How Creator Marketing (Silently) Took Over

Creator-led growth (aka creator marketing) is when you, as a business owner or marketing leader on your team, become a content creator in order to teach, share, and evangelize your business, through useful content published online.

Sure, you can always hire other content creators too, but that blurs the lines into more traditional influencer marketing (pay x for deliverable y). Not bad, but not as sustainable as creator marketing. In this guide, we’re focused primarily on using your brand as a creator, to connect more meaningfully with audiences & grow your core business as a result of your creator marketing efforts. Here’s my video where I break it all down:

In this guide, we’re diving into the two main strategies of executing on creator-led growth, why creator marketing is such an effective strategy today, and how you can get started right now.

If you’re a business owner, solo entrepreneur, or just trying to grow an audience to create future business opportunities, the insights I’m sharing here, should help unlock a fun growth channel for you—or at the very least, a new (more) intentional way of thinking about the content you’re creating.

What is Creator-Led Growth?

🔑 Creator-led growth is a marketing strategy where you, as a business owner, entrepreneur, or marketing leader at your company, create useful content (videos, podcast episodes, blog posts, and social content) to educate, entertain, and connect with audiences in a way that other marketing just can’t stack up. As a form of content marketing, it’s not too complicated, but it does require knowing which types of creator content will work best for your business.

Now, creator-led growth could mean either you becoming the content creator yourself—or forging partnerships to collaborate with other creators who already have a solid audience in your space. Either way, embracing creator marketing as a strategy can open the door to much deeper interactions and relationships with your customers.

Why Creator Marketing is (Silently) Becoming More Effective Today

Traditional ads are fading in effectiveness. Hiring influencers who don’t really care about your product or service is kind of a drag (and can sometimes create more problems than it solves). Bringing on a marketing agency to scale your SEO campaigns might not be as impactful as it once was.

Creator marketing was born naturally out of the need for something new.

Here’s why it works: People trust creators whose content they follow regularly (over the course of months and years), far more than the paid ads they see elsewhere in their feeds. Think about it—when someone you admire recommends a product, aren’t you more likely to trust their suggestion compared to a random pop-up ad? That’s the magic of creator-led marketing.

The four essential ingredients to effective creator marketing are:

1. The right audience (size doesn’t matter)
2. A deep understanding of what your audience wants & needs
3. Trust and mutual respect
4. Consistency of creation

Without these four fundamentals in place, a creator marketing strategy will almost always fall flat.

You need the right audience (it’s ok if you’re starting small), you need to hone your intuition for delivering what those people want, and they need to trust you enough to take action on your recommendations. Then, you need to repeatedly show up to deliver that value & build real trust. You can’t fake this.

Creator-led growth has quickly become the #1 most profitable marketing channel for growing my own business, RightBlogger: 80+ Powerful Tools for Content Creators to more than 22,000+ users this year. So, we’ll be examining how to do creator marketing based on my real-world experience, which is always more fun 😉

Something important to know right from the start, is that a creator marketing strategy is not centered around shouting from the rooftops about your product day & night. It’s a subtle art, as much as it is a science.

Take for example, this recent video post on my LinkedIn about the benefits of doing hard things as an entrepreneur. It got almost 500,000 impressions and nearly 40,000 video views:

In this post, I’m not promoting RightBlogger, selling one of my courses, or asking viewers to take any particular action (other than the obviously easy task of doing more hard things). This is value-first content, designed to positively impact the lives of entrepreneurs in my audience.

And in videos like this, I’ll often talk about what I’m learning growing RightBlogger—casually reminding my (right) audience of what this business is & who it’s for, without obnoxiously pitching it every time. Consistency is key, as this pays incredible dividends over months & years.

If you’re not using creator-led growth as a marketing strategy, it might finally be the time. With platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn booming, content consumption has increasingly focused on video formats, but there’s still room to mix things up with written content too. The possibilities here are endless, and the best thing is… you don’t have to do it all at once.

The Two Types of Creator-Led Growth

Creator-led growth generally falls into two categories. Let’s break them down.

1. Becoming a Creator Yourself

If you’re ready to dive in headfirst (and get the most long-term growth potential), you can take the DIY path—become a content creator yourself. This is ideal for solo entrepreneurs or small teams who feel energized by making your own content. Obviously, it takes time and energy, but the rewards for going in this direction are huge.

The benefits of investing in yourself as the content engine of your creator marketing strategy are:

• You control the message 100% of the time
• You become the face and personality of your brand
• You know your business (and hopefully industry) best

To be fair, it’s not without it’s challenges… creating the time in your schedule for making content, being consistent, believing in yourself & building confidence as a creator, to name just a few. Sometimes it’s brutal, but ultimately the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Doing this yourself will lead to the highest return in the long run. From my 15 years of marketing experience, there’s nothing more powerful than customers having meaningful, positive experiences directly with you, as a founder or leader on your team.

