Forensics

Crumbl Cookies Influencer Marketing Strategy (Full Breakdown)

Learn how Crumbl Cookies became a powerhouse in the food industry with creative influencer marketing strategies.

Priya Nain

April 15, 2025

10-minute read

Contents

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Crumbl Cookies grew from one small store in Utah to over 1,000 locations across USA and Canada by 2024.

Their cult following is the Swifties of sugar.

While many factors fueled their rapid growth, their strategic and creative take on influencer marketing helped turn them into a household name.

Let's break down the smart (and surprisingly simple) ways they got thousands of influencers excited to talk about their cookies on social media.

5 Core Strategies of Crumbl's Influencer Marketing Engine

Rather than one-time tactics, these are continuous actions that keep their influencer marketing engine running smoothly and effectively.

1— Creating an "Influencer-friendly” brand

Crumbl Cookies has designed its entire brand experience to be “influencer-friendly,” making it easier and more rewarding for influencers to share their products on social media.

Here are three key ways they've achieved this:

Visual appeal

The brand has essentially built a template for successful social content into its physical spaces.

Their signature pink boxes, minimalist store designs, and carefully curated aesthetics create an Instagram-worthy backdrop for every purchase.

The open-kitchen layout and bright, modern interiors are the perfect settings that directly support influencers in producing high-quality content.

Influencers can walk in, film high-quality content quickly, and know it will perform well with their audience. The brand has essentially created ready-made sets for content creation in every location.

It reduces the friction between wanting to create content and actually doing it — a key factor in getting consistent content from influencers.

Weekly content catalysts

Crumbl's weekly rotating menu is a brilliant content marketing strategy.

By introducing new flavors every week, Crumbl gives content creators a consistent reason to return and post fresh content.

This weekly "drop" model, creates a perpetual content cycle where influencers can maintain engagement with their followers through regular cookie reviews and taste tests.

Crumbl's weekly releases also give influencers a reason to return consistently (unlike one-time product launches that generate brief spikes of sales, and content). This steady stream of new products means creators never run out of fresh content ideas — there's always something new to review, compare, or discuss.

While these elements are clearly designed with social media in mind, it's important to note that this isn't just surface-level marketing.

The brand has integrated these shareable elements while maintaining focus on product quality. Their strategy shows a deep understanding of modern consumer behavior, where the digital and physical experiences are increasingly intertwined.

✍️ Lessons for you:

Make it effortless for influencers to create high-quality content about your brand.Think about packaging that stands out in photos, spaces that work as content backgrounds, and distinctive brand elements that viewers instantly recognize.The goal is to reduce friction. When influencers know they can easily create engaging content with your brand, they're more likely to feature you regularly.
Design your business around recurring moments that influencers can consistently feature.It gives creators content opportunities to plan around — whether it's weekly product drops, monthly collection releases, or seasonal updates.

2— Building a community around the brand hashtag

Crumbl's #CrumblReview started simply as a way for influencers to organize their cookie review content. Food and lifestyle influencers would post their taste tests and reviews using this hashtag, creating a collection of creator content about new Crumbl flavors.

Even people who weren't regular content creators started filming their cookie reviews, wanting to share their opinions and be part of the conversation. The hashtag shifted from being just for influencers to becoming a shared space where anyone could post their Crumbl experience.

The mix of polished authentic influencer UGC and authentic customer posts has driven the hashtag to millions of views.

For Crumbl, this means every influencer partnership now has the potential to spark dozens of additional customer posts - multiplying their marketing reach.

What started as a simple content organization tool has evolved into a community-driven marketing engine.

✍️ Lessons for you

Pick one clear hashtag that describes what people would naturally want to share about your product, then consistently drive influencer content there.
Instead of letting influencer reviews exist as standalone posts, Crumbl's hashtag structure encourages people to respond, debate, and share different opinions. Similarly, design your influencer partnerships to prompt responses and discussions, not just views. It will naturally extend the lifespan and impact of each post.

