So you’ve been trying out creator marketing here and there. The verdict is in: You like it and you want more.
You’ve had a taste of how creator marketing can raise brand awareness and boost revenue. So if you work with a lot more creators, that’s a lot more revenue, right?
Not necessarily.
For some businesses, more creators = more problems. Scaling your creator program to bring on a much larger number of creators makes everything complicated. Juggling too many creator campaigns can cause confusion, mistakes, delays, and money down the drain.
Let’s look at seven challenges you may run into when scaling your creator program…
Challenge #1: Finding enough new creators to represent your brand.
It’s time you leveled up your brand awareness and positioned your brand as the industry leader. That’s why you want to scale your creator marketing. You need many more creators than the few you’ve already worked with, but the thought of finding and vetting all those people is a nightmare.
Solution: Use advanced (and multiple) creator discovery methods.
As you scale, you can’t just stick to searching hashtags as your way of finding creators. You’ll need more advanced tools to discover large numbers of creators and analyze them. Try using multiple tools and methods so you can find creators faster.
Then there’s the vetting process. You need creators who make engaging content, have a loyal following, and fit your brand values. Analyzing a creator’s audience is important too because the audience needs to fit the demographics you’re trying to reach.
That’s a lot to analyze, and it’s a painfully slow process… unless you have advanced tools and methods. When you have multiple creator discovery tools at your fingertips, you won’t waste hours looking at creators who aren’t the right fit.
Challenge #2: Creator outreach at scale.
Now you’ve found a bunch of creators and you want to say hi. But reaching out to creators individually is something brands do when they’re newer to creator marketing and aren’t running a large-scale campaign. You’re past that phase, or at least you want to be. You’re wondering how to make a good first impression without spending too much time.
Solution: Streamline your outreach with email templates and automated follow-ups.
No need to start every message from scratch. Email templates can save time with both the words and appearance of your emails. When you use nice-looking professional email templates customized to fit your brand’s aesthetic, you make a strong first impression. You can customize the copy in your messages to appeal to each creator without customizing entire messages from scratch.
What if a creator doesn’t respond? Don’t give up – follow up. Follow-ups make it more likely you’ll get replies from top-tier creators. Those are the creators who are busy and get messages from many brands, so they may miss your message unless you follow up. But writing tons of follow-up messages takes time.
Automated follow-up email sequences save time while increasing the chances of getting replies. Use these emails to remind creators why they should consider you: it’s a chance for them to earn money and to work with a brand that shares their values.
Challenge #3: Managing payments, contracts, and shipments for all those creators.
When you have a large number of creators, it can be hard to keep track of who gets paid what and when. You also have to keep up with all the gifts you’re shipping to creators. Contracts are supposed to keep everything under control, but even those can get messy when there are too many of them. Payments, shipments, and contracts are critical things you don’t want to slip up on.
Solution: Have one place to keep track of payments, contracts, and shipments.
Keeping everything in one system allows you to scale your creator program without dropping the ball. You’ll be able to know exactly how much you should be paying, what you’re paying for, and when payments are due. When your contracts are also in this system, it’s easier to understand and remember payment terms and be tax compliant.
Using the same system to also manage gift shipments to creators keeps you aware of what’s going on with inventory. Having all this info in one place means you’ll be able to notice any problems with money and inventory and adjust accordingly. You’ll also build creators’ trust because you pay on time, every time.
Challenge 4: Complicated communications.
When you’re working with many creators at the same time, messaging becomes a mess. You have to jump between ten different apps, remember different timezones, repeat missed information, handle miscommunications… it’s a headache. And because it’s exhausting to spread yourself thin on communications, as soon as you’re done with a creator, you end up ghosting them.
Solution: Keep communications in one main place.
Having one central hub for communications keeps everyone on the same page so no one gets confused. You’ll have an at-a-glance view of all the latest messages you need to follow up on, making communication a breeze even with lots of creators. You can automatically tag and sort messages to help you quickly find important ones when you need to.
Make sure your communications tool can hold extensive info about all your creators, including things like birthdays and other special things about them. Set up reminders to help you remember to keep in touch. This is how you build genuine long-term relationships with creators.
Long-term relationships mean there are multiple campaigns with the same creator over time, which is more likely than one-off campaigns to bring big results. So if you run long-term creator campaigns at scale, the results can be nothing short of amazing.
Challenge #5: Trying to keep track of massive amounts of content.
There’s a big difference between what it’s like to handle one or two creators’ content vs. handling dozens or hundreds. Without an organized system in place, you’ll have endless files to sort through when you’re trying to find specific content. Managing content shouldn’t feel like hunting for a needle in a haystack!
Solution: Step up your content organization game.
If you want to scale your creator marketing efforts, be prepared with a smarter, more organized system. Use a content management system that automatically imports and sorts content so it never gets accidentally put in the wrong place. You’ll have a bird’s eye view of all your content so you’ll be aware of what you have and what you need from creators. And tagging content with attributes like color and subject matter makes searching more simple.
A new content management system may take a little getting used to, but it’s worth it. Once you have a more organized system, you’ll find what you need quickly even when you’re working with a ton of creators. This makes it easier for you to make sure content is ready to go. It also makes it easier to repurpose content so it can get more exposure and boost your results.
Challenge #6: Not fully knowing how well your campaigns worked.
The whole point of scaling your creator program is that it can grow your followers and revenue by leaps and bounds. But how will you know if it’s actually happening? Working with a large number of creators means that measuring metrics suddenly becomes a lot more complex. There are too many numbers to keep up with, so instead of seeing an ROI, you’re flying blind.
Solution: Use real-time data analytics tools.
To run creator programs at scale, you need data tools built to handle that scale. When you can measure data from lots of campaigns with multiple pieces of content on multiple platforms, you’ll know exactly which ones are most successful at any given moment. Real-time data updates are important because you can quickly adjust your campaigns to do more of what’s working best.
Another way a good data analytics tool can help you is by comparing all the creators you’re working with in the present and the past. You’ll get an overall picture of how your creator marketing has progressed over months and years. And if you’re wondering how much time it’ll take to put together reports on all those campaigns, don’t sweat. The best tools can compile large amounts of data and make beautiful reports effortlessly.
Challenge #7: Feeling stuck and lost wondering how to improve your campaigns.
Creator campaigns have a lot of moving parts, and maybe you’ve noticed your company is better with some parts than others. You know your process needs improvement but you’re stuck on how. If you don’t address these weak points while working with a few creators, working with many creators will multiply your problems many times over.
Solution: Get help from creator marketing experts.
Getting consulting and professional services can improve your creator campaigns. Hearing from people outside your company will bring a fresh perspective to help you reach the goals you’ve been missing. You can have experts handle complex, time-consuming tasks, consult you on top-level strategy, or anything else that would help.
Make sure the experts you hire have solid experience with creator campaigns and understand your niche. Creator marketing experts can point out problems, make suggestions, and take over parts of the process you need them to take over. There’s nothing like the relief of finally getting the support you need.
Key takeaway: Scaling your creator program can be complicated, but the right tools make the process smoother.
Any business can do creator marketing. But not every business can do it well. That’s especially true for large-scale creator programs, because if you’re only used to working with a few creators, scaling things up can spin out of control if you’re not prepared.
GRIN makes it easier for companies of all sizes to collab with creators and have fun doing it. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by your large-scale program, relax and rely on our world-class creator marketing tools. With the right tools, you can get the incredible results you’ve been waiting for.
