How we actually built trust with LATAM influencers before scaling—what changed everything

Agency Alliance: Partnerships & Growth
1

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I realized I need to share what we learned the hard way. When we first started working with LATAM creators, we made the classic mistake: we treated them like a different species. We sent over a brief, waited for content, and called it a day. It was hollow and, honestly, it showed in the results.

What changed was when we stopped trying to “manage” partnerships and started actually building them. We spent time—real time—understanding what mattered to the creators we worked with. Not just their follower count or engagement rate, but their voice, their community, and what they actually cared about promoting.

For us, this meant a few concrete things:

1. We stopped using templates. Every creator got a personalized outreach. We mentioned something specific they’d created that resonated with us. It sounds obvious, but it’s rare.

2. We involved them early in strategy. Instead of handing down a campaign idea fully formed, we’d share the brief and ask: “How would you actually approach this for your audience?” The ideas that came back were always better than what we’d planned alone.

3. We paid attention to timing. LATAM markets don’t operate on the same rhythm as US markets. We learned the quiet seasons, the local holidays, the moments when people are actually paying attention. Working with those rhythms instead of against them made a massive difference.

The thing is, this approach took longer upfront. But the partnerships became repeatable, the content quality went up, and creators actually wanted to work with us again. That’s when ROI started looking really different.

I’m curious—how many of you are treating creator partnerships as one-off transactions versus actual relationships? And if you’ve made that shift, what surprised you most about how it changed your results?

2

Это такой важный пункт! Я полностью согласна с твоим подходом. На самом деле, когда я строила первый проект с инфлюенсерами из Мексики, я заметила, что те, кто потратил время на реальное общение, получили на 40% лучший контент. Люди чувствуют, когда ты их ценишь.

Ещё я бы добавила: не забывай про личные связи. Я часто организую виртуальные встречи между брендами и крупными авторами просто для того, чтобы они познакомились. Не продажа, не презентация—просто человеческое общение. После этого всё меняется.

Если у кого-то из вас есть LATAM-аудитория, я готова помочь найти проверенных партнёров. Я уже работала с несколькими крутыми командами.

3

Интересный кейс. У меня есть вопрос: как ты измеряешь, что это «реальное отношение» действительно привело к росту ROI? Я спрашиваю не из скепсиса, а потому что в моих данных я часто вижу, что даже хорошие отношения не гарантируют продажи, если целевая аудитория просто не готова.

Мне кажется, что ключ здесь не только в доверии, но и в совпадении аудитории. Если ты правильно выбрал создателя, чьи подписчики совпадают с твоей целевой аудиторией, то да, личное отношение может дать +20-30% к конверсии. Но если нет совпадения, даже лучший контент не поможет.

Какие метрики ты отслеживаешь, чтобы убедиться, что это именно доверие, а не просто совпадение аудитории?

4

Очень полезная информация. Мы как раз сейчас готовимся к запуску в LATAM, и честно говоря, я боялся, что нам потребуется много времени на построение отношений. Но твой опыт показывает, что может быть это не минус, а плюс.

Один вопрос: как ты находишь первых создателей? Я имею в виду, когда ты ещё не имеешь сети и не знаешь, кому писать? Ты пользуешься платформами, просишь рекомендации, или есть другой способ?

5

This is exactly what separates boutique agencies from the mass-market guys. You’re hitting on partnership quality versus transaction volume. In my shop, we’ve found that having a core roster of 10-15 solid creators in LATAM is worth way more than working with 100 mediocre ones.

What you’re describing—early involvement in strategy, personalized outreach—that’s the framework we use too. It means our proposals take longer, but our approval rates and content performance are consistently higher. Clients see the difference immediately.

One thing I’d add: invest in payment speed and clarity. Sounds tactical, but creators in LATAM have mentioned this as a pain point with bigger agencies. When we pay on time and communicate clearly, retention jumps significantly. It’s not exotic—it’s just respecting people’s time.

6

YES. This is so real. As a creator, I can tell you the difference between a brand that sees me as a service provider versus one that actually gets my work. When someone takes time to understand my voice and what my community loves, I’m way more likely to go all-in on a collaboration.

Honestly, the brands that win are the ones who ask me questions upfront: “What’s working with your audience right now?” “What would feel authentic to you?” That takes literally 20 minutes but changes everything about the final content.

I also notice that when I have real conversations early, I’m way more likely to catch problems before they become expensive. Like if a brief is kinda tone-deaf for my audience, I can flag it early instead of creating mediocre content and both of us being disappointed.

Have you found that this approach also helps creators give you better creative freedom? That’s been my experience—when I feel heard, I actually pitch better ideas.

7

You’re describing what we call “relationship depth” in our quarterly reviews, and the data backs you up. In our DTC campaigns, we’ve benchmarked that creators with strong pre-existing relationships to a brand consistently deliver 25-35% higher engagement and 15-20% higher conversion rates compared to cold outreach.

Two observations: First, this approach scales, but it requires systems. You need CRM infrastructure to track relationship history, communication timing, and performance over multiple campaigns. Without that, you’re relying on memory and it falls apart.

Second, this is why I’m bullish on what Holy Marketing’s doing with that bilingual hub concept. If you can systematize creator relationship-building across markets—with shared playbooks for what works in LATAM versus US—you solve the scaling problem without losing the personalization.

What frameworks are you using to replicate this across new creators? That’s always been our challenge.