How to Choose Content Creators for Brand Sponsorships (2024)

Are you trying to identify new ways to expand your brand on social media?

One great way to do so is by leveraging growth through collaborations with content creators.

And here comes the challenge of how to find the best content creators that align with your brand.

We know that can be quite hard so we’ll assist you with this with our extensive guide. In more detail, you’ll learn about:

• Why brands collaborating with creators is a good idea
• What to pay attention to when choosing creators for your campaigns
• A step-by-step process on how to choose the right creators

We’ve got a lot to cover so let’s get right into it. 

Why Should Brands Collaborate with Content Creators?

During the pandemic, the global creator marketing market and creator economy doubled its value and in fact, in 2022 it was valued at 16.4 billion U.S. dollars.

In other words, the industry is booming right now, and we don’t expect it to slow down any time soon.

So marketers and brand owners embracing this trend can increase their chances of staying relevant and growing their brands.

Collaborations with content creators have several benefits for brands since they bridge the gap between the brand’s target audience and the promoted products or services.

The best thing about content creators or influencers is that followers trust their recommendations more than branded marketing campaigns.

Here’s a list of the benefits of brands collaborating with content creators:

• Raising brand awareness: Content creators produce material for social media channels and share it with their followers, which basically means that your brand name is established and communicated to new audiences. On that note, 35% of consumers believe user-generated content (UGC) is more memorable than traditional content. So collaborations with creators help build long-lasting
  experiences for customers and prospective customers.
• Reaching targeted demographics: Content creators generally have followers that engage with specific and niche content. That’s why, if a brand wants to attract specific audience demographics, partnerships with influencers in that niche may be the best way to go. 
• Building authenticity through UGC: Consumers are 2.4x more likely to perceive UGC as more authentic than branded content and authenticity is an essential factor that converts potential customers into buying customers. Simply put, working with content creators improves the brand’s perceptions and trustworthiness.
• Building customer relationships: It goes without saying that customers, and people in general, have higher chances of connecting with people with shared experiences and values rather than with people they don’t have many things in common with. Because content creators, as we've already mentioned, build specific and niche audiences, they are great at building engaged communities of people who care about the same things (and most likely use similar products).
• Generating more leads: A survey has found that every dollar brands spend on influencer marketing generates $18. Good return on investment (ROI), right? In one sentence, creator marketing comes with high conversion rates.  😉
• Budgeting opportunities for brands: Creator marketing is for brands of all sizes with all sorts of budgets. Brands can collaborate with nano-influencers (1,000–5,000 followers), usually charging between $31 and $315 per post. While their audience is small, nano-influencers have the highest engagement rates, around 5%, making them cost-effective and beneficial for brands’ campaigns. For brands that wish to work with influencers who have a larger following, a micro-influencer (with less than 100,000 followers) is a considerable option on a budget.

Before we move forward with our guide, collaborations with influencers are valuable, but only if you evaluate the partners correctly. 

So let’s find out what you should consider when choosing creators.

5 Things to Pay Attention to When Choosing Content Creators

What to evaluate before shaking hands with a partner?

As you can imagine, vanity metrics like follower numbers aren’t always helpful in making an educated decision.

If you don’t know what things to consider before proceeding to a partnership, we got your back!

Here we’ll talk about 5 key things brands should pay attention to when choosing and evaluating content creators. 

Content quality

Do you want to collaborate with a partner with messy content?

🙅🏽‍♀️

To steer clear of low-quality content, you should evaluate the potential partners' production quality, or else they can be a reputation risk to your brand.

Before jumping into any collaboration and paying its price, step aside and try to analyze:

• Communication approach: The first thing to evaluate is the voice and how creators communicate with their followers. Does their messaging resonate with your brand voice? Is the message clear for the audience?
  These questions will ensure that the creators match with a brand voice to deliver clear interpretations.
• Knowledge of social platforms: Every platform has a different style, format, and algorithm. Are the creators familiar with those factors? To check this, look at the creators’ content and approach on social media platforms. Do they publish the same content on every social platform or adjust it to align with the platform? 
• Copywriting experience: While you may provide the messaging, evaluating creators' copywriting skills is important since they indicate attention to detail. A high-quality piece shouldn’t be full of grammatical mistakes.
• Professional equipment: Do they film using a camera or a smartphone? Pro equipment means that creators are investing in their job and are looking to create high-quality content. So, ask questions about the gear and tools they’re using to ensure the content is competitive.

Creator niche

Suppose that you’ve launched a new technology item—are you willing to trust the product review of a cooking vlogger?

We hope not, or else we wish you luck! 

If you want to attract more people interested in your products or services, you should collaborate with a creator in this niche.

By working with creators related to your brand, you’ll have strategic allies that will help you advertise your products.

As creators have organic relationships with niche audiences, they can help you reach these markets.

Furthermore, collaborating with content creators in your niche will ensure they’re relevant to your brand.

So, check the creators’ topical expertise and knowledge to identify if they match your industry.

Community engagement

Picture a community of people anticipating your brand. 

This doesn’t have to be a dream when collaborating with content creators.

You should definitely pay attention to the creator’s engagement rates and how willing their audience is to reward their efforts with comments or shares.

Social media platforms provide extensive analytics of each account so that you can request potential partners with specific statistics. 

Also, take a look at the creators’ actions. Do they answer all the comments? Do they have an engaged audience? 

The whole of a creator’s profile and the comments section will help you identify their approach to community building.

Authenticity of followers

Numbers aren’t always a good indicator, especially if these numbers are fake. 

Unfortunately, there are many creators out there who’re buying followers to close bigger brand deals and paid sponsorships. 

