Major Brands Like Target Are Betting on Creators With Just 500 Followers. Could You Be Next?

The bar for getting a brand deal has never been lower as major brands court content creators with small audiences. 

According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, over the past year, major companies have started paying everyday creators to post about or engage with their products online. Brands opening the doors to creators with smaller audiences include baby food company Little Spoon, fitness chain SoulCycle and retailers like American Eagle and Target. 

In some cases, creators with as few as 500 followers are landing these opportunities, per the Journal. 

These new programs open the door for almost anyone with a social media account to become a brand promoter, even if the initial pay isn’t much to write home about. Some initiatives even double as informal training grounds, helping aspiring creators learn the ropes of content creation.

For now, perks tend to come in the form of gift cards, discounts or free products rather than cash. 

Small creators are capturing a rapidly growing share of influencer marketing spend

Emarketer projected that U.S. content creators will earn $21 billion this year. 

Small creators are quickly grabbing a bigger slice of the influencer marketing pie. By 2026, nearly 45% of U.S. spending in the space is expected to go to creators with fewer than 20,000 followers — more than double their share in 2021, according to Emarketer. 

The smallest tier, creators with less than 5,000 followers, often called nanoinfluencers, is seeing even faster growth. Emarketer predicts that their share will jump from just over 3% in 2021 to nearly 20% this year. 

Climbing the ranks and earning more perks

One content creator, Reid Mottet, is a 31-year-old stay-at-home mom based in Louisiana. Over the past five years, her four-figure follower counts on TikTok and Instagram were too low to get brand deals. 

Now she tells the Journal that she recently qualified for Club Target, an initiative Target introduced in May for everyday creators like her who visit often and are the store’s biggest fans. The program already has 15,000 members and requires a minimum of 500 followers on Instagram or TikTok. Club Target uses a gamified system, where participants climb tiers by completing weekly tasks like sharing a Target haul or engaging with the brand’s posts online. 

So far, Mottet has earned a $10 gift card for posting content. She tried on outfits in a Target fitting room and posted a recap of her weekly shopping trips. She is now within reach of her next reward, worth $15, and wants to level up further, eventually making it to the point where she can start sharing affiliate links and earning a cut of any resulting sales.

Though becoming an influencer is now easier than ever due to initiatives like Club Target, getting paid well for it is another story. Mottet pointed out that she “can’t just go out every day and shop for a new product at Target.”

“So it does take a little bit of time to climb their ladder,” she said.