that sort of place.

Even Colorful Tongue Brushes Don’t Sell Themselves

I don’t want to suggest that Kristen could online influencer market ice to Eskimos. I’m suggesting that clients that don’t have their houses in order aren’t ready for Influencer Marketing. Even though the Instagram contest and voting for their favorite color and all of that stuff were probably designed and produced by Kristen, the clients were game. They were generous with their money and their gifts, and I do believe they paid their influencers as well.

Getting Your Client’s Total Buy-In Is Essential

It’s always very important to get your client on your side, on your team. If you don’t have their buy-in, they might not be willing to commit so much time, money, and resources to something that could fail–especially in a world with lots and lots of affiliate marketing and advertising products.

Key Performance Indicators

KPI is like pornography:  I know it when I see it. Your key performance indicators aren’t worth a pile of beans if your client doesn’t buy it. If your client doesn’t value the gift you’re giving, you might as well throw pearls to swine. When it all comes together, the quality and volume of Instagram posts are so much better, there is plenty of new buzz and a lot of new SEO Google Juice that feeds the organic competitive keyword war via Google Search, Bing Search, Yahoo Search, etc.

Emails Are Almost as Valuable to Clients as Worthy KPIs

It also resulted in 5,000 new email sign-ups for, what, only a $250 Amazon card as a reward?  Even at $1.00-per-email, that’s $5,000 of value for $250 (and Kristen’s work and time, etc.).

With your help, I can come up with some interview questions for Kristen Matthews so that we can run that cool stuff next week in What Influencer Marketer Kristen Matthews Wants from Clients, Creators, and Creators, part 2. Until then, I hope this case study was worthwhile.

Originally posted on the Biznology Blog