The creator economy is about people using tech and creativity to connect with audiences worldwide. The State of the Creator Economy Report is a research publication by ConvertKit. Here, creators share their perspectives on what worked in the previous year for their business, the tools they use, and the products and services they create to help their audiences.
In the 2024 report, ConvertKit asked about 1004 creators to share an inside look at their businesses and plans for the year.
Also, the respondents shared their easiest and most lucrative income streams in 2023 and how the economy affects their perspectives.
Creators are people who make and post content online. This comprises bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, coaches, musicians, writers, authors, and educators who teach online courses.
What is ConvertKit?
ConvertKit is an all-in-one email marketing solution for creators. As of the time of writing this post, the platform has helped over 660K creators send beautiful emails, grow an audience, earn an income and automate their marketing.
They do this by giving creators access to tools for creating beautiful landing pages and opt-in forms, sending newsletters, creating email sequences, and automating email campaigns.
With these tools, you can build their email lists, sell digital products, sell your services, promote podcasts or music albums, and collect tips from your audience.
This business automation frees your time to focus on the most valuable aspects of your creator’s business. These aspects are: creating useful content for your audience; and building an awesome personal creator brand.
Also, they have a product called ConvertKit Commerce, which supports e-commerce functions. However, it is not available in all countries. I last checked in May 2024 and it was not available in Kenya. They promised to bring the solutions to all parts of the world.
Key Findings from the Creator Economy Report
Below are some of the key findings and interesting statistics that I picked from the report:
- Women are the majority in the creator economy at 65% of the sampled population, with men taking only 33%.
- The creator’s top priorities are to grow their incomes and audiences while building a more engaged connection with these audiences.
- The best-performing content types for helping them do that are writing emails and newsletters, articles, blog posts, books, and producing educational content.
- Therefore, text-based content still tops the charts, with emails and newsletters most preferred for connecting with your audience, not social media.
The likely explanation for this observation is that text-based content is the beginning of any content type. Emails and newsletters are text-based, scripts for podcasts, ideas and social media posts are also text-based, and articles and blog posts.
Why do creators prefer email and newsletters for building a more engaged audience?
Social media algorithms can change, but you own your email list. We have seen how many times Google, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have announced changes in their algorithms and preferences for certain content types that have affected how creators connect with their audiences.
You don’t own your subscribers and followers on these social media platforms. In contrast, your email subscribers are yours, you can export your email list anytime and continue emailing your fans from other platforms. This flexibility is what business people want and value.
Email produces the highest engagement, it’s direct, it’s personal, and it’s one-to-one.
Your email subscribers don’t get to see the comments written by others so it doesn’t influence their views about the content you sent out to them. You can’t say that about social media.
YouTube’s Long-form Video Content is on the rise
There is a continued rise of long-form YouTube videos.
YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google (their parent company).
According to ConvertKit, video as a medium allows your audience to spend more digital time with you, increasing the know, like and trust factors.
How are People Making Money Online?
The report shows that digital products are easy to market and have the highest earning potential after professional services. Some examples of these digital products are e-books, audiobooks, stock photos, website themes, and online courses.
Also, creators are making an income from doing affiliate marketing. When you have built an audience that trusts your perspective and experience as a creator, you partner with the tools and products you love and recommend them to your audience. When they buy through your affiliate link, you get paid.
Other creators indicated that they make money from speaking at events. So, they have dedicated landing pages on their websites showcasing their speaker experience, with contact details for event organisers to contact them for a discussion.
Conclusion
We have seen some eye-opening insights from the State of the Creator Economy Report 2024. This report is a good place for new creators to learn what is working amongst established creators and what types of content are best performing for them to start with.
ConvertKit supports these creators with business automation tools, especially email marketing tools and landing page builders, to set up recurring revenue from memberships, paid newsletters, and private-access communities.
If you are starting to build your email list, and grow and monetise an audience online, you can get started with ConvertKit today. Get a free 14-day trial (this is an affiliate link).
You can request a copy of the State of the Creator Economy Report here.