Most people I speak to stumbled into this influencer marketing life.  

Some used to run social media, and some were creators themselves. Some were in other marketing roles, said yes to a test campaign one day, and never looked back. The common thread? Most of us weren’t trained for this, not formally or fully.

Yet the expectations are high. Employers and brands want strategic thinkers, organized operators, creative brief writers, negotiators, analysts, and relationship builders – all rolled into one job title: Influencer Marketing Manager.

If that feels like a lot… it is.

In this issue, I’m talking about the 4 main skill sets every influencer marketer needs today. (Plus one bonus one) These aren’t just “nice to have.” They’re what the role demands.

At the end, I’ll ask a question I’ve been thinking about. Maybe you have too.

Skillset #1: The Strategist

Influencer marketers make dozens of daily decisions, often with murky, incomplete, or out-of-date data. Is this creator a good fit? Should we test whitelisting? Why did that campaign underperform?

Strategic thinking is about knowing what worked, forming smart hypotheses, aligning activities with business goals, and making judgment calls in real time.

It includes:

• Decision-making: Influencer fit, content format, deal structure… none is standard, and you won’t always have clean data to guide you.
  

• Prioritization: When resources are limited, this skill becomes essential. What deserves your attention this week? What can wait? Which influencers should you put more human effort into, and which ones can you get away with automating more?
  

• Trend awareness: Staying ahead of what’s happening on platforms and within creator communities helps you plan while being flexible enough to jump on trending sounds or formats that feel like they were made for your brand.
  

• Reporting: Turning performance metrics into real insights. Not just “here’s what happened,” but “here’s what we learned and what we’re changing.”

Skillset #2: The Operator

If strategy is the thinking, ops is the doing.

I’ve never heard of a more logistics-heavy role than that of an influencer marketer. You’re coordinating product shipments, fielding creator questions, collecting deliverables, double-checking contracts, and racing to the go-live day. 

All while managing a dozen threads at once and reminding finance that the creators from your previous campaign HAVEN’T BEEN PAID YET. 

To keep things moving, influencer marketers need: 

• Project management skills: Managing deadlines and assets across multiple creators. Setting expectations, then keeping everyone on track, including yourself. (Why is this always the hardest one to do?)
  

• Platform skills: Whether you use Modash or another platform, knowing how to use influencer tools well can save hours of manual work each day.
  

• Legal knowledge: You don’t need to have passed the bar, but you should know what ad disclosure rules apply in the regions you operate in, how to spot vague contract language, and when you absolutely need to loop in legal.

Skillset #3: The Communicator

Most influencer marketing lives or dies by your ability to communicate. Alright, you caught me. That’s a smidge hyperbolic, but only because I want your attention.

Influencer marketing rests on relationships, so you have to be great at outreach, great at building trust, great at navigating pricing conversations, and giving feedback that turns “meh” content into “nailed it.”

Influencer marketers have to:

• Write clearly and persuasively: Getting creators to say “yes” during outreach is only the beginning. How you write matters at every stage: briefings, follow-ups, content approvals, post-campaign wrap-ups, all of it. If your instructions are vague or your messages assume too much, you’ll spend most of your time untangling miscommunications.
  
  Clear, thoughtful writing saves everyone time and makes you easier to work with. (And if writing’s not your strong suit? Don’t be afraid to hop on a call. It solves problems faster than a 12-message email chain.)
  

• Negotiate with confidence: Navigating fees, timelines, and usage without creating tension.
  

• Build relationships: Turning one-off creators into long-term partners who want to work with you again. Are you a therapist? No. But you need to be therapist-shaped. You must know how to have respectful conversations and give actionable feedback to keep relationships strong.

Skillset #4: The Creative

Creating angles for campaigns, turning them into clear briefs, and tailoring that guidance to each influencer takes serious skill.

Plus, you need to be able to speak to creative people in a way that helps them do better work, not confuse or frustrate them.

It includes:

• Creative thinking: Good campaigns don’t start with deliverables. They start with ideas. You need to know how to develop hooks, angles, or campaign concepts that make sense for your brand and feel exciting for a creator to bring to life. Otherwise, you’re just recycling the same playbook in new packaging.

• Brief writing: Sometimes you’ll need to be prescriptive. Other times, a general theme and goal are enough. Knowing when to guide and when to give space is part of the job. If you’ve ever written a brief and had it come back totally off… you know how hard this can be.

• Audience insight: The best ideas and briefs are grounded in who you’re trying to reach, what they care about, what formats they consume, and what makes them act.

• Adaptability: Long-time brand partners might need minimal input. First-time collaborators launching a new product? They’ll need more handholding. You’ve got to read the room.

*Bonus Skillset #5: The Learner

The best influencer marketers I know constantly read, experiment, and ask questions. Be a curious marketer and join us for the next Modash webinar.

Influencer Marketing Strategist Jessica Mann will share how to take advantage of one of the biggest events in your calendar by working with creators outside your usual niche. 

You’ll learn how to:

• Understand your brand’s storyfit and why “safe doesn’t scale” 

• Expand your influencer pool and reduce CPMs

• Know how to introduce this into your strategy as a well-balanced influencer marketing mix

Join us on Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 2 PM EDT / 11 AM PDT

RSVP here. 

Which brings me to my question:

Should influencer marketing stay as a generalist role? Or are we heading toward specialization? (For example, will we start to see roles split out into creator partnerships leads, influencer ops managers, and strategists? Or is this still a job where everyone needs to do everything?)

It’s something I’m curious about, and I’d love to hear your take.

What’s the direction your team is moving in? And if you’re doing this job solo right now….which part would you hand off first, if you could? 

Reply to this email. It comes straight to my inbox, and I read every single one.

See you next time!
Eleni Zoe xx
Brand @ 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.