4 Expert Tips for Efficient Creator Partnerships

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When a brand first partners with a creator to reach their audience, it can feel exhilarating. The instant you click "send" on that first email, the clock starts ticking on a countdown to success. As time passes, however, excitement can turn to anxiety. What if the creator doesn't deliver? What if their audience isn't aligned with my target customer? What if the content they produce isn't high-quality? What if you get the idea?

Efficient creator partnerships can help a brand alleviate some of the stress of working with a creator. By establishing a clear and organized approach to the partnership right from the start, the brand can ensure that both parties are on the same page and that goals are met. This guide will discuss creating efficient creator partnerships to help your brand get the most out of its creator marketing efforts.

This will help you to grow your LinkedIn and X accounts with organic engagement. Megaphone's viral on-demand platform can help you achieve these goals by streamlining the process of working with creators to produce quality content that will boost your brand's visibility online.

Benefits of Partnering With Creators for Brands

Creator Partnerships

Fuel Your Brand Recognition with Creator Partnerships

Creators have large online and media followings, making them creators. Examples include actor-turned-wellness-provocateur Gwyneth Paltrow and kaftan-obsessed food writer Helen Rosner. Partnering with one can give you access to the creator’s audiences and raise awareness of your brand.

Create Instant Credibility with Creator Marketing

Creators can endorse your brand implicitly (e.g., by tagging you in a social media post) or explicitly (e.g., by writing a positive review of a product or service). Both increase your brand’s credibility with their audiences.

Target Specific Audiences With Creator Partnerships

Brand partnerships can help businesses target particular audience segments. Suppose you want to target young women with ankle injuries (say, to sell anti-inflammatory collagen supplements or a line of stylish ankle braces). In that case, you might partner with a female-identified skateboarder or soccer player with a strong social media presence.

Increase Your ROI with Creator Partnerships

Studies show that the average return on investment for influencer marketing campaigns is close to $6 for every dollar spent, and some companies report earning as much as $18 per dollar spent.

Boost Your Sales with Creator Partnerships

Influencer endorsement can motivate a purchase—one recent survey found that 56% of millennials and 58% of Gen Z purchased a product based on a social media influencer’s or a content creator’s recommendation.

Types of Creator Partnerships

Creator Partnerships

1. Brand Partnerships: The Paid Sponsored Post

The first type of brand partnership that comes to mind is a paid sponsored post. A sponsored post is when a brand pays an Influencer or Creator to create content to post on their own social media or online accounts. We see this on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest… anywhere a Creator influences an audience or community.

The Influencer is paid to showcase the brand’s key messages—maybe reviewing the product or talking about their experience—through a dedicated piece of content created for the Influencer’s audience, not the brand’s audience. When the Influencer pitches themselves to the brand in this situation, they lead with their influence.

They’re saying, “Hey I have an audience that is similar to your target audience and I believe that your product will resonate with them.” The brand might agree to this partnership to meet different goals, from increasing brand awareness to generating new sales.

2. Other Paid Sponsored Partnerships

Sponsored brand partnerships have certainly expanded beyond the posts we just covered. On Instagram and TikTok, creators and influencers have become increasingly creative in sharing products with their followers. We also see paid sponsored posts within Instagram Lives, Instagram Stories, Instagram Guide, TikTok Stories, TikTok Lives …and more! An Instagram or TikTok Influencer can use all these avenues when negotiating with a brand. If they have a Media Kit (and they should!), they might list the different ways to work with them so that brands can see the possibilities.

3. The Content Creation Brand Partnership

We’ve covered how brands work with Creators in an Influence capacity where the brand wants to access the Creator’s audience and pays the Influencer to post about the brand’s product or service on their social media platforms. Content creation-focused brand partnerships are a different type where a Creator solely pitches their skills as a content creator to the brand and does not focus on their social media numbers.

Essentially, they’re saying they can help the brand boost its content by creating it for them. In this scenario, the brand will agree to a particular set of deliverables—the Creator then creates the content based on mutually agreed guidelines and delivers them to the brand so that the brand can post them on their social media channels. We consider this a great way to land more brand partnerships as an Influencer or a Creator since the focus is not on your following or numbers but your skillset.

Also, this strategy can help you land more deals because brands may not always have a budget for Influencer marketing. Still, they very likely have a production or general marketing budget. Someone has to create content for their social media channels, and hiring it out to Creators is an excellent way to get what they need instead of spending the time and resources in-house to create the content.

