Creators vs. Influencers: Who Should Your Brand Be Partnering With?

All businesses are racing against others to try to gain as much visibility in their markets as possible. The more eyes and ears on the brand, the higher the likelihood of generating new leads and creating new revenue streams.

But while added visibility is important when developing marketing campaigns, this added exposure won’t mean much without credibility. Unfortunately, these two elements don’t always go hand in hand, and businesses need to find ways to build trust and authority alongside their growing web traffic.

For most organizations, this can present a bit of a dilemma - is it better to work with creators or with influencers? There are several factors to consider.

What Makes a Creator?

A creator is a marketing professional who focuses on creating high-quality original work. This could be written content, graphic design, video production, or any other leveragable marketing asset.

Creators aren’t necessarily interested in promoting their work outside of the roles they’re hired to do. They typically go into the profession out of passion for the specific areas they focus on. Creators are commonly made up of artists, writers, musicians, teachers, and even DIY enthusiasts.

Primary Areas of Focus for Creators

• High-Quality, Original Work - Creators thrive on being original and challenging the status quo. This means they put a lot of effort into creating pieces that can’t be found everywhere else. This includes developing thought-leadership blog posts, original video or music compositions, or works of art.
  
• Driven by Passion - Creators are typically very passionate individuals, especially when it comes to their craft. They’re deeply invested in performing their best and are motivated to share their work with others. This passion means they rarely compromise on the quality of the finished product and are willing to put in the work necessary to exceed expectations with those they work with.
  
• Long-Term Vision - Most creators also have a long-term vision for seeing their ideas through to a finished product. They focus on completing work that can highlight their full capabilities and are consistent in their efforts.

What Makes an Influencer?

An influencer is an individual who has built a larger following of subscribers or viewers interested in what they have to say or do. This is especially the case when it comes to product influencers who take the time to review various products and provide honest impressions to their audiences.

Most influencers focus on niche products or industries like fashion, beauty products, gaming, or lifestyle options. What makes influencers so impactful for businesses is their ability to leverage their brand to create a lot of buzz and significant amounts of highly relevant referral traffic.

Primary Areas of Focus for Influencers

• Building a Strong Personal Brand - Influencers often maintain a very distinct image and persona when generating their content. This uniqueness and consistency are what bring them a lot of respect from their following. Essentially, influencers create and maintain their own personal brand. The more true they are to themselves, the more trust and credibility they have.

• Growing Their Following - One of the highest priorities for influencers is to continuously grow their follower list. The more followers influencers have, the more opportunities they have to leverage their connections to build on their brand. Typically, influencers will be concerned about growing their following on a specific platform like TikTok or Instagram, and usually, it's the one they have the most success.

• Monetizing Their Influence - Another area of focus for influencers is monetization. This is typically achieved by using their popularity to help bring added exposure to brands. This exposure, of course, comes at a cost to brands, typically in the form of revenue sharing or other forms of compensation.

How to Choose the Right Partner for Your Brand

As a brand looking to invest in the right individuals to help the business grow sustainability, there are many things to consider. However, when deciding between partnering with creators or influencers, there are a few steps you can take to help you make the right decision:

1. Define Your Campaign Goals

Before you make decisions on a partnership, it’s important to first establish your short- and long-term goals. Think about what you’re trying to achieve. Maybe you’re just looking for some additional traffic to your website, or you’re looking for a long-term lead generation strategy. Knowing this ahead of time will help you to prioritize your partnerships accordingly.

2. Know Your Target Audience

After you know what you’re trying to achieve, start thinking about who your audience actually is. Think about what drives their purchasing decisions and what they’re more likely to engage with. Use research analytics platforms to help understand the demographics you’re working with and any type of relevant behaviors that can help you make better choices in your partnerships. An extremely important detail we look to discover with our client is when to post on X/Twitter as opposed to Instagram or Facebook. The audience can be similar on each platform, but the platform itself can heavily dictate the time of day content should be posted.

3. Focus on Quality Over Quantity

While improving your reach is important, you also want to make sure you’re prioritizing quality brand engagement over just increasing your viewer or subscriber count. Many times, a smaller but much more targeted audience will bring more business benefits than just casting a wide net with individuals who may or may not need your products or services.

4. Set Measurable Goals

When choosing any type of partnership, it’s important to have measurable goals in place that will help you decide whether or not you’re getting the value from the relationship you’re hoping for. This is especially helpful when deciding to test the waters with an influencer partnership. By tracking the effectiveness of joint marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to see if you made a reasonable ROI and if the partnership is worth continuing.

5. Plan an Appropriate Budget

Your budget should always be a key consideration for your partnerships. Take the time to research industry rates for both creators and influencers to see if one or both options are financially feasible for your business. I do recommend that those first entering into work with influencers and creators try to get a handle on the rates that the top social media agencies are using so that they have an actual anchor point to how they should structure their own sponsorships. Obviously you will not be able to hit the same numbers, but it helps in building your own offers. Having a clear budget in place will help you avoid wasting time and effort moving in a direction that might not be viable long-term.

Find the Right Partnerships to Help Your Business Grow

Deciding between partnerships with creators and influencers can be challenging for some businesses with limited budgets. However, by considering the pros and cons of each and focusing on your organization's needs, you’ll create great working relationships with professionals who can help your business grow.

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