CamLife Unversity

CamLife Pro Shop Marketing Panel

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to meet with us here at Cam Life Magazine and being a part of our very first Marketing panel.

 Okay, so I believe everyone knows each other HERE. Ladies, first we Have Andra Chirnogeanu Marketing and public relations manager for studio 20, Lauren MacEwen CEO of 7 viles Social media, Thomas Pedersen Co-founder and CEO of Diva Technologies / Diva Traffic Jay Kopita of ynot Mail and of course AVN Hall of Famer and Co-founder of Rising Star PR Devan Cypher. 

So, this is quite the crew we have here, kind of the Avengers of Adult marketing lol let’s get down to it, shall we? Now a lot of people don’t think they need social media, PR, traffic or marketing or they think they can save money and do it themselves. We here at Cam Life Magazine know better. We know that in order to be successful and build a strong, trusted and recognized brand, it’s very important to have a strong marketing plan that includes PR, social media, content, and email marketing in addition to traffic. So, what are your thoughts on this?

Lauren 7Veils: Social media for business is different than social media for personal. Many people think that because they have their own Facebook or Twitter that running social for their business life will be easy. A personal social profile doesn’t have any goals. There is no ROI you are trying to get. If you are using Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Reddit to get people to your cam show you are now working towards an ROI. What most people discover is that unless they have a knack for social media and live on it, they don’t have the time to maintain all their social properties properly to really drive traffic, and still cam. Even people who do live on social media and have the time discover that marketing yourself is a lot different than just posting, and they don’t always have the knowledge on how to get the most exposure, reach the most influencers, integrate an optimized hashtag strategy.

Andra Studio 20: Well, I’m a strong believer that everyone can do everything but sometimes you got to give it to the pros. It’s not like you can’t learn a skill or two, but when you’re starting a new business and when you have one already, you can’t do it all, it would take too much of your time. Every little thing is important and to believe that you can do it all perfectly with such a strong competition just proves that either you found the secret to having a 48 hours day or you just have no idea what you’re getting yourself into and in that case, you’re set up for failure.

Jay KopitaYnot—It’s important to constantly keep your brand strong and relevant. Perception means so much. If you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR –We agree. While all plans adapt and change as they develop and campaigns unfold, it is essential to have a clear starting point to work from, like a blueprint.

Marketing, in general, is challenging evolving every day especially in the cam community so how important is it to keep up on current trends?

Andra Studio 20: A lot of people forget that marketing is about human behavior. As society progresses and the society needs progress, we must keep up with them. Also, as I said many times before, we set the trends. So never forget about the creative part of doing marketing. If you’re only stuck in numbers and analytics and funnels, you’re not going to have a genuine campaign or it won’t work as you hope it would.

Lauren 7Veils: Social marketing is constantly evolving. The biggest challenge for adult is that the changes in social marketing are not always beneficial for our industry. In fact, some of these changes, unless you are keeping up with them, can lead you to get your accounts shut down. Whereas trends like breading your cat are not that important to keep up with, changes such as Twitter changing what content is allowable on their network is very important to know.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR – It is, and it isn’t. It’s important to know what’s happening, but you can’t allow a trend to dictate what you do if it isn’t consistent with your brand. Trends come and go. Brands based on them go when they do while brands with congruency and visibility manage to take advantage of trends while remaining true to their core base.

How important is social media to growing your brand?

Lauren 7Veils: Social media has been very important to us. This is our primary way of talking to people in the industry. We communicate about conferences, twitter chats, important updates on social media, talk to potential customers, and even communicate with our team through social media. It is central to our business model.

Andra Studio 20: It depends on your target. Not all social media channels speak to the same users so you need to be careful about what kind of strategy you adopt. Social media is very important if you learn how to control it so that it brings you brand awareness

Jay Kopita Ynot- It’s very important. It’s not the be-all end-all but is definitely a major component to what keeps the YNOT name relevant, popular and useful.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR – It is essential. If you are not on social media, get on it. Start with Twitter and Instagram.

I know that Studio 20 has had some success with youtube so Andra can you share a little bit about this?

Andra Studio 20: If I were to ask 1000 people what the most common social media channel is, they will for sure say Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Well, the most used social media channel is YouTube. Sure, Facebook has over 2 billion users, but not all accounts are real. Now, like I said earlier, it depends on the target audience that your product speaks to. YouTube is seen as a search engine almost, so a lot of people will go looking for cam girls on YouTube and boom, there is the #girlsfromstudio20. Then the retargeting starts and so on and so on.