The great news is that when you pitch to brands, you can pitch both influence and content creation if you feel I can add value to the brand in both ways. Many Influencers are great at creating stunning content, and many content Creators influence their followers. Therefore, these two types of brand partnerships do not have to be mutually exclusive, but as an Influencer or Creator, it is essential to know the difference.

4. Brand Collaborations (And When Working For Free Is Ok)

Brand collaborations can be a sensitive topic in the Influencer and Creator world. The term “collaboration” typically refers to a brand partnership in which there is a “trade” of products or services instead of financial compensation for the work performed by the Influencer or Creator. Of course, this can be difficult for Creators and Influencers since they wouldn’t be making any money from the partnership.

For starters, Creators have bills to pay, too! But even if the Creator did have another source of income to pay their bills, in this situation, they would still be doing work for free, and that doesn’t sit right with most people. So, what do brands offer instead for these types of brand partnerships? Free product Discounted products Free trips (for travel Influencers) Exposure (by being reposted on the brand’s channels) So…the golden question: When is it okay to do free brand collaborations as an Influencer or Creator? There are some situations where brand collaborations do make sense.

We typically tell our Creators that it all comes down to whatever is fair from a value exchange perspective or if you can leverage the partnership in the future to earn income. In our Pitching To Brands Mastercourse, we cover this in-depth and go over ways to pivot and leverage brand collaborations to make more money in your business as an Influencer or Creator. We’ve worked with Influencers at the highest level who are doing free collaborations because it made sense for them and their brand or goals.

For example, if they want the all-expense paid trip or whatever the brand offers them of value, they may say “yes” to a brand collaboration. We’ve even seen Influencers have their home redecorated in exchange for social promotion! If you’re wondering when to say no to an unpaid brand partnership, consider Whether the value exchange is fair, The number of deliverables the brand is asking for, and The production value of the requested deliverables.

Brand collaboration offers are one of the reasons it’s imperative to know how to test your influence. Not all brands will be able to figure out the actual value of your influence just by a quick look at your social media accounts. It’s your job to communicate that value like any other business owner or service provider does when entering a client relationship.

5. The Ambassador Role

The next most common type of brand partnership that you’ll see is the ambassador role. This is a long-term partnership between an Influencer or Creator and a brand. While the other brand partnerships we discussed are typically one-and-done (although we recommend returning to previous brand partners for future campaigns), the ambassador role is an ongoing relationship. It may require several posts over time to truly reach an audience as it’s consistent messaging about a product or service.

In marketing, it’s a general rule of thumb that it takes a person multiple times to see a message to take action, so this is a great way to work with a brand to help them with their goals and get consistent work as a Creator. Examples of brand partnerships like this usually involve the Influencer working out an agreement where the Influencer is paid a monthly retainer in exchange for a certain number of posts about the brand or deliverables.

You’ll often see Influencers and Creators with discount codes or affiliate links in these types of partnerships. This means that the brand encourages the Creator to talk about the product continuously; when one of their followers makes a purchase, the Creator receives a small commission. This also helps the brand track the conversions of a partnership, which you can use as a Creator to up your rate in the future if you have the results to back you up.

6. Affiliate Marketing

As mentioned above, affiliate marketing pairs up well with ambassador-style brand partnerships. With affiliate marketing, the brand provides the Influencer with unique links to their products to promote on their social media, website, email list, and more! Every time someone purchases using that link, the Creator keeps a portion of the sale. The Brand can physically track the partnership's return on investment. Because the links are unique to each Influencer (typically), the brand can see how well the partnership works.

The Influencer can also use this knowledge to improve their strategy when renegotiating their contract with the brand or even when pitching to other brands! Because the Influencer is usually not paid directly for promoting the product or service (although they might be in some cases), this type of brand partnership isn’t always the most lucrative. The eligible commissions on sales are typically tiny, and the Influencer or Creator might need to talk about the product a lot to get eyes on their links and drive sales. However, many affiliate marketing platforms are out there, and not all require a direct relationship with a brand partner.

Within third-party affiliate platforms, Influencers can generate links to share products with their followers and generate income from any sales they make. A good rule of thumb in marketing is that the average consumer has to see a product several times before they go and make a purchase. So, when it comes to paid sponsored posts as brand partnerships, a one-time post might not generate many sales for a brand. If the influencer is very high profile, it might be. Either way, affiliate marketing, and other continuous relationships often have a better chance of converting. The return commission might be small, but it can certainly add up!

