Nano Creators Helped Build XANDRO

We invested vast sums of money on ads and KOLs in 2023. That almost threatened to shut down the brand in Jan 2024. Then, we started working with real people - the nano creators - and fortunes changed

👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. This is Shan and I am building Xandro Lab, a longevity science brand. In this weekly newsletter, I share my raw, unfiltered experiences of building businesses, navigating challenges, and testing marketing and business strategies.

When we first launched our brand, we tried big influencers to talk about us. Looked at follower count, and reached out to a few. Some replied with $2K–$5K price tags. A big price tag, a limited set of deliverables and zero promises (not even content quality). I was miffed - the arrangements made no sense to the brands. What were we really paying for and why? We engaged with a few and all my fears turned right - 1-2 sales for SGD 2.5K fees.

At that time, I became an avid reader of the newsletter by Nik Sharma. He sends highly relevant actionable writings for DTC operators every week. His argument on creator collaboration was simple - get them to try and like your product first, before discussing anything else. Send a note as simple as -

“Hey, we make longevity supplements. We would love you to try them. No strings attached, we just need your shipping address”

Bigger creators get hundreds of PR packages, so instead we focused on upcoming creators with 1-3K followers. In fact, if someone was talking sense about wellness, they were right fit for us (irrespective of follower count). We decided to reach out to each and everyone - we had nothing to fail. Either people would accept us or we will continue to be unknown.

In the next 3 months - 30% of revenue started coming from these small nano creators. In turn, they were generating income through commissions. That’s when we realized: nano creators are not a backup plan—they’re the future of influence

Xandro’s social media page

Here is today’s key points

1. Why Nano Creators Work?

2. What Has Changed in the Creator Economy?

3. How We Work with Nano Creators?

4. The Creator Role Reimagined

5. New-Age KOL Engagements That Are Actually Working