First indie skincare brands campaign checklist

A first indie skincare brands campaign at founder scale. Numbered so you can stop lying to yourself about which step you skipped.

Confirm the client’s live product page with real inventory, not a coming-soon actually closes. Creators cannot fix packaging.
Write the avatar in a sentence: the client’s customer is US English, 26-38, already bounced off The Ordinary they used like a chemistry set and a derm-ticket they cannot get, watches ‘I wrecked my barrier’ and ‘The Ordinary confused me’ videos at the bathroom mirror after 10pm.
Write the problem in their mouth: I built a 12-step from TikTok and now my face is angry at me.
Write what they already quit: The Ordinary as a chemistry set, a dermatologist waitlist, and a Sephora haul they used twice.
Write what they watch: barrier wreck, Ordinary-confusion, ‘I do not need another 12-step’, bathroom-mirror routines.
Write the reject: the 2M beauty creator whose last 30 posts are PR unboxings.
Write adjacent so the phone does not smear: barrier repair talk, bathroom 10pm, not 12-step hauls.
Put that sentence into the brief
Scroll as them on a fresh Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube account. Example to look for: someone holding eight Ordinary bottles and a red face. Signal: the same barrier-wreck face two bathroom nights.
Keep a 50k average-view floor. Below that, $700 a post for 1k views is a money sink.
Skip #skincare as a roster method.
Email. The contact is usually in a Linktree that is not 40 other serums this week. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number.
If they won’t give a number, move on. PR-unboxing faces quote brand-deal rates the client’s margin cannot eat.
On the call, Minimum View Guarantee. Example: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Talent extra.
Send the contract while the yes is still warm. Scout $1,500 / Outreach $2,500 / Dealmaker $5,000.
The SKU in a mailer or a honest ‘I bought this’ if seeding lags; do not film an empty cart.
Tell them what to film: show the live SKU, use it, drop the code. No cure language. Do not ask for a medical claim or a 12-step. Ask them to use the one live SKU.
Give each creator their own code. Unique codes on a live SKU, not a bathroom routine with no product in frame.
Do not run a launch day on the same morning if you wanted isolation.
Two follow-ups, then stop. If you do this right, ie at scale, you will have many other creators to choose from.

Doing the scroll by hand is kind of soul-crushing. If the shop scrolls as a 12-step haul they will get PR faces the client already cannot afford. No demo. No download guarantee. You approve every creator and every rate.

Barrier-wreck videos already have the client’s audience; a simple live SKU can sit in that rant if you do not claim a cure.

First indie skincare brands campaign checklist

Related