Influencer Marketing & Creator Outreach Manager

Our client is a fast-growing, Chicago-based footwear and accessories brand known for its bold, fashion-forward aesthetic. As the brand continues to expand its social media presence, they are looking for an Influencer Marketing & Creator Outreach Manager to build and manage relationships with content creators who authentically represent the brand and help drive awareness, engagement, and sales.

Role Overview

As the Influencer Marketing & Creator Outreach Manager, you will be responsible for identifying, recruiting, and managing influencer partnerships that align with the brand. You will own creator outreach and partnership execution, helping build a strong network of creators who consistently produce high-quality content featuring the company's products.

You will also coordinate gifting and paid partnerships, manage campaign budgets, track creator performance, and oversee multiple influencer initiatives simultaneously. This is an execution-focused role for someone who understands influencer marketing, communicates exceptionally well, enjoys developing genuine creator relationships, and can maintain a high level of organization in a fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities

Influencer Discovery & Outreach

• Identify and source creators across Instagram and TikTok who align with the brand's aesthetic, audience, and marketing objectives.
• Evaluate prospective creators based on content quality, engagement, audience fit, and overall brand alignment.
• Conduct creator outreach and develop a consistent pipeline of potential influencer partnerships.
• Identify emerging creators and new partnership opportunities that can expand brand awareness and customer acquisition.

Influencer Campaign Management

• Coordinate influencer gifting campaigns and paid partnerships from concept through execution.
• Manage campaign timelines, deliverables, approvals, product shipments, and content schedules.
• Coordinate with Marketing, Creative, E-commerce, and Operations teams to ensure campaigns launch on time.
• Ensure creators meet campaign expectations, partnership requirements, and content deliverables.
• Manage multiple influencer campaigns simultaneously while maintaining accuracy and consistent follow-through.

Campaign Budget & ROI Management

• Own influencer campaign budgets across gifting, paid partnerships, and related campaign expenses.
• Track campaign spend and ensure initiatives remain within approved budgets.
• Monitor campaign ROI by evaluating engagement, conversions, affiliate sales, revenue, and return on influencer investment.
• Analyze campaign performance against spend and recommend opportunities to improve budget efficiency and overall results.

Creator Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for creators throughout each partnership.
• Maintain consistent communication and build genuine, long-term creator relationships.
• Negotiate collaboration terms within established guidelines.
• Identify high-performing creators for recurring collaborations and longer-term partnerships.
• Ensure creators receive products, information, feedback, and other campaign requirements on schedule.

Performance Tracking & Reporting

• Track campaign performance across engagement, reach, impressions, conversions, affiliate sales, revenue, and content delivery.
• Maintain organized records of creator partnerships, budgets, deliverables, deadlines, and campaign results.
• Evaluate creator performance to identify high-performing partnerships and opportunities for improvement.
• Use campaign insights to recommend future creators, collaborations, and optimization opportunities.

Market Research & Trend Monitoring

• Stay current on influencer marketing trends, creator behavior, and emerging opportunities across Instagram and TikTok.
• Monitor competitor influencer campaigns and partnership activity.
• Identify emerging creators who align with the brand's positioning.
• Recommend new creator partnerships and campaign concepts based on trends and performance insights.

Qualifications

Experience

• 2+ years of experience in influencer marketing, creator partnerships, affiliate marketing, PR, or social media.
• Experience managing influencer gifting and/or paid partnership campaigns.
• Experience sourcing and recruiting creators across Instagram and TikTok.
• Experience managing multiple influencer campaigns and partnerships simultaneously.
• Experience working with fashion, beauty, lifestyle, or DTC consumer brands is strongly preferred.

Skills

• Demonstrates excellent written communication and relationship-building abilities when conducting creator outreach, managing partnerships, and maintaining ongoing influencer relationships.
• Has strong organizational and project management skills and can successfully coordinate multiple campaigns, deadlines, deliverables, approvals, and product shipments simultaneously.
• Can evaluate prospective creators based on content quality, audience alignment, engagement, and overall brand fit.
• Has a strong understanding of the Instagram and TikTok creator ecosystems and can identify relevant creators and emerging influencer trends.
• Has experience managing influencer campaign budgets and can evaluate performance using engagement, conversions, affiliate sales, revenue, and ROI.
• Has hands-on experience using influencer marketing platforms such as GRIN, Aspire, CreatorIQ, Upfluence, or similar platforms to support creator discovery and campaign management.
• Is comfortable using Google Workspace and AI-powered productivity tools to maintain organized campaign workflows and improve efficiency.
• Familiarity with Shopify is considered a plus.

Mindset & Attributes

• Highly organized with exceptional attention to detail.
• Able to prioritize and successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Outgoing, personable, and confident communicating with creators and brand partners.
• Passionate about fashion, social media, and influencer culture.
• Proactive and resourceful with excellent follow-through.
• Creative thinker who enjoys identifying new partnership opportunities.
• Self-starter who thrives in a fast-growing environment.

What Success Looks Like

• A consistent pipeline of high-quality creators aligned with the brand is developed and maintained.
• Influencer collaborations expand brand awareness and contribute to customer acquisition.
• Gifting and paid partnership campaigns launch on time, within budget, and with strong execution.
• Campaign budgets are effectively managed while maximizing return on influencer investment.
• Creator performance is consistently evaluated using measurable KPIs, including engagement, conversions, affiliate sales, revenue, and ROI.
• High-performing creator relationships develop into recurring partnerships.
• Multiple campaigns and creator relationships are managed effectively without sacrificing organization or quality.
• Leadership can rely on consistent, well-executed influencer initiatives that contribute to measurable growth.

This is an opportunity to take ownership of influencer marketing and creator outreach for a fast-growing footwear and accessories brand. You will play a hands-on role in identifying creators, developing partnerships, coordinating campaigns, managing budgets, and measuring performance while helping expand the brand's presence across Instagram and TikTok.