Building a sustainable creator community relies on three elements:
- Partnering with new creators to expand brand awareness
- Keeping top creator advocates from previous partnerships engaged
- Winning back the creators who stopped mentioning you to increase brand loyalty
Many brands get #1 right, but it's important to not make the mistake of focusing all your time on acquiring new creators. At the end of the day, you will see more audience engagement, build deeper trust, and earn better ROI if you have a strategy that embraces long-term collaborations.
Below we share insights from an event with Haley Schluter, Head of Consumer Engagement at LVMH Perfume & Cosmetics, and mega content creator, Christie Xie. They share their advice on how to build new and continuing strategic partnerships that will mutually benefit both brands and creators.
Watch the full event on how to engage and retain your top creators with Haley and Christie here.
Key Elements of Strategic Creator Partnerships
Creator Retention and Engagement
First, what is creator retention and why is it important?
Creator retention looks at the percentage of creators that have mentioned a brand in a given quarter and then mentioned that same brand in the following quarter. It’s calculating how many creators mention your brand on a consistent basis.
Having a retained community of creators is important because it…
- Produces more mentions of your brand. And more mentions equals more brand awareness for your brand!
- Builds deeper trust. Consistent mentions of your brand show a higher level of authenticity. Traackr's 2025 US IMPACT Report also found that frequent mentions increase consumer trust in a product/brand recommendation.
- Allows you to be more efficient in allocating your time and budget. When you have a healthy, organic community that continually mentions your brand, you are paying less for mentions and can put more investment into other areas of your program like paid partners or boosting (since you’re getting an abundance of authentic content!).
But actually getting your creator partners (both old and new) to continually mention your brand? Now that is the challenging part.
Tips for Building Strategic Creator Partnerships
There are a few go-to strategies that you can turn to if you are looking to find new creators to partner with or strengthen previous partnerships.
Invest in Personalization and Authentic Connections
“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.” - Haley Schluter, Head of Consumer Engagement at LVMH Perfume & Cosmetics
The rapport you have 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 product or bring them into an upcoming campaign. For example, if a creator mentions they’re getting married in a couple months. Haley and her team will send them Givenchy’s loose powder which instantly becomes a part of their wedding day GRWM content.
Embrace Creator Feedback
"It's important 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.” - Haley Schluter, Head of Consumer Engagement at LVMH Perfume & Cosmetics
The good rapport you build with your creator partners also helps you tackle more difficult conversations. For example, Haley shares that a main 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 in a way that’s collaborative and beneficial for all.
And guess what? Creators are really open to having these conversations. Christie shares that while it might be awkward right after a post flops, she loves having a conversation with a brand to understand what could be improved for next time. Often a lot of inspiration for future content can come from these open and candid conversations.
Now, how do you build these creator relationships at scale? Well, first you need to determine which creators are worth building the relationships with. These will be creators who are continually mentioning your brand and driving performance metrics like engagements and video views for your brand. With a tool like Traackr’s Creator Lifecycle Feature, you can get a holistic view of your creator community and easily identify who your great advocates are.
Second, you need to build creator relationships into your measurement strategy. Haley shares that she’s instilled in-person touchpoints as a primary KPI for her influencer marketing program. She mapped out sustainable goals like 2 dinners a month and 2 coffee dates per month, and builds from there. If you are remote or your creator partners don’t live near you, aim for 4 Zoom chats a month (that’s just 1 per week!).
Offer Ways for Creators to Engage 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)
Noticed that a creator stopped showing your brand organic love? It might be time to send them some product or open up a conversation with them.
But instead of just sending product to send product, show that there’s intention behind it. Got a new formulation of a product? Send it to them noting that it’s 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.
Product seeding is a great way to get in front of your creator partners but also make sure to use the “surprise and delight” mentality in your creator events! The more thoughtful and intimate, the better.
“My least favorite brand events are cocktail hours. The majority of the time people are floating around and not getting to really know each other. I’m a big fan of events where brands create an experience that ties back to their products, like making your own cocktail inspired by the new products being launched.” - Christie Xie, Content Creator (@christxiee)
Examples of Strategic Creator Partnerships
Eau Thermale Avène's "Always-On" Partnerships Strategy
In 2020, Eau Thermale Avène invested in long-term partnerships, focusing on mid-tier creators that aligned with its brand. During that year Avène garnered a total of 430 influencer mentions, despite only having 30 paid campaigns in place. Even more impressive, this spontaneous content led to a 60% increase in the number of engagements, and a 300% increase in reach year-over-year. Read about Avènes creator partnership strategy here.
Ole Henriksen's Product Seeding to Paid Partnerships Strategy
Learn how Ole Henriksen ran a successful product seeding campaign with YouTube influencers to reach a new target audience and increase its brand awareness. The strategy led the team to sourcing 1,000 new YouTube creators and identifying key partners for long-term relationships. Check out Ole Henriksen’s YouTube creator partnership strategy here.
Shiseido's Brand Value-Led Partnerships Strategy
How did Shiseido increase its influencer marketing success by 54% in one year? By having a hyper-focused creator partnerships strategy. Get the full details of how the Sheisido team accomplished such high results in one year.
Charlotte Tilbury’s Loyal Beauty Creator Strategy
What factors are leading to the success of Charlotte Tilbury’s influencer marketing program? We’ll give you a hint: their loyal community of beauty creators and strategic creator partnerships. Dive into Charlotte Tiblury’s creator partnerships strategy here.