Athlete Partnerships That Drive Sales on Instagram

Key Takeaways

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Influencer Tactic — Product Demos via Video: A common barrier of online shopping for consumers is the fact that they cannot try products before purchase. Overcome this barrier by collaborating with influencers to demonstrate how products are used and have the influencer include a testimony on how your products have helped improve their lives.

Social Tactic — Add a Link in Bio (with a strong offer) to Drive Sales: cbdMD advertises their product promotions through their Instagram’s link in bio as links are restricted on the platform for organic content. The link in bio allows cbdMD to use organic social as a lower funnel conversion tactic by driving consumers to the “Shop Now” page.

Social Tactic — Have a Balanced Mix of Video and Image posts: Video posts generate 12% more engagements for cbdMD. Consider testing between video and image posts to determine which format drives more engagement amongst your followers. Video posts allow brands to showcase more of the product and tell a story to their followers compared to an image post. 

All top performing video posts for cbdMD featured a professional athlete influencer. Consider repurposing footage of athletes from user-generated content to show the product in action.

Social Tactic — Guide Consumers Through the Decision Making Process: cbdMD provides a variety of resources for consumers who are new to CBD . On their link in bio, they include a link to their quiz titled “Which Product is RIght for You?”, helping consumers choose the right CBD product depending on their lifestyle. 

Top performing image posts included informational posts that directed users to an article in the link in bio that gave detailed information about CBD-related news and products.

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cbdMD significantly increased their Instagram following in September and October 2020 by +418% compared to August.

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Zooming into September and October, cbdMD gained the most followers when they published a post featuring their gummies product, and an athlete influencer (Austin Keen)

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cbdMD worked with an athlete influencer who created a video that included both a testimonial as well as a product demo.

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All cbdMD’s recent top performing videos featured a professional athlete influencer - ranging from UFC fighters to golfers to skimboarders. 

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Top performing image posts featured a promotion or was an informational post that directed followers to an article in the “link in bio”.

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cbdMD publishes +150% more image posts despite video posts generating +12% more engagement on average.

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cbdMD has an IG story highlight for each of their top selling products (gummies, topicals, and tinctures) where they post about new product launches and UGC.

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cbdMD’s link in bio drives sales and traffic through advertising promotions which direct followers to the eCommerce site.

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The link in bio also directs consumers to a quiz (built with Typeform) that helps people decide on which CBD product to purchase.