Is Now Still a Great Time for a Career in Influencer Marketing?

Steph Martin is brand marketing leader with an expertise in influencers, partnerships, and brand strategy. Her decade of experience spans industries with an integrated approach to talent, media, entertainment, and brand partnerships. Steph began her career on the agency side activating influencer campaigns for brands like Walmart, Sephora, Warner Brothers, and Verizon before transitioning to in-house roles at ThirdLove, Hims & Hims, and Chime to establish brand marketing programs. Her specialties include building brand activation strategies and leveraging partnerships to grow emerging companies into beloved household names.

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[00:00:00] Steph Martin: Influencer marketing is now and will forever be all about relationship building in so many ways internal relationships, external relationships between talent and brands. It will always be about relationship building.

[00:00:19] Jessy: Happy 2025 you guys. It’s so good to be back with you. My name is Jessi Grossman, by the way, and I am for any of you guys who are new. I’m the founder of WHIM, Women in Influencer Marketing, and also the host of this podcast. However, we are shaking things up this year. You guys, if you have been listening to the show previously before today, you’re long-time listeners, you know that, well, first of all, I’ve taken a big break.

This is legitimately the Longest I’ve ever recorded episodes. And it was bittersweet because I certainly missed talking to you [00:01:00] guys and connecting with you guys and just talking about the industry and all the good stuff. But it was for good reason. A, I’ve been wanting to just reimagine the show for a while, so I took some time to do that.

But also. Huge life updates. I know, of course, I shared with you guys in the last few episodes, how, how I was doing during my pregnancy. And if you’re long-time listeners, then you know, that I’ve been struggling with infertility for a couple of years before I was able to get pregnant with little Mikey and he is here, you guys.

Wow. Huge life updates. Right? So little Mikey has made an appearance. He was born on November 23rd, 2024 and he’s upstairs right now taking a nap. But you guys, like it’s just been the journey of a lifetime. Like I’m just. Words honestly cannot describe how grateful I am to just be here to have him. He’s so cute!

He’s so cute! He’s so snuggly, he’s so sweet. It’s been the biggest learning curve here. Like learning about how to take care of a baby. And I mean, that’s, this is all conversation for a future episode. I hope if you guys are interested, I’m happy to share. It’s a whole lot, but the TLDR is that it’s just been.

Unbelievably wonderful to just finally have him here and I’m taking a proper maternity leave so I can enjoy this time with him. As I mentioned, it’s, it was years that we spent trying to get pregnant. And so the fact that he’s finally here and get to spend the holidays with him and I just wanted to take some time off.

I feel like I just. I earned it. And I hope that whatever the equivalent is in your life, whether you’re trying to have a baby or [00:03:00] just really take that amazing vacation or spend time with a family member or a friend, like whatever it is, I just feel like it’s so important to know when to sort of like really prioritize the important things in life and focus on them.

I know that not everybody’s able to take off of work fully and I am incredibly appreciative. to you guys for bearing with me while I’m taking a maternity leave. But even just having that focus on whatever that important thing is to you in your life, like, I hope that you take the time to do it.

It’s really important. It’s the most fulfilling feeling that you’ll ever feel. So it’s important to do. All right. Without getting on a huge tangent, I am so excited because we are launching a new series on this podcast for Wim, where we have tons of guest hosts. So members of our community have raised their hand.

I’ve like specifically chosen many of them, and they have then gone ahead and recorded either solo episodes or handpicked guests that they wanted to interview. And you’re going to hear from them over the next bunch of episodes. We pre-recorded some of these in 2024, more in 2025 are to come, but I just wanted you guys to hear more voices.

We’re a community at the end of the day. I know this podcast has been largely just me, but I try to talk enough about the community to give you a sense that it’s hundreds of women. We have over 600 members right now. I believe all over predominantly the U S but all over the world. And I think it’s important to hear more voices than just mine.