How do you feel about such platforms as Tumbler, VK, and YouTube for building your brand and scaling your business in the live Cam community?

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR: Because of the resistance on other platforms to prurient materials, we’ve tended to focus primarily on Twitter and Instagram. Occasional we run targeted marketing campaigns on other platforms, including Facebook groups for specific publishing projects. Anything having to do with adult entertainment in any form is subject to a set of invisible rules that only apply to it. Social media is no different than banking in that regard.

Andra Studio 20: You must be everywhere but take good care of the position you adopt on every platform. Do some research about the audience of each social media platform, get informed. For me, marketing is not the 80/20, the 3ps, 4p, however much Ps you want or whatever, it’s 1000000 % research and knowing your client/customer/ audience.

Now let’s talk about email marketing. We have had some truly amazing results with email marketing, in fact, we used email marketing to sale over 11,000 print copies of our very first issue of Cam Life magazine so Jay how important is email marketing to scaling your business on the cam community?

Jay Kopita Ynot: Your email list should be clean, updated, guarded and used on a regular basis. This is your lifeblood to past, current and potential customers. If you aren’t utilizing your email list to its fullest potential, you are leaving money on the table. I see so many people in this industry using mainstream solutions and practically begging to get kicked off for violating the terms and services of whatever platform they are using, or almost equally as bad… not doing anything at all.

So, let’s turn our attention to our two-award winning PR super geniuses Andra Chirnogeanu of studio 20 and Devan Cypher of Rising Star PR. How important is it having professional PR representation to growing your band?

Andra Studio 20: If you care about your brand and about growing it, you need to invest in a professional PR representation. I’m not a big fan of outsourcing when it comes to it, but I think I’m just a passionate person who understands that to write about a brand, represent it, you need to believe in it a lot, you need to breathe it. Everything nowadays is about image. If you care about how yours looks, you should spend money on having someone good representing your brand. And here I’m not talking only about companies, I’m talking about models and porn actresses, I’m talking about everything. I taught the #girlsfromstudio20 how to create their brand from the moment they chose their nickname. You need to build a strategy around that.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR: At this point, brand visibility is essential not just to growth, but to survival. With so many different performers and companies and products all vying for attention, performers face unique challenges in reaching new markets and connecting with quality consumers. Having the right PR and Marketing team working with you can make all the difference in the world.

What should someone look for when hiring a PR representative?

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR: There is no one factor. At the end of the day, you have to find the right fit for you. The best way to approach hiring a potential publicity and marketing team is to do some research first. How long have they been around? Who have they worked with? What is their reputation? What kinds of results have they gotten for other clients? How much do they charge? Do they require a contract? Are they accepting new clients currently?

A quick look through industry PR firm’s websites and social media accounts should help you narrow down your options to the few that might be right for you. Next up it’s time to figure out exactly what you are looking for.

What is it you are hoping to achieve by working with a publicist? Write down a list of your career goals from easy to achieve up to your wildest dreams coming true. Be as specific as you can about what you want and why you want it. That way when you contact potential publicists and ask them how they can help you reach your goals and dreams you’ll both be on the same page.

Finally, you get what you pay for. If someone offers to do your PR and marketing with little or no experience, for little or no money, don’t be surprised if things don’t turn out as planned. The same goes for overpriced publicists promising to make you a superstar. Just because it costs more, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better.

Andra Studio 20: I believe chemistry is important. Not only in hiring a PR rep but in hiring anyone for yourself or for your company. If you don’t click, drop it. You need to find someone that loves what he or she does, that has passion and drive and who’ll work with you in building your brand up not for his or her personal earnings but because that person loves and trusts your brand as much as you do and understands that the earnings will come if the work is there.

Jay Kopita Ynot: Track record, availability, respectability and current and past client base. I can count on one hand nearly the PR people that I would implicitly trust for hire. But you also need a good match. Some PR companies are best to handle talent, others for executives.

Some people may not see it, but traffic is a very big part of marketing in today’s landscape. What are your thoughts on this?

Andra Studio 20: Traffic is really important for sales. In my opinion, marketing drives traffic.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR –It depends on the quality of the traffic and how it is being applied, or in some cases what it is being applied towards. Ultimately, it is a very powerful tool when used right. It can also be costly and wasteful if it isn’t. From our point of view, we suggest consulting with professionals capable of showing you the pros and cons before diving in.

How important is it to work with traffic companies as part of your marketing plan?

