Reesa Lake from LTK was Createur’s guest on our latest roundtable.
LTK (formerly rewardStyle & LIKEtoKNOW.it) is a platform to shop products curated by trusted creators. It units brands, creators, and consumers, generating $3B in annual brand sales through the power of distributed original content.
Reesa Lake is Vice President of Creator Expansion and Agency Partners at LTK. Prior to joining the LTK team, Reesa was VP of Brand Partnerships at Digital Brand Architects (DBA). She’s a pioneer in the creator space, coming to us with much knowledge ranging from public relations to branding, and of course creator economy.
“I have spent over a decade working in the creator space. I was the first manager at DBA representing talents before Instagram existed and representing bloggers at a time when brands said they will never pay a blogger. And today most creators are paying rent and living on what they make as content creators.
I've loved to follow the evolution of how creators make money. I’m going to tell you more about how you can make money in your sleep, I’m going to map the tools at LTK that can really help support you, and tell you about things that we've been working on and what we have coming up.”
Here are the most valuable highlights of our captivating conversation with Reesa.
- A golden rule of growth is “it’s all about community.” Consider your followers as people who are on this journey with you, not just as followers.
- For creators looking to go full-time, be super active: collaborate with other creators, connect with brands, and talk to your community. Everyday.
- To turn influencing into a multimillion-dollar business, build your community, create content, and set up goals for yourself. Consistency is key in anything you do. And know that it takes a lot of time.
- When pitching a brand, be specific about what is your value proposition (is it engagement, conversion, etc.). Brands are hungry for the specifics. The more you shout why you're amazing, the more likely you'll get those opportunities.
- The numbers that matter to a brand rep will depend on their position
- E-commerce and performance people look at conversion numbers, and your ability to sell.
- PR people look at engagement and reach.
- The events team will look at your network.
- To get started with LTK think of the platform as an extension of what you're doing. Set your intention for using LTK (is it brand opportunities, passive revenue stream, audience knowledge, etc.). Commit to a strategy of using LTK tools daily. Start small and take it a step-by-step process.
Read on to learn how to stand out as a creator, get campaigns, generate more revenue, turn a one-time deal with a brand into a long-term relationship, and much more!
Reesa’s Creator Strategy Best Practices
Julia (Createur): Do you have advice for creators that are transitioning from part-time to full-time content creation?
Reesa (LTK): My advice for you, and this also applies to people who are established as well, is to value your community above all. Think back to why we're all here. This is all about community and this is all about relationships. And I think the more that you can build a relationship with your community and not think of them just as your followers, the better. They’re in it with you, they’re part of the journey. They’re excited about what you’re doing. They want to be part of the conversation.
I was talking with somebody yesterday and they said, “I DM this creator all the time and she never DMs back. So I just, I don't like her.” Just send back a heart emoji too. Engaging with your community. When they ask you where you got something, tell them. Be the guide and the resource that they’re following you for.
Continue to build those relationships with other creators, collaborate with other creators reach out and build relationships. Even though we work behind screens and through the internet, don’t abandon that personal relationship. It’s so important. Continue to evolve your strategy and set goals as you grow. And if you didn't meet your goals that week have grace with yourself.
What would make a successful pitch that actually yields long-term, multi-month partnerships, not just a one-time transactional campaign?
Don’t just show up to be brand and say “Hey brand, I want to work with you.” Make sure you're following them, and engage with their content. If you see that they're hosting an event, show up to their event, if they send you a pair of jeans, DM them and say, “I got the jeans, thank you.”
When you reach out to them, talk about how much you actually love a certain product, a certain campaign that you followed. If they just launched a billboard on Times Square, say that you love it. Find out who the brand rep is, follow them on social, and start building a relationship with them.
Once a collaboration is over, say a genuine thank you to the people behind the campaign and the brand. It goes such a long way. One creator sent flowers after a campaign with a thank you note, and it’s so great to acknowledge all the work that went into a campaign on the brand’s side. There might have been 10 executives there that approved your profile, reviewed your content, made sure it went up, analyzed its performance, etc. Acknowledge all that work, besides just posting the content.