So sure. We’ve had interviews with lots of people, but you know, I got the questions and I just wanted to. A brand new, fresh perspective for you guys. So I brought that [00:05:00] to you. I’m bringing it to you starting today. I hope you guys enjoy it, and I don’t want to delay it too much longer. So without further ado, here is your first episode of 2025. I hope you enjoy it.

This show is sponsored by Women in Influencer Marketing, better known as WIIM, the best online community for the creator economy. You will meet fellow influencer marketers, you’ll meet brands, you’ll meet talent agencies to talk shop, get hired, and even find a mentor. When you become a member, do not forget to subscribe.

Check out all of our incredible resources. For example, we have dozens of masterclasses from the top voices, TikTok, YouTube, award-winning agencies, and women who are paving the way for us all. So if you want the chance to network with a who’s who in influencer marketing, check out what it takes to become a member.

Make more money and have fun doing it. Visit iamwiim.com/join, that’s I A M W I I M . COM slash join today and I so look forward to seeing you more around the community. 

[00:06:15] Steph Martin: Hi everyone. I am Steph Martin. I am an influencer expert. I’ve been in the industry for 10 years or so leading influencer programs for a variety of brands, building programs in-house for brands like him and Hers, Third Love, and Chime, and also working on the agency side for a little bit.

Today’s episode is special to me. I am. I love to mentor and give back to our community through WIM, and in other places, I am a mentor through the WIM Mentorship Program, and I also like to mentor other folks in my workplace. I try to answer DMs from, on LinkedIn, from college students who are seeking career advice, and I feel strongly about giving back to the community and helping others on [00:07:00] their journey, especially because for me, I have So many amazing women in my career helped me, especially when I was just starting.

Today’s episode is all about why now is still a great time for a career in influencer marketing. Over the last few years, I have been consistently asked by folks in my network, whether it’s through mentorship or otherwise, if now’s a good time to have a career in influencer marketing, if You’re just somebody who’s just graduated or is graduating soon.

Thinking about entering the industry. You’re somebody who’s earlier on in your career and just starting and wondering if now is still a good time to be in this industry. A lot of people wonder, is it a bubble? Is it going to be done? Did I miss the boat? Should I have done this a few years ago? Even if you’re more mid-level in your career and thinking about pivoting to influencer marketing or taking on an influencer marketing program, I am here to say.

It’s not done. And I think now is as good a time as ever for a career in influencer marketing. I truly love what I do. I feel very blessed and grateful to do this every day. And I do mean that. I think there are a lot of people who are like, I like what I do, but truly, I love what I do. I love working with creators.

I love the creator field. I love getting to keep up with new and changing trends and changing platforms. And it’s a lot of fun, but you learn a lot from it too. So when I think about influencer marketing and why this is still a great time to be in the space, the first thing that I always tell people is, that this will teach you real-life skills.

If you want to go into influencer marketing, you’re going to learn things outside of just influencers. The first thing that I think you will probably learn about Which is so important as a life skill outside of work is negotiation. If you’re somebody who works in influencer marketing, you will learn how to negotiate and you have to be successful in this field.

Whether you’re negotiating on the brand side, you’re negotiating on the talent side, you’re negotiating on the agency side, you will learn how to negotiate. How to negotiate. You will learn how to agree with somebody. You will learn how to ask tough questions. And these negotiation strategies are so much more than just the workplace, right?

It can help you in your career thinking about how to negotiate a better job offer, which by the way, if you’re interviewing for an influencer marketing job and you do get an offer, you should negotiate because that will be part of your job. And I think it’s important also to ask for your value.

You will learn how to negotiate. You can take that so far out of just influencer marketing. You can use it to negotiate the next time you buy a car. Negotiate your lease. If you’re planning a party or a wedding, negotiate with your vendors. There are just so many ways that negotiation will help you out in your life.

