Influencer Marketing: The Guide For 2026

Influencer marketing strategies for your membership website in 2026: Master ROI tracking, AI tools, and partnerships. Your complete guide to campaign success starts here.

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The Show’s Main Transcript

[00:00:00.540] – Speaker 2

Welcome to the Membership Machine Show, where we talk you through your membership website from initial idea all the way to finished product. Here’s your host, Jonathan Denwood.

[00:00:14.960] – Speaker 1

Welcome back, folks, to the Membership Machine Show. This is episode 161. In this episode, we’re going to discuss influencer marketing and how you could use it to promote your membership website. Whether you’re a new membership website or an established one, you want to get new members. How can the marketing campaign influence this? I was influenced by this by an article from a friend of the show, Ryan Robinson. Ryan is a well-known marketing expert and runs a couple of platforms. I think one of them, Kirk aactually might use. He did an article about Circle, and about how they used influence and marketing to build their business o. thought in general, it could be an interesting subject, Kirk. I’ve got my great co-host, Kurt, with me as well. Kurt, would you like to introduce yourself to the new listeners and viewers?

[00:01:27.900] – Speaker 2

Yea:h, sure thing, Jonathan. My name is Kurt von Annen. I own an agency called Mañana No Mas, and we do some great work with Lifter, LMS, and WP Tonic.

[00:01:38.260] – Speaker 1

That’s fantastic. Like IAsd, it should be an interesting subject, but before we go into it, I’ve got a message on one of our major sponsors. We will be back in a few moments, folks.

[00:01:49.400] – Speaker 2

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[00:02:22.720] – Speaker 1

We’re coming back, folks. I also want to take the opportunity to point out we got some fabulous deals from the sponsors. Plus, we got a course actually developed by Kirk himself that shows you how to build a membership website from beginning to end on WordPress, the platform that gives you the most power, flexibility, and control over your business in 2026, plus a load of other free goodies. Where can you go to get all this? You need to go over to wp-tonic. Com/deals, wp-tonic. Com/deals, and you find a discount code to buy the course from Kirk and all the rest of the goodies. So let’s go straight into it. So what do you think about this particular subject? And like I told you, I was really influenced by one of Ryan Robinson’s excellent videos where he looks at digital marketing of a particular company, and he was looking at how circle basically built their traffic in their business. And it certainly wasn’t through… They get about, I think, 30 to 60,000 1,000 Uniques a month, probably more. But a lot of that traffic was branded traffic. So he came to the conclusion it was through influence of marketing.

[00:03:57.000] – Speaker 1

So hopefully you can see why I found that interesting. What’s your initial thoughts on this, Kurt?

[00:04:05.120] – Speaker 2

When we start saying influence or marketing, I immediately feel dirty and want to take a shower, Jonathan. It’s not the happiest of subjects for me. But if we start to actually dive into it and peel that onion, as it were, and look at certain use case scenarios or certain niches that really need a boost, you can see the space. For instance, and I’m just going to throw this one out there real, real quick, in the fitness space or in the mountain biking space that I hang around in, they have these things called ambassadors. And ambassadors are like low-level influencers. So I might get a 20 % discount or a 30 % discount on some creatine or on some parts for my mountain bike because they know that I’m going to share about that in my socials. So it’s like a low-grade sponsorship. That’s a way to say that. And so if I feel like I need to take a shower talking about influencers, I think I really need to take a look at, well, I’ve already done the ambassador thing, so is the next step to an influencer really that toxic? I don’t think so.

[00:05:19.620] – Speaker 2

I think it depends on the situation, the use case, and if you’re really a genuine user of the product or service.

