Influencer marketing tactics

Started with ~5 marketing assistants, grew to ~25, each pushed to contact 100 influencers a day (~2,000/day; real output 40-70 on bad days). Assistants hired through an outside staffing company. Outreach is by email, not DMs (DMs are rate-limited and work mainly with a big personal brand). Creators in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain; not picky as long as the creator could fit the app into their video at a decent CPM. Assistants send a Calendly link for a manager call; managers close. Signing goals of 50+, later 100 creators a month. Funnel: ~10% reply, a few book a call, ~1 in 1,000 signs. Outreach tracked in an internal system.

Search Instagram/TikTok for niche terms (gym, self-improvement, day in the life), open each creator profile, paste the template DM, send, repeat. Each account hits a rate limit around 100 DMs/day, so run multiple sender accounts; buy 1,000+ followers for each and get it verified so it looks legitimate. Team sent 500+ DMs/day at peak; 5,000-10,000+ creators contacted in total.

Compute RPM (revenue per 1,000 views) from past videos: ~$3-4 for Locked (~10% download-to-sub, $30/yr or $7/wk). Offer CPM deals of $1-2 per 1,000 views, always with a payout cap (e.g. $500) set upfront, so paid CPM stays under RPM.

Casper's videos are short scripted skits ('Bro, is it true I can make $1,000 from your lawsuit?'), then a walkthrough: find the Temu lawsuit in the app, tap claim, see the deadline and proof needed, fill in a simple form, get paid when the settlement ends. They close with 'Just comment claim and I'll send you the app'. ManyChat automatically DMs the link to everyone who comments, alongside the link in bio. It works even though the app is named and shown in the video, because viewers want the exact link.

Started with a required later second mark for the app integration so it wouldn't feel like an ad, then tested bringing it in earlier and earlier until finding the earliest point that didn't hurt views. For Cal AI that was 20-30 seconds in. A friend's app found 60 seconds. Test your own number.

Sign large creators who post day-in-the-life vlogs. They show their day and quickly scan a meal with the app, often without saying its name. Aim for four videos per month per creator so followers see it repeatedly. Track with promo codes. Example: Jessi from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

Waited until the app made ~$20K/month from ads so he had social proof and happy users, then approached big influencers (paying per story/reel would cost a fortune). Signed a revenue-share deal covering all revenue from Israel with a well-known fitness figure he knew personally; the traction let him negotiate terms better than 50-50. The contract is built on work timelines: a set number of content pieces and filming/recording days per month. The partners become the faces of the brand, making it harder to copy.

Tested creator niches within health/fitness: self-improvement, gym and day-in-the-life. Day-in-the-life worked best: the creator walks through the day's tasks and, after each one, opens Locked, taps 'add task', types it and checks it off, showing the XP/gamified UI to a Gen Z audience. Example: Jeremiah Jones, hook 'This schedule will keep you locked in for 2026', with the app name big in the top-left of the task screen.

Before Sunflower had any revenue or monetization, hunted down the #1 sobriety influencer (Eric, 'Mr. Impulsive', 50-100M views/month, biggest on Facebook Reels then TikTok) and made him 'VP of Sobriety' with salary and equity instead of paying per post. Pitched it as a mission and a go-to-market role, not a post buy. He links the app in all his content, sits in the company Slack where the team shares user feedback ('this app saved my life'), knows the roadmap, and iterates on how he drives link clicks. Supplemented by a few smaller influencers and paid ads. Guest says the same was done at Reddit and Replicate; for bootstrappers suggests pitching a big creator a 50/50 partnership where you build an app for their audience.

Developer (Connor) builds and runs product/paywalls; creator (Casper) owns distribution, 50/50 equity. Make it low-effort for the creator to say yes: build it, ask for one video, no expectations. Casper's suggested pitch to other creators: 'We built this app for you based on this ad or brand deal that went well for you. Here it is. I want to give you 50%. All you have to do is make these videos over and over again,' plus proof a friend did it; optionally 'try one video, I'll give you 100% of the revenue'. Equity keeps the creator inventing new formats when old ones dry up and supplies free ad creatives.

Script: 'Amazon will hate me for exposing this secret. Hey, Amazon, can I buy this air purifier for $65?' 'Ha, you're funny. This purifier is $139.' 'Watch me get over 50% off...' then search the product on coupon.ai, copy the code, paste into Amazon. Casper's video promoted the website, not the app. The brand signed Casper to a year-long exclusive partnership paid monthly.

Reached the Skibidi Toilet creator (DaFuq!?Boom!) early, at ~5M subscribers, and built a game with him on a 50/50 split. His audience followed a saga of characters but could only watch it; the game let them enter that world. He made one YouTube Shorts promotion; word of mouth did the rest. Good fits have an inside joke or a universe the game can extend, and comments that show a real community rather than follower count.