And it’s such a valuable skill to have. And something that I think so uniquely comes from influencer marketing is learning how to negotiate, but also learning how to negotiate. In a very friendly and personable way, because you’re not negotiating to just be strong on someone else into giving them what you want.

You’re negotiating to build a partnership. And I think that’s a really important skill to have. It will also teach you to be kind, but firm, right? If you’re on the brand side and you’re negotiating with an influencer, you have a certain budget. You have to stick with it, but you still have to maintain that relationship and be kind.

So it will teach you to kind of step into your power a little bit and learn how to negotiate. Strong, right? How do you show up strongly? But also, how do you still be kind? Still, build that relationship, still keep it friendly. And I think that’s a really important skill that you can also take outside of just influencer marketing as well.

And like into the rest of your life. And it will also teach you to put the data first. And I know this sounds, I don’t know, a little silly maybe, but truly an influencer marketing. You have to put the data first. You will have to answer for results, whether that’s you’re somebody internally and you’re trying to go to your boss and you’re asking your boss, Hey, I need more budget for this campaign.

They’ll ask you why you got to show them that data. Put that data first if you were negotiating, right? And you’re trying to get a higher rate. Put the data first, show the brand that, if you’re on the talent side, show the brand that you have the skills, you have the experience, you have the numbers, you have the sales to back it up, like, you have to put that data first, and I think that goes for real life too, like, put the data first, right?

And this is a silly example, but you go to the nail salon, and you’ve gone there three times, and you don’t like the way your nails are turning out, right? You don’t go there anymore. You have an experience. It’s not working out for you. Put the data first, right? Don’t have that experience anymore on the flip side of life, right?

If there are things that are working out for you that you are finding yourself enjoying, you put that data first and you make those choices. And I think those are unique skills that come out of influencer marketing. I mean, out of many fields, influencer marketing will teach you like, you’ve got to put that data first.

If that influencer is driving results for your brand, you’re going to keep working with them. If they’re not, you’ve got to move on and you have to act quickly. So. I think there are really important skills you will learn outside of influencer marketing or that you will learn in influencer marketing that you can translate out of influencer marketing no matter what you decide to do in your life.

So it’s a great place to build cool foundational skills that you can translate outside of just your professional life and into your personal life and kind of all facets of your life. The other question I get a lot is like, is it a bubble? Will it still be around? Is influencer marketing over?

Should I have started 10 years ago? And I did start 10 years ago, so I’ve been here for a while, but my answer is always no. My answer is it’s not going to look the same. Maybe it would be a bubble in the sense of meta TikTok, what we know it to look like today, but influencer marketing is not a new topic.

It’s just that we have this kind of new catchphrase for it, which we call influencer marketing. But the idea of having a celebrity or important or influential figure Promote or support something to influence others to take action is not a new topic, right? This is something that people have been doing for forever, for a long time.

You think about athletes on Wheaties boxes, you think about Nike who’s been making shoes with celebrity endorsements forever. You think about musical endorsements like it’s not a new concept. It’s just the way that we’re consuming that content. Is new on social, right? The way that we’re consuming content on social media, what people think of when they think of influencer marketing is new, but the concept itself isn’t new.

And I think influencer marketing as a whole will continue to be around for many years to come, but it’s going to look different, right? It’s not going to be TikTok. Like five years ago, TikTok didn’t exist, and now it’s a huge, emerging, growing platform. It’s not going to look like it did. I was doing Facebook campaigns 10 years ago.

I don’t do Facebook campaigns anymore. So the platforms will change. The strategies will change. The methods will change, but the core idea of being a connector who connects an influential person, figure, or identity with a brand or with an endorsement is not going to change. That’s not going anywhere.

So I wouldn’t worry about that, but I would say that if you’re interested in exploring influencer marketing, don’t just focus on, you know, One platform or one area be open to learning everything because this field is constantly changing. We’re also only going to continue to consume more and more content.

