As a creator who started her blog in 2014, I’ve been aware of LTK and LTK Con since my early years. I’ve seen creators build their businesses by linking outfits, furniture, travel essentials, and everyday items their families use through LTK. I was fortunate to be invited to LTK Con for the first time this year.
What Is LTK Con?
Hosted by creator platform LTK, LTK Con invites creators and brands to celebrate, learn, and recognize top performers in the LTK community. LTK prides itself in driving creator commerce through technology and innovation.
This year, LTK Con spanned 3 days in Dallas, Texas. Of the 300,000 creators signed up on LTK, LTK Con invited 300+ influencers to attend.
I spoke with Amber Venz Box, the co-founder and president of LTK, to learn the history of LTKCon and how influencers can get an invite to this event.
Emma Cortes Ellendt: When did the first LTK Con start?
Amber Venz Box: We launched LTK Con; at the time, it was RS the Con because we were called RewardStyle. And that was in 2012 at Hotel Zaza in Dallas. We had 60 creators from all over the world because we were very quickly an international business.
I spoke with bloggers to tell them that if they used our links for the products they’re talking about, they could make a commission. Then, I also had to train the retailers that bloggers had value and that we (bloggers) could drive traffic and sales to their sites. And if they would pay us for the sales, let’s try this and set it up…
Emma: Who gets invited? How do creators get invited?
Amber: LTK Con is very much an educational event, but it’s also equally networking for this group because it’s you have to be invited to LTKCon. So it’s based on your performance or growth.
This year is our largest ever, and we were able to fit 360 creators. But we have 300,000 globally…
Performance is in sales.…Commission and then also collaborations. There are two key sides of the business: how creators make money.
Commissions highly influence the collaborations you get, so you could very much say that it’s based on commissions, but it’s total earnings.
Then, on the growth side, there are people who have high growth…because there’s such high potential and demonstrating star power… we set aside a portion of the invitations for people demonstrating that high growth as well.
Emma: What value do creators and brands receive from attending LTK Con?
Creators can connect with brands directly at the brand suites. They can also connect with the LTK team at the Creator Lounge. And learn from the conference events: the keynote, classroom sessions, and one another.
Amber: For creators – LTK Con is very much like a high-service event….Whether they [creators] want strategy sessions, or they have recommendations or complaints, or they, like, there’s a lot of one-on-one time spent with this group of creators. So, they can expect a lot of attention from the LTK team… On the educational side, they can expect to be challenged and motivated.
For brands, they activate in a couple of ways. They set up suites within LTK, and so there are certain times when their creators can roam and meet. They are often giving away samples of products and talking more about the brand and going deeper with the creators, building relationships.
They also have one-on-one meetings set with certain creators they want to meet or with whom we believe they should do business. They are also in the keynote sessions this year, so they will be on stage.
What happens At LTKCon?
As a first-time LTK Con attendee, I found that four main things happen at LTK Con: education, networking with both creators and brands, awards, and the LTK app’s new features.
Education
Creators have the opportunity to learn from the LTK Team and one another. One of the keynote sessions featured a panel of seasoned creators who shared their influencer journeys. Another panel of creators led by Allison Yazdian, SVP of Creator Growth & Success, discussed how they build their community for business success.
Creators could also speak with the LTK team at the LTK Lounge to learn what they could do to improve their LTK strategy. Influencers could have their LTK audited and learn tips to maximize their earnings.
Aside from learning from influencers on the main stage and speaking with the LTK team, creators attended classroom sessions. One of the most impactful educational experiences was the Building Trust One Video at a Time classroom session, led by Bonnie Wyrick and Anna Mae Groves.
The LTK team, Bonnie and Anna, discussed practical tips like what iPhone settings you should keep your phone for video, light kits, and the importance of having a hook and text on the screen for the first three seconds.
