Happy Sunday!
Usually, I would say, I hope you’re relaxing with a beverage in your hand, feet up on the couch, and the AC on. But this weekend, I was reminded four times that most people are working when they read this. So, I hope your back feels comfortable in your chair, you’ve got a full bottle of spring water nearby, and you’re ready to dive into Creators 101.
Before we get into the newsletter, did you grab your ticket for the Q4 Summit? The event will be in New York City on September 26th, and it will be the last event before everyone locks themselves in a room for Q4. Harley (Shopify president), Ryan (Jolie founder), and Danny (HexClad founder), amongst others, will all be speaking.
Apply for a ticket using this link. Tickets are selling quickly, so grab one here or email marissa@ecomfounders.com with any questions!
Vendor of the Week:
This year, two enormous topics have been on many of the best CEOs and CMOs' minds: AI and the power of personalization in marketing.
The more you can customize and personalize your content, ads, emails, SMS texts, pop-ups, push notifications, and landing pages, the higher conversion rates you can achieve. Want to know what’s better than just AI or just personalization? Combining them both!
This is where Listrak comes in. They’re one of the leading providers of cross-channel marketing automation for retailers who are doing just that. They recently announced a significant expansion to their app for Shopify, which empowers marketers with the tools to enrich and augment their first-party customer data, delivering new enhanced levels of personalization, segmentation, and automation across email, mobile, and push marketing channels.
Listrak is trusted by 1,000+ brands, including TOMS, Vineyard Vines, MVMT, and Untucked.
It’s an amazing software, and you can read their note announcing their expansion into the Shopify world at this link!
Limited Supply
Did you listen to this week’s episode of Limited Supply? I took one of my old (very popular) newsletters talking about generating your first $1M and broke it down in the latest episode — everything from reviews and surveys to how to test if your idea has legs in the first place. Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
A couple of other resources:
- Particl just put out a report going through historical BFCM product category performance, online vs offline product sales, discount startegies and more. Grab the report on this link!
- I will be at Tatari’s Annual Forward conference on September 19th in New York City. If you’re a brand interested in or spending on TV ads, sign up here! Rohan Oza will do a fireside chat. NBC, Paramount, Disney, etc., will all highlight inventory opportunities. Lastly, existing advertisers will share their learnings.
- I found a deck from last year going through BFCM 2023 Nuggets that is still quite relevant to this year. View it on this link: https://docsend.com/view/gzjqjr36ymnkqi6d
This past week I spoke at Ecom North, an eCommerce-focused conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (I’m still learning how Canada’s states/cities/provinces/zip codes with letters all work). After answering a variety of questions for about 40 minutes (which I’ll upload soon), I spent about 4 hours answering questions outside the ballroom. The most common question I kept getting asked was, “How should I set up deals with creators?”
Creators 101
So, in today’s newsletter, I’m going to write a quick playbook that includes the following:
- The three types of creator relationships and how each one is valuable
- How to get in touch with creators
- The process of outreach
- The terms to include in your contract (usage, licensing, etc.)
- How to brief & ask for assets
- Maximizing performance with URLs, LPs, tracking software, and offers
I’ll likely turn this into a PDF deck, so if you have anything you’d add to this, please reply with your feedback and additions.
3 Types of Creator Relationships
Depending on what you want from working with creators, your agreements and relationships will be set up differently. You also want to make sure you’re clear abut how you plan to work with a creator so that you don’t overpay for something you didn’t need to.
For content. These are usually micro-creators or creators with less than 50k followers on TikTok or less than 10k on Instagram. You work with them to create content you will leverage on your site, in your emails or ads, or on your social channels. This may be a product review video, or it might just be a talented photographer you found on TikTok who you want to hire.
For reach. These creators have a wide enough reach that a sponsored post that gets less-than-average engagement would still make sense. When I helped launch Hint sunscreen in Target, we worked with Liz Eswein to put together a campaign that covered a large number of eyeballs through influencers whose audience overlapped with Target's.
For the co-sign. Sometimes, you need the co-sign from a specific creator, which signals to their audience, and wider, that your product passes an invisible set of standards that their audience recognizes. For example, if Holly Owens recommends a product, I can count on the fact that it’s non-toxic and clean and that she’s researched it. Or, if I have a fashion brand, I want Paige Desorbo to wear it at an event, tag us, and post that content!
