Mastering Monetisation: Influencers' Secret Weapon Beyond Social Media

Influencers and social media creators are going beyond social platforms. They're looking for more effective and direct ways to monetise the communities they build and nurtured for years. Read on to discover insights from our conversations.

We’ve recently spoken to influencers and creators who have been struggling to monetise their communities. They’ve recognised the limitations put on their content by social media algorithms and the dwindling organic reach within their own communities. Many of them have been experimenting with creating newsletter communities on platforms like Substack, where the main advantage is it being completely free and super easy to use.

What we’ve seen is that well-established creators with hundreds of thousands of followers have many established revenue sources - books and ebooks, online courses and masterclasses, brand partnerships, and product lines with retailers, and of course, they make money sharing affiliate links to platforms like LTK or AWin. Each of these activities is a separate revenue stream, yet most of them are targeted at the same community - their followers.

The creators recognise the struggle to balance value-packed, inspirational/educational/entertaining content with the commercial-focused, sales messages.

Starting and growing an email list can be a secret power for these creators. Firstly, they can reach many more of their followers and they can say whatever they want, not worrying that the algorithm is going to limit their reach as it might consider the message less popular. Secondly, and most importantly, influencers can personalise the messages to their community based on their past behaviour - i.e., reminders of their new book can only be sent to those people who haven’t bought it yet. Thirdly, with email, the creators can create a wonderful welcome experience for new subscribers, where they introduce themselves, their story, and their mission without having to push messages like, ‘there’s so many of you here, let me introduce myself to the new people,’ onto the feeds of followers who have been with them for years.

There are huge opportunities for data collection and learning about the creators’ communities on email. Influencers can use that data to personalise their content more effectively, serve their audience better, and pitch to brands demanding higher rates, because of what they know about their communities.

It’s not an easy job to set up an email list for a creator; in fact, it’s much more tech-complex than for a regular ecommerce brand. It’s a tougher game to protect the deliverability of emails and ensure a great sender’s reputation. However, this is definitely where the future is for influencers and creators wanting to turn their communities into well-prospering businesses.