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Despite brief blips like the post-pandemic \u201cdeinfluencing\u201d phase and intermittent conversations about \u201cinfluencer fatigue,\u201d influencer, or as it\u2019s now more commonly called, creator marketing is continuing to chart a steady path of growth. Valued at nearly $128 billion<\/strong> in 2023, Coherent Market Insights predicts that the creator economy will reach $528 billion<\/strong> by 2030. In fact, a recent survey from Grin found that 74%<\/strong> of U.S. shoppers have purchased a product because it was recommended by a creator. \u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cThe creator economy is not just booming, it\u2019s exploding \u2014 it\u2019s expected to grow by half a trillion<\/strong> dollars in the next four<\/strong> years,\u201d said Nicola Mendelsohn, VP of the Global Business Group at Meta<\/strong> during a session at Advertising Week New York (AWNY). \u201cOne thing that\u2019s really clear to me is that any brand that wants to be relevant today needs to have a robust content strategy with creators at the heart<\/strong>. It is no longer a nice to have. We are in the next era of customer engagement, one that is fueled by AI and video and driven by the creativity and authenticity that only creators can provide.\u201d<\/p>\nThe continued growth of creator marketing is being driven not just by consumer preferences but also because of the format\u2019s proven performance, according to Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketing company Influential: \u201cIt\u2019s the endemic ability to create an audience in a singular community and tap into it,\u201d he explained at AWNY. \u201cWhile your owned-and-operated [social] handle is great, it will never be as viewable or have as high of an attention metric as an individual.<\/strong> People trust people more than they usually trust brands. [We see] about 50%<\/strong> higher attention metrics for creators versus an owned-and-operated brand handle. Tapping into those communities of audiences to create content that causes emotionality and drives some sort of outcome [has become] the holy grail of advertising the last three to five<\/strong> years.\u201d<\/p>\nThe format\u2019s growth trajectory also is due to a shift in how brands and creators are working together. \u201cA couple of years ago, it was dance for a dollar, basically, \u2018I give you money, you tell everybody on the internet how much you love our brand,\u2019 but very quickly people on the internet started catching on,\u201d said leading creator Vivian Tu, who goes by \u201cYour Rich BFF\u201d on social media.<\/p>\n
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Image courtesy Your Rich BFF Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cNow there are so many different ways to work together,\u201d Tu added at a press briefing prior to her appearance at AWNY. \u201cI have partners now who are like, \u2018We want to support you and your mission. We would also like to get in front of your audience. How do you recommend we best do that?\u2019 and it becomes a collaboration of social posts, IRL events, press, everything. It becomes a full worldview of the entire funnel versus just, \u2018I like your company because you paid me to say so.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nTu was described by Mendelsohn as \u201cone of the most influential voices in financial literacy today,\u201d and the numbers back up that claim: A former Wall Street trader, Tu now has more than 3 million<\/strong> followers on Instagram<\/strong>, almost 1.5 million<\/strong> on Facebook <\/strong>and 2.6 million<\/strong> on TikTok<\/strong>. Here are some of her tips for creating high-value creator collaborations that deliver real ROI.<\/p>\n1. Look Outside Your Category for Your Audience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
In 2023 Vivian Tu (aka Your Rich BFF) went from creator to published author. She now has a media company, newsletter and podcast while continuing to maintain her social community. (Image courtesy Your Rich BFF Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nTu\u2019s content realm is finance, but as her audience and expertise have grown she has realized that she can branch out into other topics. \u201cWhen I first started, I really felt like finance is my niche and I\u2019m kind of trapped in here,\u201d she said. \u201cBut surprise, surprise, when you have an audience that is 75% to 80%<\/strong> women, just because you\u2019re into finance doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re not also into cooking and beauty and fashion and all these other things. Some of my first partners were<\/em> financial services companies \u2014 banks and brokerages \u2014 but to my surprise, the next people who came knocking were regular consumer brands, like Marshalls<\/strong>, SkinCeuticals<\/strong> and Sweetgreen<\/strong> that [felt they] would benefit from speaking to my audience. All we had to do is find a way to tie it up.\u201d<\/p>\nFor example, Tu said one of her best-performing videos is a \u201cget ready with me\u201d-style makeup tutorial where she explains her beauty routine and the products she\u2019s using while also explaining what a backdoor Roth IRA is.<\/p>\n
Just as Tu diversified her content, brands should look to do the same when they\u2019re considering what influencers to work with, she said. \u201cAt one point it was, if you are a beauty brand you were going out to every single beauty creator, and if you are a food brand you would go out and find every single foodie creator,\u201d Tu said. \u201cBut nowadays, there\u2019s so much cross-pollination, and brands are starting to branch out. They\u2019re looking for folks like myself. If you are a beauty brand, maybe you work with someone who\u2019s a private chef and conveys a lifestyle that you want to speak to, and it provides you a new audience.<\/strong> If you work with two<\/strong> creators who are not in the same niche, their audiences could be entirely unduplicated, so even if they\u2019re talking about the same products, you aren\u2019t reaching the same people.\u201d<\/p>\n2. Let the Creator Create<\/strong><\/h2>\nOne of the age-old complaints of creators when working with brands is how heavy-handed they can be in directing the content and language the influencer uses, which often ends up being at odds with the authenticity that has made the influencer successful in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy smartest partners are the ones that are like, \u2018You figure it out and tell us what we\u2019re doing<\/strong>,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhen brands are resistant, I get upset because it\u2019s not just about the paycheck for me. I\u2019ve built an audience that trusts me, and I want them to like what I\u2019m putting out. The best-performing ads are the ones that still provide value in some way, so it\u2019s really a bummer when certain companies won\u2019t let creators create. The smart brands know that we know what we\u2019re doing, we\u2019re going to speak to our audience in the most native language and tone possible, and they\u2019ll also see the best results.\u201d<\/p>\nIn fact, Influential\u2019s Detert said that \u201calmost every successful influencer campaign at this point is native, with a sponsored boosting. When you\u2019re able to marry those two together [that is, authentic native content and targeted media spending], you actually see outsized gains, because sometimes the native audience doesn\u2019t exactly fit the audience you want to go after. So how do you amplify that and find them? Retarget to the consumers [you\u2019re going after] with creator content.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nTu said she\u2019s very picky now when it comes to which brands she\u2019ll work with, and she believes that brands should be leery of creators who say \u201cyes\u201d to anything.<\/strong> \u201cThe most valuable thing that I have isn\u2019t the platform, it isn\u2019t the number of followers, it\u2019s the trust that I\u2019ve built with this community,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard to build trust and so easy to lose it, so I would never ever want to jeopardize my relationship with my audience<\/strong>.\u201d Creators who aren\u2019t similarly protective of their brand and community might not make the best partners despite being pliable to brand requests.<\/p>\n
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