94: Learn The Secrets Of Influencer Marketing By Building Meaningful And Trustworthy Connections

Show Notes

My guest in today’s episode is Brandon Brown the Co-Founder and CEO from Grin. They have developed a software tool built to enable direct-to-consumer brands to scale influencer marketing. 

As more and more people spend time on their phones instead of socializing in real life, research shows that the average screen time is up to over 5 hours per day, which is an 18% increase pre-Covid. It’s predicted this trend will only continue to increase or at the very least stay the same, while we all continue to socially distance ourselves from the non-digital world.

This is an important and timely episode about how you can execute authentic influencer marketing strategies at scale while building meaningful connections with your customers.

What You Will Learn Today

• How influencer marketing builds brand-trust and authenticity.
• How to optimize your brand for honest endorsements.
• How to discover influencers, outreach to them, and get products into their hands.
• How to make data-driven decisions and measure influencer campaign success and ROI.

Links And Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Grin
• Getting Started With Influencer Marketing: 0-100 Guide
• Lumanu
• Lume Cube
• Understand your marketing ROI with attribution surveys through Enquire
• Okendo
• Loox
• Pixlee

Thank You For Listening

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SHIPBOB: EPISODE SPONSOR

Picked, packed, and shipped.

This podcast episode was sponsored by ShipBob, the best-in-class order fulfillment company for small to midsize Shopify brands.

• ShipBob provides 2-day and 3-day shipping and fulfillment for thousands of direct-to-consumer brands. They’ve also been fully operational during the Coronavirus across their 9 fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, and Europe.
• ShipBob is also a tech-enabled 3PL that fulfills ecommerce orders for direct-to-consumer retailers. Their mission is clear...to make your Shopify brand successful by providing best-in-class logistics so your customers don’t go elsewhere. 
• With reliable fulfillment services, warehouses near your customers, and connected technology that powers the fulfillment network, they will help improve transit times, shipping costs, and the delivery experience for your customers.

CLICK HERE to get started >> ShipBob.com

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What is eCommerce Fastlane: Shopify Growth Strategies—Where AI Efficiency Meets Human Connection?

Running a Shopify store? You already know success isn't about finding the right app—it's about knowing which strategies actually work at your specific stage of growth.

I'm Steve Hutt, and I've lived every level of the ecommerce journey. From eBay Power Seller shipping products from my garage, to co-founding and scaling VisionPros.com (an optical DTC startup) through to a successful exit, then spending 6+ years as a Shopify Merchant Success Manager helping 100+ brands from startup to enterprise scale, including working with teams at Tentree, Dr. Squatch, Bulletproof Coffee, Salt & Straw Ice Cream, MUD/WTR, Bokksu, and many more.

Here's what makes this podcast different: I've been on both sides of the table.

6+ years working inside Shopify gave me access to what's coming before most merchants know it exists. Building, scaling, and successfully exiting my own ecommerce businesses taught me what actually works when your money and reputation are on the line. That combination of insider access plus real operator experience gives you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

Since 2018, eCommerce Fastlane has delivered over 430 episodes and more than 2 million downloads to ambitious Shopify founders and marketers. Every week, I chat with operators, developers, and experts who share what's actually moving the needle right now—not theory, but patterns I've seen work consistently across dozens of brands at multiple stages.

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This isn't content for content's sake. It's what you'd get sitting at a mastermind table with someone who's built, scaled, and exited—and helped hundreds of others do the same.

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Steve Hutt
DTC Founder | Podcast Host

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