Welcome back to our weekly deep-dive on the Creator Economy. This is our second of THREE holiday prep episodes! Below is what we discuss:

• Getting the most out of the LTK app
• Planning content ahead of time - themes by month leading up to Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas/New Years
• How to create desire for your audience in this economic climate
• One product, multiple retailers - how do you decide who to link to?
• Using FYPM to research brand collabs
• Why being an influencer is actual work, and all the resources to be successful are out there for you...

Stay tuned for our final holiday prep episode which will go live in a week.

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Episode 15

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Michelle: Yes. So today we're diving into how to best leverage the LTK app if you use it so that you can maximize your earnings during this Soon to be very awesome time for you now, if you don't use LTK, which by the way, that does not necessarily mean anything, right?

Just having this app is one platform that you can leverage. We're going to also be translating different ways that you can think about this to your platforms that you actually do use.

Monica: Yes. Okay. So should we get into it? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

There are so many moving parts because the LTK app itself is such a beast when it comes to holiday, which is why it's so successful, but there's so many parts to it. There's gift guides. They have a feature in the app that I believe they released two years ago That's just like gift guide Specific in the app where you don't have to create collages Because the idea was okay.

And then you have then just your day to day strategy of what you're actually posting.

So this can sound really overwhelming because there's just so many moving parts. And. I didn't even include the holiday sales that happen within the app itself that aren't even retailer based. As we're recording this, the fall sale is happening on the LTK app.

In the past, they have done a winter sale. I don't know if that's planned for this year. But it could be so that's another thing that you want to make sure that you're a part of because what comes with the sale is increased rates for the Brands that are participating in the sale and then discounts for your audience.

So it's a win So you don't want to miss out on that.

They have a checklist in the Resource Center that you I highly recommend.

Influencer marketing platforms. So we'll take something from what's trending on LTK collective voice shop, my and then that's how we're creating those SEO search terms, but LTK has a really good one because they broke it out by month, which I love. So what they did was they said for September, here are the trending search terms, October, these are the ones, and I'll give you some examples of why this just makes such good sense.

And that kind of overlaps with December where it's like stocking stuff first and New Year's Eve dresses. And I just love how they mapped that out. Because it goes back to what we said on the last episode where September is not the month to be posting Christmas trees. Yes, even though we're saying holiday, there are so many components to holiday that you might not even realize.

Michelle: I really like that you read all of those and we should put those in the show notes just so people have them because while they are, they were like LTK's trended terms to what you were just saying, they just make sense.

And so when you think about. Even just some of those terms in the months ,you always need to be thinking one step ahead and these are all kind of cultural things, right? Even outside of influencers, I'm sure on Christmas at least a third of your friends post in matching pajamas, like with their families.

You're it's just you, right? Not everyone is going to be doing that. I think that is really great for both platforms.

No one's By the time anyone orders that, it's gonna come in January, and then the moment's over. So it's like being so conscious of meeting the shopper where they're at, and they're not gonna be at you just don't want to be too late. So it's not necessarily If you're looking at your data, oh, matching pajamas don't work for me.

If you posted the link to the matching pajamas on December 27th, because you were like, oh shoot, I forgot to post about that. Then, that's something to consider. And I think this is where critical thinking comes in with strategy. And not just looking at it at Like up down arrows like that was good.

Michelle: Yeah. And even putting yourself in your audience's shoes. Take a moment to think about that too, and you can even share some of that with your audience. If you are searching for pajamas for your family for Christmas you're going to be doing that a few weeks out.

You could almost even have a little bit of a checklist of what you're doing. But even just from a purchasing standpoint, a holiday event standpoint, and you can post that and then almost have your audience do it with you. So they're like participating and it makes for a really engaging experience as opposed to like.

Monica: to order it? Yeah. And I think another thing that thinking this way does of putting yourself into your audience's shoes is you. Tap into an extra layer that could set you apart from other creators who are just doing copy paste of the same thing.

She wants to look good when she's traveling because she's single, and she wants to meet someone on a plane.

She wants to look cute. What are comfy travel outfits? For her to feel good, especially if there's like a six hour travel delay that she's not like in jeans and wedges to get on this flight, which I mean, if that was her plan, that's a red flag on her but basically like getting into that next level detail of what holiday looks like for your person, because holiday really is, if you can get past the, everyone's posting collages of target Thanksgiving home decor.

Michelle: I think playing up the psychology piece is very big, especially when it comes to personal gifts. And I guess I say gifts in quotes, right? Especially this year. It's going to be a little interesting with how people can spread their money during this tumultuous time. But if with the airplane travel example, let's say that, you post the collage and you're like, here's some really nice and comfy outfits to wear on your flight home, but you're still going to look great.

Especially, I think that's where you connecting with your audience is really important, whether it is in the LTK app or outside, this can apply to both of those things.

