THE INFLUENCER MARKETING PLAYBOOK THAT TURNS SCROLLS INTO SALES

At a buzzing Start & Scale cocktail night in Melbourne, founders came together for something rare: real connection, real tactics, and a masterclass from ecommerce powerhouse Gretta Van Riel. The mission was simple—end the lonely grind of entrepreneurship by building a community where people at the same stage could swap wins, pain points, and momentum.

THE GOLDEN RULE: PICK YOUR TARGET BEFORE YOU FIRE

Gretta’s core message hit hard: if you don’t know your goal, you’ll never know your ROI. She breaks every influencer campaign into four crystal-clear outcomes—brand awareness, content, followers, or sales—and then reverse-engineers strategy from there.

FOUR GOALS. FOUR WEAPONS.

• Brand Awareness: “Product-for-post” blasts—send product to many influencers at once for a “everyone’s wearing it” thunderclap effect.

• Content: “Product-for-content” swaps—gift product for high-quality photos you can reuse across ads, email, and socials.

• Followers: Influencer-hosted giveaways—tag-to-win mechanics that explode growth overnight.

• Sales: Personalized discount codes—trackable, repeatable, and brutally honest about what works.

FROM ACCIDENT TO EMPIRE

Gretta reminds everyone how she discovered influencer marketing in 2012: a micro-influencer posted SkinnyMe Tea organically, triggering her biggest sales day ever. That spark became a system—5,000+ influencer collaborations, 16M Instagram followers, and a teaching module built straight from the trenches.

The takeaway? Be intentional, be structured, and grow faster together.

Watch the full video here from the Foundr Youtube Channel