[00:05:27.020] – Speaker 1

Yes, I totally agree with that. When it relates to this particular podcast, folks, I link influencer with partnership. I think the type of person that’s trying to increase their membership The traditional model of influence marketing that’s developed over the past 6-8 years is probably a bit out of most of the listeners budget. When it comes to circle, I think the founders of circle came from executive positions. I think, with teachable. I think I’m correct about that. All three founders of circle had executive positions with teachable, and they got investment and a sizable investment to build circle. That’s So they had large pockets to actually get people to start using circle to promote circle, circle through affiliate deals, branding deals. But I think what we’re talking about is micro-influencers or nano-influencers. A nano-influencer, with the research I did, is somebody that’s got 1,000 to 10,000 followers or a micro-influencer, it seems to be between 10,000 and 100 followers on either YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and the nano is the same on these type of platforms. But I also see it as more of finding a partner, somebody Somebody that you can do live webinars with, be a semi regular blog post guest, somebody where you can offer some value to this partner, and it’s more of a mutual benefit.

[00:07:54.940] – Speaker 1

Can you see where I’m coming from, Kurt?

[00:07:57.400] – Speaker 2

Well, I do. But I’m going to elaborate just a hair, right? I think in our space, Jonathan, we’re going to focus mainly on nano influencers or ambassador/partners because our reach, our niche is restricted. If we were in the fitness arena, we would have millions upon millions of people. But if we go into the LMS space and we start talking When you’re talking about eLearning, if you had a thousand committed followers in the eLearning space, you would have the eLearning space cornered. You know what I mean? It’s just that small of a community. So I think it’s hard to say. Yes, there are those things that say a thousand to 10,000 or a 10,000 to 100,000 followers. And those are good benchmarks in the niches. Some Sometimes if you had 5,000 followers, you’d have the whole market cornered. So you got to really take that with a grain of salt. Still, the numbers have to make sense because people are only going to economically reward you for so many leads or clicks. And so at the end of the day, the size of your audience really does matter regardless of the niche that you’re in.

[00:09:23.900] – Speaker 1

Yeah, this is the paradox of it all, isn’t it? But I know in In the eLearning membership space, that Kajabi and Circle based their whole initial marketing on influencer marketing. They both went and did special deals with a small group of highly popular influencers I think it’s well known that Kajabi, as an example, did a special deal with Amy Porterfield, and she promoted Kajabi heavily, heavily to her mailing list, in her videos, in her blog posts, and in her podcast. And this cost them a lot of money, but it really made a difference to get Kajabi seen and get traction, basically. And I think we’ve circled one of their most leading influences, and I might not be correct on this, but I have read it that he was a initial investor in circle is Pat Flynn. He was a massive promoter of circle to his community. So So if you can find the right influence of the right community, and you can do a deal with those people, it can be, I think, something that can really get your membership business onto the next level. What do you think?

[00:11:18.740] – Speaker 2

I would agree. It’s always interesting to see these things roll out. We had reviewed School before with Alex Dermotzie, right?

[00:11:30.000] – Speaker 1

Well, that wasn’t even… It’s found, and I’ve got the name, the New Zealander, the coaching. I’ve got his name, but he spent an enormous amount of money on that platform, but he wasn’t really getting any traction. And this is a really very experienced online marketer. I forgot his name, actually. It will come to me, but I interrupted you. But it was only bringing Humozy on board with him with the marketing and the recognition that I really think it really… I think they went through a rebranding school, and that really got that platform to start getting traction.

[00:12:15.060] – Speaker 2

I don’t want people to listen to this and they get down on the mouth and think, well, I can’t afford a Russell Brunson or an Alex Hormozy or a Jonathan Denwood to promote my membership site. So now I’m destined for failure for the rest of my life. It’s not that. You become an influencer through a process. It takes time, it takes work and all these things. So either if you want to take the shortcut to get to an audience where you could possibly be an influencer, chances are if you want to take that shortcut, you’re going to hire an influencer to promote your product and then leverage that influence to grow and become one yourself. So The other option, of course, is to grow organically and take your time and just use product and marketing and social media and SEO and all the things that we talk about on all of our other episodes.

