According to the latest estimations, the creator economy is estimated to be worth $104.2 billion and it’s expected to double the size by 2027. So, finding the right creators is no longer an addition but a must-do for brands that want to grow in 2024.
And, as we are the only company that offers creator acquisition for companies that want to outsource this service, we tried every channel we could use to acquire creators.
In five years, we’ve successfully connected brands with creators, partnering with companies like Pearpop, Jellysmack, Bytedance, and Linktree, and have overcome many challenges along the way. From finding the right creators and their emails, to how to approach them to get a positive reply.
Besides, we know what other companies struggle most with when trying to attract creators. Based on all that, we’ve selected the 10 best creator acquisition strategies you can use to attract creators.
What is Creator Acquisition?
Creator acquisition refers to acquiring content creators to:
- Sell your products or services to
- Partner with them to promote niche products
- Create UGC content for your brand, etc.
This approach is adopted by both creator economy companies and all other companies that are collaborating with creators for marketing purposes, including influencer marketing, UGC, affiliate marketing, etc.
10 Creator Acquisition Strategies That Work
After working with 1K+ companies that target creators, listening to their past challenges, and finding strategies to help them achieve their goals, we know which creator acquisition strategies work, and which don’t.
So, keep reading to find out what are the 10 most effective strategies, and how to decide what’s the best one for your brand.
1. Hire a creator acquisition agency
The best strategy to attract creators is to let people who specialize in this strategy handle the whole process. This means you won’t need to spend time and resources learning and making mistakes and you’ll still get the best results.
We at influencers.club are focused specifically on that. We’ve helped 1K+ companies attract creators and we found a solution for every problem along the way.
In the past year only, we worked with some of the leading creator economy companies, and these are some of the results we achieved:
- Acquired 100K+ creators in 7 months for Pearpop
- Delivered 15K+ high-quality UGC posts for Lemon8 in 10 months
- We generated 36K creator signups for Stack Influence within a month
Our strategy is effective because:
- We can identify the right creators by precisely targeting niches, interests, past collaborations, etc.
- We send emails at scale (up to 800K emails per month with a 36% reply rate)
- We have a team of 40+ creator sales experts who know how to get a reply from creators
Let us handle your entire creator acquisition strategy
Best for creator economy startups, eCommerce, and agencies that want to connect with any type of creators at scale.
Challenges:
To do creator outreach at scale you need to identify what type of creators you want to attract. However, we know that not everyone has a clear criteria set, so we also have a startup plan to test different types of creators until we find the ideal target for you.
Also, we have experience working with different companies and industries and we will share our insights to find which creators are most suitable for your business goals.
How to implement this strategy:
The point of this strategy is to take things off your shoulders so you can spend your time where is most impactful. So, to attract creators using this strategy, simply get in touch with us and we will discuss how we can help you achieve your goals.
Hire a creator acquisition agency
2. Use influencer marketing platforms
You can use influencer marketing platforms to find and reach out to creators. Although these platforms were primarily focused on influencers with large followings, as the industry recognized the value of content creators, they expanded the range beyond followers and with diverse platforms.
Some of these platforms offer not only creator discovery but also simplify communication and offer analytics, performance, and payment tracking. All this makes these platforms a perfect place to find and approach creators.
Best for businesses of all sizes who are looking for creators at scale. It’s mostly used by e-commerce, beauty, fashion, and tech industries.
Challenges:
Subscriptions to influencer marketing platforms can be very expensive and some platforms have a limited network of creators.
How to use this strategy:
To use these platforms you need to sign up to a platform of your choice. Some of the most reputable platforms are Grin, Upfluence, Influencity, and #paid.
Next, use the filters to find creators that match your target audience and follow the platform’s guidance depending on your goals.
3. Work with creator agents
Creator agents represent content creators and negotiate deals and partnerships with brands on their behalf.
Unlike creator acquisition agencies and influencer marketing platforms which give you access to creators with diverse audience sizes, creator agents work mostly with professional and high-profile creators.
The biggest advantage of this strategy is leveraging agents’ expertise to handle the whole acquisition process. They understand market rates, negotiation tactics, and legal requirements so they make the deal-making process faster and can guarantee mutually beneficial collaborations.
Best for large brands who are looking for high-impact partnerships with well-respected and influential creators.
Challenges:
Creator agents and high-profile creators have higher prices, a longer negotiation processes and usually don’t give businesses direct control over the creative process.
How to use this strategy:
Start by setting goals and define a clear idea about what you need from creator agents. Once you have that set, start searching for agents with expertise in your area.
