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
Who is Monica Banks?
Monica Banks has a background as a content marketing consultant, including consulting beauty, parenting, food brands, and more to help them leverage content and grow their business.
Today, she is the CEO and Founder of Gugu Guru, a products recommendation community for mothers launched in 2015. Over the past year, the Gugu Guru team has built a creator community called Mom Creators.
Monica Banks works directly with moms in the Mom Creators community, teaching them to make content and overseeing the vibrant community.
Monica shares, “Basically, I oversee the community, and I teach moms to make content. I’ve been working in content marketing for close to 20 years now… Obviously, content marketing and content creation have changed and evolved. It used to be blogging and stuff like that, and now when a lot of people think of creators, they think of TikTok or Reels.”
Brand Campaigns
“We work, not only with creators but tons of brands in the mom and baby space and also brands that are not necessarily endemic to the baby category.”
She provides the example of how they worked with Domino’s Pizza to create a Domino’s Baby registry campaign and partnerships with influencers to show what that would look like. This campaign received a lot of press and nearly 600 million media impressions.
“I came up with the idea because I was reading a trend report on content and what was appealing to millennials in general, not specifically moms, and what I saw was that fast food brands like Taco Bell and Dominos and McDonald’s were getting into the wedding industry.”
For example, Taco Bell had created a wedding chapel, and Dominos had an online wedding registry. She started by collaborating with Taco Bell and creating a “Tacos by Trimester” campaign. Later, she reached out to Dominos about making a baby registry campaign.
“We teamed up with influencers to create original videos and original photography to promote the different gift cards and kinds of packages that we put together with Dominos. It was a real hit.”
Monica Banks shares that the media shared this campaign on every major outlet, including USA Today, Fortune, and Buzzfeed. This campaign even ended up in Dominos’ Top 10 biggest news and press events.
Another popular campaign was with Whitney Port, a reality TV star known for her role in The Hills. Whitney also owns her own fashion brand. When Whitney was pregnant with her son, Monica worked with her to market the release of her lifestyle collection of products, such as travel gear, strollers, and mom beauty products. They pushed this content out on her blog and had a fantastic response.
They’ve also facilitated a cause-driven campaign for Happily Eva After, a popular lifestyle blogger. The campaign highlighted different products and brands that give back to specific charitable causes.
The Mom Creators Community
Monica Banks runs the Mom Creators TikTok and Instagram, which share a variety of free content for mom creators. Examples of typical posts include beauty hacks for moms, tips for negotiating with brands, and other topics relating to creating content as a mother.
Monica explains that the goal is “helping them [moms] at any stage of the journey. So, if a mom wants to be a content creator and she’s interested, and she doesn’t know where to start, we have that information for her.”
She also runs an affordable education membership program that teaches moms to become freelancers, independent contractors, and content creators for brands. However, there is no cost to join the wider Mom Creators community. The community is filled with free resources and brand opportunities that moms can apply to.
“Something I coach all my mom creators on is Reels and TikToks that are either relatable to parents like they see it and they’re like I connect with that [or] that has happened to me. That kind [of content] creates a sense of community because we’re all in this together, but there’s also this other type of content that performs incredibly well, which is we have a product, and it clearly solves a problem.”
Monica Banks notes that if your content can provide a solution to stress through helpful tips or a product recommendation, it will often perform well online.
Monica’s Advice for Creators
She advises aspiring creators to dedicate time and effort to their content. Don’t treat your content like you would a hobby if you’re setting out to be a serious content creator.
“I always suggest that everyone writes down their routine for the day and really thinks about what products have changed their life or what services have changed their life and what they’ve achieved and what they’ve become kind of the go-to person for, like what’s their expertise and passion, and then think about the products and services tied to them and then start to create content.”
She emphasizes that it’s important for creators to be patient and take time to practice their craft as they get started. Nobody becomes a great content creator overnight.
The Creator Marketplace
When asked about what is missing from the creator marketplace, Monica Banks shares, “I still think that brands put too much weight on following, when the audience size doesn’t necessarily matter. If you only need the content for your channels, it really doesn’t matter because nobody’s going to be promoting [it] on their channel.”
She expands on this, saying that someone could have a million followers, but those followers aren’t necessarily your target audience. Choosing a smaller creator with an audience that is your target audience is far more lucrative.
Future Plans
Monica Banks’s future plans include helping as many moms are possible become content creators.
“Moms are a powerful force. They usually control household spending in terms of products and everything like that, so there’s a lot of power there, and brands want to work with them. They just don’t know where to start when I talk to them [moms.].”
She adds, “What’s next for the business is really just helping as many moms as possible become content creators if that’s what they want to do so that they feel like they’re making an income. They’ve got a creative outlet, and they have a flexible career as a content entrepreneur that allows them to stay at home with their families.”Interested in joining Mom Creators? Learn more here.
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 Talent Collectives
Talent Collectives
Today, we’re speaking with Sinan Sahin, Founder of Sintillate Talent, and Marianne O’Reilly, Talent Manager at…
Underscore Talent, a next-generation management company, was founded in 2021 and is helping talent leverage today’s…
The influencer space lacks education opportunities, especially from individuals with actual experience growing and managing successful…