[00:13:14.220] – Speaker 1

Yeah, I think I totally see where you’re coming from, but I think this is in the nano micro level, this is totally doable. Obviously, I wouldn’t suggest this to start off with, folks, this isn’t a tactic. If you’ve listened to this podcast, we advised you to do a pre-launch, to do a micro-launch, to get your first batch of students into your membership, into your community, work out any problems. And what I mean by that in marketing terms, is your membership course your community, is it really fulfilling the needs of your target audience and working that out? And then based on that initial group of students, that initial launch, work out the next course, which will have a much better market fit. And that’s the stage where you could outreach personally through LinkedIn, outreach through X, outreach through whatever social media platform. Don’t bombard, but comment on that person’s latest blog post on whatever social media, try and build some relationship with that person, and then have a one to one Zoom with that person and take the opportunity, try and get on to their podcast. A lot of these influencers do have podcasts. You’ve got to put your pitch so that That particular influencer’s audience will get some value.

[00:15:03.580] – Speaker 1

There’s no point in saying to, I want to come on your podcast because I want to promote my course. That ain’t going to work, folks. There’s no value for that influencer. There’s no reason why that influence should share their audience with you. But on the other hand, you say, Well, I’ve got this course. I’ve got this experience. I can give some knowledge to your audience that will make them more successful. Can I come on your YouTube channel? Can I come on your podcast? Podcasters are always looking. I can tell you I’m pitched about I must get about 20 pitches a week from podcast outreach companies trying to find podcasts for clients to come on. Most Most of the pitches are really awful. Most of them now are written by AI, and they are pitching to hundreds of podcasts. They are not very good. They go in In the second half of the show, I will explain what’s probably a more successful way. But what do you think about what I’ve just outlined, Kurt?

[00:16:34.100] – Speaker 2

The part that you outlined about the influencer part or- You’re going to get on your bike and do outreach. I’m pumping the pump all the time, Jonathan. I’m on five podcasts a week. And you’ve got to put your face out there. You got to put yourself out there if you’re going to gain steam somewhere along the line. And I think the trick is to be able to have enough self-awareness to recognize when you’re gaining traction, and unfortunately, when you’re not, and change those channels or change the messaging or move some things around. I think it’s one of those things where your aversion to risk is going to dictate how you spend your time or make your investments. People that are a little more risk averse, they’re probably going to do the outreach reach for a couple of podcasts or let me run a webinar on your Facebook channel or something like that. And then people that are less risk averse would probably actually make an investment to get into those spaces at a quicker rate or bigger audiences. Yeah.

[00:17:48.640] – Speaker 1

I think it’s a good moment to go for our break and discuss this really important topic a little bit more in the second half of the show. We will be back in a few moments, folks.

[00:18:02.460] – Speaker 2

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[00:18:29.020] – Speaker 1

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[00:18:35.220] – Speaker 2

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[00:18:39.940] – Speaker 1

We’re coming back, folks. Also, I want to point out, got another fabulous resource on the WP Tonic show, which is a partner with the Melright, sorry, the Membership Machine Show. And that’s our newsletter. We do it weekly. I write it personally myself. I also do list of the best articles that have come on my radar that week about AI, about digital marketing, about building a successful business in 2026. It’s totally free to sign up for this newsletter. All you got to do is go over to wp-tonic. Com/newsletter, wp-tonic. Com/newsletter. And that’s how you sign up for that great resource. The reason why I thought this was really important, and I think in future episodes, I think I like talking about AI. I like to talk about the latest WordPress technology looking at… Because WordPress, we’re both passionate about it. It offers the best flexibility, and it offers the best ownership of your membership business or your community. And I think using other people’s platforms is great for promoting your business, but I don’t think building a business on lease platforms is a great idea. I think having as much ownership of your core business is really important, folks.

