Insights for Creators & Marketers

Whether you post YouTube videos or Instagram posts, as a creator, a major key to success is creating and executing a posting schedule. When a creator is looking to grow in follower count, among the many ways to do that is keeping a consistent posting schedule to engage with your followers.

As a brand, you might feel as though you need a partnership with a major celebrity or an influencer with millions of followers to gain more recognition. While this is one strategy, bigger isn’t necessarily always better. In fact, micro-influencers hold massive power when it comes to influencer marketing campaigns.

Partnering with influencers is an effective way for brands to expand their existing customer base and grow their potential for more sales. Partnering short-term with influencers to promote one service or product can be effective, but creating a long-term campaign can be far more beneficial to brands and influencers. When a short-term campaign is over, both the influencer and the brand will move to find other partnerships, possibly leaving behind an amazing opportunity to expand and nurture an existing community into converting into a paying customer. If the creator matches the target audience of the brand and they have a great connection, there is evidence to suggest that a longer form partnership is more effective in influencer marketing, similar to email nurture campaigns which sometimes take 5-7 emails before a customer converts.

For creators and brands, it is important to be transparent about the partnerships you engage in. Honesty and transparency are vital for creators to maintain a trusting relationship with their viewers, and sometimes that means following guidelines set forth by the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a set of rules regarding disclosures when it comes to creators getting compensation or free products in return for their endorsement. Creators and brands must abide by these guidelines to continue their partnership. The FTC guidelines dive into more detail, but below is a brief outline of when and how to disclose a relationship between an influencer and brand.

Brands over the past 5 years have realized that marketing with influencers can be a powerful tool. Being able to educate varying audiences about a brand’s product or service through creators can be essential to a brand’s success. From a creator and brand standpoint, it is important to keep the Halo Effect in mind when partnering with companies.

If a brand wants to maximize their potential to land sales and educate prospective buyers on their products, they must consider their media presence. Influencer marketing has become a vital tool for many brands. By utilizing their loyal fanbase, an influencer can use their testimony and “influence” as a reliable review of the brand’s product or service. With that being said, some types of brands, products and services can benefit more from influencer marketing than others.

Does this sound familiar? Explaining to your accountant what you do for a living feels like you’re speaking in a foriegn language. When you applied for a mortgage, the loan officer couldn’t understand why you didn’t have a W2. Or when you try to explain to your credit card company that you need a bigger limit, they ask why you don’t have three months of recurring pay stubs.

Social media sponsorship opportunities can be and are extremely exciting for both the brand and the creator. But with that being said, it is extremely easy to get caught up in the numbers aspect of sponsorships, constantly thinking: How much can I charge? What is the increase from last time? How much time will it take to do this sponsorship? How many pieces of content do I need?

Within the past decade, we have seen a huge shift in the commercial advertising arena. As social media continues to grow at an exponential rate, many brands are transforming their marketing strategies by collaborating with creators.