Who is Justin Moore?

Justin Moore, Sponsorship Coach and Founder of Creator Wizard on Effective Influencer Marketing Campaigns for Brands and Creators

Justin Moore and his wife have been full-time creators for eight years and creating on social media since 2009. Today, their primary platforms are on YouTube, but they have over 1.5 million followers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. 

Initially, Justin wasn’t involved in the content creation. 

“I was in medical devices prior to this. And so I started helping out with the business side of her career, when brands started knocking, and initially it was free product, she was just stoked about that. Right? But then when brands started knocking, offering to pay her, that’s when she was just like, I don’t know what I’m doing. And so I came in here, I was in business school at night at the time, and I was like, I can interpret this contract.”

His involvement on the business end of his wife’s YouTube channel led him to get involved in her channel and eventually start a vlog channel featuring their family. Eventually, Justin started an influencer marketing agency called Trending Family, which helped creators and brands collaborate. 

Starting Creator Wizard

Eventually, Justin launched Creator Wizard.

“I started Creator Wizard about two years ago to help advise creators how to be more business savvy because it’s badly needed…. And it’s really actually the most, the thing I’m most excited about these days.”

Justin’s experience making money as a full-time content creator alongside his wife gives him excellent credibility in creator economics, making Creator Wizard a natural project for him. 

He initially got the idea for Creator Wizard after seeing creators with between 10,000 and 150,000 followers who weren’t big enough to have a manager but were making decent money. However, these creators had no one to guide them on how to negotiate sponsorships, diversify their income, and much more. 

“And so like, that’s really what I wanted to the people who I want to serve with this content and this education and my courses and all that stuff because I feel like they just, there’s no one serving them right now.”

Mid-Tier Creators

Justin shares that many creators who have between 10,000 and 150,000 followers are in an advantageous position because many brands can’t afford to pay $40,000 to $100,000 for a single post by a big influencer. 

“I think that one of the reasons why it’s actually much more advantageous to be a creator in that kind of mid-tier range is because your opportunities will just be a lot more and more brands and agencies will get excited about working with those types of creators, and the prices aren’t exorbitant.”

He notes that smaller creators also have a better para-social relationship with their followers. 

“No one really expects a celebrity to respond to their comment. Like on Instagram or something like that.”

However, a mid-tier creator may respond and interact with their fans much more, giving fans a thrill knowing that their comments may be seen and even responded to by their favorite influencer. 

Justin’s Most Important Lesson for Creators

Before looking at KPIs, Justin urges creators to ask brands what their idea of success for the collaboration is. 

He shares that the three primary types of campaigns are usually as follows: 

1. Conversion focused: Sales, clickthroughs, app downloads, etc.
2. Content repurposing: The brand wants to repost the creator’s content on their own social handles, landing pages, websites, etc. 
3. Brand awareness: Drive word of mouth, impressions, engagements, etc.

He notes, “So the KPIs have to be aligned with what the brand is trying to accomplish as well as the pitch and the proposal that you’re trying to send to the brand. And so then once you understand that you have a very successful partnership.”

Knowing the goal of previous campaigns also helps Justin’s creators pitch to other companies by sharing results from campaigns with similar goals. For example, if a company is interested in a brand awareness campaign, sharing results from a conversion-focused campaign won’t be as interesting to them as results from previous brand awareness campaigns that you worked on. 

Justin shares, “There’s so many ways as a creator that you can provide value to brands beyond just posting on your platforms.”

Influencer Marketing Campaigns

The biggest mistake that Justin sees brands make is not knowing the goal of their influencer marketing campaign. 

For example, “If content repurposing is your goal, then it does not make sense to go after macro influence and go pay someone $20,000 for one post. It probably makes way more sense to allocate that $20,000 to like 20 influencers who are micro-influencers or mid-tier influencers.”

Another mistake Justin frequently sees brands making is only picking influencers in their consumer demographic. While it may make sense to choose mom influencers with kids between a certain age if that’s your consumer demographic, keep in mind that many other influencers have audiences with moms with kids between a certain age, even if they themselves aren’t one. 

An example of a brand choosing an influencer with “one degree of separation” from their content is, “Chances are probably people who listen to true crime, think about home security, or personal protection.” 

It may be a less orthodox approach, but it can be just as effective. 

Justin’s Top Tips

For small brands, Justin recommends developing long-term influencer strategies and not thinking of influencer marketing as one-off transactions. Working with a few influencers over a year, rather than 50, will likely be much more fruitful and less stressful because you won’t need to find new influencers to market your product constantly. 

For influencers and brands, Justin shares that having quarterly or monthly meetings to adjust marketing strategies can be helpful. For the influencer, long-term marketing collaborations can provide more consistent income. For the brand, this can allow them to pivot to optimize the marketing strategy and seasonal calls to action. 

Creator Wizard and Future Plans

Justin shares that he currently produces a free newsletter each week that talks about brand sponsorships. He also teaches a course three times yearly, which will be opening in June.

Justin notes that his current course is undergoing a makeover because, “I’m investing in infrastructure, other coaches, like I had one of my alumni from one of my past cohorts teach office hours last time, which was awesome. So I had some additional zoom calls and things like that people could dial into ask questions. And so I’m like investing in the infrastructure, making the course better.” 

A new project he’s excited about is an evergreen course called “Gifted to Paid,” which is focused on beginner creators looking to convert free product offers to paid partnerships. 

He ends with, “And so that’s really what’s driving me for the next 10 years is like… I really want to dispel this myth, that this scarcity mindset where it’s like if that creator gets a sponsorship that’s somehow bad for me. No, that’s a good thing that might be me next week.”