For affiliate sales. Whether you’re promoting through regular affiliates (influencers, bloggers, YouTubers, etc.) or TikTok Shop affiliates, you still need to send product out to these people to create content from. If they’re affiliates who go live to sell your product, then you’ll need to send a lot more than you usually do!
For product seeding. Usually around a new product launch, you want to have a network of creators who receive your product, try it, and share their experience of it. No brand does this better than Lemme, executed by the brilliant Simon Huck.
It’s important to understand how you’re using creators. You don’t want to pay someone who’s set up to deliver reach when you really just need content. You might overpay by thousands of dollars!
Also, a fun fact about Liz, whom I mentioned above: She created the first-ever creator agency, Cycle Media, managing creators to create content for brands like Nike, Amazon, etc. If Nike launched a new product in Singapore, instead of sending a production crew for $250k, they could hire Cycle to find a local network of creators who could produce even more engaging content than a regular production team. That agency still runs today and has also become a huge branded content studio!
How to get in touch
Once you’ve established that you’re ready to work with creators, getting in touch with them can be a tough nut to crack, especially in a way that doesn’t feel annoying to them. I’ve easily put my 10,000 hours in here, both on the brand side and talking to them and seeing how they like to receive messages or what avenues of communication actually get to them. Let me give you the inside scoop.
DMs. Use the brand account, ideally verified with many followers, to DM the creators directly. They may not read every fan DM, but if they see a brand DM come in, there’s a good chance they will open it. All you need is the open.
When you write your DM to them, make it easy to understand the punchline within 6 seconds. For example:
Hey Sami!
My name is Nik and I’m the marketing manager at Gheelish. We’re huge fan of FORM and everything you stand for around health!
We are a brand focused on making popcorn with ghee, instead of seed oils. We’re in Sprouts and expanding soon. Can we send you a few bags?
If you like it, we’d love to talk about a paid partnership with you.
Thanks!
Say hi, add a sentence of praise, give context, go for the ask. Aim to get a Yes, No, or “Sure, can you email xxx@xxxxxxx.com”. Going for anything else in this first DM is going to be too much work, and you risk them not following through.
Also, I don’t work at Gheelish, but they are at Sprouts, and it tastes great!
Cold Email. If you know me, you know I love a good cold email. If DM doesn’t work, you should try sending an email. You can copy it in the same format as above. Find their email in their Instagram bio or YouTube profile’s About section.
Mutual Follower. Press the DM button on Instagram to see if you have people in common. Sometimes, it will even say, “You and girlwithnojob both follow 7 people” or something similar. Use that as a cue to see who they follow, and if there is someone they follow that you know, who could DM them.
LinkedIn. If you’ve tried everything, try LinkedIn. Sometimes that’s a way to get into their personal inbox (through a LinkedIn DM notification email) or it’s another way to get a notification on their phone (they may not have LinkedIn notifications off, where they would for Instagram or TikTok).
The Outreach Process
The only thing I would note here as you are reaching out to creators, is you want to make sure they check these boxes:
- Their audience matches your demo; you’re not just working with them because you (the founder or a marketer) are a fan.
- They genuinely use the product or see themselves using it, and they like its benefits.
- They don’t frequently work with any of your competitors.
- They are excited about the partnership; it’s not just another check to collect for them.
Contract & Payment Terms
Always make sure you have an agreement when someone is creating content for you, or when posting and representing your brand. The main things to try for:
With small creators who are making content just for you, you want to try and get a full license to use the content forever, if possible. In the OG paragraph that I’ve used for 7 years, just replace CREATOR with the influencer and COMPANY with your brand.
“CREATOR hereby grants COMPANYOFFICIALNAME (“COMPANY”) a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable license to use, modify, copy, display, perform and distribute in any media or format now known or hereafter developed, all designs, photographs, videos, and other copyrighted material delivered or made available by CREATOR to COMPANY or used on behalf of COMPANY under this agreement (the “Contracted Assets”). CREATOR represents and warrants that it owns the Contracted Assets or has sufficient license rights to make such grant.”
