What to Do When Influencers Don't Love Your Brand

You finally deployed. You've got a fantastic product. The branding is all locked up. You're not ashamed of your pitch deck, and your social handles are clean and primed.

And then comes the big move: influencer marketing. You've got your list. You've fired up the emails. Perhaps you even spent a portion of your marketing budget to make it a reality.

And crickets.

Perhaps they're not engaging. Perhaps they're declining politely. Perhaps they're downright ignoring your brand. Whatever it is, it stings — but it's not.

It's simply the function of a growing creator economy that's increasingly competitive, where inboxes are clogged and creators have thousands upon thousands of pitches to sift through.

Here's the truth, though:

If you're not receiving as much interest from influencers as you had hoped, don't freak out.

It doesn't indicate that your brand isn't great.

It doesn't indicate your strategy is flawed.

It doesn't indicate you won't succeed on social.

In fact, this could be your greatest chance.

Influencer Marketing : Influencers Sharing Something About You

It's time to step back. Let's not reduce influencer marketing to a few creators sharing something about your product and hoping for virality.

The intrinsic value of influencers — and creators as a whole — is social proof. Authenticity. Connection.

And not content that reads like content.

Consider brands such as Jones Road Beauty or Crumbl Cookies — they don't simply bank on influencer mega-budgets. They amplify customer responses, repost user-generated content, and create viral moments by featuring real people with real opinions.

You don't require 100 influencer shoutouts to thrive on social. You need a lot of content that seems to be from genuine people who care, and you need a lot of it.

This Is Where UGC Steps In — and It Can Transform Everything

UGC (user-generated content) is your secret weapon. It's authentic, relatable, and infinitely reusable. Platforms like Crafted, Billo, and Trend.io are making it easier than ever to generate high volumes of UGC without relying on traditional influencer deals.

That means:

You don’t have to beg for posts.

You’re not paying for reach — you’re paying for content.

You get authentic, creator-driven assets to fuel your full social strategy.

And here's the best part:

Creators love doing content-only work. No feed interruption. No imposed captions. No cringeworthy selling. Just raw creativity.

Example: The drink company OLIPOP amplified their TikTok commercials with authentic UGC from micro-creators who demonstrated how they replaced soda with a healthier alternative. It wasn't glamorous — it was authentic. And it paid off.

The Real Play: Creating a 3-Pronged Social Strategy

The most successful brands on social today aren’t putting all their eggs in the influencer basket. They’re building resilient strategies around three core pillars:

1. Influencer

Traditional partnerships still matter — especially when your brand is ready for amplification. But don’t lead with this if you’re not seeing traction. Build your credibility first. Begin with creators who actually love your product, even if they only have 2K followers. It's like training your algorithm — and your audience — to believe in you.

2. Organic

Organic content is your pulse. It's where your brand personality resides, your community interacts, and your culture grows. But organic requires fuel. It requires variety. It requires volume. UGC provides that. From "day in the life" vids to unboxing and testimonials, it brings your feed to life. Glossier reposted thousands of UGC images on Instagram before ever spending a single dollar on influencer campaigns. The outcome? A fan-driven brand, folks felt part of, not sold to.

3. Paid

Paid advertising no longer cuts it. Shoppers scroll over studio-tightened-up stuff in a nanosecond. But a low-fi, front-facing cam video of some enthusiastic person talking about your product? That interrupts the scroll. That's watched. That converts. Case in point: BlendJet's best-selling Facebook ad wasn't a high-quality video—it was a mom blending smoothies in her car with the portable blender, shot on her phone. It was real because a real person made it.

UGC Is the Backdrop for All Three

- Experiment with messaging and formats

- Feature high-performers in ad campaigns

- Highlight content in investor pitches.

- Establish credibility while waiting for bigger names to catch up.

The good news? It scales with you.

Influence Doesn't Equal "Influencers"

You don't need a blue checkmark with a verified symbol next to your name. You don't need 10 creators to post on the same day.

What you do need is evidence. Evidence that your product works. Proof that people enjoy using it. Proof that it fits into real lives and real routines.

Start there.

When you’re ready to go big — with influencers, with paid, with retail, with PR — you’ll already have a content engine that proves your value and drives growth.

Ready to Get Started?

Platforms such as Crafted bring you in touch with regular creators who are ready to create real, high-quality content for your brand — no big following to find, no theatrics, and no endless discussion.

Your competition is meanwhile still in pursuit of big names and awaiting responses, whilst you could be creating a library of scroll-stopping content.

You might be trying ad creatives, filling your socials, and building authentic customer trust — at once.

Because in this era of content-centric culture, speed and authenticity triumph.

And the brands that arrive again and again — with genuine voices and authentic stories — are the ones that break through the clutter.