[00:20:17.240] – Speaker 1

But I also think it’s really important. This doesn’t apply to everybody because some people have so much name recognition, so much brand recognition, That what I’m just about to say doesn’t really apply to them. And my phone’s going mad, I think. But the majority of people, demo, how great a course you’re building. Nobody’s coming. Nobody, you can build war and peace. Oh, it wasn’t mine. Somebody else left their phone on my table. I’m traveling at the present moment, folks. I’m at a friend’s That’s why it’s such a different background if you’re watching this on YouTube. But nobody’s coming, are they, Kurt? Nobody is… Don’t know how great your course is, how much value you’ve got in your course, how much sweat and effort you’ve put in your course, and you know this person yourself. So maybe you can share a bit of your experience in that, because you’ve discussed this with me and you’ve learned and you’ve adapted. But what would And you know, Kirkbill has got an enormous amount of experience in particularly in industry verticals, and he built a fantastic course. But you also learned the hard way that nobody was coming, were they?

[00:21:45.080] – Speaker 2

No. And even more to your point, Jonathan, just to give people a more clear concept, I didn’t just build a course. I built six courses and wrapped it into a course track that would certify for people for a certain industry. And as much as that industry needs the training, getting people to pay for that, to invest in their staff for that training has not been easy. And That’s the problem if you bypass all of the best practices and advice that we give on this show, when you bypass all that and you think that you’ve got it figured out, right? I’ve got a great course. It’s a great idea. I’m going to build it. I’m going to beat them off with a stick. Oh, my God, I’m going to make so much money. Slow down, because chances are that none of that’s true. You could have a great idea. You could build a great course. You still have to get eyes to it. You have to get traffic to it. That’s why I get so angry when I hear these people say, oh, people aren’t selling courses anymore.

[00:22:50.580] – Speaker 1

You must be great.

[00:22:52.020] – Speaker 2

You must be great. Applications. If you’re not making 50 grand a week, then you don’t have a business. It’s like, where did these people come? Who’s buying a mobile app? Who’s downloading mobile apps? And how does that generate $50,000 a week? It’s just ludicrous, Jonathan. It’s nothing replaces hard work, networking, having your hat in hand, being a little humble, having some humility, and asking to share an audience with someone else that’s got a little bit of success, a little more success than you. And you make these partnerships and these arrangements and these content exchange agreements, and you just forge forward and you make things happen. And if you have budget, hire some influencers. I think, unless I’m wrong, I think we’re going to look at a couple of options on if you wanted to hire an influencer where you could go and how much it might cost.

[00:23:43.020] – Speaker 1

Yeah, I got some platforms here. I did some basic research here, folks. But I just want to uncannonly, both me and Kurt read one another mind. And it’s funny that you talked about this particular subject because I was going to talk about it after you finished. And that was also there have been Amy, and I do respect Amy Portafield because I see her as one of the more honest influences in the membership space And to some extent, also Pat Flynn. There’s others that I don’t really have a lot of respect for. In some ways, I do respect Mamosi, even though Yeah, I do respect some of the things he says that makes business sense to me, folks. But lately, this is not Mamosi because he’s a major investor in school. But these other, like Amy and to some extent, Pat and some other big names, they’ve been saying that they’re giving up on membership because of AI. And of course, AI is going to affect membership. You are going to have to adapt. You are going to have to provide more face-to-face. You are going to have to blend membership with coaching, with group coaching, with one-to-one.

[00:25:18.240] – Speaker 1

It is adapting, but they’re saying that membership and running a membership business is finished. I think that’s very misleading. I think the reasons why a lot of them are saying that is that they were utilizing paid advertisement to get their… Or they were using SEO, a combination of paid traffic and SEO, organic traffic, into the top of their funnel. And that’s been… Paid traffic has become much more expensive. Seo has, because of of large language models has become more complicated. It’s rapidly changing. It just about takes me all my day to keep up with it myself over the last year, well, really in the last 18 months, and that’s horrendous as time just goes by. But their cost of getting new buyers of their courses has gone up, basically. And somebody, there is a price limit on what somebody is prepared to spend with you initially. And when they look at the analytics, and all these top influencers, folks, are always looking at their analytics. The cost of conversion has just rocketed, and the volume has declined. The volume is no longer there to make 20, 50, 100,000 a week or month. Some of these influencers are making 50,000 to 100,000 a week.

