Welcome back to our weekly deep-dive on the Creator Economy. This is our first of THREE holiday prep episodes! Below is what we discuss:

• Looking at holiday trends
• Looking at your own data to figure out what works for you and your audience
• Developing holiday-related story-arc's to engage your followers and drive conversion
• Being mindful of this year's economy and how to approach less spending power
• What we learned from the pandemic
• What platform should you use for your links this holiday season?
• Will you be successful without LTK?

Our episode next Tuesday will be part 2 of our holiday prep series - subscribe so you stay in-the-know!

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Episode 12

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Michelle: Let's start.

Monica: I think that when you're doing holiday, you have to start with consumer behavior. Yes, you can go into it like, okay, I want to make sure I get x many posts prepped and ready to go. So that I'm not having chaotic November, or I want to make sure I have x many brand collabs locked in for my budget.

What's interesting of how they break down their research is that they compare the general population shopping habits to the shopping habits of creator shoppers. Because obviously we know that not all shoppers shop from influencers, and there's a little bit of similarities, but here's what they say about shopping windows.

So what that means is, if you are a creator, you better start having things for people to shop from you. In September, because that's almost 50 percent at that point.

Michelle: That's actually 1 point that I wanted to also bring up during this and it does tie in nicely here is. On top of 1, seeing what's happening in general to if you're using.

Monica: Yeah, and I would also try to look at what you actually posted, because maybe you think that you posted something, a post or two in September holiday related, but if you only did one post, you can't say, Oh, my audience doesn't shop for me in holiday in September. If you just did one post, or I think another thing that people get confused with holiday doesn't mean Christmas decorations.

Like, when we talk about posting for holiday in September, it doesn't mean literally start sharing the Christmas tree. That can wait till November, but this is more of, getting in the groove of a

Michelle: Yes. Yes, and that's one reason why start planning now because You can start to plan your content pillars and something that I was actually thinking about is you could make these different story arcs, right? That aren't necessarily super promo or whatnot, but maybe you make a whole thing about how you want to get the perfect gift for your husband.

Where what did you decide? and so In thinking about what exactly you do want to start posting now, whether it's you're going to post all of your getting ready for your parties, you're in a post, you're looking for your husband's gifts, you're then going to post your table arrangements, which can also evolve over time.

But like Monica was saying, you don't just want to be like Christmas tree. It's holiday in September. That would just be a little missing the mark.

I'm, I don't know, but I was thinking about two things at the same time, and I couldn't decide what I was going to say, but what I was going to say was, I really liked the storytelling point that you brought up, because that is so much more engaging than just sharing collage after collage, gift guide after gift guide.

Obviously you absolutely should do them like they convert so well because they're easy to shop, but I think they convert well when they're an add on, they're not the only thing that you're doing. If you are, if we take the example of shopping for your husband's gift, you're taking everyone on this journey, they're invested and now they're like, hey, while you're out shopping.

What about my co workers? And then It's so much more organic that way than just pushing collages after collages. And if you're just doing collages over and over again, that's gonna lead to burnout. And also, unless you have the LTK app, there's not really a good place for those to live other than your website.

Your site or that passive traffic of the shoppers who aren't Creator shoppers because then you're just gonna get everyone to be a good SEO.

Michelle: Yeah, so just to take a step back when First starting to think through what do you want to do for holiday one? Looking like what L T K does looking at macro trends outside of, your own creator world, then looking at the creator world and there's right.

You're just going to be very reactive. So right now is where you still do have a little bit of time and you can take a pause and assess. Last year, what happened and what was going on and then look at this year and how that's starting to evolve.

Then after you do that, really starting to think about your content themes.

But if then you're documenting that and sharing and it's. The stuff that you'll be sharing it's going to be so organic because you're just like we're making hot chocolate for the first time and these are the marshmallows that I got and here's our mugs and it's much more aspirational and like the me I want to be versus like, here's my collage and this is everything that we use to make hot chocolate.

To your point, Monica, you can follow up with that. But then when you're actually in the moment and documenting , that's going to form a better connection with your audience and make them. Want to buy those things even more

Monica: exactly.

And I don't want to say, it's, I was going to say distasteful, but that's not the right word, but essentially there's a way to connect with your audience and like making sure that they have what they need to be set up for success in a way that is just like being self aware that this year is different than last year.

And I think again, to your point, like when you are bringing them on this story. This journey with them, making them feel a part of it. That's not gonna feel like, Oh my gosh, do I need to buy this? And do I need to buy this? Do I need to buy this? It's like showing the purpose of the gift guide, for example.

Maybe last year you did, and that was great, but to feel the pressure that you have to now keep doing that because it must be what everyone else is doing. If all these gift guides are out there, then. You then start to get into the land of why the influencer space gets a bad rap for consumerism. I don't think it's the creator's responsibility to make sure that someone doesn't feel like they have to buy everything a creator shares.

Michelle: right by being able to get a pulse on that you'll take your content and move it from good to great and really impactful because Let's even say that throughout the toddler experience if you are fortunate enough to be able to have very nice coffee mugs and you're buying all your your decorations, from West Elm or, Oh, my gosh, our house.