One thing that I think is interesting is 10 years ago or 15 years ago, people used to say, Oh, that’s just the internet. It’s not real life. But today the internet is real life. We’ve seen videos go viral and can enact real-life change. Keith Lee posts a restaurant review and there’s. A line out the door of a restaurant that was about to go out of business a few weeks before that.

So the internet is real life now more than ever. And I think things that happen online can have real-world impact. And that’s important to think about too, right? Think about how you harness that. How do you use that product? For a brand, we’re only going to continue to consume more content.

That’s not going away anytime soon, either. Again, the way we consume that content might change the apps. Even the technology right now, we’re consuming it on our phones. 10 years ago, most people were consuming it on a computer before that they were consuming it on a TV. So who knows what’s next? I don’t know.

Maybe we’re consuming it from a watch or from sunglasses or whatever type of technology it is, or the platforms change, but the idea is always still the same. I think the last thing is that you got to [00:15:00] be adaptable. You have to move at the speed of culture. A culture is always changing. It used to be that influencers would get called out for having an endorsement 10 years ago on YouTube.

People would say, Oh, you sold out. You’re partnering with this brand. And now the sentiments changed, right? A lot of influencers will post sponsored content and people will say, get that bag. People will cheer them on. People will say, I love this collaboration. So it’s different in that sense. And you have to continue to be.

Open and amenable to change and moving at the speed of culture. I think when you think about a career in influencer marketing, one of the things that makes you feel unique is that you don’t have to stay in it forever. You certainly can. You can continue to grow in it, but the skills you learn outside of just things that you can use in your personal life are great work skills.

That you can use elsewhere. So one of the things that I’ve seen people do is think about being an influencer marketer as being a creative director of a partnership. So you are creative directing. How do you coach this influencer to talk about your brand? If you’re on the brand side, if you’re on the talent side, right, how do you coach your talent to incorporate this brand uniquely?

And if you’re somebody who works in this industry, without a doubt, at some point, you will be creative directing something and you might not think you’re creative directing anything because you’re like, Oh, I’m just following the brand brief or whatever that is, but you are, you’re thinking about how does this look, how do you coach somebody to create this content, how do you get the best content possible, how do you work with other folks to do that, So you are creative directing, and I think that’s a great skill for folks who maybe don’t necessarily want to say an influencer marketing, but want to go into a more creative field.

Now you have experience, right? Creative directing something. I’m bringing it all together and having that vision. So that’s a really important skill that you’re learning through this career. You will also learn collaboration, right? At the end of the day, influencer marketing is still about relationships and collaboration, but you will be uniquely positioned to collaborate with all kinds of folks.

If you’re on the brand side, you’re not only collaborating with the influencer agent, but You’re collaborating with all kinds of internal stakeholders. You’re collaborating with your paid media teams. If you’re taking that content and sending it over to paid to run for ads, you’re collaborating with your internal social team.

If they’re running the social page and you want them to repost or use influencer content, or you want to make sure it matches the style that they have on their feeds, you’re collaborating with email teams. If you’re using it in email, you are really like the master collaborator across all of these different Internal and external stakeholders.

And that is a skill that I think is probably underrated, but can be used for so many things, right? If you come from this very collaborative position, you can go into a variety of different fields. You can go into integrated marketing, which is also a highly collaborative and connected field. You can go into project management.

You can go into all kinds of things that are. Related to having that collaboration and those really strong interpersonal skills, you will hone those as you continue to have a career in influencer marketing and learn how to work with all of these different parties. You will also learn project management.

You are the project manager of whatever this influencer campaign or partnership is. So, you’re looking at meeting timelines. You might be looking at building a timeline. You’re looking at milestones. You’re looking at how you measure the success of this project, right? You’re wearing all of these different hats.

And learning, how you project manage something from start to finish, even if you’re just a part of that, even if you’re just sourcing talent, right? How do you source the right talent that you get the brand to approve? All of those are their kind of mini-projects. And I think gives you a great experience in project management that you can take into a leadership position, into a management position, into something completely unrelated to marketing or influencer marketing, and something else.

