When it comes to building long-term relationships with top creators, the advice splits into two distinct schools of thought. One camp champions a deep, almost personal partnership model built on trust and mutual respect over a long period. The other camp advocates for a more analytical, performance-driven approach where creators are vetted and managed based on concrete metrics and ROI.
Camp A: The Partnership Play
This camp argues that the secret to a lasting creator relationship is to stop thinking transactionally. On Firing The Man, the entrepreneur Yong-Soo made it plain: his number one rule for collaborations is not to treat them as transactions, noting it can take six months to a year to build a genuine relationship. This approach requires patience. You're not just buying a post; you're investing in a person who has a powerful connection with their audience. It involves sending products with no strings attached, understanding their personal brand, and finding ways to support their growth.
Elijah Khasabo, speaking on Ecommerce Coffee Break, takes this even further with his "creator-first" philosophy. He argues that brands should focus their acquisition efforts on getting the best creators, because brands will inevitably follow the talent and, more importantly, they will stay. This perspective frames the creator as the true prize, not just a channel. Brad Hoos from the Up Arrow Podcast echoes this by emphasizing the need to understand what creators are trying to accomplish. It's about being a real partner who can have honest conversations, especially when performance dips, which is inevitable in the volatile world of content creation. The core idea is that authentic support builds a foundation that a simple paycheck can't replicate.
Camp B: The Performance Pact
The other side of the coin isn't necessarily against relationships, but it prioritizes data and tangible results as the foundation. This school of thought insists that you must be disciplined and analytical in whom you choose to partner with. On the same Up Arrow Podcast episode, Brad Hoos also notes that top-tier creators who move the needle have invested heavily in their audience, are more discerning, and are going to cost more. His advice is to identify these creators by evaluating their actual performance metrics, like CPA, not just their follower count.
This vetting process is critical. Lily Comba, on The Bottom Line, highlights the essential question you must answer when assessing a partner: "do they have followers or do they have a community?" A huge follower count is meaningless if those followers don't trust the creator's recommendations. The hosts of Limited Supply reinforce this by questioning traditional metrics like likes and comments, suggesting that saves and sends are far more valuable indicators of true engagement and purchase intent. This camp believes that a successful long-term partnership is built on a clear understanding of goals and a mutual commitment to driving measurable results. It's a business arrangement first and foremost.
My take: You need both.
Frankly, I think this is a false dichotomy. A successful, long-term relationship with a top-performing creator requires you to embrace both camps. You can't have one without the other. Top creators are savvy media operators. They're running a business and they absolutely care about their own performance and the ROI they drive for partners. But they also built that business on a foundation of audience trust and authenticity, which they will not compromise for a brand that treats them like a vending machine.
The "partnership" is what unlocks the "performance." When a creator feels that you genuinely believe in them, understand their content, and respect their audience, they do their best work. That's when they go beyond the brief and create something that truly connects, because they're personally invested. This is how you get the great CPA and the high-value engagement metrics that Camp B rightly prizes. The relationship isn't just fluff; it's the infrastructure for sustainable performance. This is a core part of a modern Influencer Marketing Strategy.
So, what should you do? Your approach depends on your brand's stage. If you're an early-stage company with more time than money, lean heavily into the partnership play. Identify up-and-coming creators and invest the time to build those genuine connections Yong-Soo described. This is your best lever for Building Influencer Relationships without a massive budget.
If you're a more established brand with a significant budget, you must operate in both modes simultaneously. You have the resources to pay top creators what they're worth (the performance pact), but you also need the sophistication to manage them as true strategic partners (the partnership play). Adopting an intensely creator-first mindset, as Elijah Khasabo recommends in his episode "Why Your User Generated Content Isn’t Converting", becomes a competitive advantage. The best creators have their pick of brands. They will always choose the one that values their expertise, respects their craft, and treats them like a partner in growth.