A great lawyer gave me this paragraph 7 years ago. Now, there’s a good chance the creators won’t allow for this if they are growing a following. The main reason for having a full license, is if you have a media buyer or growth marketer who joins the company 4 years later, they open Dropbox and see an asset they want to run, and then run it, you now open yourself to legal liabilities. One of my commandments is to eliminate all liabilities... this legal language helps do that.
From speaking to Kendall about usage rights for content by creators who you’re using for reach, co-sign, or anyone with a large following, she says you want to try at least to get usage for one year or at least the next quarter if they’re big.
You also want to ensure you get the right to edit the raw clips you get back as you see fit. So, while you may get one final video back from the creator, the goal is to use the content to make another 8-10 videos. If needed (or if they’re big), you can add terms that allow the creator to give final approval of that content.
In any affiliate agreements, the main thing to include is that any creator/affiliate of yours can’t run ads with their content unless the intention is to use them that way. This also prevents affiliates from competing with you on search terms.
Briefing Creators
When you brief creators, you want to give them enough room to play. The worst kind of creator partnerships are those that are entirely crafted by the marketing team and just executed by the creator. They have a following BECAUSE they are good at making content; let them do what they do best.
In your briefs for content-focused creators, if you’re having them create content for ads, make sure you brief multiple angles and hooks. Your goal should be to turn one shoot into at least 10 videos by mixing different hooks, explanation parts, and calls to action. You can even use an app like Recharm to crank these video edits out.
Make sure to include:
- Filming notes, if applicable (i.e., “Make sure you’re facing natural sunlight versus a ring light”)
- A variety of hooks — look to see what is also trending, hook-wise, in the TikTok Ads Library.
- Talking points to introduce the product
- Talking points to explain product benefits
- Talking points to talk through value props over competitors
- Talking points to explain why you love it so much, maybe even a personal anecdote
- Call to actions (add multiple and test them all)
When seeding product to creators, brief them with a product insert that explains the product. Lemme does this best with their product drops. They all include a handwritten note that explains the benefits and it’s usually on a fancy-looking card. It looks so nice, most people include it in their posts.
Any creator should be prepped with commonly asked questions as well so they’re aware of how to answer any questions their followers ask them in comments or through DM. As a brand, you should also reply to any serious questions.
Maximizing Performance with Creators
Now, some final tips to maximize the performance of your creators:
- Use landing pages when you can, especially when introducing the brand to an influencer’s audience.
- When you run their ads on Meta, make sure you identify the hook or video version in the UTM, along with who the creator is.
- Use creator-name-specific promo codes (i.e., “NIKVIP” or “SHARMA20”).
- If you’re sharing links for affiliates, use Social Snowball to prevent coupon codes from being leaked and misattributed.
- If you click well with a creator and have a successful campaign, see if you can seed a PR box with goodies and product to their network of friends as a gift from them.
- If this is a consumable product, even when you’re not actively working with them, make sure they stay stocked with product.
- Give them the opportunity to earn affiliate sales on top of their flat fee to post—you want them to be truly invested in the long run.
- Anything that does well on the creator's account, run paid media behind it.
- When running a whitelisted ad, reply to every comment. Reply to most from the creator's account, but the serious questions (ingredients, allergies, etc.) from the brand’s social account.
- When starting with affiliates, offer a higher commission to get people in your corner.
- Create incentives for your affiliates. I’ve heard of brands giving away cars to the influencer who drives the most revenue in a weekend or giving away a big trip to the affiliate with the most sales.
Overall, keep it simple. Align yourself with the right creators. Ensure it’s a genuine relationship. Build the relationship for a long-term win-win-win situation (the brand, the creator, and their audience).
That's all for this week
I hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter and it helped clarify something within the creator process. As for me, as I was writing this newsletter, I kept getting distracted by the Fritz and Sinner match... what a tough loss by Fritz, but a great run in the tournament. My claim to fame is his dad was my coach growing up.
It’s a Sunday night, so I hope you’re gearing up for a delicious night of sleep. Get those 9 hours if you can, and hydrate going into the new week. I hope you have an epic upcoming week.
I’ll see you next Sunday!