This 30-Year-Old is Making +$10k Connecting Brands with Social Media Influencers

When David Morneau worked in-house as an influencer marketing consultant, clients came to him for help. They wanted him to connect them with nano- and micro-influencers. So what did he do? He created his own agency to do just that.

He founded inBeat in 2019, and the company has grown exponentially since then. He worked with hundreds of companies and hundreds of influencers and now earns over $10k per month.

Keep reading to find out more about:

• How he got the idea to create inBeat
• What his agency offers its clients
• His top marketing strategy
• His unique idea to attract business
• The importance of SEO for David
• The link building strategies he’s used successfully
• How he approaches keyword research
• How he creates content
• How many hours a day he works on his business
• His top resources and tools
• His biggest challenge
• The accomplishment he’s most proud of
• His main mistake
• The advice he offers other entrepreneurs

Meet David Morneau

I’m a Canadian born and bred Millennial with a desire to make a difference. I’m passionate about crunching numbers, the mobile app industry, and influencer marketing, of course. I’m close with my family – I actually visited with them during the winter holidays, although that meant being on the road for hours. You’re welcome, Mom; I love you.

And I also love chocolate ice cream.

Why He Created inBeat

Well, the idea of inBeat materialized in my head when I was an influencer marketing consultant for another firm. Many of my customers wanted to partner with nano- and micro-influencers for their social channels. And they were looking to me for recommendations.

But of course, I couldn’t personally recommend all the right creators.

You need to check a slew of profiles based on specific variables like audience size, niche, industry, values, engagement rates, and more. We had influencer platforms to source content creators back in the day, but they were extremely expensive and not intuitive for the general public.

That’s the need I identified in most of my customers.

So I set out to fill that open niche with a service connecting brands with social media influencers. inBeat Agency is like a white-glove service that does all the influencer marketing campaigns for companies. And inBeat.co is the platform where you can find influencers and get the ball rolling yourself.

We also have many free tools on the website, from engagement rate calculators to fake follower checkers, mockup ad generators, and more.

We recently developed a Creator Studio that helps companies with user-generated content campaigns. We also have our Growth Notes newsletter, many free articles with actionable advice on all things influencer-related, and many more in the making.

How Much Money David is Making 

You’d have to ask my accountant to give you a breakdown of my earnings and income streams. Although I run a business in which I’m a co-founder, I prefer to stay away from the whole accounting bureaucracy. However, I know we’re well past the $10,000 mark per month at inBeat.

But I can tell you something that’s even more important in exchange for my vagueness. We’ve helped many customers increase their earnings in the seven-figure bracket by partnering them with effective nano- and micro-influencers.

Also, I’ve worked with over 200 companies to date – so maybe that makes me a billionaire by proxy…

David’s Top Marketing Strategy 

My go-to marketing strategy is listening to my customers’ needs. To that end, I make a point of starting each business relationship with a free strategy call. And I keep in close contact with them throughout our contract.

That part is sort of tricky because you have to listen beyond the words to identify those background needs.

It’s just like when I was a marketing consultant. I could have used the existing influencer platforms or my network of acquaintances to find good enough creators for my clients. But I wanted to go beyond that because I wanted to genuinely provide top service to my customers.

Apart from my general customer-centric approach, the thing that makes inBeat unique is developing free tools. Those free tools that anyone can use in their influencer marketing campaigns brought us a lot of business. It’s like they say, give more to get more.

The Importance of SEO

SEO is important for my business, but not as important as putting customers first. The content I create aims to respond to people’s questions and needs first. I don’t stuff my articles with keywords or links just for the sake of SEO.

That would deter people from reading anything I write, so I focus on actionable advice marketers can implement as soon as they finish reading my pieces.

However, I do think SEO is important. So, I try to have the right URLs, ensure the website is intuitive and mobile-friendly, and so forth.

David’s Views on Link Building

Link building is essential; that’s why we also launched a company called Breeeze.co. This link building agency helped many businesses drive organic traffic and brand awareness. 

We trust our sibling Breeeze so much that we partnered with it to grow inBeat’s traffic from 500 to over 70,000 visitors per month through organic traffic in approximately one year. These results were based on a thorough link-building strategy that brought us $4,000,000 in pipeline value.

Our strategy was straightforward. 

We got 100+ links through relationship-based link building and 30+ links through HARO to build trust. Besides that, we also identified low-hanging fruit keywords and created free tools with high-traffic potential.

Our toolkit includes engagement rate calculators for Instagram and TikTok, money spend calculator, and fake follower checkers. We recently introduced mockup ad generators for different social platforms. 

His Email List

I do have an email list that I grow based on people who subscribe to inBeat’s newsletter and those who become customers. We have over 2,000 subscribers so far.

