writers & contributors
Emily steele
CEO & Co-founder of Hummingbirds
Writer & Editor
jessica kennedy
Head of Marketing
Writer & Editor
lindsey hiner
Director of Content Marketing
Writer & Editor
charise flynn
COO & Co-founder of Hummingbirds
Editor
lexie swift
Head of Community & Customer Success
Editor
callie hippler
Marketing Manager, Growth & Engagement
Writer
andrea mills
Brand Strategist
Writer
get started with local iinfluencer marketing
Whether you’re a brand new brick & mortar or you represent a national brand tapping into place-based influence, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to successfully launch your first campaign.
popular articles to enjoy
Scroll through to see what made our customers book a call with our team.
Emily Steele interviews Umaimah Sharwani, founder of Paro, a food brand specializing in South Asian flavors. Umaimah shares her journey of creating Paro out of homesickness for her mother's cooking and her experience scaling digitally native brands. We cover various aspects of building a food brand, including the importance of being retail-ready.
Emily Steele interviews Leslie Bailey, co-founder and CEO of Indy Maven and Maven Space. Leslie shares her entrepreneurial journey, discussing the challenges and rewards of starting both a digital media brand and a coworking space. We dive into the importance of finding community and support outside one's immediate circle and being willing to make mistakes and pivot when necessary.
Emily Steele interviews Alisha Espey, the Program & Events Director at the Downtown Davenport Partnership. We dove into one of the area’s biggest festivals, Alternating Currents and all the details that go into drawing big crowds and executing on powerful partnerships across the city. Alisha discusses how she and her team create awareness and leverage local expertise for community-driven events.
Emily Steele chats with Casey Harrison, CEO and founder of Polished Strategic Communications located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Casey shares her journey to founding her own communications agency and touches on the incredible clients she’s gotten a chance to work with like Women's Equity Brunch, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Business Equity for Indy and Indy Crew.
Learn what beauty influencer marketing is and find out what makes a beauty influencer campaign successful. Plus, discover the impact of current industry trends.
Learn what the most important metrics and KPIs are for influencer marketing reporting and understand how to make sense of them to understand performance.
Retail merchandising isn’t just an in-store activity in today’s social media-driven world. Learn how to adapt your strategy to include influencers.
Emily Steele chats with Erica Jacobs, the marketing director at Nightingale, a thriving ice cream sandwich company based in Richmond, Virginia, with a growing national presence. They delve deep into the unique aspects of marketing a frozen product with seasonal fluctuations and explore the innovative partnerships Nightingale has forged with influencers and other brands.
In this week’s Local Marketing School episode, Emily Steele interviews Jennifer Magley, a dynamic speaker, author, and Chief Brand Officer at The Basketball League and Basketball Super League. Jennifer shares insights from her experiences as an emcee and host, emphasizing the value of surprising and delighting audiences.
Learn how content moderation helps brands maximize the impact of their user-generated content campaigns by establishing a consistent and authentic brand image.
Micro-influencers benefit from a more authentic online presence that helps them establish more engaged audiences. Learn how that benefits your brand promotions!
Agencies support micro influencer campaigns by helping them find partners, create a strategic plan, and manage the campaign. Here’s everything you need to know.
Influencer marketing KPIs help you gauge how successful your influencer campaign is. Learn what KPIs are important to consider and how to measure them!
Emily chats with Kelly Bennett, brand strategist and advisor at With Kelly Bennett and host of the Emerging Brands Podcast. Kelly Bennett is a brand strategist and advisor launching CPG food & beverage brands. We chat through ways to position your brand for success in terms of packaging and branding as well as how to prioritize storytelling and the purpose when marketing your brand.
An influencer brief outlines all of the important information creative partners need for a successful campaign. Start with our free template to create your own!
In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Brandon Puszkiewicz, a program manager for the Indiana Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Scott Soltys-Curry, creator of the Indianapolis Coffee Guide. Brandon and Scott share insights on the power of community, the importance of being connected to your collaboration, and how small ideas can lead to large-scale positive change.
In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Sara Croft, the Co-Founder and CEO of Five Four, a growth agency for early-stage founders and founder-led businesses. Sara offers insights on experimentation, community-led growth, and preparing clients for fundraising, product launches, and revenue growth.
Is influencer marketing dying? Definitely not. But with audiences craving authenticity, micro and local influencers now rule social media platforms like Instagram.
Learn what the most common types of user generated content are and see successful examples for each type to learn what sets good UGC apart from the rest.
In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Jessyca Dewey, the founder of The Y Collective, a social-first digital marketing agency working with CPG better for you brands. She discusses her journey from working in-house at brands like Califia Farms and VaynerMedia to starting her own agency, emphasizing the importance of integrated marketing approaches for smaller brands.
Ask micro influencers these 8 questions before partnering with them for your campaign. Or, work with Hummingbirds and get matched with local influencers!
Learn how to create an unboxable influencer seed kit that will excite social media users. Plus, take a look at a few inspiring campaigns.
Learn how content seeding helps you level up your distribution efforts by leveraging influencer networks to expand reach and maximize the impact of content.
Learn what product seeding is, find out how it works, and understand why it’s a beneficial marketing strategy for CPG brands!
When brands look for creative partnerships they use UGC apps to find creators. If you aren’t on those apps, you could miss out on partnership opportunities.
A good consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketing strategy helps brands build awareness and drive sales. But the best strategies rely on creative partnerships.
Learn why influencer seeding is still a good marketing tactic and get advice on how to drive brand engagement and awareness with influencer gifting.
Learn why social media is an important part of CPG marketing and see how brands use their online presence to boost awareness and drive sales!
Take a look at some of the best CPG marketing campaigns we’ve seen and learn why they were successful so you can emulate them in your future campaigns!