When UGC Creators Ghost You

Happy Thursday!

Let me get real here for a hot minute: this past week working with creators has been nuts.

In over a year of working with creators, I’ve never had so many of them bail out at once in a single week.

Some excuses are understandable and reasonable, like family deaths, destructive tornadoes, or a burst pipe causing mold in the garage. But other excuses just make your blood boil.

For example, I got an email this morning from a creator saying:

“Thank you, but I am no longer available for this project and I will not be able to create content.”

When I asked for the reason behind this sudden news, here’s what I got:

“I am not feeling well.”

That’s it. No apologies or sense of accountability at all - aargh!

What I really appreciate about our processes is that, even through the thick and thin with creators, we have backups in place to help us remain on schedule.

This week, I’ll share a few of our learnings, tips, and contingency steps for when creators go rogue.

What you will learn today:

• How to effectively screen creators to avoid red flags

• Why creators should sign an agreement before starting

• Confirm creators’ availability before assigning projects

• The value of having backup creators to avoid delays

• Tips to smoothly continue your shoots despite setbacks

And much more…

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Before I outline our contingency steps during production, let’s discuss how to avoid problematic creators altogether.

Effectively Screening Creators

A great way to filter creators is by having them complete an application form. This helps introduce them to your process, your rates, and gives you insight into their past work.

Start your form with detailed info on who you’re looking for, what's expected of creators, and an overview of your process.

We use Typeform for our application form and automate the entire process.

Key Questions to Ask Potential Creators

After sharing our process with creators, we ask essential questions like their name, location, and demographics.

Then, we confirm if they have experience filming UGC. If not, we provide a script for them to film and instructions on how to share this content with us for review.

This immediately tells us many things about the creator, such as:

1. Are they comfortable on camera?

2. Can they film good-quality content?

3. Do they have a foreign accent?

4. Are there any red flags about their content?

On top of these, we ask potential creators a dozen other questions to determine their reliability and the likelihood of the problems we mentioned above happening.

Require Creators to Sign an Agreement

One of the most underrated aspects of working with creators is requiring them to sign an agreement before they start filming.

This simple step can prevent numerous problems and potential headaches, including false lawsuits from creators demanding extra compensation when they see your ad take off after a few months of running it.

Also, if creators later refuse to film because they no longer like the arrangement or demand higher pay, we remind them of their contractual obligations.

Mentioning potential legal action usually brings them back to their senses. However, once the shoot is completed, it's usually best to end the relationship.

Confirm Their Availability Before a Project

Another concern brands have is that it often takes a long time for creators to deliver content, especially if they're overbooked, leading to delays. If revisions are needed, it takes even longer, and creators may not be willing to comply.

To avoid these issues, before we assign a script, we confirm creators’ availability via an automated email with:

• Pay for the project

• Preview of a sample script

• Project deadline

• Important details they'll need to know before filming

This step is super important because we don't want to send products to creators who are unavailable, suddenly charge a higher rate (yes, this has happened before), or have other similar issues.

So we make sure to confirm if they'll be available within the next 2-3 weeks (which should be enough time for us to prepare the scripts and ship out products).

Have Backup Creators

This step has saved us multiple times, including this week. By having a backup creator who has already received the product and is ready to film, we avoid significant delays.

Shipping extra products to backups might seem like an unnecessary expense, but think of it as insurance. So let’s say that we have one script that we want to film with one creator; we’ll ship two products: one to the main creator and another to a backup.

If you don’t use the backup during the current round, you can always work with them in future shoots.

Be Prepared for Every Outcome

Finding the right creators is just the first step. Having strong preemptive measures and backups in place will help you quickly resolve any issues that arise.

In summary, dealing with creators can be challenging, but with proper screening, agreements, confirmed availability, and backups, you can keep your projects on track even when things go awry.

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