2. Partnering with Established Creators

But what if you don’t want to be in front of the camera or write blog posts every week? I got you. You’ll wanna partner with (the right) existing creators that already reach the audience you want to get in front of.

These creator collaborations can take many forms. Whether it’s straight up influencer marketing (paying a creator for promotional content), partnering with an established creator to co-host a podcast, or something else entirely—the key is establishing a partnership where both you and the creator benefit.

I recommend finding partnership opportunities where a successful creator in your space becomes invested in the success of the content they’re creating. Here are some examples of what smart creator partnerships can look like:

• Co-hosted podcasts
• Co-produced videos with a creator
• Equity stake in your business for regular marketing deliverables
• Exclusive sponsorship rights for a period of time
• Performance-based compensation (affiliate and revenue share deals)

Creator partnerships is the best option if you’re too busy running your business, or strongly against doing at least core components of the content creation work, yourself.

Creating Content Yourself: A Quick Guide to Creator Marketing

Not sure where to start? Here’s a simple guide for diving into content creation.

Choose the Right Content Format

Before you just start making content, consider how your audience prefers to consume content. Today, video is king—especially on platforms like YouTube, the second-largest search engine in the world.

This doesn’t mean written content is dead, but it’s a truth you can’t ignore when making this decision. A modern creator marketing strategy absolutely includes video content somewhere in the mix. Then, you can use tools like RightBlogger’s YouTube Video to Blog Post Generator to instantly repurpose your videos into written content, social copy & more.

Video content gives audiences the chance to connect with you on a deeper, more personal level. It’s great for building trust. But don’t sleep on written content, either. There’s still massive potential in blog posts, email newsletters, and other forms of more traditional media.

I’ve got a guide that explains the benefits of adopting a video-first content creation process—one that leverages the strengths of both video & written content, with the help of AI to save time and effort along the way. I know you’ll find that one super helpful as you begin your journey.

Long-Form Videos

When it comes to videos, you’re going to want to play with two formats: long-form and short-form. Long-form videos (anything over a minute) are your bread and butter for platforms like YouTube.

This format generally focuses on deeper educational content, answering common customer questions or solving widely known problems in your space.

For instance, one of my most successful recent long-form videos dives deep into my best ChatGPT prompts for writing—something many of my audience members are actively searching for. Your long-form content should focus on addressing real pain points.

Short-Form Videos

Then there’s short-form video content (under 60 seconds). These are perfect for Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn.

Short-form is where entertainment and rapid inspiration shine. You have less time to capture attention, but when done well, these shorter videos can really hook viewers and build relationships quickly.

A quick analogy: Think of long-form content as a nice sit-down dinner with deep conversations, and short-form content as grabbing a quick coffee. You’re still connecting, but in a punchier, more casual way.

When creating content, always ask yourself… what can I share that’s insightful, educational, or entertaining?

Tools for Repurposing Video Content

Now, if all this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. I’ve found and developed a lot of tools to help streamline the process.

Using the “People Also Ask” Tool for Topic Research

One of my favorite hacks is using the People Also Ask Tool (yep, it’s part of my RightBlogger platform). This tool helps pinpoint what audiences are searching for on Google to get inspiration for your content topics. If you’re a blogger, this’ll help turn that knowledge into SEO-ready posts that actually reach people.

Check out more details about my tool on the RightBlogger platform here.

Repurposing Content for Greater Reach

Don’t think you have to reinvent the wheel each time. I always recommend starting with a “video-first” approach, then repurposing that content into blog posts, snippets for newsletters, or even short-form video clips. This way, you’re massively increasing your content output without burning out.

3. Building a Community Around Great Content

The magic of creator-led growth isn’t just in creating content—it’s in building a community. Your audience doesn’t just want to hear sales pitches from you. They want to see your world, your personality, and your behind-the-scenes moments.

Incorporating personal stories and lessons gives authenticity (and ultimately, trust) to your content.

What’s trending in your space? Are there conversations happening on social media you can join in on? Staying in tune with your industry’s trends is critical because it keeps your content relevant. Being early on trends puts your content top-of-mind for audiences.

Assessing Your Best Approach to Creator-Led Growth

The real question is—do you want to be the face of the content, or would you rather build collaborative relationships and let someone with a more established audience do the heavy lifting?

Knowing your strengths (and time constraints) will be the deciding factor here. If you’re leaning toward content creation but need some extra help, RightBlogger has 75+ tools designed to make your content production easier. It’s built for creators—like you and me—who want to grow smarter, not harder. Sign up for a free RightBlogger account to see how these tools can make content smoother.

Creator-led growth is changing marketing forever, because it combines the power of authenticity with the reach of today’s most popular social platforms.

Whether you decide to become the creator yourself, or collaborate with others, this can’t-fake-it marketing strategy will create a lot of opportunities for relationship-fueled business growth.