Looking for ways to get the most from your marketing in 2025? Creators are the missing link.
LTK stays on top of the latest marketing trends so brands can gain a competitive edge. Recently we sat down for a webinar to explore the latest edition of our LTK x Northwestern brand study. Conducted in Q3 2024, the study features data from 185 diverse participants. Get inspired by The CMO’s Creator Guide 2025 and uncover the top trends in Creator Marketing today to inform your approach for the year ahead.
“Marketing trends come and go,” but many continue to grow. This is the case for Creator Marketing, which remains a top growth channel.
In 2024, 41 percent of brands said that at least half of their digital marketing budget is spent on Creators, and this remains true. In fact, a substantial 93 percent of brands plan to increase their Creator strategy and budget in 2025 because Creator Marketing touches everything: media, brand, social, and beyond.
Creator Marketing expands to every marketing touch point to reach your audience authentically. But is there such a thing as too much coverage? No, but there is a sweet spot. Content is used in four channels on average to reach key audiences and personas across the funnel:
Content marketing is trusted because of its efficiency, low cost, and higher performance compared to traditional brand advertising. Brands often turn to LTK Creators to generate content for their owned and operated channels, ranging from emails to websites to user-generated content.
Who can give your brand a voice? Brand ambassadors are Creators who become extensions of your brand, using your data to cater content to an audience. Together, Creators and their audiences can drive further brand loyalty.
Consumers spend time everywhere, being exposed to brands online, in-store, and on TV. You need an omnichannel approach to reach them. Connected TV (CTV) amplifies Creator content on big screens, with increased reach over other media and the repetition necessary for conversion. LTK CTV enables brands to leverage Creator content to reach targeted audiences.
You need data, and affiliate marketing opens access to millions of data points to support full-funnel decisions for your brand. Affiliate content motivates audiences, acting as authentic content with a specific action tied to it.
From brand recognition to retention, you’ve got your work cut out for you. But what about reaching new audiences? That’s one of the hardest hills to climb. Marketers like to put audience segments into a part of the funnel, but it doesn't work that way.
Thankfully, trusted partners can work with you to ace your marketing efforts. Creators are tremendous resources to elevate brand awareness, inform inventory decisions, increase customer lifetime value, guide product design, and drive up average order value.
Get the word out! A significant 58 percent of brands say Creators drive brand or product awareness, with a few industries agreeing at a higher clip:
Creator Marketing impacts the full customer journey, so your goals will shift from, “Tell them who we are” to “Secure their business.” Creator media plans should keep an eye on several metrics, including audience growth, awareness, engagement, brand sentiment, and conversion rates.
The best Creators drive action, but the big goals are making emotional connections, building trust, and reaching audiences where they spend their time. So marketing priorities span the funnel along the way, especially content creation, loyalty, awareness, and sales.
As you execute your Creator Marketing plan, leverage multiple tactics to reach audiences. And remember: Your industry plays a role in what works. For instance, the beauty industry prioritizes content creation over consideration, whereas CPG focuses on product demonstration over content.
Creators have carved out their places in industries well beyond fashion and DIY. Increasing consumer and brand demand has enabled Creator Marketing to reach across categories.
Consumers are always looking for recommendations, but what’s interesting is they distrust traditional ads and resist asking loved ones. Creators have become their experts across health and wellness, CPG, entertainment, home decor and design, and more.
A retail media network (RMN) is an advertising platform provided by a retail company, allowing brands to effectively reach target audiences on retailer-owned and off-site channels. Creator Marketing is just one of many marketing channels under this umbrella, and according to the LTK x Northwestern brand study, more than 82 percent of RMNs already offer it.
RMNs offer an omnichannel approach, integrating various platforms such as CTV, search ads, and social media to provide comprehensive advertising solutions. By employing a broad strategy, brands can effectively reach their goals—from awareness to conversion. Some of the top metrics brands look for when working with RMNs include:
Simply posting on social media is rarely sufficient, and most brands recognize this. The majority spend 30 percent of their influencer budget on boosting across an average of four channels. The difference? Audience exposure.
Of the brands that leverage Creator Marketing, 82 percent use the content across social media ads. We’ve seen firsthand how Creators amplify messages—in part because their own followers proceed to share. The results are so stunning that boosting from a Creator’s social media handle delivers 86 percent more campaign impressions.
From leveraging content and sponsorships to solving marketing challenges and boosting awareness, Creator Marketing opens new avenues for brands to explore.
LTK guides winning strategies to scale brand adoption faster and drive trackable sales annually for CMOs like you. We’re with you every step of the way, from forming Creator partnerships to developing effective strategies to providing the backbone to execute and measure your efforts. Watch the webinar on-demand now and reach out to our pros to begin your journey.