Net Influencer
Talent Collectives
Web Stories
StrategyHow To Use Instagram SEO and Increase Your DiscoverabilityVlogging Ideas: 10 Good Ideas to Boost Your CreativitySkincare Influencer: How to Become a Successful Skincare Influencer on Social MediaHottest Podcast Topics: 7 Top Trends to Help Grow Your Podcast in 2023Video Shoot – How to Plan and Execute a Successful Video Shoot for Your Vlog
Commentary
Subscribe to Influence Weekly
Brett Welch: The Impact of Text-To-Image AI on the Creator Economy
Sports Influencer & Entrepreneur Jack Settleman on Partnering with MSG Networks
Growing a Men’s Lifestyle Social Media Platform with Junaid Minshad of Meninfluencer
Lounge Underwear Models: The Faces Behind The Mega-Brand What influencers are behind Lounge Underwear?
About Diana Marks
Diana Marks is a movie, luxury car, and travel influencer originally from Belarus. She moved to the United States over ten years ago to pursue a career in entertainment.
Initially, she worked as a red carpet reporter interviewing celebrities on the red carpet. On the side, she also started a blog, LA by Diana, which she was able to monetize quickly. Her content at the time primarily focused on her favorite places to visit in LA.
“It was very risky at that time because, as you know, the influencer industry is huge right now, but ten years ago, this wasn’t the case. Nobody knew if it was even going to be something, so it was a huge gamble for my career in general, and luckily it paid off.”
Diana began building relationships with brands and promoting them on her blog. Eventually, social media rose in popularity, and she shifted more of her focus to building a social media presence on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and, most recently, TikTok.
Her blog’s name, LA by Diana, remains the same. However, it now stands for Lux Affair by Diana, rather than Los Angeles by Diana.
Lux Affair by Diana showcases luxury within the everyday lifestyle.
“It’s kind of like a mix of luxury. I would define it as luxury minimalism.”
Diana shares that some of her most popular content is room tours of luxury hotels and luxury car content.
Lux Digital Media
In addition to her successful career as an influencer, Diana founded Lux Digital Media, a social media agency that manages businesses and empowers influencers to build six to seven-figure businesses.
Lux Digital Media’s latest launch is the Influencer Accelerator Membership which goes over every detail an influencer needs for a successful career. This includes access to a directory of 2500+ brands who are ready to work with you, the secret to landing your first brand deal and creating an amazing media kit, and “copy-paste” negotiation scripts to help you land your brand deal.
“I bring a lot of my own expertise as well as an influencer who’s worked in the space for ten years. I have seen all of it, the growth, and how brands pursue influencers.”
This double-sided approach to managing a brand’s social media and helping influencers grow their businesses allows Lux Digital Media to see both sides of the coin and quickly adapt to new industry changes.
Diana shares that she markets her social media management services by promoting them on her social media platforms. Over time, word-of-mouth marketing has been how she continues to land clients for her agency.
She notes that her many social media accounts, both her influencer accounts and business-focused social media accounts, have increased traffic to her agency. TikTok has also been a particularly effective way to drive traffic.
Iconic Brand Partnerships
One of Diana’s most significant partnerships has been with British Airlines. She was an ambassador for several of their programs for a couple of years and showcased London to business travelers. As part of the partnership, she traveled and stayed in London multiple times, which was an amazing experience for her.
She’s also worked with other travel companies for countries, such as Visit Ireland and Visit China. These partnerships gave her many unique opportunities.
“I wouldn’t say one is better than the other because everytime you partner with a country, it’s kind of mindblowing as you’re working with the official tourism board of the country. Obviously, there’s a lot of agencies involved, but essentially you’re hired by the country to promote it.”
She adds that these partnerships were usually very intense, packed schedules but very fun experiences because the country is trying to show you the best experiences they offer.
Her most successful car partnerships have been with Lexus and McLaren.
Lux Digital Media Campaigns
In terms of her clients, she’s been able to build many brands from zero followers on social media to large followings of 20,000, 50,000, and more.
“As an agency, we’re very proud of the success of our clients. We cannot release the information of who our clients are, unfortunately. That was the biggest selling point of our agency in the beginning because a lot of brands didn’t want to admit that they have an agency to manage their social media accounts, so we have NDAs with them.”
She notes that this is an attractive selling point to brands because it makes their growth on social media look more organic rather than an account that appears to be professionally managed.
Her influencer clients also have many success stories after they learn to position themselves better in negotiation. For example, influencers who used to get paid $250 for a brand deal have walked out of a brand deal with contracts over $2,000 after learning better negotiating skills through Diana’s program.
Influencer Marketing Mistakes
Diana shares that the biggest influencer marketing mistake she sees brands make is the lack of direction and purpose behind their influencer marketing.
“I think brands initially don’t recognize a goal. They just don’t know what all the capabilities of influencer marketing are. So, they go into influencer marketing, and a lot of times they just hire a bunch of influencers and expect to sell out a product line.”
In today’s world, viewers need to see a product multiple times before they will purchase an item, so brands with this approach may think that influencer marketing doesn’t work or they picked the wrong influencers when they really needed a specific plan and goal for their campaign.
As for influencers, she shares that the biggest mistake she sees in her coaching clients is clients looking for instant glamour and not realizing the huge amount of work behind being an influencer. Diana advises influencers to look at this as a business and realize that this will take many long hours to build a successful career in.
The Future
Diana shares that she is excited to see even more available opportunities for influencers to diversify their income online. She is also happy to see more and more influencers being paid fair rates.
What I’d love to see is an overall increase in the rates of influencers. Right now, it’s very scattered.”
As for her own future projects, Diana has multiple things in the works. She recently posted a YouTube episode about her career as an influencer coach on her YouTube channel, which delves into her career and goals. She is also continuing to devote a lot of time and energy into The Influencer Accelerator App, which just recently launched.
Amy DeYoung is a freelance blog post writer covering influencer marketing and business topics. As the daughter of two business owners, she’s been fascinated by all things business from a young age, which led her to graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree in business. When she’s not typing away, she spends her time reading nonfiction books and mystery novels, baking scrumptious desserts, and playing with her dog.
More in Technology
Technology
Creative Juice is a financial technology company offering products and services designed for creators, such as…
How can creators and brands smoothly transition from Web2 to Web3? Many of us are intimidated…
There are many link-in-bio tools available, and it can be difficult to determine which one is…