Monica: Totally. And then. If you're worried about creating too much content to where you're worried that you're just throwing so much at your audience.

One thing to circle back to the LTK app itself and leveraging the app for success when in your collections., if you post travel outfits or have posted travel outfits in the past, and maybe you didn't add them to your collections, you can create a collection that's just like travel outfits or airport outfits.

okay, so Collections, trending posts, and then products, that's it. You can have, I'll just break down how I have mine organized, and we can like tailor that to a holiday. So for collections, I have game day. So that's where I have all my collages. Based by color, so you can shop for your team. And then I have spring style, work from home, fall, and then I have a holiday, which is holiday decor.

It's really good for the gift guides, because you don't have to create a collage. It basically creates the collage for you. Got it. And then that's where I have Black Friday. And if I were to do this right, I would, I think I would make products be retail based, retailer based. So I would have my favorite Hill House products on for holiday, my favorite.

So

Michelle: actually question. Yes. What would you do in a situation where, let's say that you have, this is a, this is like the thing that's coming to mind. Let's say that you have Birkenstocks. Although what are they called nowadays? People are calling them something different. I'm like, I've

Monica: seen Berkey's.

I've seen Burke's. I've seen there's something else. There's something that's I truly don't understand what you were talking about unless you're in a

com or they can be sold at Nordstrom? What do you do in that type of a situation?

Monica: I always do the multi brand retailer. And the reason for that is because it increases the chances of just getting a sale, even if the person doesn't buy that actual item. Because if they were to go to Birkenstock and decide they don't need the Birkenstocks, that's probably where that sale journey ends.

I find that they go a little bit deeper on sales than like a Nordstrom will. Another situation where I would push to the retailer brand instead is obviously Stock, a lot of times retailers stock faster, restock faster than a multi brand retailer will where they might just never restock at all.

If it's something that's not your typical product that you share but you wore it. If it's a product that like you don't really use a lot or that your audience isn't that familiar with, probably maybe some care some won't, then I would say that's always go to the multi brand retailer because they'll probably be shopping for something else anyway.

Michelle: That's really interesting. And chances are, if you did look at your data, you would see higher conversion. For multi brand retailers because of those reasons.

Monica: Yeah. And then I think we can take that actual question to the next level by thinking about, okay, let's say you decide you do want to do a multi brand retailer.

Because in Texas, for example, a lot of people have Loyalty to Neiman's with the Neiman's Insider because that's just what culture is here is Neiman Marcus. Whereas in other cities, Bloomingdale's is like the go to. When I lived in LA, I went to Bloomingdale's all the time. It was so much better than, the Century City one was so much better than a lot of the other guys.

From what I've seen out of those luxury retailers, Saks is the most generous with collapse. They do them the most often. So that would mean I should Link to sacks a lot if it's the same product because that would up my chances of getting a collab with them, right? And then to that point as well, then I'm thinking I'm taking that to the next level and being like, okay What platform works very closely with sacks when it comes to collabs and I want to use?

Michelle: it's also interesting because if you think about the retailers that have a lot of collabs, yes, It would make sense to be like, okay.

It's just all different ways of doing it.

Monica: Yeah, and if you don't have friends that you can ask and be like, Hey, which retailers have you been like successful with collabs? If you're like, how am I supposed to even know which retailer likes working with creators and which one doesn't like working with creators going to a few pay me is such a great resource because.

That's where people are throwing in, they're throwing in exactly what they've made through that brand, what the collaboration looked like, where they got the collaboration from. You might see 2 people say they did a sex collaboration, but if 1 used a 3rd party influencer platform and 1 went straight to the brand, they could have 2 completely different experiences.

Right.

Michelle: That's why it's really important to make sure that you're enjoying the content that you're doing because you want that piece to be fun and stay fun because in order to really be successful here, you do need to do that research. If you're just starting out, just know.

That there are a lot of influencers that you think are just this person and they have all these platforms and all these collaborations and are doing all these campaigns and it's just them. That is usually not the case at all. A lot of them have teams of multiple people. Some even like above 10 people.

Monica: yeah, and Just because you don't have ten people on your team right now doesn't mean you can you have to wait to get to that point?

Because you're not gonna get to that ten people unless you start doing it now. So those creators with X many people on their team at one point it was only them on their team and they were just staying up till 2 a. m If they needed to I'm not saying you have to stay up till 2 a. m Every night, but I'm saying that this isn't a four hour a day job.

Yeah,

Michelle: people make it

Like I hear that so much. As I say that, and there's a balance, right? It doesn't it doesn't mean you just should burn yourself out and exhaust yourself, but it means that if you're, again, you're working four hours a day and it's not working, then change that. It's not, if you are working four hours a day or a week and you are in the millions, Ignore me.

Ignore me. You're doing it right. You got it. You got it right. But you don't get to complain because you're doing it wrong without taking it from surface level to a deeper level. You know what?

