Do Your Homework: The Strategy Behind Effective Creator Marketing

One aspect of the marketing industry that I love the most is its unwavering ability to constantly evolve and change with culture, consumer behavior and the overall digitization of the world we live in. Nothing we do today is done the same way we used to do it, and influencer marketing is certainly no exception.

In 2023, influencer marketing is expected to grow into an astonishing $21.1 billion industry, a 1,200% increase from $1.7 billion just seven years ago. This growth is being driven by a number of factors, including social media ad fatigue, brand marketers who need to attract their next generation of consumers, streamlined workflows that make it easier to engage influencers, and increased measurability and attribution.

As the industry evolves and the world around us changes, so must our influencer marketing strategies. Brand mishaps with influencers are nothing new, but this time the stakes are higher: two-thirds of U.S. consumers say their social values shape their shopping choices.

In addition, for brands that want to attract their next generation of fans, it’s critical to take a stance on the issues vital to them: 75% of Gen Z consumers want the brands they support to involve themselves in social and political issues.

With all this momentum in the creator economy and the increased pressure on brands to play a role in social and cultural conversations, it’s time to evolve the way we develop influencer marketing strategies. Brands have a real opportunity to be a galvanizing force for good, but it requires reimagining the planning process.

Dig deep into consumer passion and pain points

Brands must understand the core values of their target audience—and I don’t mean their fleeting reactions to the news cycle of the day.

Core values are what people care about most and are an enduring part of who they are, i.e. helping those in need, taking care of the earth, ending poverty, reproductive justice, and creating a more diverse and equitable society.

Oftentimes, our customers’ core values are topics that specific influencers discuss in their content. Conduct a custom market research panel study to get these insights. Understanding what your customers care about should be foundational to developing your strategy.

Influencers are people, too

When seeking influencers to partner with, look for those who share the core values of your brand and audience. This is important because you are all on the same team. Brand partnerships are a two-way street and are most successful when they are long-term relationships.

While there are some occasions when short-term campaigns are the right tactic—like amplifying a cultural moment or driving a time-sensitive call to action—the vast majority of the time a brand will see better results from a meaningful long-term partnership.

To begin establishing these kind of relationships, start with the influencers you have partnered with in the past who drove the results you were looking for and were a pleasure to work with. Think through your business needs for, at minimum, the next six months and build a content framework that can be activated by your influencer partners with a designated cadence or in support of specific campaign moments.

If you are just getting started and don’t have historical performance to learn from, let the influencers know that you are looking to structure longer-term partnerships or a future ambassador program, but would like to start the relationship slowly by engaging them to create a few posts on behalf of your brand.

Plan for archetypes, not individuals

It is often tempting to begin the search for your perfect influencer partners by looking for individuals or accounts that you believe are a good fit for your brand.

Instead, start by identifying three or four influencer archetypes first. For example, a brand that needs to better communicate its product efficacy should consider using influencers who can help credential their claims. In this scenario, your archetypes could be category experts or power users of your product.

Another example could be a brand that wants to drive brand relevance with an emerging younger target. To achieve this objective, your archetypes should be aspirational tastemakers or peers of the target audience.

This approach will help ensure you are clearly defining the role of the influencers you are selecting and that they will help you accomplish your marketing objectives.

Do your homework

Once your archetypes are set, it’s time to start searching for those individuals to approach for a potential partnership. Begin your search by either using the native tools provided by the social platforms or an influencer network to help generate a list of candidates.

During your search, look for influencers who share your core brand values, fall within one or more of your archetypes, have healthy historical engagement rates, and create high-quality and brand-appropriate content.

Once you have a robust list, begin a deep vetting process to ensure they meet your brand’s standards. Use a combination of reviewing their past content for red flags or competitive issues, and conduct searches for more general background information. Typical red flags include previous offensive, discriminatory or highly political content; criminal history; drug use; public influencer-to-influencer spats; or instances of trashing brands in their content (aka de-influencing).

These are general guidelines, and some exceptions can be made. For instance, the criminal activity could have been many years in the past and the influencer has shared their journey publicly about overcoming personal challenges. Everything should be viewed in the context of your brand and audience.

Write a thorough brief

We want influencers’ creativity and personal storytelling to shine through while ultimately helping to tell the brand or product narrative. This is where writing a brief for influencer partnerships becomes a fine science. The brief should include the key messages you want to be conveyed through the content. These messages could also be validated during the market research you conducted to better understand your customers’ core values.

The most important aspect of brief writing is designing a flexible messaging framework that includes deliverable mandatories. These mandatories can include things like content format, deadlines, language do’s and don’ts, tagging, calls to action and brand or product inclusion. By providing the messaging framework that enables creative freedom and the specific brand mandatories that instill confidence, both parties will feel empowered and safe.

As with any marketing channel that experiences continuous growth and market maturity, we need to evolve our planning approaches. This is even more critical when our marketing activities have the potential to create a healthier online dialogue and make both partners and consumers feel seen, heard and appreciated.