I’m at the point where I can’t run international campaigns with just me and a freelancer anymore. We’re operating in Russia and the US now, and I need to think strategically about building a real team. But here’s the thing—I’m not sure exactly what roles I need or where to find them.
Obviously I need people who understand influencer marketing and UGC. But do I need separate heads for Russia and US, or can one person manage both? Do I hire local or remote? Do I look for agency talent or build in-house? And how do I vet someone to make sure they actually get cross-market dynamics instead of just pretending?
I’ve been burned before by hiring people who looked great on paper but didn’t understand either the Russian market nuances or the US influencer landscape. And I definitely don’t have the budget to hire agency-level talent for every role.
I’m also thinking about whether I should prioritize partnerships over hiring—like, maybe I don’t build a full team, but instead carefully select 1-2 key agencies or consultants who bring different capabilities.
What does your team look like? How did you decide what to hire vs. what to outsource? And how do you manage the coordination when people are across different markets and time zones?
This is such a smart question because it shows you’re thinking about structure, not just headcount. Here’s my perspective: you do need people in each market, but not necessarily full teams.
I’d recommend starting with one key operator in each market—someone who’s part coordinator, part strategist. In Russia, find someone who’s been in the influencer space for a few years and has real relationships with creators. In the US, find someone who understands creator economics and has a network in the niche you’re going after.
These two people become your anchors. They don’t need to be executives—they can be individual contributors—but they need to own relationship-building and campaign execution in their market. Then, above them, you (or whoever is your broader CMO) owns strategy and alignment.
For other functions—analytics, content strategy, project management—you can potentially hire remotely or use contractors, as long as they’re coordinating with your market leads.
One thing I’d warn against: don’t try to find one ‘super person’ who manages both markets. It rarely works. The contexts are too different, and one person will always be deprioritizing one market for the other. Better to have two solid people, even if they’re part-time or contract-based, than one stretched person.
Adding a data angle here: you definitely need analytics capabilities across your team, but again, you don’t need two full-time analysts. What I’d recommend is hiring one analyst (can be remote, can be part-time contractor) who builds your dashboards and measurement framework, and then gets the market leads trained to interpret the data.
The analyst creates the infrastructure—the KPI definitions, the reporting templates, the tracking setup. The market leads use it and feed insights back. That way, you’ve got consistent data standards across Russia and US, but you’re not paying for analytics overhead in each market.
Also, data tools matter a lot. If you pick the right platforms early (ones that support cross-market reporting), it makes the analyst’s job way easier and your team coordination much smoother.
This is really helpful. I think I’ve been overthinking it. Two solid market operators + one shared analyst actually feels doable with our budget. But I’m curious about the hiring process. How do you vet someone to make sure they actually understand cross-market dynamics? Like, it’s not enough to have Russian or US experience—they need to understand how these markets are different.
Also, when you’re hiring operators in each market, do you look for people with agency background, or is in-house experience better? And what’s the onboarding like when they’re going to be working with someone from a completely different market and timezone?
I’m going to push back slightly on Светлана’s advice, not because she’s wrong, but because there’s another option: work with agencies instead of hiring in-house.
If I were in your position, I’d consider retaining a focused agency partner in each market—not big mega-agencies, but boutiques or even solo operators who specialize in influencer partnerships. You get the expertise, the relationships, and the execution capability without building internal headcount. And you can bring them to the table for strategic decisions instead of hiring a CMO.
The downside is it costs more per transaction. The upside is flexibility and instant access to market expertise. If the partnership isn’t working, you can switch. If it is, they scale with you.
For coordination, I’d recommend having a quarterly ‘summit’ where your agency partners, you, and any internal people get on a call to align on strategy and share learnings. Frame it as partnership, not vendor management.
This approach also lets you test whether you need full-time in-house talent before you commit. After 6 months of working with agencies, you’ll know way more about what you actually need.
Fair warning though: if you go the agency route, make sure your contracts require knowledge transfer and case study rights. You want to build your own understanding and playbooks, not be 100% dependent on the agency.
I’d frame this as an organizational design problem, not just a hiring problem. Ask yourself: what are the core functions we need to execute on? Mine would be: strategy & insights, creator relationships & management, content creation & QA, performance measurement, and coordination.
Then ask: which of these must be in-house because they require deep company knowledge, and which can be outsourced because they’re more about external relationships or execution?
In my view, strategy & insights should be in-house (ideally you). Creator relationships could be agency, but having at least one person per market who owns that is better. Content QA should be in-house. Measurement should be a mix—hire the operator, outsource the tool setup if needed.
Once you’ve mapped that, define the roles and sourcing strategy. You might end up with 2 in-house, 2-3 agencies, and some fractional consultants. That’s totally fine as long as there’s clear ownership and accountability.
Time zone coordination is actually easier than you think if you set it up right. Async communication, recorded standups, a shared project management tool—you don’t need everyone on the same call all the time.
From a creator perspective, I’d say: whoever you hire to manage creator relationships needs to actually respect creators and understand what we’re doing. Not from a ‘how do I extract maximum value’ angle, but from a ‘how do we build something cool together’ angle.
I’ve worked with brands where the relationship person is just trying to negotiate me down on price or extract more deliverables for the same money. Versus brands where they’re thinking about how to make the campaign fun, give me creative freedom, and set me up for success. Those are the brands I want to keep working with and refer my friends to.
So when you’re hiring or contracting relationship managers, ask them about their philosophy on creator partnerships. How do they think about win-win dynamics? Have they been on the creator side? If they’re jaded or transactional about it, that’s a red flag for culture.
Also, make sure whoever manages creators in each market actually uses that platform and understands creator culture there. Someone managing US creators needs to understand TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts trends. Someone managing Russian creators needs to understand VK, Яндекс Дзен, and the Russian TikTok ecosystem. It’s not optional knowledge—it’s foundational.