Bro cold-DM'ed thousands of influencers with one killer insight to grow his app 😱
A founder describes his cold DM strategy for promoting his app to influencers on TikTok and Instagram, focusing on finding creators whose existing content naturally aligns with the app's features rather than requiring them to create ads.
Summary
The founder explains his early growth strategy of sending numerous cold direct messages to influencers on TikTok and Instagram. He emphasizes the importance of targeting creators who produce day-in-the-life and lifestyle content where the app can fit seamlessly into their existing videos without appearing as a traditional advertisement. The key insight of his approach is that by identifying influencers already creating relevant content, he could offer them payment to continue making their normal videos rather than asking them to deviate from their content strategy. This is presented as a significant advantage over typical influencer marketing, which often relies on paying large sums to convince creators to feature products that feel out of place. He gives specific examples like an alarm app fitting naturally into morning routine content or push-ups working well in fitness content—formats that are inherently engaging and viral for viewers. This alignment makes influencers more willing to incorporate the app because it requires minimal additional effort and maintains authenticity with their audience.
Key Insights
- The founder found that early cold DM outreach to influencers had a very low response rate, making it a difficult starting approach
- Finding influencers whose existing content naturally aligns with the app's features is the primary criterion for successful outreach
- The value proposition to influencers is that they can continue making their existing videos while getting paid, rather than being asked to create ads
- Traditional influencer marketing often appears too much like an advertisement, requiring influencers to demand significantly more payment and compelling reasons to participate
- Influencers are more willing to feature an app when it requires minimal disruption to their content strategy and fits into naturally viral formats like morning routines or fitness content
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] I started out by finding influencers on Tik Tok and Instagram, just reaching out, sending a ton of DMs early on, and it's a tough start. You get very few responses, and I was trying to find people who were doing day in the life or lifestyle content where I thought the app could fit in naturally. That was a big thing for me is it fit in naturally. It was a really good sell to the influencer. They could continue making their existing videos except they would get paid for it. A lot of times with influencer marketing, it comes off as too much of an ad. And so, the influencer needs a lot more money and a…
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