How Content Atomization Maximizes the Value of Brand-Creator Partnerships Getting granular can pay off in major ways.
By Mya Papolu Edited by Chelsea Brown
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Content atomization is the process of breaking down a brand's narrative into many small pieces of content, each of which convey a small part of the broader story. For example, a brand like Nike might want to tell a big-picture story about the daring athletic feats its products enable. But it can atomize that content into targeted stories that speak to different audiences and products across channels and locations.
Many brands have worked with creators through influencer marketing, which often sees businesses spend upwards of $100,000 to pay celebrities with millions of followers to promote their products. With atomization, brands can unlock a fleet of everyday creators with modest but highly engaged followings to tout specific aspects of their products to distinct audiences in targeted locations. And brands can accomplish this for a fraction of the price of celebrity influencer campaigns.
Content atomization can maximize the value of brand-creator partnerships by helping businesses highlight every strength of their products and services, relate to diverse audiences across channels and generate more data to optimize campaigns.
Related: 5 Reasons Why You Need to Take Advantage of Influencer Marketing
Highlight every strength of your product
With a typical celebrity creator campaign, a brand might spend tens of thousands of dollars to have the celebrity barely mention their product or flash it for a second during a 30-second video. With atomized content created by dozens of ambassadors, or everyday creators, brands can dedicate each video to a specific selling point of their offering to reach different audiences and maximize its appeal.
Consider the example of a soap brand. The brand might enlist one ambassador to speak to the high quality of the product relative to its price, enlisting a middle-class mother to promote it to other price-conscious family shoppers. Another video might feature a 20-year-old ambassador touting the product's green credentials, such as the reusability and recyclability of its packaging.
This way, brands do not have to limit themselves to emphasizing one aspect of their products or cramming several different messaging points into one video, risking that none of the points break through the noise. They can cost-effectively tout all their products' strengths, enlisting the ideal ambassador to underscore each advantage.
Relate to diverse audiences across channels
Another major advantage to atomized brand-creator partnerships is the ability to relate to diverse audiences. Historically, advertising campaigns involved tapping individual models or celebrities to be blasted to TV screens or billboards across the nation or globe. This meant brands had to choose which audiences to prioritize or bet on one or two people to speak to the many audiences they aimed to reach.
Content atomization changes the game. When working with 100 creators instead of one or two celebrities, brands can collaborate with ambassadors across genders, ages, ethnicities and locations, finding creators who connect with a wide array of communities. They can also capitalize on the relatability factor of everyday creators. This is especially helpful for more expensive, niche or comparatively unknown products, which consumers might be more likely to adopt if they know someone in their community or of their background is doing the same.
Similarly, content atomization means brands do not need to choose a single channel but can rather own and repurpose hundreds of videos across channels. Maybe the brand partners with some creators who specialize on TikTok, some on YouTube and others on Instagram Reels. Maybe some of the videos are suitable to be posted across channels or redistributed via paid social or display. All of this becomes possible when content atomization allows brands to create cost-effective content at scale.
Related: TikTok vs. IG Reels: 3 Reasons Why Your Brand Must Leverage Both
Generate more data to optimize campaigns
Atomizing content also boosts the value of a brand's investment, because it creates thousands of data points that allow brands to understand which creators are effective, what works on which channels, when they should post and whom they need to try harder to reach, among other data points.
The data machine powered by content atomization should only grow more effective over time. With each campaign, brands can identify creators with whom they will partner again and find new creators to continually optimize partnerships. They can also provide returning creators data-driven feedback to help both the brand and the creator get more value from their partnership. The latter is especially helpful for ambassadors working based in part on commission, not on follower count.
Content atomization also helps brands derisk their creator partnership strategy, as they are not spending thousands of dollars on any one video or influencer. In addition, it helps them adapt to market changes, as instead of plugging a huge part of the marketing budget into a single campaign, brands can spread out spend over time, staying nimble and evolving their strategy to accommodate learnings and external events.
Over the past decade, just about every part of digital marketing has gotten more data-driven, granular and targeted. As creator-driven marketing takes off, why shouldn't it join the trend? With content atomization, brands can maximize the value of creator investments, set both themselves and their creator partners up for success, and offer consumers relatable representatives who look and talk like them.
