Nykaa’s brilliant Influencer strategy to sell products

Nykaa, an Indian beauty and wellness company, created a niche and exploited the sweet spot with a well-executed strategy. It is an open secret that Nykaa uses influencers to promote its products. However, Nykaa’s secret sauce is their execution. Many brands have followed suit, but Nykaa remains the shining example of influencer marketing. Want to know more about Nykaa’s brilliant Influencer strategy to sell products? Read on.

Nykaa uses multiple tactics but strategically, they focus on 3 levels of influencer marketing. These 3 levels are targeted at creating brand awareness, promoting their products, and finally driving sales. Let us drive deeper into these 3 aspects of marketing that Nykaa has tied together so effectively.

Nykaa’s Brand Awareness Program

As the first level of influencer marketing, Nykaa partnered with celebrities to endorse their product. However, the beauty of the program is that these celebrities aren’t just endorsing products, they are actually creating the products themselves. Their strategy to collaborate with the likes of Katrina Kaif and Janhvi Kapoor to launch their own makeup lines was a lesson to companies in India. They also collaborated with Masaba Gupta.

Nykaa spent a significant amount of marketing dollars to promote these celebrity makeup lines. As a result, they got the wholehearted support of their fan base. The brand became synonymous with Katrina and Janhvi’s makeup sense. Their choice of celebrities is also very apt keeping in mind their consumer base.

But that’s not the end of it, Nykaa partnered with Priyanka Chopra Jonas in yet another unique way. Nykaa partnered with PC to create content for the launch of Anomaly, a haircare brand owned by her. And then, they took it to the next level. They secured the exclusive rights to sell Anomaly online in India.

Nykaa’s Product Promotion Program

After taking care of the umbrella brand, Nykaa’s next mission is to promote products. They partnered with famous influencers to promote Nykaa products. But again, Nykaa didn’t just ask these influencers to promote their products. Instead, they took a more user-oriented approach i.e., content marketing.

Long before other companies, Nykaa understood the power of content-driven promotions instead of mere endorsements. Hence, they partnered with these famous influencers to create content to give tips on makeup, fashion, grooming etc. The content also included instructions on how to use Nykaa products.

Nykaa launched many initiatives ‘Nykaa beauty basics’, ‘Nykaa wellness week’, ‘I beauty’ etc. They created I beauty by partnering with India’s top dermatologists. This content-based approach etched the brand name in the mind of the audience strongly.

Nykaa’s Influencer Sales Push

After the brand and product credibility was established with the audience, Nykaa unleashed its ultimate weapon. The celebrities and chosen few influencers were not sufficient to drive sales. Hence, the company went after the long tail. The smaller influencers were the perfect bet to drive sales. A strong brand image and omnichannel promotions helped them sell fast. However, it was a herculean challenge to manage thousands of influencers.

Nykaa solved the problem by creating its own affiliate program called “Nykaa Affiliate Program”. The program allows content creators to connect with Nykaa directly. They can pick affiliate links from the platform and promote them. They can earn commissions on the sales generated by their followers. Influencers can generate these links, unique for each of them, on the platform themselves.

The strategy paid off and the company garnered massive sales. The biggest and most important leg of the strategy was achieved without spending any money. The only money that was spent was the commission paid to influencers. However, this commission is paid after Nykaa received the money from customers. These influencers also created a lot of brand buzz for Nykaa which came to them for free.

What else?

Interestingly, the influencers who were selling products were also inspired by bigger influencers and took the content-led approach. They created content on product reviews, tutorials, and demonstrations of Nykaa’s products. This resulted in Nykaa being perceived as a brand that added value to the consumers.

Not many are aware of the fact that Nykaa acquired the digital content company that owned “Little Black Book (LBB)” in 2022. Seeing how important the content has been in Nykaa’s journey, it looks like another masterpiece.

Nykaa launched “The Nykaa Network”, a community of beauty enthusiasts in 2018. By the end of 2022, the network had more than 2,50,000 subscribers. The subscribers can interact with other beauty enthusiasts, ask and answer questions, and share beauty tips. They can also participate in beauty discussions and stay updated on the latest beauty trends.

If you are also an influencer and want to work with Nykaa, you may click here to join Nykaa’s Affiliate Program.

I am sure by now you can appreciate Nykaa’s strategy to reach a wide audience by tapping into the power of social media. If you liked the post then please give us a thumbs up in the comments below. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear them so don’t forget to comment. You may also love our other articles in our Beauty Section.