Most brands build their influencer marketing strategies on platforms they don’t control. SARAL founder and CEO Yash Chavan recognized this challenge early and developed a different approach – helping brands build ‘owned influencer communities’ that create lasting competitive advantages.

“As you go for any brand’s evolution, there comes a stage where you can’t just keep spending money to make money,” Yash explains. “Over time, you must discover ways to own your audience and do more with that audience.”

This insight emerged from studying successful brands like Gymshark, which built enduring value not through individual creator partnerships but by cultivating interconnected communities of creators who strengthen each other’s impact.

This strategy drives SARAL’s mission to transform creator partnerships from marketing expenses into business assets. With over 250 brands actively using the platform and generating $30 million in revenue through creator partnerships in 2024 alone, SARAL pioneers what Yash describes as “owned influencer communities.”

These communities consistently generate organic promotion worth millions in advertising value, creating advantages that even competitors with substantial budgets struggle to replicate. Brands utilizing these communities develop genuine promotional networks that remain effective when paid advertising becomes costly or loses impact.

The Shift in Creator Marketing Strategy

Brands are fundamentally changing how they approach creator relationships. “Previously, I focused on long-term relationships with one creator,” Yash shared. “But then I think how that has changed is like a synapse between all the influencers. Like they all are in one community, they’re all in one Facebook group, or they’re all in one WhatsApp group.”

This represents a significant change from traditional approaches. While previous models relied on direct brand-creator partnerships and platform-specific campaigns, the community-based model creates networks of interconnected creators—these self-sustaining groups position brands as community facilitators rather than controlling entities.

“The brand just becomes like an excuse for creators to meet up and work with each other as opposed to it being the center of attention,” Yash notes. “I think whenever that happens, it’s a really positive sign.”

Essential Elements of Strong Creator Communities

Yash outlines three crucial components for building effective creator communities:

First, establishing strategic foundations: “One of the biggest things to crack is what I would call the Ideal Creator Persona, or ICP,” Yash emphasizes. This foundation includes defining creator personas, ensuring brand-creator value alignment, establishing content priorities, and identifying audience compatibility indicators.

Second, developing clear value exchange systems: “Make sure you have a really good creator offer,” Yash advises. This encompasses three key areas: creator benefits through payments, affiliate commissions, and products; audience value via discounts, giveaways, and special offers; and unique opportunities such as early product access or facility tours.

Third, implementing comprehensive measurement approaches: “Revenue is a side effect,” Yash states firmly. “Revenue happens when a lot of other pieces are in place.”

SARAL’s data shows that direct revenue attribution through affiliate links and codes represents only 10-20% of a creator’s total impact. Yash illustrates this through a revealing example: When one brand discontinued their creator program due to low direct sales, their Google Ad costs increased fourfold because “if nobody was posting, nobody was googling the brand, and nobody was clicking on the ad.”

This finding prompted SARAL to advocate for broader measurement strategies. Beyond tracking direct sales, brands should monitor how creator content affects advertising costs, examine changes in brand search volume, and assess community engagement metrics. 

As Yash explains, “If 100 influencers post about you in February, your Facebook ad costs are going to reduce… your ROAS on Facebook is going to increase because more people are going to recall your brand because they see like so many influencers posting.”

Success Stories in Action

The effectiveness of owned creator communities becomes clear through SARAL’s client results. “I think one of our best brands has been [wellness brand] Obvi,” Yash shares. “I think they make over $50 million. Their entire influencer program is built on SARALfrom end to end, and then they manage everything on it.” 

With more than 500 active creators on the platform, Obvi demonstrates how well-managed communities can scale while maintaining authentic connections.

Gourmend Foods discovered an unexpected market opportunity through its creator community. 

“This is a company that focuses on people with a certain allergy or a food like a stomach condition that prevents them from eating certain foods,” Yash explains. “So they went after that market, and then they figured out that people with migraines have the same issues as people who are allergic to this particular thing in food. And then that just basically 10x’d their TAM of their company, and now they’re going after that segment.”

Building Strong Creator Communities

“Even if you have only 50 people in your community, you have reach. Even if you have only 50 people in your community, if all of these people have 10,000 followers, you have a reach of 500,000,” Yash explains. The development process involves three key phases:

The foundation phase requires careful community selection. “If you have a bunch of random people in the community, it’s not like if you have a skincare creator, a general beauty creator, and a fashion creator. As long as there’s no fit match, it’s hard for a community to mingle,” Yash cautions. This initial stage involves selecting 50-100 aligned creators, establishing community guidelines, creating communication channels, and building platform-independent systems.

The activation phase focuses on building relationships. “Many brands are launching products with influencers,” Yash notes. “Through the community, they know who the best performers are. They know who is very aligned with the brand.” This stage includes facilitating creator collaborations, organizing community events, enabling peer learning, and supporting cross-promotion.

The optimization phase builds on these foundations. “What happens is influencers get more collabs with different creators, and they get the brand to get an excuse to be promoted in different people’s content,” Yash explains. This involves expanding creator networks strategically, deepening engagement, measuring community health, and adapting to feedback.

Conclusion

Creator-brand partnerships continue to advance: “I see a lot of creators partnering with brands… true partnerships shining in the next three to five years where creators actually co-branded products or creators launching their own brands.”

Yash notes that strong creator communities reduce paid advertising dependence, strengthen brand resilience, generate sustained organic reach, and create market feedback.

“I think many brands are realizing the power of this community,” he reflects. “If you’re a brand reading this, then build your own community. I think it will be a very powerful moat, and you will thank yourself two years later for doing this.”