Content Creator vs. Influencer: What’s the Difference?

Content creators and influencers both help you reach new audiences, but they do it differently. You hire creators for the content they produce, and influencers for the audience they reach. In practice, though, it’s not always clear when to hire a content creator vs. influencer—or even which term best describes a given partner.

“It’s a gray area, to be fully honest,” says Lisa Poe, founder of the boutique talent and brand strategy agency LGPR. The practical question is what value each partner brings to your specific campaign. “Content creators are really about what they create, and influencers are about who they reach and their impact on that audience.” In her experience, you can absolutely hire people who do both.

Choosing the right partner is less about the label and more about the mix of content and reach you need. Here’s what content creators and influencers each bring to the table and how to find the right partner for your own brand. 

What is a content creator?

A content creator is someone who plans and produces creative work professionally, usually online. That could be photography, graphic design, art, writing, video content, podcasts, and more.

The primary value to a brand is that skill set itself: Effective creators combine communication, production skills, audience understanding, and measurement to make content. You can hire a creator to produce reusable content assets (such as videos) and buy the right to edit, distribute, and create derivative materials from the work. 

What is an influencer?

An influencer is someone who’s built a relationship with a particular audience, usually on social media platforms, where their opinions can shape what followers think, try, or buy. Celebrities, thought leaders, and social media personalities are all examples, and they often post on their own feeds within a particular niche, whether that’s fashion, fitness, gaming, food, or tech.

An influencer’s primary value to a brand is the access they provide to their audience and the credibility they lend to your business. For example, a luxury candle brand might partner with a lifestyle influencer who regularly recommends products to launch a holiday gifting guide centered around the brand’s seasonal candles. 

Content creator vs. influencer

The key distinction between content creators and influencers is their primary value to a brand. In practice, though, the two categories overlap; many influencers create high-quality content, and many content creators have a following.

Lisa suggests thinking about it this way: Every influencer is a content creator, but not every content creator is an influencer. “Influencers have to have at least some sort of skill set in content creation because they influence audiences through the content they create,” she says. “But not all content creators have an audience they’re impacting—some focus on creating beautiful pieces of work.”

Lisa adds that the highest-value partners bring both. “The gold standard is someone who falls into both categories to some degree.”

Content creator vs. influencer partnerships

There are many ways to work with influencers and creators. Compensation, content usage rights, and content parameters are negotiated for each relationship and outlined in a contract. 

You can shape any arrangement around your specific needs, but most agreements follow patterns based on what you’re hiring for: creative output alone (a content creator) or, at least partly, sway with a target audience (an influencer).

Here’s an overview of how these two types of partnership typically differ and the pros and cons of each, according to Lisa:

When to work with a content creator vs. an influencer

To choose a brand partner, start by defining your campaign goals. Lisa says you should ask yourself, “Is it an awareness play? Is it a sales play? Is it a trust play? What are you looking for? That’s what’s going to determine who you hire.”

Then weigh how much you need access to an audience against control over the content itself. “If you are looking for high-quality content that you can use in your advertisements, at trade shows, or in PR and print materials, go with a content creator,” says Lisa. “If you’re looking to really sell something or to build trust with consumers, hire an influencer.”

If the budget allows, look for a partner who offers both. “The strongest talent out there falls into both categories,” Lisa says. “Maybe there’s a hybrid that you want.”

Tips for finding the right content partners

• Get recommendations
• Use an influencer marketing platform
• Match influencer tiers and campaign goals
• Know your criteria

Here’s how to find and vet content creators and influencers, with expert tips from Lisa:

Get recommendations

Start by asking for referrals from friends or colleagues in your network. “I cannot say how much word of mouth is still important in finding the right match,” she says. “It’s a warm lead into these things, so you can trust somebody.”

She also recommends tapping agencies for suggestions. “Find an agency that you can get on the phone and chat with to give you recommendations. If a potential partner, whether a content creator or influencer, is working with a talent agency, they probably do really high-quality work.” 

Look for agencies that represent content creators specifically, or a particular type of influencer, then reach out to ask who’s on their roster, what each talent’s strengths are, and what they’d bring to your campaign.

Use an influencer marketing platform

Influencer marketing platforms are software tools that can help you find and manage influencers and creators. Shopify Collabs is built for affiliate partnerships. You can recruit creators through direct invites or an open access program that shares instant commission offers—letting eligible creators start promoting your brand without prior approval—or set up a store page to accept affiliate applications.

Once you’ve found a match, you can send gifted products and discount codes, track affiliate sales, and send payments within the platform. Using Shopify Flow, you can automate the process at scale, setting up automated flows that can approve applicants, follow up on gifts, or congratulate an affiliate on a first sale.

Match influencer tiers and campaign goals

Business leaders categorize influencers by the size of their audience, also known as the influencer’s tier. Lisa recommends matching your influencer tiers to your business goals. She uses the following breakdown:

• Macro-influencers. For awareness goals, Lisa suggests partnering with mid-tier to macro-creators who bring impressive reach, thanks to their larger followings. She defines macro-influencers as those with a million or more followers, and mid-tier influencers as those with several hundred thousand.

• Micro-influencers. Look to mid-size creators for help with conversion. “As a general rule, micro- or mid-tier creators can usually convert a little bit better than macro creators—and they’re probably not as expensive to work with,” she says. She defines influencers as individuals with roughly 50,000 to 150,000 followers.

• Nano-influencers. Work with influencers with roughly 3,000 to 10,000 followers when you need affordable, quality content. “If you’re looking for really beautiful content, look for creators with smaller audiences,” Lisa says. “This is usually a great place to start.”

Know your criteria

Follower count isn’t the only thing to weigh. As Lisa says, “It’s not just followers. You need to look at engagement, sentiment, what the comments are like, and how often they’re posting.”

Although benchmarks vary by platform and follower size, Lisa recommends targeting influencers with a minimum audience engagement rate of 2% to 3%. “Of course, the higher, the better, but it can be rare to find someone with, like, a 10%-plus engagement rate,” she says.

From there, prioritize metrics according to campaign goals. If you’re building trust, she suggests using a sentiment analysis tool like Meltwater to review sentiment and media mentions. She also recommends matching the influencer’s tactics to your goal. For example, “If your goal is to increase website traffic, you might look for a partner who posts more Instagram Stories with links,” she says.

When hiring a content creator, review their style for alignment with your brand identity. “Make sure their natural aesthetic fits what you’re looking for, even though they can adjust it based on your preferences,” Lisa says. Check whether they work in stop-motion, short-form, or long-form video, then find the style that matches your brand and build from there.