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🏆Texas mama shows Mr. Beast how monetizing is done

monetization

This is Inbox Hacking, a free newsletter with unique marketing insights, tools, & tactics sent every Wednesday. Join marketers from Ad Age, Duke University, & Zoho, and sign up for your Free subscription. 

Morning, you brilliant humans. Assuming that’s true, I know you can keep up, so let’s jump right in. 

Today’s feature story shows you how monetization is done from a non-annoying influencer who’s leaving even Mr. Beast in her rearview – in terms of influencer salary by followers. What’s her secret formula? Well, it isn’t best practices or techniques, so let’s get the down-low


Dani Austin Ramirez’s Influencer Salary by Followers ($4,302.93 per 1,000)

Quick takeaways on this legit influencer.

  • Earned over $8 million in 2022
  • The #1 influencer for earnings per 1k followers 
  • Does not go overboard on aesthetics or branding

Also, she’s the only influencer I’ve ever heard call influencing a “service-based industry.”

Jot that down. I’ll wait


How is Dani Austin Ramirez Squeezing So Much Income from Each Follower

No squeezing needed!

That’s the difference between her – the wheat – and the chaff, for influencer salary by followers. 

Her interview on Forbes a couple years ago gives away the keys. I’ll drop them for ya:

  1. She shows mostly mundane parts of her life
  1. Isn’t scared to go live or be vulnerable on camera
  1. She lives the customer journey instead of making an infographic about it
  1. Is involved with some high-ticket industries
  1. She stands for something versus catering to something

influencer salary by followers

To be clear, she apparently still shops at Amazon and Walmart. Part of Ramirez’s appeal is showing deals at such “basic” stores. And she has even been accused of being “basic.” But she is also involved with hair-loss products (her brand), the wedding industry, and wigs. Bigger-tickets. So, she isn’t depending on YouTube to toss her two nickels for every 10,000 views like Mr. Beast is.

And she isn’t relying solely on YouTube either. Mr. Beast would be eating ramen if the Googsters ever kicked him off the Tube (not really, but you get the point – eggs, one basket – all that).

Her Girls Propelled this #1 Influencer Salary by Followers   

Also vital to this top influencer? How big a role her followers (who she calls “her girls”) play in her success. One example was providing user-generated content for her product— before & after photos. Unsolicited!

See, this lady is authentic – and the word “authentic” never came up in that Forbes interview. Prolly doesn’t splatter “authentic” on her internal memos either. Ramirez doesn’t talk about it, she is about it.

And before you think I’m some super-fan of this influencer
 

I don’t like any influencers. Or care how much they earn. 

And I had never heard of her before today. But I’m impressed because this lady is REAL, and that is her marketing superpower, in my opinion.

I’m not even certain she was trying to start a real business at first. Again, she was just sharing her struggles with other women like her. She didn’t wake up in the morning with diabolical plots to wring big money from each unsuspecting follower.

I doubt Ramirez laid awake at night worrying about:

  • Viewer retention on YouTube
  • Optimizing her Instagram layout
  • Using the ideal word count in marketing emails
  • On-page SEO

Yeah, those things matter. But there’s too much focus on them nowadays. Why? They are easy to point out. They are mechanics/techniques. They’re simple “how-tos” that average content creators (making 43 cents per 1,000 followers) can mass produce.

Connecting with Old Brands and New

How can this influencer work a brand deal with an old-school brand like Mr. Clean and partner with Amazon as an official influencer?

Again, being real resonates with most people/brands/audiences.

I mean, what kind of influencer is tickled about getting attention for a “little maw-n-paw shop” she mentioned on IG? Yes, her words, maw and paw.

Being real comes at a cost, though. You will get called “basic” or way worse by dum dums.

That’s when standing for something comes in real handy. 

“I’m a flavor and not everyone is gonna like my flavor.” ~Dani Austin Ramirez

Most people don’t even know what their flavor is. Or when they do, they hurry to cover it up just in case it doesn’t appeal to three random people unqualified for anything except a Twitter License.  

Wrapping Up (Downsides of $8 Million a Year)

Can anyone do exactly what Mrs. Ramirez has done? Yes. Anyone can drop the act, be real, and focus less on marketing mechanics and more on serving the people who make time to follow a brand.

Can anyone make $8 million in 365 days? Not everyone. And that’s not a bad thing, considering this admirable influencer said she had only taken off a handful of days over the past several years! She does have enough discipline to shut work down now at 5 pm daily. But seems to have to force herself to do so. 

Find more details on top influencer revenue – and read below for B2B SEO blunders to avoid and how a newsletter raised $270,000 in private funding.


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Knowledge Base

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❌Top SEO blunders (B2B SaaS)

đŸ€”Is ‘brand’ the future of Search?

👋4 win-back email examples

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đŸ“© Yahoo Mail/Gmail sender compliance guide (in plain-speak)


Self Help

No one has it all figured out.

That doesn’t mean no one has figured it out for where you’re stuck at right now.

So, keep looking for them.

(Also a good idea? Choosing sanity over the benefits of being online)

* Inbox Hackers Shout-out:

Brooks at RCM (support for the disabled)

Adriana at McCabe World Travel


Facts and Stats

  • TikTok’s monthly active users YOY per-quarter growth fell to 3% in 2023—down from 12% in 2022 (TechCrunch)

  • On average, Amazon influencers earned 21.6 times more on Prime Day than on other days in 2023 (Business Insider)

  • About 40% of B2B marketers said LinkedIn is their most effective B2B lead generation channel (Social Shepherd)

Bonus: The National Retail Federation report: customers return “a helluva lot” of online purchases. How much? Nearly 18%


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Get Hacking

Easy one this week, Inbox Hackers.

Track how much time you spend perfecting the copy on a sales email or landing page. 

Then, spend at least that same amount of time connecting with your followers, audience, or customers:

  • Call one 
  • DM a few
  • Give away something to a couple via email
  • Hop on Reddit to see what’s ticking them off lately

Make time for them, they’ll reciprocate (Big word for – they’ll do the same for you, but I’ll double-check my pocket dictionary).


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