The illumai team is proud to be leaders in the healthy beauty revolution, and we bring a lot of expertise to what we do.

You are well-regarded in your field. We’d love to work together in mutually advantageous ways. How?

First, let’s consider whatever ideas YOU have. We can flexibly respond to any promotional ideas you have. Otherwise, we like to explore cooperative efforts methodically by understanding the communication assets that you and the illumai team have, and the goals each party has:

Likely, you have a blog, vlog, or other media property (let’s call that “Blog” for now) … and/or you have strong followings on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. (which we’ll call “Social“).

More importantly, you have intelligence, authority and deep knowledge about an area related to our mission — Healthy Beauty That Is Sustainable. Your focus could be beauty, health, wellness, cosmetics / personal care products, clean living, style / fashion, fresh lifestyle, hair care, exercise, healthy eating, yoga, sustainability, environmental concern, microbiome, pure products or related fields. See list at bottom of this article for other areas of potential interest.

Illumai has a website that includes informative articles and e-commerce traffic from our customers (or prospective customers). It also has active social media channels (@illumai on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn). Importantly, it has Dr. Zasloff, an internationally recognized medical research scientist (an MD as well as a PhD) who is quite knowledgeable about the dermal biome. He knows how modern hair care products affect scalp and hair health, especially as it relates to the microbiome. Illumai also has Mario Russo, a nationally ranked hair stylist. Mario is a multi-year winner of the Elle Top 100 and is a knowledgeable commentator on current trends in hair care.

Here are some specific ideas about how we could work together for mutual advantage:

Mentions.  Both you and illumai can “mention” each other in favorable ways.  We can mention our regard for your content, thought leadership, event, accomplishment, … whatever.  You can mention something about our content, products, fans, etc.  Mutual shout-outs are great ways to help extend the reach of both parties.

Independent Product Review.   We really believe that if people try illumai, they will love it … and increased use will make the world a healthier place. If you review the product, more people will learn about it … which is a good thing for us and for the person learning about illumai through you. We have fact sheets, experts and archival materials to support your review. An independent product review on your Blog works great. A mention (or a short summary) on your Social would be a huge plus.

Paid Product Reviews.  We have done paid placement for some product reviews, but the prominent disclosure required by the FTC makes it seem more like an ad than a real review. We would strongly prefer a simple, straightforward, independent review, even if you say something critical about illumai. We’d like to create value for you, too — see below — but we’d like it to be unconnected with the product review so that you can publish an independent review, without any of the “sponsored content” warnings required by the FTC.

If you want to talk with us about a paid review, see “Paid Placements” below.

Value For You.  How can we create value for you? Well, first we need to know what goals you have set for your efforts: More followers/readers? More name recognition? Being early to tell your fans/followers/readers about something new … and something special? Having more engagement (shares, comments, likes)? Having more of your content reach more people? Just tell us your strategic goals, and we’ll try to do something of value for you. For example:

Social Shares.  If your work is consistent with our healthy beauty brand, we can share your content on our social networks.  (Similarly, if something we are working on is consistent with your brand, we’d appreciate your sharing it on your networks.)

Guest Posts.  If there’s content we can create for your Blog — something where our expertise can create something really useful for your readers — we’d love to create that content for you. The only thing we’d ask for is an “author credit” and a link back to illumai from the section where the author information goes.

Live Streaming; Podcasting.  If you livestream on Facebook, we can make one of our experts available to you as a guest.

Free Products For You or Your Readers.   Illumai would be happy to donate free products for a contest, a raffle or a charitable effort. This can be a good way to drive engagement or trigger behavior you want (e.g., “prize of a full Essential System will be selected from people leaving comments” or “prize goes to the person leaving the best comment.”) Another example was when we offered to give 100 Travel Packs to a charity dinner that someone we respect a lot was organizing.

Deep Discount for Your Readers.   The illumai biome care system for the hair is a premium-priced product, and we sometimes mildly discount it for first time users.  We are willing to create a limited-time, extremely deep discounted offer that you can present as “an exclusive benefit to my readers.” This works extremely well when coupled with an independent review. We offer a 100% money back guarantee to any of your readers/followers who are not entirely satisfied, too.

PAID PLACEMENTS OR PROMOTIONS

While we prefer not to view relationships between thought leaders as a strict quid pro quo exchange, we recognize that some of you are in business. Your leadership — and the influence you generate from it — are an important part of your livelihood. If you need or want to be paid for featuring or mentioning us, just tell us what you want and how you like to work.

We divide our efforts to get our message out into two categories — organic and paid. The paid placements are evaluated along with our ad budget. The organic efforts are handled independently, along the lines discussed above.

So if you want direct payment, please specify your rate card and other terms. As an early stage company, we prefer programs that limit our risk — e.g., an affiliate relationship whereby you are paid on the value of any sale you create. The next best model for us is “cost per click,” where we pay you for every visitor you create. The least attractive is CPM, but we will do that when the rates are good for the audience presented. Just connect us to your rate card or advertisers kit.

AREAS OF SPECIFIC INTEREST; DISCUSSION IDEAS

Because illumai’s superior “beauty” results are based clean formulations that promote a healthy scalp and hair, we have a broader range of interests where we could collaborate.  Here is a limited list of subjects where we could engage with you and create really great content or comment:

• Hair Care, General (many subjects here, many symptoms, many issues). Examples include:
  • Fine Hair (that needs extra body or volume)
  • Hair Coloring (many subjects here)
  • Frequency of Shampooing
  • Great Hair Day, every day
  • Hair Strength, breakage, split ends, hair loss
  • Frizz, Flyaway, … manageability
  • many, many more subjects here
• Clean Living, Healthy Living
  • Clean Products, Non-toxic ingredients
  • Natural, Organic, Botanical, Biologically sound
  • The Biome; the Microbiome
  • Exercise and Hair Care; Diet and Hair Care
• Special Cases/Groups
  • Swim Teams (green hair) (good example of a “micro segment” with a specific symptom or issue)
  • New Mothers (special hair care; microbiome impact on new baby)
  • Flight Attendants (special challenges re: humidity and hotels)
  • People Using Extensions; or Keratin Treatments
• Sustainability
  • How illumai is Sustainable – minimal, recyclable packaging; concentrated formulas, biodegradable formulations; good manufacturing principles