How Creator Marketing Gives Brands the Upper Hand in 2024

The whole world is following content creators, so the power of the creator economy is growing fast.

Collaborations between established brands and content creators are also propelling this new market forward. 

If you work in digital marketing, you’ll recognize that this new trend is here to stay! 

We can all agree that content marketing is valuable for businesses, especially for ecommerce brands.

So, how to scale your brand through collaborations with influencers?

You’ll find the way to do that in this guide. 

In more detail, you’ll learn about:

• What the creator economy is
• The benefits of creator marketing
• How to develop a differentiating creator marketing strategy
• Collaboration platforms for finding content marketers

With these in mind, let's dive into it!

What is Creator Marketing?

Creator marketing is a strategy for promoting brands, services, or products through collaboration with content creators and using their social influence to drive awareness for marketing initiatives.

Creators provide content for specific marketing campaigns and receive payment for their work. 

Accordingly, brands boost their awareness and improve the way they resonate with their target audience.

It’s a win-win situation! 

Brands can build a strategy to collaborate with one or multiple creators based on their marketing goals and budget allocation.

Also, creator marketing campaigns are a great option for brands to distribute genuine user-generated content (UGC) that their audience will enjoy.

That being said, let’s define the impact of the creator economy.

What is the Creator Economy?

The creator economy, also known as the influencer economy, is a monetization system using software platforms that allows creators or influencers to earn revenue for their content and enter paid partnerships.

As a result of the benefits of creator marketing for both creators and brands, this economy is growing fast. 

According to a survey, 54% of 13- to 38-year-olds want to become social media influencers in the US. 

This statistic explains the growth in the number of creators. 

Also, there has been an increase in platforms and tools assisting the creator marketing process.

During the pandemic, the global influencer marketing industry’s size has more than doubled and is valued at a record 16.4 billion U.S. dollars.

This market is on the rise; a lot more so, we suspect, in the next few years.

Since we understand the power of the creator economy, it’s time to proceed to the benefits of creator marketing for brands.

The Value and Benefits of Creator Marketing

The value of creator marketing lies in the strength and credibility of the influencers’ content and their ability to bridge the gap between a company’s target audience and the product or service being promoted. 

By building relationships with influencers, companies can reach large numbers of people in a highly cost-effective manner. 

For example, brands can collaborate with nano influencers (1,000 – 5,000 followers) who charge between $31 and $315 per social media post. 

Perhaps the greatest benefit of creator marketing is how it encourages direct engagement with target audiences, with nano influencers having the highest engagement rates. 

Influencers can form relationships with their audiences and by leveraging those connections, companies can establish long-term relationships with their customers. 

Companies can increase their brand awareness and online presence through the influencers’ content by having more people exposed to them. Plus, businesses can also improve the perception of their brand through the creator’s trustworthiness.

Lastly, a survey has revealed that every dollar a brand spends on creator marketing generates $18. 

Fascinating, right?

Overall, the value and benefits of creator marketing are undeniable.

As more and more companies recognize the potential of leveraging influencers, the market will likely continue to grow.

Having said that, it's time to strategically plan your creator marketing campaign step-by-step.

5 Steps to a Unique Creator Marketing Strategy 

To bring revenue to your business, there are ways to formulate a differentiating marketing strategy. 

The more creative and relevant the content produced by the creator, the better. 

You can achieve that if you don’t follow the classic social media marketing playbook that most businesses follow, which makes many campaigns look alike.

This section consists of practical tips and technical steps for setting up your creator marketing campaign. 

So, let's create your creator strategy!

Step #1: Define your budget

The first thing a brand must define is the total budget available to invest in its creator marketing campaign. 

To calculate the total budget, you should take into account the following: 

• Will you outsource the process to external partners? 
• The cost of the creator marketer 
• Tools or applications you’ll use 
• Advertising costs to promote the content 
• The total time for organizing and managing the process 

All these will give you a complete picture of the choices you’ll need to make and the opportunity costs by calculating your spending and evaluating the expected outcome. 

At this stage, research is necessary so that you can draw conclusions based on the data.

Step #2: Look for creators who align with your brand’s products and values

Think of the creator you’ll work with as a representative of your brand's digital presence. 

Would you take the reputational risk of working with controversial figures?

Probably not.

For this reason, it’s important to choose a partner who will create valuable content and has a good reputation.

This will connect your brand with an audience that appreciates the values ​​and ideals you stand for.

Some ways to identify creators who align with your brand’s values are: 

• Studying referrals and recommendations 
• Researching previous collaborations that had a positive impact on the brand 
• Using collaboration tools like Insense, because of its filters and matching parameters

Considering that creators can help strengthen your brand community, investing time to choose the right people is well worth it!

Step #3: Reach out to a diverse pool of creators

Partnerships with diverse creators are more important than ever, as audiences love content from users they identify with.

This highlights the brand's values ​​of diversity and inclusivity. 

In fact, 83% of Gen Z individuals have said that a commitment to diversity and inclusion is significant when choosing where to work. 

So, brands can attract new talent and create a real connection with young people through collaborations with diverse creators.

In addition to the creativity and passion that such collaborations show, they bring brands closer to people.

Step #4: Use tools

This is where you organize your toolkit for your creator campaign. 

Find the best tools that suit your needs and fit with your marketing efforts. These tools will help you manage your marketing campaigns.

Some categories of tools that you may find useful are:

• Influencer marketing tools: Find the right creators, communicate with them, and manage your campaign.
• Task management tools: Organize your actions with your internal and external teams.
• Social media marketing automation tools: Schedule posts, measure progress, and engage with your audience.
• Automation tools: Chatbots for social media or automated messages. 

Step #5: Stay on top of trends

One way for a brand to appear relevant is to follow trends and implement them in its marketing initiatives. 

