You’re a social media influencer. Or a model. Or an adult film actress, chef or fitness instructor. You’ve got great content, a huge group of influencer friends, a ton of goods to sell and all the creative tools you could possibly need to be successful. So, why isn’t the cash rolling in? Why are you stuck in the black hole of broke without a sliver of daylight?
You hear other influencers talk about how many fans they have or how much money they’re making, and you compare yourself to them. Why are they doing so much better than you are? It’s easy to look at those other influencers and say, “Sure, she got lucky because of this or that,” or “Wow, they bought all their followers.” It’s easy to blame their success on anything other than what’s probably true: that they actually worked super hard for it.
Doing the work means using all the tools at your disposal — but don’t expect them to work on their own.
No Matter the Tools, You Must Use Them Often
A long, long time ago, a wise person imparted some wisdom to me. He said, “The only thing in life that is guaranteed without effort is failure.” That statement was true then, and it’s true today. You’re just not going to be successful without doing the work.
Doing the work means using all the tools at your disposal — but don’t expect them to work on their own. Whether you’ve signed up for a private content platform, branded merchandise or even AI-generated social media posts and articles, you have to work the tools in order to get the benefits.
Balance Authenticity With Promotion
What’s the point of building an Instagram page with a million followers, or a Twitter profile with tens of thousands, if you only use those platforms to post memes or jokes or political guff? You have to learn how to promote your offerings within the guidelines of those respective platforms, and without bombarding your followers with an overabundance of advertising for your products and/or private content. So, how can you promote and what works best?
Private Content Offers
It would be almost impossible to sell a car without a photo of the car. Likewise, it’s much easier to sell a fancy pair of shoes with a photo. When it comes to your private content, obviously you can’t use most of your photos on Instagram without getting blocked or banned. However, you can use subscriber testimonials, screencaps of text interactions — with subscriber approval — or anything that gives prospective subscribers a peek at what you do on your channel. Once they know what to expect, the odds of them becoming actual subscribers improve drastically.
Branded Goods
A photo of your super-sexy coffee mug is great. But a video of you drinking from your coffee mug is A+. Post a video with you and your merch. Talk about it and demonstrate how excited you are.
Then there is cross-promotion. Reward your followers. If they buy X, they get Y. If they buy a poster, mug or some other branded item, give them a free 30-day subscription to your private content platform. Trust me, if your private content is as exciting as you think it is, then the free 30 days should morph into a happy subscriber who will last a lot longer. That free 30 days just became the best advertisement you could ever produce and it cost you nothing.
Link Up With Your Platform Reps
You can make your life a lot easier by asking your chosen content platform or goods distributor questions about how to be more successful. Ask them the best ways to present and promote. Email or call their model support teams; I would venture that they will be more than willing to provide you with the best ideas possible. Your offers aren’t going to sell themselves, so don’t just sit there, do something!
The point I’m trying to get across is that having a private content site or branded goods will do you no good unless you take full advantage of them, put in the work and dedicate yourself to promoting often.
Danny Ferretti has over 25 years in the marketing industry and is the co-founder of GFE Model Services and Fangear.vip, a company that specializes in collectible calendars, branded merchandise and other model-centric printed products. He also offers free branding consultation to influencers of all sizes. For more information, contact sales@gfemodelservices.com or visit GFEModelServices.com.