To find good creator agents you can search LinkedIn, attend industry events, or ask for referrals from other creators or creator economy professionals.
One of the most known creator agents at the moment is Avi Gandhi, a creator who has been connecting brands and creators for more than 15 years now.
Next, review the list and compare creator agents based on fee, approach, and experience to find which creator agents align with your goals. Reach out to the one that looks like the best fit and further discuss their strategy.
4. Reach out to creators with direct messages
You can also reach out to creators with direct messages. It’s a one-on-one approach which means it feels more personal so the creators might be more open to exploring partnership opportunities.
This strategy is effective because of the informal nature of DMs where creators usually reply faster. You can tailor your message to each creator based on their content, audience, and interests and make your proposal more relevant and personal.
Best for: All company sizes that want to establish a personal connection with creators.
Challenges:
Very often messages get lost or overlooked in the crowded inboxes of creators. Plus managing DM outreach at scale can be difficult. Lastly, you need to find the balance between consistent and spammy outreach.
How to implement this strategy:
Find creators who align with your brand, analyze their content, and craft a personalized message.
Include a clear call to action, depending on what you are offering. Whether is to learn more about your creator program or suggest a meeting to discuss your advantages over other talent management companies, you have to be clear about what you expect from the creators.
If they don’t reply make sure to follow up and add something more about the benefits they’ll get. It can be expanding creator coverage on YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms, or that you empower creators to monetize and grow their businesses. Try to see your offering through their perspective and find out the biggest value you offer.
5. Reach out to creators via email
Similar to the approach of reaching out to creators via direct messages, you can do email outreach to attract your ideal creators.
A few advantages this strategy has over direct messages are the possibility to send complete partnership proposals, doing creator outreach at scale, writing longer emails if creators ask for more details, etc.
Best for businesses that want scalable creator outreach strategies. Although suitable for all sizes and types of businesses, it’s mostly used by creator economy companies to get new creator sign-ups, app downloads, etc
Challenges:
Sending emails at scale can lead to low open rates. Especially if you don’t know how to make your email stand out in the creator’s inboxes. Although challenging, it’s not impossible.
After doing creator outreach for more than 5 years now, we learned how to reach out to creators to get a positive reply. We now have two options that will help you successfully do creator outreach at scale:
- Use our creator discovery and outreach dashboard to
- Find creators per your criteria
- Write personalized email copy or use some of our best-performing email templates
- Send the emails directly from the dashboard and monitor the performance
- Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can handle your whole creator acquisition strategy.
The best platform for creator outreach
Leverage the easiest and most effective way to do creator acquisition.
How to implement this strategy:
You can either use the creator outreach dashboard or handle the whole process yourself. If you want to implement this strategy on your own you need to follow these steps:
- Find the email addresses of your targeted creators
- Write email copy
- Use email marketing tools to successfully send emails at scale
- Track the performance of your campaigns and make changes to improve the results
6. Leverage event marketing
You can also organize events where you will attract and connect with creators. It can be anything that aligns with your brand. From trade shows and exclusive launch parties to workshops, you can organize an event where you can build relationships and foster a community.
Best for large companies, but also new companies that want to immediately have the attention in the industry.
Challenges:
You need a budget, resources, and planning to organize an event that will leave a good impression. Other than that, measuring the direct ROI of event marketing in terms of creator acquisition is challenging.
How to implement this strategy:
Decide what type of event aligns best with your brand and will attract your targeted creators. Once you establish that, create a detailed plan for logistics, content, guest speakers, how will you approach creators, etc.
Promote the event through your marketing channels, and directly invite creators you would like to have at your event. During the event focus on networking, pitch your collaboration opportunities, and collect contact information to follow up.
Once the event finishes, follow up within a few days. Thank creators for the attendance and explore potential collaboration opportunities.
7. Run social media ads
You can target creators from a specific platform with social media ads. One of the biggest advantages of this strategy is that you can run ads based on interests, behaviors, demographics, and even to people who engage with similar content.
The outcome of the ad depends on your call to action, but in all cases, it will end up with creators approaching you instead of you sending cold emails to them. Besides that, one of the key benefits is the ability to use diverse ad formats.
Best for Businesses that want to target creators from a specific platform.
Challenges:
Social media ads can be expensive, plus the cost can be increased over time. Plus, they need to be refreshed regularly because the target audience can become desensitized.
Lastly, it can be very complex and time-consuming if you run social media ads on multiple platforms.
How to implement this strategy:
Start by defining criteria for targeted creators (niche, audience size, engagement rate, what social platforms they use, etc).
Next, design ads. This is the most important part because this is what will attract creators. Use different formats (stories, posts, videos, etc).