But trends come and go. 

So, you should jump on them immediately or you’ll look out of date.

If you’re a marketer, you can learn about new trends as soon as they come out through relevant newsletters or by following famous creators. 

Also, before turning your ideas into action, contact influencers with a creative point of view on social media platforms and ask them for useful feedback. 

Through trends, brands can quickly raise their profile, so keep your eyes open!

Let’s now define the types of creators and what differentiates them.

3 Types of Creators You Need for Your Marketing Strategy

We have repeatedly mentioned the terms content creators, social media creators, and influencers. 

While these categories share a common trait in creating and promoting content, they differ in several aspects. 

Therefore, before choosing the people you’ll work with for your creator marketing campaign, it’s useful to know the various types of creators. 

Let's get into it!

Content creators

Content creators generate entertaining and educational high-quality content that they distribute on digital channels. 

The format of the content they create varies:

• Written content (blog posts, video scripts, social copy, and ad copy)
• Audio content (podcasts, audiobooks, and editorials)
• Images (graphics, photos, memes)
• Videos (animation, short-form videos, UGC, reels)

Through the content they produce, they attract people and create relationships or communities with people who relate to them. 

The brands that work with them choose to gain access to creators’ audiences and build relationships with them.

Social media creators

Social media creators produce content that they distribute to their audience through social channels. 

The content they create is similar to that of content creators; what’s different is the way they connect and develop relationships on social media. 

This type of creator has been flourishing in recent years, alongside the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok, taking advantage of the benefits and trends of each channel.

Clearly, social media creators make connections across every marketing channel, so they are valuable partners for brands looking to distribute their content across several networks and reach broader audiences.

Influencers

This category has monopolized recent discussion. 

So-called influencers create digital content and distribute it on their channels. 

How do they differ from the previous types?

Usually, influencers aren’t content creators by profession. They have another job which is most often in the field of entertainment (movies, theater, television) or fashion. 

They are people with strong personal branding or celebrities who share content from their lives and promote products or services they use.

In fact, 61% of consumers trust influencers’ recommendations. So, creator partnerships with influencers are great for brands.

And now you may be wondering … How do I find these fab influencers?

Through collaboration platforms, of course! 

You’ll find more in the following section.

Best Platforms For Finding Creator Marketers

To facilitate the connection between brands and creators, some solutions called collaboration or creator platforms have been created. 

These tools provide a solution to the flow of creator marketers at scale, unlike in the past when communications were mainly done through cold email outreach. 

Now, there are databases with brands and creators where the connection becomes more immediate and cost-effective. 

In addition, brands have the option to find the creators that suit them best. 

So let's discover all these tools that coordinate the process of creator marketing.

Tool #1: Insense

Insense is a collaboration platform helping brands scale their social media game with creator marketing campaigns.

Through Insense, brands run UGC campaigns from start to finish. The all-in-one platform allows brands to:

• Find creators in the Creator Marketplace with access to a 35,000+ member network
• Launch an interactive brief for creator marketers
• Communicate with creators in one place
• Easily manage the campaigns (track budget and performance)
• Even run ads, Creator Licensing, and TikTok Spark Ads

Insense is a tool that makes the whole process of running your influencer campaigns easier.

Contact our team to learn about new opportunities for your creator marketing initiatives!

Pricing 

Insense has four available pricing plans, ranging from $400 to $1,300 per month for the Self-Service option. The Managed Service plans range from $3,500 to $5,000 per month. 

Tool #2: Klear

Klear is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands build, scale, and measure influencer marketing campaigns.

The platform uses first- and third-party data, offering rich influencer marketing insights for all the stages of the influencer campaign. 

Klear helps brands discover influencers based on filters; collaborate, and pay them. 

It also measures the campaign’s results to help determine what works best.

Pricing

Klear’s pricing is available only upon request.

Tool #3: Influencers.Club

Influencers.Club is a partnership platform with a large database of creators and parameters.

Through the platform’s multiple data points, a brand can find the best creators. 

Also, Influencers.Club has simplified the outreach process to help brands collaborate with creators at scale.

Pricing

Influencers.Club’s pricing is available on demand only.

Tool #4: Traackr

Traackr is a data-driven influencer marketing platform providing insights and tools for creator marketing programs.

This platform helps marketers or brands to:

• Invest in the right strategies
• Manage campaigns
• Collaborate with influencers
• Track and analyze campaign performance 

It has a large influencer data set with multiple filters that help you find the right creator and a market benchmarking system to measure the campaign’s progress.

Pricing: Traackr doesn’t have set plans; its pricing is individualized.

Tool #5: Heepsy

Heepsy is a collaboration platform with a large creator base of over 5,000 followers.

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Through this platform, you can find influencers and analyze their audience based on criteria like demographics and authenticity analysis.

Also, it allows brands or marketers to organize their favorite influencers through lists, export data, and reach out to them.

Pricing

Heepsy offers three paid pricing plans ranging from $49 to $269 per month.

Tool #6: BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool where you can find influencers to promote your brand.

With BuzzSumo, brands can identify content creators with engaged audiences from a list of shared content. This allows brands to select top sharers and collaborate with them. 

BuzzSumo also has a dedicated tool for influencer marketing on Twitter with data analysis, competitor analysis, and millions of profiles.

Pricing

It offers several tiers — from a free limited version to a $299-per-month paid plan.

Now, let’s wrap this up!

Over to You

We hope you learned how creator marketing could help your brand differentiate itself from the competition. 

The public is now looking for a real connection with brands. And creator marketing is the bridge of communication between brands and potential customers. 

What does it take to seize this opportunity? 

Finding the right partners. 

Feel free to book a demo with Insense, and we'll help you find amazing creators. 

We can't wait to see your creator marketing strategy in action.