This is a common problem nowadays, and you have to avoid it if you want to create high-quality campaigns that bring results.

The easiest way to clarify if the creators’ followers are real is by real-time engagement. 

Most social media platforms provide you with statistics like follower numbers, likes, and comments. 

So, imagine you’ve found a creator with 100,000 followers that gets only 50 likes per piece and no comments at all. Isn’t that a red flag? 🚩 

Previous partnerships

A good reputation in the market may be an indication of a worthy partner.

You get a deep understanding of someone if you look at previous brand partnerships and their achievements.

That way, you can ensure one option is better and less risky than others.

So, ask potential collaborators about their experience and previous partnerships. 

Often creators upload sponsored content to their profile feed that you can evaluate or even follow up on for feedback about the collaboration from the brands themselves. 

You can also assume that if a creator has repeatedly worked with a brand, it must mean that they're trustworthy partners that bring results—repeated and long-term partnerships are a good sign.

As you can see, collaborations with content creators shouldn’t proceed without an evaluation process based on important factors. 

So far so good, but where to find sponsorship opportunities in the first place?

How to Choose the Right Content Creators Step-by-Step

Evaluating creators and finding them are completely different processes. 

Many brands struggle to find content creators that align with them, while more and more new creators are coming out of nowhere.

This makes the selection process between several candidates more challenging and time-consuming.

So we’ll emphasize the step-by-step approach to choosing and collaborating with the best creators out there.

Step #1: Evaluate your needs

What’s the purpose of the social media marketing campaign? What do you want to achieve?

In other words, what are you looking for in your partnerships with content creators?

Brands should take a step back and evaluate the needs and goals of their marketing strategy.

This step is really important because it defines the campaign’s achievements and the expected outcomes for evaluation.

The goals you choose will also define the actions you have to take and the characteristics your collaborators should have.

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Some common goals of marketing campaigns are:

• Increased brand awareness: Creators’ campaigns help people to shape a positive perspective about a brand’s products or services. To achieve this goal, the partner should have a strong personal brand that their followers relate to.
• More engagement (likes, comments, and shares): Marketing efforts usually aim for engagement since they create a buzz around the brand. A creator with an established community would be beneficial for achieving this goal.
• More followers: Brands want to attract new followers and attract potential customers. So creators with loyal followers can help brands increase their followership as well.
• Increased conversions: More revenue and sales are always welcome for businesses. If creators have an audience that trusts their recommendations, it will help brands increase conversions.

And more. 

In short, goals affect many decisions, from content creation to finding the right collaborators.

Step #2: Choose the right social platform

When creating social media content, you need to choose the right platform. 

As you can imagine, social media platforms have many similarities and differences. 

Every social platform differs according to content creation, types of content, distribution, demographics, and algorithms.

So you have to choose your marketing channel wisely to distribute your content to the target audience.

For example, TikTok users aren’t the same as LinkedIn users since one platform is trending toward younger audiences while the latter is mostly used by professionals.

Content creation differs from platform to platform since every social media has a unique approach. 

In more detail:

• TikTok: Creators on TikTok produce more dynamic content that satisfies the platform’s creative style. So the content is short-form videos, usually with a fun vibe that attracts younger audiences. There’s also TikTok Spark Ads that allows brands to use content produced by users themselves. Last but not least, TikTok Creator Marketplace helps brands find potential partners, but this option isn’t available worldwide.
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram): Meta platforms allow creators to distribute any type of content, such as images or videos. While there’s the whitelisting option, called Creator Licensing, on both Facebook and Instagram, that allows brands to use sponsored posts created by their audiences, there isn’t a marketplace to find creators. So brands can find creators using traditional methods, such as hashtags, attending local events, creating a creator ambassador program, or, if they want to save time, using an influencer marketing platform, like Insense.
• YouTube: YouTube is a video hosting platform used by many creators. While the video content platform can benefit brands looking for
  awareness, there are some cons compared with other social media. There isn’t a marketplace where brands can reach out to potential YouTube creators. Some creators add contact details on their YouTube channel profiles in the “About” tab, but this isn’t always the case. Furthermore, content creators on YouTube receive larger payments than others since the content is usually longer and requires more time and effort.

So you should consider many things before choosing the right platform and then the best creators based on the options each platform gives you. 

It’s a challenging process, right?

If you want to find more creators and evaluate their performance in one place, consider using a collaboration tool marketplace.

Step #3: Browse Insense’s Marketplace

Insense is a creator content platform that helps brands find amazing creators through its marketplace. 

The good thing about Insense’s marketplace is that it solves everything from identifying potential sponsors to managing the briefing process and receiving content. 

Brands can go to the Marketplace, where they can browse various content creators based on specific filters like:

• Platform
• Location
• Category
• Gender
• Age
• Price

And more.

When identifying a creator, they can click on their profile and see more information and analytics to help them make the right decision.

Brands can access each creator's extensive demographics database and portfolio to identify if they are the perfect fit. It works like a media kit where you can find all the necessary information for brand partners. 

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You can even select multiple creators to compare them and create a distributing campaign with several of them.

So collaboration tools make the whole process of choosing the right creators a lot easier and more effective.

Let’s summarize this exciting guide in a few sentences.

Now Over to You

This journey has come to an end.

You now know all the important info when looking for a reliable partner to run your marketing initiatives. 

Where to start?

By finding the best candidates! 

You can do this with ease through the Insense marketplace which has 35,000+ creators to connect with and run successful campaigns together.

So feel free to book a demo with Insense to get access to our network of outstanding creators.

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