"Hire for problem-solving skills" with David Morneau
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David Morneau is CEO and co-founder of inBeat.co, an influencer discovery engine for TikTok and Instagram. He has also co-founded inBeat.agency, which helps online brands work with micro-influencers at scale. Their team has orchestrated 13 000+ collaborations with micro-influencers.
What is your background? How did you get involved in your industry?
I finished a law degree, and I hated it. While I was finishing my studies, I got involved in a Startup Weekend (a Google-sponsored event where teams build a company over a weekend) and fell in love with technology and the Internet as a whole.
I began looking for ways to work in the industry, and that’s when I started helping local business owners build their online presence. We grew that local practice into a small team of 5 employees by doing web design, social media management, and SEO.
We were exposed to an e-commerce brand through our work. Our team completely fell in love with the richness of e-commerce marketing. The scale of our efforts was just shocking for us. With the same amount of effort, we could drive 5x to 10x the results we were driving for local businesses.
We uncovered micro-influencer marketing by accident, and we stuck to it as our core service. The untapped potential of the channel excites me. It gives me that feeling for which I started doing what I’m doing.
We repositioned ourselves as a scaled micro-influencer marketing service. Our work is specialized for brands that are looking to work with hundreds of influencers. From there, we built our own software to find influencers, and we are now selling it under a Software as a Service model.
What three things does someone starting in your industry need to know?
- Stay focused. Selling a single service is much easier than selling multiple services. You can streamline your work, specialize, and partner with other agencies without being in direct competition with them
- Keep your eye open for opportunity. It’s hard, as it contradicts the first piece of advice. The challenging part is recognizing a real opportunity. We all suffer from Shiny-Object Syndrome, which distorts our ability to know if something is a real opportunity.
- Hire for problem-solving skills. Everything in online marketing is easy to execute once you have a step-by-step. The real challenge lies in the way you tackle problems. Problem-solving is the skill I chase at all costs in our team members.
What would you do differently if you were starting in your industry now?
I would invest a lot more in partnerships. 80% of our sales come from referrals from other agencies and partners. It’s crazy how powerful these partnerships are. I would cold email people, get on a call with them, try to see how I can help, and build relationships. These actions can seem useless, but they compound.
Which people or resources have had the most influence on your growth and why?
Jake from Leadcookie had such a profound impact on what I do. The guy is a relationship builder, and it is his biggest asset, by far. He just builds deep relationships with other entrepreneurs and leverages the network effect it generates.
Ryan Stewart from webris.org also had a profound impact on what I do. This entrepreneur is a systems thinker, which has brought much clarity to how I run operations.
Talk about the biggest failure you've had. What did you learn from it?
The biggest failure I had was during the early days of our agency. Not knowing much about how this whole Internet thing worked, we were taking on pretty much anything that was thrown our way.
While migrating one of our client’s websites, I destroyed their entire email setup. This was a construction company, which managed all their project management by email. I remember the amount of anxiety I went through. I was at their office for 5 days, just scraping backups from their local email servers. It was a pain. I learned that before you touch something, make sure you have backups. It will save you so much time to have a backup. I also learned to talk to smart people, before touching something you do something in which you have no knowledge.
Now, we’re going to pivot to Instagram. We’re looking for actionable tips our readers can implement immediately.
How does your business use Instagram?
We use Instagram as a means of creating partnerships for e-commerce brands we work with. We have orchestrated 13 000+ collaborations, and we are well on our way to 20 000. Instagram has brought our clients’ outsized returns.
What are your favorite features? Why?
My favorite Instagram feature is the swipe-up because it allows you to direct traffic outside the platform, and to your website.
Here is a quick playbook, which still has a lot of potential:
1. Contact influencers with 10,000 to 25,000 followers in your niche. Give them freebies (product, exclusive app access, etc.)
2. Host a contest for which the user signs up with their email address on a landing page
3. Have your influencers promote this contest through swipe-ups.
This tactic works like a charm.
What is your favorite Instagram marketing tip?
Personalized outreach is underutilized. Record a quick video of yourself and pitch big pages your brand could leverage through DM.
How can entrepreneurs grow their Instagram followings and increase engagement?
Create repostable content. A lot of pages live off repost. They will typically have a hashtag you can use for a chance to be reposted to their feed. Tag your pictures with those hashtags. In those reposts, you get a mention, which will bring followers and engagement.
How can someone just starting out use Instagram to reach potential customers?
Check out the following of your competitors and start interacting with them (DM, follow, comment, etc.) I would also look at creating partnerships with bigger pages in your space. Find something you can offer them that will get their attention.
How can our readers get in touch with you?
You can contact me by email at david@inbeat.co. I love answering questions about everything related to influencer marketing. You can also follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/morneau_david