Or you can keep growing those skills and stay in the field. There’s no limit. And these are amazing foundational skills that you can take with you throughout the rest of your career. You will also learn stakeholder management. There are a lot of stakeholders involved. And as somebody in the influencer space, especially on the brand side, you’re in the middle of all of them, right?

You’re dealing with the influencer. You’re dealing with the agent. You’re dealing with the internal stakeholders. You’re dealing with finance. Who’s asking you, why are you spending this much money to pay somebody this amount? You’re dealing with legal, who’s asking about the contracts. You are truly that connector, but you are managing a lot of stakeholders.

And that doesn’t just go for the brand side, right? Agency side, you’ve got it all from all sides too. You’re managing the influencer. You’re managing your client. You’re managing your internal folks on the agency front. You are going to get a cross-course in stakeholder management, which I think is so important for any field you go into.

It’s important to know how to manage those personalities, and how to manage all of those people together. Quick question for you guys. 

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[00:21:16] Steph Martin: There are also a lot of challenges with this role and I, I wanna be honest about it because I think it’s important to know if you’re considering a career in this field or if you’re somebody who’s already in this field and wondering, do I continue, do I wanna stay here for a little bit? There a challenges to influencer marketing, there are challenges to any job and any role out there.

I do think influencer marketing challenges are unique though. So first, I’m just going to be honest. This is not your normal job. This is not a job where you come in and you clock in, you do your hours and you clock out for most people. Now, some folks might have a role like that. And if you do, and you’re happy with it.

That’s amazing. Good for you. But I would say most roles that I’ve been in in the influencer space are not like that. Like [00:22:00] this is a very odd and unique role that you’re going to have unique experiences in, right? You might be answering emails outside of hours, outside of normal business hours. I’ve got emails from talent at 10 PM because they’re supposed to film something and turn it in the next day.

And sometimes you’ve got to answer those emails or answer those phone calls. You might be filming something on the weekend. You might be going to an event or a launch party for a brand that happens on a Saturday. It’s not Typically your normal, like nine to five position, you might be asked to do weird things.

I think I talked about this in another episode with my friend, Lauren Gable, but one time we were on a trip and we were supposed to have an influencer go. A meet and greet and they were supposed to film content at this meet and greet and this influencer left their phone in an Uber and the Uber driver refused to come bring the phone back, didn’t want to give it to us.

This influencer needed their phone and had access to all of their accounts. The influencer was already at the event and realized that her phone was in the Uber and I had to call the Uber and beg him to come back. He was like, I’m not coming back, said, I will pay you cash to bring this back because this is so important for my client.

I ended up running down the street to an ATM, pulling out 500 cash from my account, and meeting up with his Uber driver to quite literally pay him off to get the phone back. It did work. My finance team, thankfully, was very kind, understood the situation, did reimbursed me for that expense.

Although you can imagine that was a pretty funny conversation to have to explain to them, but. They were awesome about it, but that is not something that you were going to do in a normal office job. You will not be chasing down an Uber driver to pay someone to get the phone back. There have also been situations where I’ve been with talent and They need a hairbrush.

I was somewhere with an influencer who was supposed to be shooting content for something, and they were in a different city than they were normally like from where they normally live. And they straight up forgot a hairbrush and no one had a hairbrush. And I had to run down the street to buy them hairbrushes from Walgreens and come back.

And this is just part of the job. I would say, that if you’re in this field, you’re going to face interesting, unique challenges. It’s about problem-solving on the side. Spot, it’s about being open and just being down for the ride and seeing what happens. So it’s not your typical nine-to-five job. And those are extreme circumstances, but you know, it’s very unique in the sense that you might be asked to do weird things.

You might be a part of things. I was on the agency side once, and we had a client that was a horror film. Okay. It was a major movie maker who was releasing a horror film. And I remember. Sitting down for a campaign team meeting and somebody said, Hey, we have this client who’s a horror film for a horror film movie, and they want somebody to go to a haunted island in Mexico.