Yeah. So that's the reason why they're able to do that is because they've mastered the art of persuasion. Yes. And not because they've actually Built a I don't want to say legitimate because maybe they I tend to find that those programs like they teach people how to Sell that lifestyle thing to other people.

It's like a weird version of a pyramid scheme Oh fully

Monica: it fully

Monica: The other thing, and this is going to be a little tough lovey, but if you are saying that you're not being successful, like why is this not working for you? My question is, if you use the LTK app, if you're on LTK, have you gone? through every resource checklist guide that they have in the Resource Center and have you followed those instructions for 60 days straight.

I saw people who started from scratch started with Basically their friends following them on Instagram and that's about it And they said I'm going to make this my career and they decided to follow the advice In the resource guide to a T, and those were the creators who were. 6 months later, doubling what they made in their 9 to 5.

I am not a seven figure creator, even though I have not only the resources that are given to creators to turn this into a business, but I know I am probably one of 20 people in the entire world that knows As in depth of LTK and these other platforms as I do, and I'm not a seven figure creator because I have not made the decision that I'm going to follow these steps and be consistent every single day.

They're there. It's just up to you if you want to post strategically, how, in favor of the algorithm of the app let's talk about LTK they're telling you exactly how to succeed within their platform, because if you succeed, they get paid more. They're laying it out for you. It's just a choice and it's really hard two posts let's say, four LTK posts every single day for 60 days.

And they want creators to follow it because again, then that makes their business more successful. The secret, there's no secrets. It's just, do you, how badly do you want to do it? So

Michelle: actually, we're obviously not going to hold anyone to a challenge, but I think that Whether or not you're using the LTK app or you're just using your social media platforms or your blog .

Start now and if you really want to be successful to a new level this holiday, One, research and find some resources that are out there. Outside of LTK as well. Other sub affiliates like Collective Voice, Mavely, ShopMy. They all have

Michelle: So take a look at that.

Do your research. Figure out your different content pillars and strategy. And then be consistent. Do it every day and now literally now is the time because if you want to have a killer day in two months, or I guess a killer weekend or in the e commerce industry, they sometimes call it cyber five.

If you want to have a killer cyber five, then you have two months. That is 60 days. You can boost how often you post in the LTK app. You can be more consistent on your social media. You can blog consistently. You can send newsletters. Just do that and really go all in

Instagram has a blog Instagram publishes like information on how to be successful on Instagram and not only that The head of Instagram, I always forget his name, but if you follow him, he has a broadcast channel and he posts like very frequently new updates that I've been released or things that they're thinking about.

They're saying comment link and I'll DM it to you. So now suddenly you're in the DMs and yeah, maybe the exchanges, here's the link. Thank you. It's so cute. Great. Let me know what you think, but That's where the action is happening and, the action is happening because Instagram told you, but some people decided to act on it.

And some people decided to just be in misery about the algorithm.

Michelle: Oh, my gosh, I feel like I need to look at that broadcast channel. You should, but that is something I'm sure that if you're listening to this, you have some sort of. Interest in this space and you're looking at these other big influencers and that's interesting because I see all those comments, I'll DM you the link and I'm like, why aren't they just putting the link in the comments

Yeah, that's on there, but yeah, but they're

Michelle: not saying go to my bio, whatever, especially some of the

Monica: link and bio days are

Michelle: over. Some of the big... Like LTK creators, they used to be like, go into the LTK app, search for me, then click on this. And now the big CTA is comment link, or actually I think it was it things I bought and liked?

I shared this on our Instagram the other day. It was just comment for a link and did not even say comment, whatever, don't put that work on your audience. Literally, make it so that if anyone gives you a comment, you're going to DM them. That is a very big slam dunk, because you're even going to have the people are like, Oh, that's just so cute.

Yeah,

Monica: or if like you could even ask like what else have you been looking for lately something like that? And if you're like, I don't have to be able to do that You can have your assistant if you have one do it an intern do it, Get resourceful. Like I'm sure even like you might have a friend who's just trying to get more social media experience because there's a job, like I have a friend who she wants there's a job that she's interested in that's around podcast marketing, but she doesn't have any podcast experience.

Michelle: resourceful. Yeah. I'm down for some help.

So all of these things hopefully show you that things are in your control.

You just have to decide that you want to go for it. Whether it's in the LTK app, on other channels, but right now, when you are listening to this, we are just about 60 days out from holiday time. So if you really put all of your effort into trying to make this a success, it's not just any ordinary time that's at the end of this, quote tunnel. It's the biggest time. So what have you got to lose

Monica: exactly? Why not?

Monica: yeah get excited

Michelle: If you're new here, follow us, rate, subscribe. All of this helps, especially when we're still just building up and share with your friends. We really appreciate all of your support. This is super fun for us. So thank you everyone.

Monica: Thanks y'all. Bye.