David’s Keyword Research Process

My keyword research strategy also starts with my audience and their needs. That’s how I identify the general topic bucket I want to focus on.

“UGC marketing” is a good example of a topic bucket.

Then, I brainstorm keywords related to that topic. I start with what my audience wants to learn, like “how to build a UGC marketing strategy” or “UGC statistics.”

I type these keywords into Google and then look at the keywords in the “related searches” box. I also use Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and other tools.

Then, I prioritize low-hanging fruit keywords. That’s about it in a nutshell.

His Approach to Content Creation

My content creation process is based on the customer-centric approach I discussed earlier. I first try to listen to my customers and reflect on their needs.

So you could say I know my audience intimately.

Then, I set out to write articles that are as actionable as possible. You know, those marketing websites that throw fluff at their readers. Well, I want my readers to learn new things and strategies they can use immediately.

After I write my content, I check it with Grammarly, run it through Frase and then hit the publish button.

How Many Hours a Day He Works

I sometimes work in my sleep if I get new ideas in a dream. Then I have to wake up and write it all down. So, you could say I’m on call 24/7.

But that aside, I try to make enough time for my family, friends, and mental health. I’ve learned that it’s essential to pace myself to avoid burnout.

Achieving Current Revenue Levels

It took me a few months to get things going and test various strategies. However, we’ve constantly been improving at inBeat, devising new tools and solutions for our clients.

We created inBeat in 2019, so we’ve been in business for almost four years.

So, comparing inBeat’s starting point to where we are now revenue-wise isn’t such a good idea. It’s like comparing apples with oranges because we have different solutions now and even a new team. Even the market is different, and we’re constantly learning new things.

His Favorite Resources

Stacked Marketer is my first recommendation. I love the newsletter, but you can also look at their Insights community and follow them on social media. You can learn all the industry updates in real-time, and that helps you reap the opportunities as they appear.

For example, each social channel releases new features regularly, and you must utilize them immediately to maximize your returns. And Stacked Marketer can keep you updated on all that.

David’s Go-To Tools

Todoist is my first and second most useful tool. It helps me organize my day smoothly in all directions and keeps me productive.

As an entrepreneur, you need to stay focused, and if you can do that without a tool – more power to you. But from my experience, life can get hectic, and things can easily overlap if you’re not careful, so I’d say you need a tool to streamline those activities.

Google Sheets is third on my list. I use it for everything, from organizing content creation to influencer contacts and more.

His Main Challenge

The biggest challenge was getting started – I mean actually coming up with this idea and putting it into words. Increasing the number of clients and getting more organic traffic were big challenges too. However, we solved those, again starting from a consumer-centric approach, listening to what people want and then tailoring the best solutions for their needs.

For example, our massive free toolkit is essential for that portion of our audience who wants to take influencer marketing into their own hands. Or at least organize part of their influencer campaign.

But that free toolkit also brings us more traffic and awareness, thus increasing our paying customers’ database.

His Greatest Accomplishment

My most important accomplishment as an entrepreneur is understanding that I must constantly adapt and learn. Any other goal I’ve reached and will reach in the future is due to that realization.

What He Wishes He Knew When He Started

I now know that UGC (user-generated content) is an extremely powerful tool you can incorporate into most campaigns – even influencer marketing campaigns. That’s why inBeat has a new baby called Creator Studio, which helps our clients get curated and authentic UGC.

This type of UGC is hard to obtain, and many companies don’t know where to get it or what marketing goal to set for their UGC campaigns. But inBeat streamlines everything, from content sourcing to editing.

Companies send us briefs with UGC they want.

We partner with the top 1% of influencers to create that content according to the customers’ briefs. Our influencers produce professional content that’s also 100% authentic, like unboxing, tutorials, or “a day in the life” videos.

We curate this content, and the customers get an edited content library to kickstart their UGC campaign.

His Biggest Mistake

I’ve made many mistakes along the way. Not getting enough rest, calculating my steps too much before grabbing an opportunity, and not learning Chinese when I was younger. Just kidding with the last part.

But in hindsight, I would say mistakes are unavoidable. So you shouldn’t be wary of making them. You should welcome them and learn something from them.

His Advice for Other Entrepreneurs

The most important advice is to not give up.

Most entrepreneurs fail because of the grind. And it can be tough at first when money is little and dreams are big. It’s also tough because you’re bound to make mistakes, some of which may cost you a lot.

One mistake I made initially was trying to do everything by myself. But of course, you have so many hours in the day, so I had to learn to delegate.

Another was not investing enough in advertising.

Like I said before, the most important thing is to move past those mistakes. Find the right mentors and surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. Learn from them, keep putting in that hard work, and success will follow.