To optimize your social media ad campaigns for creator acquisition, consider using ad tracking platforms like Voluum. It will allow you to monitor ad performance across multiple channels, helping you refine targeting and improve ROI for campaigns aimed at attracting the right creators.
One of the key things you should consider when creating the design is whether they know about you or you need to create awareness first. Other than that, your ads need to speak directly to creators and highlight the benefits of collaborating with your brand.
In the end, include a call to action to encourage creators to take a specific action. Some of the best examples for attracting creators are redirecting them to your sign-up page, or contacting you for more details.
8. Leverage content marketing
You can attract creators by creating and distributing relevant, valuable, and consistent content. This includes content for social media, but also blog posts, videos, and any type of content that you believe will be engaging for your target audience.
For this strategy to be successful, you need to showcase the benefits of partnering with your brand, through your content. Remember that high-quality content will establish your brand as a leader in your industry and creators want to collaborate with reputable companies.
Plus, if you are creating SEO content, this will improve your visibility and help you reach a wider audience, making it easier for creators to find you.
Best for companies from all industries that are aiming to build brand authority and attract creators. Especially those with storytelling capabilities or valuable industry insights.
Challenges:
Creating high-quality content requires time, resources, and skills. Plus, usually, it takes time for content strategies to bring results, so you need to be patient and maintain the quality of the content while waiting for the income of your strategy.
How to implement the strategy:
Start by developing a content strategy that will resonate with your target creators. Include their interests, needs, and content consumption habits.
Create and promote your content across platforms where your target audience is active. You can leverage social media, email marketing, SEO, and other channels to increase reach.
9. Attract creators through podcasts
Podcasts can be a valuable part of your strategy to attract creators because it’s a place where you can engage, collaborate, and build a relationship with your audience. So, if you have creators among your audience this is a great way to attract them.
The audio format and conversational nature of podcasts allow you to have a personal connection with listeners. You can communicate the culture and values of your brand and attract more creators that align with that.
You can attract a community of creators interested in your industry and have a place where you will have direct interaction with them.
Best for companies that want to create a personal connection with creators. They need to offer valuable insights, stories, and interviews with relevant people so they can attract creators to their audience.
Challenges:
With the current popularity of podcasts, it can be difficult to stand out among other similar podcasts. Also, consistency plays a key role in having a successful podcast, which means you have to produce quality content constantly. Lastly, there are a few technical challenges such as audio (and video) production.
How to implement this strategy
Decide what format will your podcast be (solo episodes, interviews, discussions) and what topics will attract creators to be your listeners. Also, where will you distribute your content? Is it going to be Spotify or YouTube, or for example Patreon as a leading creator monetization platform?
Buy or rent basic recording equipment and create a content calendar so you can have consistency in episode releases.
Use your podcast to interact with listeners. Encourage them to reach out, submit questions, suggest topics, etc. so you can create a community around your podcast.
10. Run Google Ads
Creators often search new opportunities on Google, so, targeting high-intent keywords with Google Ads is another effective strategy to acquire creators. With this strategy, you will get the attention of creators who are actively seeking new partnerships, meaning they are most open to exploring new opportunities.
Also, Google Ads besides Google search results appear on YouTube as well, which means you will get a wider reach. Plus, you can measure ad performance and have detailed analytics on clicks, impressions, conversion rates, etc. so you can improve your ad until it starts to generate the desired results.
Best for: This strategy is suitable for startups but also large enterprises aiming for high-impact campaigns. It all depends on selecting keywords strategically and optimizing the campaigns.
Challenges:
First, you need to learn or find someone who already has experience with Google Ads. Other than that, there is usually high competition for popular keywords, so the costs to run ads can increase.
How to implement this strategy:
Find high-intent keywords like creator partnerships, brand collaborations, content creators opportunities, influencer opportunities, etc.
Create a dedicated landing page where you will introduce your offer. Include detailed information about your program, application process, the benefits of creators working with you, and a clear call to action.
Next, set up a Google Ads account if you don’t have one already, set a budget, and finalize all steps so you can launch your campaign.
Once your ads are running, make sure to monitor ad performance (clicks, creator sign-ups, conversion rate, impressions, etc) so you can improve it accordingly.
Conclusion
Successful creator acquisition is all about fostering genuine connections with creators and creating mutually beneficial partnerships. Each of the strategies above is effective and can bring you results. It’s up to you to decide which one is more suitable exactly for your brand.
If you want to dive deeper and get a custom strategy to attract creators that is tailored to your industry and business goals, let’s get in touch.
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