3— Creating a dedicated landing page

Crumbl has a dedicated landing page for influencers where they can learn about their program and apply to join it. It brings inbound interest from creators, instead of Crumbl actively searching for potential partners.

When creators land on this page, they immediately understand:

What Crumbl stands for
What kind of content they're looking for
That this is a selective program worth applying to
That there are real benefits to being part of their creator community

Let's break it down a bit.

They lead with their mission of "bringing friends and family together." This messaging helps creators feel like they're part of something meaningful, not just promoting another product.

The main button reads "Apply Today" - creating a sense of exclusivity around their program. By framing it as an application process rather than an open invitation, they position their program as selective and valuable.

They use friendly but professional language throughout the page.

Phrases like "create SWEET memories together" keep their brand voice consistent. They mention opportunities at both national and local levels, showing they're open to creators of different audience types.

✍️ Lessons for you

Create a dedicated landing page for your creator program. It gives interested creators one clear place to learn and apply, while making your program feel more professional and organized.
Spell out exactly what kind of creators you're looking for. Whether it's specific follower counts, content style, or values alignment. Because being upfront saves everyone time and attracts better-fit creators.
Structure your program like a real opportunity, not just a way to get free products. Include details about your brand mission, what creators can expect, and ongoing benefits and perks.

You can use SARAL to build a custom influencer program landing page in minutes with no technical setup required:

Choose from pre-designed templates
Add your brand colors, logo, and copy
Include an application for applying to your influencer program.

4— Sharing influencer-generated content

Instead of letting good content just live on the influencer's page, Crumbl shares it on their own account too.

But when they share someone's TikTok, they add their own cover image and keep their signature short captions. This way, the content feels like it belongs on their page while still keeping that authentic creator feel.

Why is it beneficial?

Instead of spending tons of cash on professional video shoots, Crumbl gets great content from creators who are already making videos about their products.

They're building up a whole library of content without breaking the bank.

When customers see different people trying and enjoying Crumbl cookies, it feels genuine. They're not just seeing perfect, studio-shot videos - they're watching real people's reactions and experiences.

This authenticity helps potential customers trust the brand more because they can relate to these genuine moments.

✍️ Lessons for you

Build a content library from influencer posts rather than creating everything in-house. This gives you authentic content at a fraction of the cost of professional shoots, while also showing potential customers how real people use your product.
When repurposing influencer content, adapt it to match your brand's style guidelines. Like how Crumbl adds their own cover image style to TikToks they share, maintaining brand consistency while leveraging creator content.

Finding and tracking creator content manually through hashtags takes hours of work though.

SARAL's social listening feature can help you do this automatically—it tracks brand mentions, shows you top-performing posts, and helps you discover creators getting the best engagement, all in one dashboard.

5— Replying to every influencer post

Crumbl's social media team responds to every influencer's post, whether they're nano or micro or very famous.

When Crumbl comments on influencer content, it signals that they value the creator's effort. This encouragement often leads influencers to post more frequently about the brand, even without formal partnerships.

For smaller creators, a brand response can be especially meaningful, making them more likely to feature Crumbl regularly as they grow their following.

These early interactions build loyalty — as these creators grow their following, they often maintain long-term relationships with brands that supported them early on.

When potential customers see the brand actively engaging, they're more likely to leave their own comments, knowing they'll be acknowledged. This creates a cycle where one brand comment often triggers multiple user responses, increasing the post's visibility on social platforms.

✍️ Lessons for you

Assign specific team members to track and respond to brand mentions each day. Have them respond within 24 hours to any creator content. When creators feel truly valued, they're more likely to make your brand a regular part of their content mix.
Comment early when the post is fresh to help boost initial engagement. Early brand interaction often encourages more audience participation.

Build your own successful influencer marketing program

If there's one thing Crumbl's success shows us, it's this — influencer marketing doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need a massive budget or a huge team. What you need is a system that consistently attracts the right creators and makes it easy for them to share about your brand.

But most brands get stuck because of manual, tedious work – tracking posts, finding the right influencers, following up with creators, and tracking results, etc. That's exactly why we built SARAL.