Is anyone here not afraid of spiders and willing to go to a haunted island in Mexico filled with spiders? I declined, and I excused myself from that, but one of my wonderful teammates did sign up to go and they took influencers to a haunted spider island. Somewhere off the coast of Mexico. So again, very extreme circumstances, but I guarantee you, if you stay in this industry long enough, you will have some sort of stories of your own of that nature, definitely not your average clock-in and clock-out job.

Not every day is as crazy as going to a haunted Island or chasing down an Uber driver to pay him off, but. There certainly are plenty of unique circumstances and you’ll get some good stories out of it. I’m gonna say another challenge is that you’re managing a lot of people and a lot of personalities, right?

You are managing an agent or a talent manager who’s got a big personality. You could be managing the personality of a creator themselves who’s very particular and cares about their content as they should, the content they’re putting out. You could be managing tough internal personalities on the brand side.

You’re managing a lot of folks, a lot of personalities. Sometimes you’re managing a lot of opinions about something. It can be challenging and you have to figure out how to navigate that. How do you make everybody feel heard and come to a compromise? And I think that a unique challenge of influencer marketing is it’s not just you.

For example, if you’re somebody who works. In search engine marketing, it might be you and some internal team folks, and maybe somebody at the search engine company that’s helping you, right? If you’re somebody at Google, a Google rep. But for the most part, you’re in charge of making those ads and editing them.

In influencer marketing, you rely on so many other people. You rely on the talent. Sometimes you have to mercy of what the talent brings back to you. You rely on the agent or the manager to help make sure the talent knows the deadlines. You’re relying on your internal parties to make a brief, uh, or help you build a brief or give you information so that you can build that brief and give it to talent.

So it is about managing people, managing relationships. The unique challenge I think of influencer marketing too, is that this is a. Ever-changing field, as I mentioned, right? The platform that’s the hot platform today is not the hot platform for tomorrow. You also have to think about how you manage new platforms.

There are new platforms that pop up every day. Like anyone remember when Clubhouse was popular? You know, if you’re a brand, do you activate on Clubhouse? Do you not? Lemonade was another one that popped up, right? There are always platforms that are changing. And so you always have to be on top of what’s happening in the industry and thinking, does this make sense for my brand?

Do I want to show up here? There’s also always new rules, right? FTC is always coming out with new regulations that, as a professional in this industry, You have to know you have to be on top of so many different facets. And I would also say in this industry, you have to consume a lot of content too, if you want to be a good influencer marketer, you have to be a consumer of content.

You have to know the talent. You have to know what conversations are happening online. You have to know the sensitivities of the current climate in certain communities on TikTok. Your audience and you must stay on top of the Changing trends, changing rules, changing legislation, and changing platforms.

This industry is always changing and after two years at influencer marketing, so much could happen. Whereas two years, and I think other fields might not have that as rapid as rapid of a change. So it is something that can be a challenge for folks. I find it exciting and interesting. I like that.

It’s only changing. I like that. I’m not doing the same thing that I was doing five years ago, but that is a challenge should be mindful of is that it’s always changing, and the things you learn today. Might serve you today, but they might not serve you in three years from now. And the last challenge I think about influencer marketing is that you’re solving complex problems.

Sometimes, like you’re sitting here and you’re like, okay, I have a really big business problem on the brand side. And I keep saying brand side, cause that’s where my experience has mostly been on the brand side, but. You could be solving really big problems on the agency side, on the talent side in many fields, but you’re solving complex problems.

So you’re thinking, Hey, our sales are dropping in this particular product. How do we strategically use influencers to get them up? You also might be in the midst of a PR scandal or work with somebody who’s a part of the scandal. How do you solve that complex and nuanced problem? You will be solving unique problems all of the time, and no two problems will be the same.

