The creative industry isn’t like what it was five years ago. Thanks to the influencer boom, everyone thinks they can quit their day job to make TikTok videos. When people think of TikTok, the word virality comes to mind. However, virality by nature means that it has a limited time span. In order to become successful on TikTok, or any other social media platform, you have to have what’s called a magnetic brand.
A strong personal brand that attracts a specific audience and encourages loyalty is what will outstand the test of time.
Becoming a full-time creator requires establishing a strong reputation. And this means a hefty amount of strategizing, pinpointing your niche, and consistent content creation for years.
Like any business venture, a creator career requires an upfront investment and an initial low payout that most people aren’t willing to sit through.
Amidst the saturation, your unique industry insights and skills will become your armor and your source of power.
Vanessa Lau worked in corporate marketing before she transitioned to become a full-time creator on YouTube and Instagram. She now has over $7 million in total sales because of the magnetic brand she’s been able to build over the past four years. She shares why building a highly attractive brand will be the number one factor of creators going from six to seven figures in earnings.
Earned Media Will Always Beat Paid
Paid media is alluring because of almost instantaneous results on paper. It’s the fastest way to reach people in your ideal audience. However, reach doesn’t equate to conversion.
“Ads don’t build on top of each other, meaning that the more ads you run doesn’t necessarily mean you can run fewer ads over time,” says Vanessa.
Most consumers are bombarded with ads on a daily basis and are met with “ad blindness”, meaning they get desensitized to the ads being displayed.
Vanessa advises that focusing on an organic traffic strategy by investing in high-quality content creation is the best way to attract and nurture potential customers.
“Every month you create content, it builds on top of what you’ve built before. Your account becomes stronger, your reach becomes stronger, and you can rely less on it over time because it becomes a machine,” says Vanessa.
Listen to the Market
One of the biggest mistakes all creators make is that they make content based on what they think is interesting or what has historically performed well.
If you want to run a successful content business, you have to look at the current data.
Vanessa comments, “When it comes to entrepreneurship, you must refrain from getting too comfortable. Things always change, and you either adapt or you die. The algorithms, market trends, and customers don’t care how you feel. Things will move on without you, whether you like it or not.”
As a creator, your skills and knowledge will develop through time, and your content has to reflect that. If you want to attract a more advanced business audience, you’re not going to make fundamental videos like “How to Start an Instagram Page”. Your content will shift more towards how to scale up a business, or increase profitability.
Beware of Audience Capture
Many creators face a challenging thing called audience capture as they start to gain more traction in their market. This means that their audience is accustomed to one type of content and expects the creator to keep producing that type of content. This can make the creator feel very boxed in and stunt innovation.
Any successful business needs to innovate and adapt to the changing landscape. If they don’t, they risk falling behind. Thus, for creators trying to break the next ceiling, they must ignore the noise and keep going. The more consistently you innovate and create value, the higher the probability new audiences will be attracted to your content.
Conclusion
Think of your brand as a castle. The most effective way of attracting more people to your castle is if you build the most architecturally beautiful and unique castle of them all. You would invest time in the builders and designers, rather than rely on hornblowers. The best brands don’t need to market themselves.