An 18-year-old cat.
A fictional broke royal who attracts a lot of dead bodies.
Market saturation in the influencer space  

That’s what’s been keeping me up at night lately. 

Besides the first two, you might be sensing and seeing the same signs.

Your dream creators are locked in exclusive deals with competitors. And those who aren't? Well, you've probably already worked with them, and their audience engagement is starting to plateau. Maybe you work in a saturated influencer market (beauty, fashion) or a local market with a seemingly limited number of influencers at your disposal. 

It feels crowded. It feels noisy. It feels harder than it used to.

Do you become louder? More shocking? Or do you become smarter and more strategic? My money’s on the latter.  

Here are 3 tactics to consider trying if you’re staying up at night worrying about market saturation. 

Tactic #1: Double down on your ride-or-dies

Your existing relationships are gold.

Alex Sabucido told us that starting early is one way to respond to market saturation.  

"Lock in partners early and for longer."

What does "locking in" actually look like in practice?

• Offer long-term contracts (Long-term is relative, it can mean 3 months or 1 year)

• Competitive pay

This isn’t about only throwing money at creators but building a genuine community around your brand partnerships.

Influencers and creators with a long-standing relationship with your brand are less likely to abandon ship for a competitor's offer, especially if you provide them with stable, well-paid work and genuine connection. 

The key is to make your brand partnership program so valuable and unique that exclusivity becomes a natural choice rather than a contractual obligation.

How to get started
Audit your current creator relationships. Who are your ride-or-dies, and how can you deepen those partnerships? How can you create a connection between you and your brand and a connection between creators?

Tactic #2: Get creative with your content approach

If you're noticing audience or creator fatigue with your long-term partners, the answer isn't necessarily to find new creators - it's to find new angles. 

Look into your comments section and your partners’ comment sections. What are people saying? That’s where you’ll find new use cases, new ideas, and new angles that might take your content in a different direction. 

Nycole Hampton, Marketing Consultant and Adjunct Professor, takes this even further. 

She suggests building "multi-channel marketing extensions across owned, paid, and even earned media” and pushing partnerships beyond social media.

This might mean having your long-term partners create content for your email marketing, involving them in product development, or bringing them into your broader brand storytelling. 

The goal is to break out of the "sponsored post" formula and create more authentic, integrated partnerships that feel fresh to audiences.

How to get started
Brainstorm new content formats and cross-channel opportunities with your existing partners.

Tactic #3: Think smaller to grow bigger

The great thing about the creator economy is that it’s always changing. New voices, new faces, and new accounts break through every day.

Fernanda Marques isn’t worried about saturation because she’s confident there will always be someone new they haven’t found yet.

How do you find rising stars? Go smaller. 

Michael Todner from Gear4music shares their strategy

This approach isn't just about saving budget - it's about getting in early with tomorrow's influencers. The beauty of working with newer or smaller creators is that you can build authentic relationships before they blow up. You're not just another brand in their inbox - you're a partner who believed in them early and helped them grow. 

How to get started
Start identifying and nurturing relationships with promising micro-creators in your space.

What’s everyone else doing feeling?

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one worried. Over 57% of marketers are concerned about market saturation.

Iconic #Sponcon

When we say "take a different angle!" to stand out in a saturated market, this partnership between Amazon Prime and Boy Room is exactly what we mean.

Boy Room's tagline? "We can fix him." The show transforms messy (boy) bedrooms into functional living spaces. Almost every post is sponsored by Amazon Prime, which supplies the items for the makeover.

When marketers like me say, "Be more creative," THIS is what we mean. 

Sure, you can stick to the tried-and-true formula: send product to creator, creator talks about product. It still works, and if done well, it works well. 

But deinfluencing isn't going anywhere. Audiences are getting better at ignoring sponsored content. The market is more crowded than a Black Friday sale in 2006. 

To stand out, you want to encourage your partners to create content people actually want to watch – you know, organically.

So tell me: are you ready to make content instead of ads with your influencer partners?

Have you seen (or worked on) iconic sponsored posts lately? I want to see ‘em. Send to [email protected] 

See you in the next issue of ROI!
Eleni Zoe xx
Marketing @ Modash. Say hi on LinkedIn or visit Modash.

📌A NOTE ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST READ

The tips in this newsletter might not be right for your specific case. Use good judgment when deciding whether to take advice from the internet—even mine. My team and I survey & interview influencer marketers whose advice and observations come from their direct experience. ROI is meant for you to connect the dots and be inspired or challenged to think about your influencer marketing in a way you haven’t before.