But what I think is great. So yes, that’s a challenge. But what I think is great is that the complex problems you solved last year might help you solve the next complex problem you’re going to face this year. And even though those two problems might be vastly different, the skills you learn, and the strategies you deploy can help you, but you are going to be solving complex problems in this field.

I think you would be hard-pressed to find somebody who works in phones and marketing who would say that they’ve never solved a complex nuance or challenging problem. So. I think it’s fun. I think it’s interesting, but it’s not one of those jobs where something you learned five years ago is going to be the same thing that you’re using to solve the problem today.

Everything is unique. No two days are the same, so you have to be down for the ride. And I think influencer marketing is still a great field to be in. There’s so much to learn. There’s so much that’s growing and changing. There are so many things that you can learn and take into your real life outside of influencer marketing.

If you’re not sure if you want to be an influencer marketing together or forever, I would say still go for it, right? Still have that experience in influencer marketing and learn what you can. Make it work for you. Make it work for the things that you want to learn and grow in your career. I’ve also mentored a lot of folks who are starting in influencer marketing and say, I don’t know if I want to do this forever.

And I say, just try it for two years, see if you like it. And if you don’t, all those great skills we just talked about, you can take them and turn them into something else. The biggest piece of advice I would take would share with folks who are just starting in influencer marketing and aren’t sure if they want to continue.

Go look at job descriptions, like go read job descriptions for all kinds of jobs, marketing, PR, content, creative, whatever kinds of roles you think you might be interested in. Go read those job descriptions and look at two things. Look at the job descriptions themselves like what those roles are doing and what those titles are.

But then also go look at the experience section and look at like if. What the experience requires. So if you look at the experience required, let’s say you want to go into, I don’t know, content creation or you want to go into integrated marketing, for example, and you want to be an integrated marketing manager next and you’re an influencer marketing right now.

And you’re like, I don’t know if I want to say an influencer, I think I want to go move into integrated marketing or project management, whatever it is you want to do, go to LinkedIn or Indeed or whatever job site you want, go look at the job descriptions of that job you think you might want next, and then go look at the skills required and figure out if you’re an influencer marketing.

Now, how can you get those skills? Because I guarantee you a lot of the skills that they’re asking for, you can learn and you can do. As an influencer marketer now, so we’re fine. Those skills grow those skills. Maybe it says project management. Great. Guess what? We just talked about it. You’re already managing projects.

Maybe it says cross-team collaboration. Great. If you’re on the brand side, you’re already figuring out how you work with different teams. If you’re on the agency side, you’re figuring out how you work with different teams, different clients. That’s cross-team collaboration right there. So really go look and read those job descriptions.

Transcribed And look at the skills that you might need. And I would say more often than not, a lot of those skills you already have or you’re already doing on the influencer side. So just refine them, focus on them, and then learn them. And if you want to go into something else, you just set yourself up for success.

And if not, you’re continuing to set yourself up for success on the influencer side. I think being a great influencer marketer comes down to three key things. The first is understanding context, right? Understand the context of the brand. Where is the brand right now? What are they looking to solve for?

Why are they working with influencers? Are they trying to get out a certain message? Are they trying to push a certain product? Understand the context of the space you’re in, right? The beauty community is going to be different from the healthcare community. If you’re activating influencers, understand the context of how brands should show up in that space, what the audience is looking for in that space, and understand the context of the influencers you’re looking to work with, right?

What type of content do they typically post? Are you going to ask them to do something that makes sense with the rest of their content? Or is it going to be left field feel disjointed for them? And you’re not going to have a good post like to be a good influencer marketer. You have to understand the context.

Context is key. Context is everything. Also context internally, right? Why is this person trying to launch an influencer campaign? If you’re the person launching it, why are you launching it? What’s the business context that’s important to you that you’re trying to solve? So understand that context and you’ll be a great influencer marketer.