Professionalism goes a long way too. Follow-up on briefs, send content on time, etc. Anything to make the executives’ jobs easier. They will remember that and get back to you for future opportunities.
It's more likely they're going to come back and want to work with you if you behave like that. It goes back to the traditional sense of relationships. Brands will more likely choose you for a campaign if they know who you are as a person versus just seeing your bio or your name on a sheet.
Consistency is key in anything you do. Know that all of this takes a ton of time.
What has been the key to success in turning an influencer or a content creator into a multimillion-dollar business?
I truly believe that it goes back to relationships, and to building your name like a business and a brand.
There's a saying “perfectionism leads to procrastination, which leads to paralysis.” So you have this idea that you need to make these amazing curated beautiful feed posts. The content didn't turn out as great. It's kind of raining. There are all these different excuses, these inside stories that we create in our heads that stop us from doing things.
But if you just actually created that video with the wonky lighting, you went ahead and actually put content out there. Build your community, create content, and set up goals for yourself. Consistency is key in anything you do. There's a lot of consistency that it takes to excel in something. So know that all of this takes a ton of time.
Continue to be willing to learn, attend webinars and events about influencing and creator economy, and use your network. If you see a friend of yours is partnering with a brand, ask her for an intro. If you're getting invited somewhere, ask if you could bring your friends. Figure out how you can pay it forward within your community and then nurture the relationships that you have.
The person at the brand that you worked with five years ago, might no longer be at that brand. They probably work at a better brand with a higher-up job. And if you were nice to them and sent them a thank you note or DMed them back in the day, they’re more likely to come back around.
What would you say brands look for the most in terms of numbers?
That will depend on who you’re talking to at the brand. If you’re talking to somebody in e-commerce or in performance marketing, conversion numbers will matter. They want to know how many pieces you're going to be able to sell. They'll know what the price point is that you can sell at.
If you're talking to the PR team, most likely they're going to be looking at your profile, and who you are as a person. They're also going to look at impressions because that's what they're providing back to their leadership. They'll want to show what was the engagement, reach, and impression of your content.
If you're talking to the events team, they're gonna want to know have you hosted events before? Do you have a network of people within your community that could actually attend?
It’s also important to ask a brand what its goals and objectives are. It will impact how you create content. There is a different way to approach driving engagement than there is for driving sales.
Because as a consumer, we can only take so many actions from a piece of content. We can't interact on Instagram and buy the product at the same time.
When you get those brand briefs that are exhausting and tiring, ask the brand to narrow it down. Say, “if you were to tell me one goal of this campaign, what it is?” That will make your content sharper, and more performant.
How has TikTok changed your business, and how does it interact with LTK?
Every two years there’s a new platform that comes into the market. And every platform is used differently. You go to TikTok to get truly entertained, to be sucked in for hours, and just laugh. You’re not necessarily going there to shop. And as for LTK, links are not really native to TikTok. An alternative could just be putting your LTK shop link in your bio. You can also pin a video where you explain where your shop is.
Another challenge that we see is sticking to a specific niche. Do you recommend posting a little bit about everything, or being super specific to a niche that you’ve set?
It depends on who you are as a creator. We see all these niches on TikTok, cleaning niches, organization niches, etc. There’s this feed of one of our clients back at DBA, it was only organization content. But then in stories, they started showing other things, their personalities, the way they dressed, etc.
We see that a lot with food creators. Their feed is solely food, but the audience is so invested in them as a human. Alex from Defined Dish is a great example. Most of her feed is food. She's not in it. But in her stories, she talks about everything that people are asking about. Because they're invested in her as Alex, the person, not just to find dish recipes.
For somebody who has a niche, LTK is a great way to share those other types of products that may not make sense to your grid and what you're doing on social.
So figure out ways to be able to pivot and use platforms in a different way. That way you can stick to your niche while showing the rest.
All about LTK
What would be your advice for someone who is brand new to the platform LTK?
Think of LTK as an extension of what you're doing. So first, set your intention for using LTK. Do you need it for the brand opportunities, to make money in your sleep, to be your community’s guide? Being clear on that will help guide what you do on the platform and how you engage with it.
