We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Victoria Evelyn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Victoria below.

Victoria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

I think that the time of celebrity influencers is slowly waning and that smaller social media creators are and will continue to be more important to brand marketing than ever before. Audiences are begging for authenticity from brands and creators, and they are wising up to celebrity endorsements being fake or falsified. Personally, the most successful videos I have made in my career are humorous and relatable, which is a harder tone for a celebrity influencer to accomplish without seeming somewhat fake. For the Halloween season, I created a 5 minute craft from the dollar store – headstones for outdoor decorations, with references to What We Do in the Shadows on the headstones. This 10 second video has done better than anything that a brand has scripted for me, and of course this could have all been algorithmic luck, however I think it speaks to an audience’s yearn for relatable, authentic (and often silly) social media content. I have noticed recently that brands are specifically asking me NOT to use Call to Actions at the end of the videos I’m creating for them, citing that they want the content to seem as natural and organic as possible. I think that brands are understanding their audience’s change in reception to previous sales tactics and are opting for more authentic, smaller influencers or content creators for a more genuine and relatable feeling in their marketing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a lifestyle, travel and food content creator from Seattle who really got a start in social media during COVID when I was posting old photos from my travel experiences. I had taken a month long trip to Europe to visit a friend who had moved to Sweden, stopping in Iceland, England and Wales before heading to Scandinavia. I love hiking and had all of these beautiful photos and footage from my travels, so I dumped them on Instagram and ended up gaining some traction. The next time I was traveling to Las Vegas I decided to contact local businesses for partnerships and ended up working with a few restaurants and airbnbs. After that trip I really gained the confidence to pursue content creation as a career and not just a leisurely little hobby.

Recently, I’ve partnered with food and beverage brands, which has been a fun (and delicious!) change of pace for me. My goal is always to create engaging, easy to understand content that the brand’s target audience will find relatable. Of course I listen to the client but I do try to encourage them to make their scripts as natural as possible, editing away that salesman tone if the brand is agreeable. I want my content to be like me – approachable and warm – and I think that’s why a lot of my clients end up being repeat partnerships. I am authentically myself and their audiences can feel that shine through in the videos I make.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

This is kind of funny but when I was first starting out and pitching to brands for gifted collaborations I saw a brand on instagram that sold hair accessories. I thought the products were cute and fit my aesthetic, and when I checked their instagram their bio said “hair accessories for confident girls”. I thought, hey, I’m a confident girl – this is perfect! They agreed to the gifted collaboration, got my address and sent some products in the mail. When I checked their instagram again I realized when they said “girls” they meant like, children. The youngest person featured on their page looked to be pre-teens, definitely younger than me by at least a decade. I panicked at first, thinking I would look unprofessional for not doing diligent research and would not be able to create content that would fit their brand. When I received the product I scripted three videos – all shot from the back – and showcasing various hairstyles with the hair accessories. The brand liked the content so much they purchased B-Roll footage the following week for their next product launch, and reached out to me again this summer for another paid partnership.
This really shows that although you might not seem like the perfect fit for a brand, resilient creators can use their talent and natural gifts (in this case, long luxurious hair) to turn small collaborations into long term partnerships.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I come from an administrative background, previously an executive assistant at Starbucks HQ, so although the skills I’ve learned from that career are boring they are so important to being a successful business owner. Arguably one of the most important skills of a content creator is pitching – you have to be able to communicate your ideas effectively and concisely. Brands are receiving pitches from content creators all the time so you have to stand out, and really I think the best way to do that is to showcase your professionalism (with a well worded and catchy email) and creativity (with interesting and original content ideas). I am so thankful for my previous corporate experience because I was honing the communication and organizational skills necessary to be a successful collaborator and content creator, I just didn’t realize it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://victoriaevelyn.my.canva.site/ugc-portfolio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missvictoriaevelyn
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriaevelyn2023
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@missvictoriaevelyn