In just a few short years, influencer marketing has grown from background collaborations between social media power users and brands to lucrative careers for thousands of creators. As the industry evolves, these creators don’t always know how to grow their personal brand strategically. Similarly, some brands experience a disconnect between their social media strategy and influencer program.

Justin Moore from Creator Wizard is bridging this disconnect and helping creators take their brand relationships to the next level. His unique experience as both a former influencer and marketing agency is helping creators maintain their authenticity while acquiring the right long-term brand relationships.

“The path to becoming a creator is much different than it was a few years ago. You can now be purposeful about your approach. People are monetizing their platforms a lot sooner these days.” – Justin Moore, Founder of Creator Wizard

The True Value of Influencers

“Because they are partnering with a creator, a brand doesn’t have to go out there and hire a production company or hire an agency or hire actors to star in content. There is a lot of value that the Creator brings, so evaluating them for only their organic reach or following, I think that sometimes brands are missing a larger picture.”

Justin Moore shares his professional journey from influencer to helping influencers and brands develop high-functioning collaborations. In this episode, he pulls back the curtain on how much creators actually do, versus how they appear in their content.

Justin calls the creator a “production company in a box.” Today’s influencers don’t just post, they plan content, shoot, edit, manage online communities, and so much more. Brands today are leaning on creators to do what used to be done by media agencies.

As such, Justin urges both brands and creators to understand the true worth of an influencer marketing campaign. Creators may be selling themselves short, and brands could be missing opportunities to produce higher-performing content at a fraction of the cost.

Creators Setting Themselves Up for Success

Justin unpacks several great strategies for creators to build sustainable careers as influencers. Today, social media power users can scale their influencer brand faster than they could in the past. By making long-term decisions early on, creators can make their careers more efficient.

The fact is that influencers are entrepreneurs. They must make decisions about content curation as well as worthwhile revenue streams. However, becoming too obsessed with monetization can impact the authenticity of their social media presence.

Justin notes that there are now countless tools and processes to help creators set themselves up for lasting success.

How Creators Can Improve Negotiations and Relationships with Brands

“Creators should treat brands as long-term partners, and not as ‘fast money.’ I think that most creators quit their ‘9-5 job’ every month – they do the deal, they get paid, and then they completely move on. How exhausting is that?!”

Long-term brand-influencer relationships make sense for everyone involved, including consumers. 

Justin advocates for creators building campaign case studies to demonstrate to brands how well they’ve performed with similar brands and goals. These case studies act as tangible proof that that creator is valuable and professional. 

The creator case study approach is just one example of how influencers can refine their brand outreach and negotiations skills. Many brands have difficulty finding dependable creators who will be consistent and clear in their partnerships.

Similarly, Justin advises brands that certain expectations are often unreasonable for the average influencer campaign. For example, product seeding campaigns are great, but brands may not have as much control over the creator’s post. Paying influencers and incorporating them into “always-on” campaigns allows brands to ask and expect more of their influencers.

Quotes from the episode

“For a good 3-4 years, we were daily vlogging on just one channel. Literally, we didn’t miss an upload for several years, and these were 15-minute videos. We had my wife’s beauty channel, and she was posting 1-2 times per week there. We also had a cooking channel we were maintaining. It, honestly, is very, very taxing.”
 
“Creators have their fingers on the pulse of what’s working on social media, because they are doing it day in and day out.”
 
“More brands are realizing that they need to own the influencer expertise and stop outsourcing to agencies, which is how it’s been done for a while. Using a tool like GRIN is critical, because it can very quickly get overwhelming, especially if you’re wanting to scale your influencer marketing strategy.”