We don't want to come in and replace what you're doing on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or on your blog. But those platforms, while you may purchase from them, are not necessarily meant to drive commerce. Within the LTK ecosystem, there are a ton of different tools and opportunities to build out a shop, collections, and brand partnership.
Second, align with those goals and intentions, and set up a strategy. Start small. Say “I will commit to doing two links a week.” If you get the return on those two links, step it up to three links. Or say “I'm going to dedicate one hour a week to start populating my shop and merchandise it.” Take it as a step-by-step process.
How can LTK help a creator grow?
LTK was developed by a creator for creators, a creator who wanted other creators to be able to monetize their content.
As a creator, there are so many goals. You want brand partnerships. You want to evolve your strategy. You want to launch a brand. You want to do all of these things. These are all amazing projects that take a lot of work, but there are things that you could be doing to make money while you sleep.
One thing that we do is provide the technology to power links so that you can post them on social media and make a commission. We also work to bring brand partners to creators within the LTK community.
We have over 5,000 brands, so we offer exposure to these different brands. We also help you to build your business and know your community. As you talk to brands, being able to actually look at your data and analytics that LTK provides is a huge resource for you.
How often should creators actually use their account or promote their LTK?
There is a balance that will depend on where your audience stands regarding branded content. So think about direct links as a way to give a quick fix. This link will most likely disappear in 24hr if you post it in your story. The idea is that, if you also post the look in your LTK shop, your audience will have that time to think about buying or not, and they’ll know where to find the reference when they’re ready to purchase.
The LTK shop was meant and has been developed to be your storefront. It’s here to help you create a shopping destination with curated merchandising for your audience. If one of your followers hearts a product you posted, the LTK app will send them a reminder to purchase it. So the LTK app is really working on your behalf to help optimize those purchases.
We just launched Collection. It's a way for you to classify and categorize your content. So you could have baby content, travel, content, and beauty content. That way, if people go to you just because they love your skincare, they know exactly where to go for those products.
We’ve also rolled out Reviews, where you’ll be able to describe if the product fit, if the shade was alright, etc. Consumers are constantly asking questions and as a creator, engaging with that community is extremely time-consuming. so with Reviews, you’ll actually be able to drive them to the review of whatever the product is.
How to get campaigns on LTK?
Make sure that your Collaborations portal is filled out. We launched LTK Connect, which is a platform where brands of all sizes can come in to connect and search for creators. They can search by specific parameters, age, location performance, and who makes sense for a denim brand who makes sense for jewelry. And if you filled out your collaborations portal you will be aggregated within those results
Our team cast campaigns in a couple of different ways. One, they work with creators who they know perform for them. Some of our brands are looking at ROAS (return on as spend). So they want to know if they're investing $5,000 in a partnership, are they going to get $7,000 back? They want a two X, three X return. Some of those brands are looking for a high return on investment.
Other brands are looking for unique creators and they're looking for unique storylines. They want creators that are doing something different, not necessarily the same type of content that you see on the internet. So being unique and staying true to what’s your own is crucial and it is reflected in your content.
Whether this is through LTK or not, identify what’s your value proposition, and think about how you will translate that to brands. For instance approach Levi’s by saying “I made this post and 10 people DMed me asking about these jeans and bought them.” If you have an LTK rep, don't just go to them and say ”I'd love to do a Levi's ad.” Go to them and say, “here's a post I just did for Levi's. I had X amount of comments. I had X amount of engagement.” Brands and LTK are so hungry for that kind of feedback.
Pay attention to commission rates. Our emails give that kind of information. For instance, we sent an email or a push notification this week that Nordstrom had reduced their cookie window and their commission rate. So if you are putting all of your eggs in the Nordstrom basket, that has an impact on your revenue. If you pay attention to our emails, you may also see that Saks has a 20% commission rate, or X brand is going on sale. And that can inform your posting decisions and strategy, and which retailers you’re picking that could actually impact the bottom line of your commissions.
Useful Resource links from LTK
- Social Channel Strategy
- More on the Auto-Follow tool
- Additional information on getting connected with brands
- Be sure to join LTK's posting competition
- Tips and Tricks for TikTok
- To view the commercials
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