7. Live Events

Influencers and Creators might team up with brands for live or virtual events. This might be in an ambassador-style relationship, where the Influencer is one of the faces of the brand. We see these events in many forms. Here are some examples: A new restaurant Building hype around a brand launch Meet and greets to showcase products and try samples.

While this might not be one of the most popular types of brand partnerships, we see quite a few brands inviting Influencers and Creators to “influencer events” where the Influencer shares the day, trip, or experience on their social media, maybe through Instagram Stories or posts following the event. The brand typically has a cool setup showcasing its products, and the Influencers can create content and spread the word about the brand, product, or service.

8. Talent Brand Partnerships

Influencers and Creators also partner with brands as talent. By talent, we’re referring to jobs such as modeling, where the Influencer goes to a photo shoot for a brand or even acts as on-camera talent in a video for the brand. This can be a professional photo shoot by the brand, but the Creators can do it entirely.

This is another perk of Influencer marketing—brands no longer have to put on their own photoshoots or video shoots every time to get this marketing content for their brand. With the right Creator, they can get content styled, shot, edited, and delivered to them. Typically, the costs are lower than hiring the project to an agency or doing it in-house.

9. Giveaways

Giveaways are a popular type of brand partnership in which the Influencer and the brand team up to give away a product or service to a winner. Brands can host their giveaways, but sometimes working with an influencer can produce better results. Or, with the brand and Influencer combined, the reach of the giveaway increases. You’ve probably come across a few giveaways while scrolling on Instagram yourself. We’ve also seen giveaways hosted in other capacities where an Influencer or Creator has an engaged audience.

For example, we’ve seen high-engagement giveaways on Facebook groups and email lists. Giveaways work best in niche situations so that these strategic partnerships may go well. The giveaway may or may not be a paid partnership, but if you do decide to collaborate with a brand for a giveaway, you need to make sure it makes sense for you and your business goals since there is work involved to participate,e and you need to make sure it’s worth it for you.

Megaphone: The Creator Marketing Platform for the People

Megaphone is a viral on-demand platform designed to boost your online presence authentically and organically. Our software connects you with influential creators in your niche, helping you grow impressions, followers, and leads without relying on paid ads. Key features include:

A sophisticated engagement network,

Private engagement pod service (coming soon),

Diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).

Megaphone caters to startup founders, marketers, emerging creators, and ghostwriting agencies seeking to amplify their digital footprint and social proof. Our complex matching algorithm ensures you partner with your field's most suitable and valuable creators. Go viral today with our viral on-demand platform.

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Where to Find Suitable Creators for Your Brands

Creator Partnerships

1. Megaphone: An Authentic Way To Boost Your Online Presence

A sophisticated engagement network,

Private engagement pod service (coming soon),

Diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).

Using multiple social media platforms is always brilliant when improving your online marketing efforts. However, if you’re a small business with a limited budget, you need to choose the one that your target audience prefers. According to a 2023 Statista survey, 89% of marketers worldwide use Facebook to promote their brands.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should use it too, though. Social Champ claims that Facebook is losing popularity among younger users, who are now turning to Instagram and TikTok. If you’re targeting Millennial and Gen Z consumers, you should get TikTok and Instagram content creators to collaborate with your brand.

3. Find Your Niche and Narrow Your Options

To find content creators in your niche, do some research first. Identify the most popular keywords in your industry and conduct a Google search using those keywords. You’ll have to sift through many results to find high-quality content creators specializing in social media, not just content or copywriting for websites. Another good option is to attend industry events where you can meet and talk with content creators or get referrals. Lastly, you can use freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or content creator Facebook groups to post content creator jobs and wait for creators to contact you.

Social listening refers to monitoring and analyzing what social media users say about your brand. You can use this strategy to determine how well your social media marketing campaigns are performing, but you can also use it to find creators. After all, a user already raving about your brand or products can easily create authentic content and even become a brand ambassador. The easiest way to do this is to use social listening tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite, which track all social media mentions of your brand. The only problem is that you’ll have to check all those mentions and then look at the social media accounts of the users who wrote them to identify potential content creators. This is very time-consuming!

5. Take Advantage of Hashtags

Hashtags can be beneficial in finding content creators in your niche. You can use Google Search or your preferred social media platforms to identify the most popular industry-related hashtags. Make sure they are as specific as possible. For instance, if your brand sells anti-aging face cream, #beauty is too general. Instead, you should go with #antiaging, #antiwrinkle, or #antiagingskincare.

