Figuring out how to value your content is one of the largest problems facing nascent content creators today. We at Teasis interviewed a diverse set of content creators, mostly Nano Influencers and Micro Influencers, to learn more about their different experiences in the industry. Through these interviews we learned that newer content creators are often unsure how to approach monetization. When asked how they priced deals, most responded with something along the lines of “I was sort of winging it.”
Teasis is the first reviews platform tailored specifically to content creators. Content creators can come to our site to search through / leave anonymized reviews from previous sponsored content deals they’ve completed. These reviews will include compensation and deliverables, as well as any sentiments regarding communication and creative control.
We believe that these reviews can provide both accountability and transparency to the Influencer Marketing industry. Let’s take a look at an example to see what that’s like in practice.
The Case of CuteDoge
Imagine you have a cute dog named CuteDoge. Everyday you take CuteDoge for a walk, and people can’t get enough of her. You can barely go a block without someone asking to pet her, and she loves the attention. One day, someone asks if she has an Instagram. What a great idea! You go home, think of a creative handle (@ cutedogehandle), and CuteDoge’s social media journey begins. Two months and 100 posts later, CuteDoge has over 5000 followers!
One day, you get an Instagram DM from DogToysRUs.
They want to pay you $20 to promote their new dog toy on CuteDoge’s Instagram! Incredible, someone will give you a free dog toy AND pay you to take a picture of CuteDoge. Being the business savvy person you are, you know to never take the first offer — you respectfully request $25 and they accept!
A week later, you get a DM from WeRDogToys. They want you to promote their new toy as well, and they want to know what your normal fee is.
Using your first deal as a reference point, you tell WeRDogToys that your normal rate is $28, and they accept! Awesome! CuteDoge keeps getting more toys and you have yourself a business — all is well. But let’s consider this scenario where you have a well-informed friend named Teasis.
By checking with her friends with Dog Instagrams, Teasis found that DogToysRUs has paid 23 of her friends between $15,000–18,000 per post to promote toys. Suddenly, $20 seems a tiny bit low. Good thing your buddy Teasis is super into Dog Instagrams, or you wouldn’t have known that it was reasonable to ask for a lot more! Now let’s consider how you respond to WeRDogToys a week later.
Using your first deal as a reference point, you tell WeRDogToys that your normal rate is $15,250, and they accept!
Now obviously this is hyperbole. Any number is too low, CuteDoge is priceless. But let’s consider what just happened here. In both scenarios you made reasonable decisions based on the information you had available, and in both scenarios you came away with a mental anchor for the value of a CuteDoge Instagram Post. But thanks to your buddy Teasis, in Scenario B your mental anchor is 600x higher, a value grounded in data.
The Information Asymmetry Issue
We want to be your well-informed friend here at Teasis. We recognize that the world of Influencer Marketing is growing rapidly, but it appears that the maturity of the industry isn’t matching pace. Many transactions between brands and content creators, or Brand Deals, tend to suffer from Information Asymmetry. This is especially true for more nascent content creators, often Nano Influencers.
Information Asymmetry occurs when one party has greater relevant knowledge in a transaction than the other party. In Brand Deals, the Brands tend to know more than the Content Creators. In the example above, both companies know exactly how much they are paying everyone involved with their new toy campaigns, as well as how much they are willing to pay them. CuteDoge’s Instagram is a clear and public portfolio of what kind of content they are paying for. In Scenario A, you only know what you’ve been paid before, which in the case of the first deal is…. nothing. In Scenario B, your buddy Teasis levels the information playing field because she’s so well informed.
We at Teasis hope to provide clarity in brand deals for all content creators. We recognize that valuing your content is not a simple problem. Your relationship with the brand, your personal values, and the strength of your bond with your community all play large roles in how your content should be valued, and we can’t possibly capture all of that. What we can do is provide you some tools to make a more informed decision. Empirical data from our reviews — relative pricing, deliverables, follower counts, engagement rate, and even sentiments regarding creative control and communication — can help you get paid what you deserve.
P.S. To Experienced Content Creators
Maybe you’re reading this thinking, “I’m pretty experienced, and I’ve been doing this for a while. This might have helped me a few years ago, but I don’t think it’s useful to me now.” Honestly, you might be right! That being said, we at Teasis believe that more information is always helpful, so long as you understand the context it is provided in. This is also a great chance to give back if you feel this industry has changed your life in ways you didn’t initially believe possible. Nascent content creators can benefit greatly from your experiences, as can the industry as a whole.
We hope you’ll help us provide more transparency and accountability to the Influencer Industry ❤.
For feedback, questions, or any other inquiries feel free to visit our website or email us at info@teasis.co