Andra Studio 20: I think with such a stiff competition, driving traffic to your website is very important in getting revenue. But like I said before, they go hand in hand. I think buying traffic is important, but I think models should generate their own traffic from social media like Snapchat or Reddit.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR: I’d say it’s just one tool in the much larger kit to be used as needed.

So, Thomas with Diva traffic your services not only help studios and cam sites scale and grow their brand converting web visitors into sales, but you also help the models as well can you tell us a little bit about this?

Thomas DivaTraffic: Yes, for sure. Some of the problems a model has when buying traffic from the traditional traffic services out there has been that it requires a lot of time and digital marketing skills to be successful with, and if you are a model, you don’t necessarily want to spend your time on that while you are performing a live show. When you are doing live streaming it is also very unpredictable when you will be available in free chat and need more traffic vs being in a private, group chat or go offline. This makes it very difficult to plan your marketing campaigns on traditional traffic services and you might waste a lot of time and money on traffic going to a room that is not available. In  DvaTraffic, we have made our services with the models in mind, meaning we monitor your room while traffic is being sent, so that we can make sure you only get traffic when you need it, and we will immediately make sure to stop the traffic if you go offline or into a private. Recently we also made it possible to buy traffic based on how many viewers you currently have in your room already, so that you can get more traffic to your channel only when you need it the most. This way you’re not wasting your money on traffic campaigns at times when you don’t want or need more traffic. This is one of the main benefits of a model using Diva Traffic and gives individual models the ability to get traffic on demand directly to her room only when she needs it the most.

So, what or your thoughts on content marketing?

Andra Studio 20: Content marketing is what myself and Studio20 have been known for since we started the #girlsfromstudio20 campaign, so I think it works well It delivers a genuine feel to the consumer and gets people in the studio.

Jay Kopita Ynot: It’s useful, educational, and something that YNOT practices regularly. You don’t have to be a media organization either to do it.

Thomas DivaTraffic: Content marketing is for sure one of the most effective forms of marketing and a form of marketing that can give incredible results since it has the potential to go viral if the content is good. It is a form of marketing that does require a lot of time, effort and skills to do right though. So it might not be the most suited way of marketing for a model to get more viewers immediately to your next live show, but it’s a great way to build yourself as a brand and should be used more as a long-term strategy to get recognition in combination with a model having her own blog, website or content store to also earn money when she is not online.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR: Both partners at Rising Star PR are professional writers and content creators. It’s part of why we chose to work together, having the same backgrounds. Naturally, we rely on this skill to help promote our clients. We believe content marketing is the key to the next level promotion, particularly when combined with direct marketing. Done correctly, and properly promoted, it’s a money magnet. We’ve seen the results first hand.

A big trend in marketing is influencer marketing; it helps build trust with not only other companies and performers in the cam community but with potential customers as well. What are your thoughts on this?

Andra Studio 20: Influencer marketing might work in mainstream marketing, I’m seeing the potential in the adult industry as well but so far it’s just so new that everyone is kind of winging it. I’m curious to see where it goes. You need a good strategy for it and the right influencers.

Lauren 7Veils: Influencer marketing, when done properly, can be very successful. It has changed a lot from the days of posting one tweet or Instagram post and suddenly getting a ton of traffic or new followers. To do it properly you need to have a more comprehensive marketing plan.

Devon Cypher Rising Star PR : Again, it’s great, when it’s done right. It should be one tool of a larger marketing plan with specific goals or projects in mind. Building up a solid brand first, one that is congruent, will ensure the work you do not only resonates online but also translates into the real world in terms of growing your fan base or selling more products.

Thomas DivaTraffic:There has been a recent trend that cam models are also called influencers while traditional mainstream marketers might not all agree that they are. I believe cam models are in the ideal position to influence potential customers purchasing decisions and that there is a huge untapped market both for adult and mainstream brands to have cam models as part of their influencer marketing strategy, since models are live on video and can have direct one to one conversations with their members. It is an area we are doing a lot of research on, to see how Diva Traffic can help cam models and studios to be successful with influencer marketing and help them utilize the potential they have as influencers in the cam community and outside it. We predict that big mainstream brands will start to notice the big opportunities that exist in the cam community and understand that they can reach the exact same audience via cam models, as they can through traditional mainstream outlets. And as we see the taboo surrounding live cams breaking down, it will be more acceptable for mainstream brands to associate themselves with the cam community.

Thomas DivaTraffic:Thanks for inviting me to be part of this marketing panel roundtable discussion. It’s been a pleasure to have the opportunity to participate, and I feel it is important that the cam community can come together and share ideas and learn from each other. Look forward to meeting everybody at the summits and expos this year.