Once you have your hashtags, simply add them to your social media platform’s search bar, and you’ll get access to all the users who use them. Then comes the hard part: sifting through the results. Once again, you cannot tell which of those users are content creators unless you check each social media account, which takes a lot of time.

The good news is that many content creators specify this job title in their social media bios, making it easier to identify them. Plus, these bios are searchable, meaning that if you add ‘content creator skincare’ or ‘UGC creator fashion’ to your social media search bar, you’ll find users matching the description. As for those who don’t label themselves as content creators, you can search for other industry-related job titles like ‘cosmetician,’ ‘makeup artist,’ or ‘model.’

7. Look at Your Competitors

You should always keep track of what your competitors are doing to get inspired, find potential gaps that you can fill, or look for things you can do better. So, research your competitors’ previous creator collaborations to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their content strategy. Then, you can reach out to those of your competitors’ creators who best align with your brand. No, that’s not stealing, and there’s no conflict of interest as long as they are no longer under contract.

8. Check in With Your Community

Your community is made up of your employees, customers, and fans. These people often promote your brand and products on social media willingly and for free simply because they genuinely like your products. So, why extend your creator outreach campaign to them as well? But before you do that, check their social media activity to determine if they have the necessary skills to create high-quality content for your brand.

9. Talk to Your Followers

Your followers likely follow many other brands and influencers in your niche so that they can offer valuable insights. Therefore, you can simply post a question on your brand’s social media account asking them for creator recommendations or asking them to tag their favorite influencers in the comments. It’s as simple as that! Just don’t forget to thank your followers for their help afterward. Involving your followers in this process can boost engagement and loyalty because it shows you value their opinions.

How to Get Influencers to Promote Your Brand

Tiktok Collaboration

Sponsored Posts

Social Media Collaboration

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Youtube Collaboration

Brand Collaborations

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How to Find Influencers on TikTok

4 Expert Tips for Efficient Creator Partnerships

Creator Partnerships

1. Amplify Your Reach with Megaphone

A sophisticated engagement network,

Private engagement pod service (coming soon),

Diverse creator partnerships for sponsored posts, X spaces, and newsletter ads (coming soon).

2. Personalize Creator Partnerships to Boost Authenticity

Creating an environment for personalized creator partnerships helps foster connections beyond business. “This is a people-driven industry. Connect with your creators when you can, even if it’s a Zoom coffee date. Often, I’ll learn a little about what’s going on in their life and find the perfect moment to gift them product or bring them into a campaign,” says Haley Schluter, Head of Consumer Engagement at LVMH Perfume & Cosmetics.

Your rapport with your creator partners will benefit various aspects of your brand strategy. When you take the time to connect with your creator partners, you’ll learn what is going on in their lives, which can lead to an authentic way to gift them products or bring them to an upcoming campaign. For example, if a creator mentions they’re getting married in a few months. Haley and her team will send them Givenchy’s loose powder, which instantly becomes a part of their wedding day GRWM content.

3. Collaborate with Creators During and After Campaigns

It’s crucial to take opportunities to connect with your partners after or in between creator campaigns. In the past, I’ve checked in with creator partners to learn why a post didn’t perform well or discussed with them how we could have done better from our side — like creating a better brief. The good rapport you build with your creator partners also helps you tackle more difficult conversations. For example, Haley shares that a primary challenge for the Givenchy team is balancing the brand’s hyper-specific image/voice with the creative (and sometimes hyperbolic) tactics that can make content go viral on platforms like TikTok.

In other words — content made with creative freedom might go viral but may not always be the right fit for sponsored or boosted campaigns with specific brand stipulations. Building close relationships with creators allows the team to discuss these complexities and share feedback collaboratively and beneficially. And guess what? Creators are open to having these conversations. Christie shares that while it might be awkward right after a post flops, she loves conversing with a brand to understand what could be improved for next time. Often, inspiration for future content can come from these open and candid conversations.

4. Engage Creators As Strategic Partners

“I love it when brands give me a sneak peek into their new products or formulas. I get this special privilege of knowing before the rest of the world. Plus, I get to try the product and create content around it before it sells out!” - Christie Xie, Content Creator (@christxiee): Did you Notice that a creator stopped showing your brand organic love? It might be time to send them some products or open a conversation.

But instead of just sending products to send products, show that there’s intention behind it. Did you get a new formulation of a product? Send it to them, noting that it's a new formula and you want their feedback. Launching a new product? Send it to them before it launches so your creators can get their hands on it before anyone else.