[00:27:16.460] – Speaker 1

And it’s just got too expensive, too expensive to get their target audience in the top of their funnel. Would you agree with what I’ve just outlined, Kurt?

[00:27:28.160] – Speaker 2

I agree with a tremendous amount of what you said. If you try to get a well-known influencer, it is tens of thousands of dollars for them to mention you, to promote you in any way. The return on investment for that is very, very shaky. This is not the same. Things have changed a lot since Oprah stood up on her TV show and said, Here’s my Book of the Week Club or Book of the Month Club, and”Here’s my Book of the Week Club, or Book of the Month Club,” and promoted a book that sold a million copiesnk you really got to look at your risk and trust teeter totter and figure out how much you’re willing to invest in something.

[00:28:16.580] – Speaker 1

Yeah, it’s much more diverse, I think. But on the other hand, what are your core things to really move your business forward after the initial launch? Getting it to 100 active students is what we’re talking about. It’s about email marketing. It’s about getting people to sign up to your newsletter or a small course using it, targeting on Facebook, getting on a podcast, talking to people that got relevant audiences, but big audiences, and doing some partnerships with these, if you want to call them influencers. And this is how you build up a sustainable membership business in 2026. In my eyes, would you agree with that, Kurt?

[00:29:17.860] – Speaker 2

I would. It’s interesting. I want to put the ball back in your court. Looking at WP Tonic as the source for how we do the podcast and stuff like that. What would you think about putting an influencer or two in charge of promoting the WP tonic for those awesome hosting packages?

[00:29:43.020] – Speaker 1

Well, I am, but I am looking at the influence of marketing myself. I think, unfortunately, in the WordPress space, it’s not, but we both know a person who’s usually successful, Adam Pretzler. But that was a mixture. Well, it wasthe influence of marketing. Many companies in the WordPress space, Adam still has a very large WordPress-focused YouTube channel. He’s not as active on it as he used to be. He used to publish one or two YouTube videos a week, didn’t he? And he built a very large audience, not that large compared to other YouTube channels, but compared to. And for a number of years, he dominated that area and had a lot of affiliate and partnerships with many WordPress plugins and other companies in the WordPress space. So what I’m outlining isn’t ridiculous, is it, in some ways?

[00:31:07.900] – Speaker 2

No, no.

[00:31:09.150] – Speaker 1

But it has changed also, hasn’t it?

[00:31:12.300] – Speaker 2

I think the change is almost like talking about SEO. Like SEO, you used to dab a little on SEO and see some results, and dab a little more and see some results. Now you work your Fannie off. And as soon as you get results, they get cut in half. Influencer marketing, I think, is similar in that it used to be much simpler, and now it’s gotten competitive and can be expensive. But I also think if you’re creative and you work with people, if you put a little skin in the game, I think you could have similar results with a lot less spend, but you have to be active in it. Yeah.

[00:31:57.940] – Speaker 1

I think we wrap it up now. So, Kurt, what’s the best way for people to find out more about you and what you’re up to?

[00:32:05.340] – Speaker 2

Well, for any business stuff or personal stuff, just hit me up on LinkedIn at Kurt von Annen. Yeah.

[00:32:13.880] – Speaker 1

And if you’re looking for more information, more advice, go to the WP Tonic website. Got a fantastic blog section. Plus we got the WP Tonic YouTube channel that’s got a load of videos on it. It’s another great free resource. We will be back next week with more advice to help you build your membership community to achieve success for yourself and for your family in 2026. We’ll see you soon, folks. Bye.

[00:32:43.870] – Speaker 2

Thanks for listening to the Membership Machine Show. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes, and leave a rating to support the show.

[00:32:52.490] – Speaker 1

Until next time.

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