New Releases On The LTK App
On Monday and Tuesday of LTK Con, Kit Ulrich (GM of Creator Shopping ) and Ty Amell (CTO) shared new product releases on the LTK app for influencers and brands. New LTK product features included:
- LTK Co-Pilot will help creators optimize their time with Auto-tag, which leverages AI to automatically detect, recognize, and suggest products in their photos to tag in the LTK app. Auto-generated video captions will also use AI to auto-generate captions and increase engagement for influencer videos on LTK.
- LTK Leaderboard is a brand-new custom dashboard for brands. It allows brands to see key insights on top-performing, top revenue-producing creators, and top organic performers on LTK and social media.
- LTK Power Gifting allows brands to connect directly with a creator from the LTK Leaderboard and offer gifting and discount codes.
Networking Events
Across the three days, creators are given opportunities to network at the welcome, mealtimes, classroom sessions, and after the conference. This year, Dynamite Clothing hosted the Welcome Party, and Aritzia also hosted a party on Day 2 of LTK Con. Grande Cosmetics hosted Monday’s lunch, and Macy’s hosted Tuesday’s lunch.
Creators also had the opportunity to connect with brands at the Brand Suite directly. The 17 brands in the brand suite included:
- Macy’s
- Mackenzie Childs
- Tarte
- The Home Depot
- Adidas
- Free People/ Free People Movement
- Spanx
- QVC
- Bloomingdales
- Evereve
- Victoria Emerson
Influencers could speak directly to the brand teams that handle influencer marketing and pick up brand gifts like cosmetics, tote bags, accessories, and more.
Awards
LTK hosted the LTK Awards Night & Dinner on the last night of the conference. Influencers experienced a red carpet, cocktail hour, awards, a formal dinner, and a night of dancing afterward. Both creators and brands are recognized through nominations and awards.
Creator awards included categories in home, beauty, family, and creator of the year. Brand awards included categories like Brand Builder of the Year and Best Multi-Category Campaign Strategy.
I spoke with Family LTK Creator winner JaLisa Vaughn @jalisavaughn about how she sets up her business on LTK. Here’s what she shared with me:
Emma: When did you start posting on LTK?
JaLisa Vaughn: I started my LTK in 2017…I was not consistent until around 2019. I began posting multiple times a day and being a bit more intentional about the items that I posted…Now, I’m posting 7-10 times a day on the app.
Emma: How do you post frequently?
JaLisa: I do have a team who helps organize everything. I have a project manager…then we have someone on the team who is dedicated to strictly affiliates…I have a photographer and a video editor.
Emma: What are the primary categories you create content about? How have you built such an engaged community?
I spoke with LTK Creator of the Year, Jennifer Reed @thesisterstudioig about how she built an engaged community on LTK:
Emma: Who is your target audience and how have you built an engage community on your platforms?
Jen Reed: I really cater to a budget conscious community. Like moms and women who want to look good, feel good, but their priority isn’t spending all their financial money on themselves… because it kind of happens when you have kids, it’s like priorities, the funds go elsewhere. And so, I’m helping them look good and feel good and be confident without having to like to feel guilty about their purchases.
Emma: What does your team look like?
Jen: I have an incredible manager who manages contracts and the business side. I have an assistant who helps me run my blog and newsletter…but everything that’s going on in LTK or being posted on social media is me only.
Emma: How much does LTK represent in your business?
Jen: My business is the majority of affiliates. It’s always been that way, and I’m just to my core. It’s not that I don’t do brand partnerships… I love my brand partners, but I love affiliates more than anything because it is organic, and it’s like you’re talking to your girlfriend about the cutest pair of shoes you just found.
Is LTK Con Worth It For Creators?
As a first-time influencer attending LTK Con, it was a packed 3-day experience. I chatted with Sarah and Leah, the creators behind @twoscoopsofstyle to get their perspective:
Emma: For you two ladies who attended LTK Con for the first time, would you say it was worth the experience?
Sarah and Leah: As a multi-creator account, we had to pay about $800 total for two conference tickets. Flights from New York were reasonable, and we chose to book an Airbnb instead of staying at the two hotels. It’s worth going at least once. It’s nice to make in-person connections and meet the brand reps, and we found that networking was valuable.