So you could always use that as an opportunity to sometimes I see influencers posts a splurge and a save and so you can post kind of those alternatives to show that you are being conscious of that. And it's hey, anyone can do this, or you can even, if you don't want to be that specific, linking directly to products is nine times out of 10, always going to get you higher conversion than just linking to a retailer.

And then you just link there and give them the option to buy whatever they want.

Monica: Yes, I agree. Yeah, I think it's just the holiday is just a sensitive time for consumers. But from the creator standpoint, obviously, what consumer behavior is doing is going to affect your Take home paycheck as a creator.

Someone might say the economy is fine. Someone might say that it's a recession. Someone might say it might be a recession. And someone might say it's the second Great Depression. Like, when you have All of that coming at you and you're just not an economist, how do you use that in projecting how you're going to perform or do you just be like I guess I just have to keep winging it.

Michelle: I think that's where influencers actually have a leg up because it's really nice to not be chained to only 1 specific. Or just a series, of luxury brands, right? You're able to use your performance to see okay, here are the brands and retailers that work for me versus here are the ones that don't.

And so that's something that if you are seeing. A lot of purchases from like target or up in the East coast, we have Bob's discount furniture. I don't know if that's a nationwide chain, but if you're seeing more of that, as opposed to West Elm pottery barn, our house, that should give you an indication of where.

Monica: Yeah, I remember when I worked at LTK, the creators during the pandemic who took the advice that LTK gave to.

Pivot to home if so, they were basically like if you are a fashion blogger It's okay to pivot to home and we're gonna help you do it. So like the account managers got on strategy calls to really make the creator feel comfortable with pivoting which I think is Really important that if you are gonna pivot you do feel like you have support and you don't feel oh, no What if this?

Michelle: I hope the pandemic is a once in a lifetime experience, but , that was such a universal trend, right? That everyone was trying to just spruce up their houses. That's where everyone was spending all their time. And not taking advantage of that would also cost you like, if you kept doing the same thing and let's say that you teed up your content for 6 weeks.

sense Based on what's going on in the world.

Monica: So another thing to think about when prepping for holiday that I think it's a new conversation this year and has not really been as much of a conversation in the past. And that is. Where should you be linking from as a part of your strategy? For example, should I be using URLgenius to link to Amazon?

Michelle: What do you think?

Monica: I don't know, I'm so torn because I feel like, I think the first thing is, go where there's Bonuses, incentives, whatever. I'm thinking right now about my Shopmy and how I'm at the cusp of getting a bonus. I'm like because of that, this is a perfect time to try to actually achieve that.

I think I have 20 points left to get to that next level. So that's how I'm looking at it for myself. I do think that maybe when it comes to Amazon, if you had your, like your best year yet with Amazon this summer for prime, just do what you did this past summer, don't mess with that.

I don't know. That's where I'm at, but I feel like I am going on that case by case basis thing where I'm like, okay, when it comes to the retailer, this, when it comes to a bonus offer to me this, and then I'm just all over the place. So I'm sure so many. Other people are all over the place, too.

And one other consideration that I think is worth throwing in there is, Holiday, as we just talked about, is very different this year. A lot of brands are holding back budgets, potentially until the 11th hour. So another thing that you can look at too is, The past campaigns that you've worked on for the different platforms that you link on.

Yes. That is another really big thing where, if you don't, I think. A lot of holiday stuff is starting to really be underway right now. If you don't have anything and if you don't get anything until... Like potentially at this point, like late October, even early November, sometimes there are some retailers that last minute, they're just like, make it rain, but you can be a beneficiary of that where, because you have.

Monica: Agree. on that note, I think it becomes less about the platform you use to post, but just where you're consistent, where you're showing up, where you have data. I have people ask me like, am I not going to be able to succeed as a creator if I don't get accepted to LTK?

And I'm like, that is it's such a myth that in order to be successful, you have to be on the LTK app. Being a creator and being profitable has nothing to do with LTK itself. What LTK does, at its core, is the same that Collective Voice is doing, that ShopMy is doing, Rodeo, Howl.

And so many times, the answer is no, I don't think they even use it yet. And I was like you would have to train them how to use it. And then that's the only reason why you would really need to be on LTK. And so not to be so defeated that you're never going to be as successful as someone else, just because you didn't get accepted.

So I just really want to emphasize, do not feel self conscious about whether or not you've been accepted to LTK or not.

Michelle: Yeah, because it's not going to make

Monica: or break your holiday. It's not going to make or break your career. It's there are so many platforms that have other tools that could be more useful for you that you might not even realize because of how focused you've been that.

You haven't been accepted

Now, if you do use the LTK app and that works for your audience, you're going to want to make sure you listen to the following episode because that's where we're going to dive into more specifics around that.

Thanks for listening, and don't forget to subscribe for a review and As always, we appreciate all you listeners, let us know what you think in our Instagram DMs, email, anywhere you want to send us a note.

We love hearing from you. Yes, thanks

Michelle: everyone. Bye.