The second skill is being a problem solver. As we’ve talked about, you will solve a lot of problems. You will solve small problems from, hey, the influencer messed up this piece of the content. Can we have them swap out the footage and do B roll instead with VO? You will watch the same video a hundred times.

The influencer’s account might have gotten hacked in the middle of a campaign. How do you solve that problem? You will always be solving problems. And so if you’re a problem solver You got to start looking for a solution. You have to think outside of the box. You have to be willing to try every single possible option before you scrap an idea, right?

And also you have to know sometimes you do have to scrap an idea right away and pivot on to a new option. So to be a great influencer marketer, you truly have to think of yourself as a problem solver and someone who’s solution-oriented and look for how to find that solution. In your work every day.

And the third thing is you have to be a great connector to be an influencer marketer and to do this job. Well, you have to be a connector. You have to connect brands to talent. You have to connect internal parties to get on the same page, to figure out what you’re doing and why, what the budget is, and what the creative concept is.

Influencer marketing is now and will forever be all about relationship building in so many ways, including internal relationship building. External relationships between talent and brands. It will always be about relationship building. So to be a great influencer marketer, you have to think of yourself as that ultimate connector, that ultimate person who sits in the middle, who can tap all of these parties and has that uncanny ability to bring them together in an amazing way that can drive results and leave people feeling great, feeling happy, feeling satisfied, and maintaining those relationships.

And those three skills are so important and I think that they can get you pretty far no matter what you decide to do, whether it’s influencer marketing or not. So three things to make you a great influencer marketer, understand context, be a problem solver and be a connector and you’ll be set up for whatever you decide to do next.

If you want to stay and grow in the industry, if you want to leave and try something different, no matter what, I think those skills make you a great marketer, but we’ll set you up for success. Whatever you choose to do before I wrap up this episode. I also want to say that if you’re in a position to do so, don’t forget to help and mentor others.

It’s so important to give back to the community to share your advice, your experiences, your knowledge, especially with women or traditionally underrepresented groups. No one gets through life alone. And if you’ve learned something, share it. If you have an opinion, share it. If you have an experience that you think others can learn from, share it.

Share it. I think we get better as a community and as an industry when we share knowledge and when we help others grow in their careers. And sometimes all it takes is helping somebody see that these skills that they have are there. It just takes a minute to help identify the skills. Sometimes it talks, it’s all it takes is just problem-solving with somebody else.

To figure out how do you get through this problem that they’re working on? What advice can you share? What are the things in our industry that we can talk about as a group? So I would say if you are in a position to do so, mentor others, and help others share knowledge freely because we all get better together when we share and we have these important conversations.

We’d love to hear from you. If you’ve made it through this episode, thank you so much for listening. Do you think now is still a great time to be an influencer marketer? Let us know. I do. I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I think there are so many great skills. If you’re considering influencer marketing or you’re already in it, keep going, keep trying, keep learning, and try new things.

But if you’ve made it this far in the episode, let me know what you think. You can find me on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear your feedback. And if you’re somebody in the influencer space, keep going. I believe in you and you’re going to learn so much. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.

[00:37:33] Jessy: If you enjoyed this episode, we’ve got to have you back. Check out our website for more ways to get involved, including all the information you need about joining our collective. You can check out all the information at iamwiim.com. Leave us a review, or a rating, but the most important thing that we ask you to do is to share this podcast. Thanks for listening. Tune in next week.

Steph Martin

Brand and Influencer Marketing Leader

Steph Martin is brand marketing leader with an expertise in influencers, partnerships, and brand strategy. Her decade of experience spans industries with an integrated approach to talent, media, entertainment, and brand partnerships. Steph began her career on the agency side activating influencer campaigns for brands like Walmart, Sephora, Warner Brothers, and Verizon before transitioning to in-house roles at ThirdLove and Hims & Hims to establish brand marketing programs. Her specialties include building brand activation strategies and leveraging partnerships to grow emerging companies into beloved household names.

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