Faceless marketing has been popping up all over Instagram in recent months, and social media managers are asking us, ‘Does faceless digital marketing work'? So we're here to reveal behind the scenes of the faceless marketing trend and uncover whether it's worth diving into yourself.
Faceless marketing is not a new thing. Brands have been marketing themselves without a face for years. But recently, the trend has taken off on Instagram, with hundreds of accounts proudly shouting that they are ‘faceless digital marketers'.
So, we decided to do some research into what was going on and why on earth so many of these accounts with totally boring or just plain incorrect posts have so much engagement on them.
We initially decided to get our investigator hats on after Laura M shared a post from a faceless account saying, “don’t copy and paste in your Instagram caption from your notes app or you’ll get low engagement” (which is a complete crock of shit) with the note “please, no one listen to this rubbish!”. The faceless person behind the post then replied to Laura, saying, “Thanks for sharing,” and the whole thing seemed so bizarre that Laura D started diving in to find out what was actually going!
We dive deep into this and share the whole story in episode 95 of our podcast, JFDI, with the two Lauras – but we can tell you it links in with Master Resell Rights, which is another HOT topic right now. So, prepare to find out what faceless marketing really is and whether we think you should embrace the trend or not.
Should you become a faceless marketer?
We have nothing against big brands marketing themselves without showing a face behind the company. However, for a business to generate consistent sales, its customers need to trust it. And it can often be far easier to build trust when your audience sees your face and knows who you are. By being faceless and not showing your personality, you risk losing that trust.
Think about it like this: even huge corporations like Mcdonalds, Pepsi, and Nike show people in their marketing. Sometimes random actors but often people we already know and have some trust in.
We believe that social media managers should avoid the faceless marketing trend because clients want to know who they are hiring. The trend has already gathered quite a bad reputation, but we'll come on to that later.
What is faceless digital marketing?
Faceless digital marketing is simply the practice of marketing a business without having a face to the brand. But in recent months, it has become more than that.
Thanks to the rise of a popular master resell rights scheme, faceless digital marketing has a whole new meaning. Nowadays, faceless digital marketing refers to a specific group of people who have bought a digital course teaching faceless marketing and are now reselling that same program.
While master resell rights are not new and do sometimes have their positive sides, faceless marketing has already established a pretty negative reputation, with people referring to it as MLM or a pyramid scheme.
We see their point; people buying the program are convinced they can make their money back and a lot more by reselling the course. But for every new faceless marketer, there are fewer people to sell the program to, and the pool of potential buyers gets smaller and smaller.
Does faceless marketing work?
Faceless marketing can work (but not always). Marketing a business without showing a face behind the brand can work incredibly well in some circumstances. When you think about big corporations like Barclays or Burger King, you don't think of their CEO, but when it comes to smaller brands, showing a face can have a hugely positive effect on sales.
The new wave of faceless digital marketers looks from the outside like it does work. But we'd advise you to approach the vanity metrics with caution. During our research, we discovered that much of the engagement you see on the faceless reels (that all look the same!) is from other faceless marketers—giving engagement pod vibes! When most of the people engaging with your content are your competitors, how successful can you really be?
What is faceless affiliate marketing?
Faceless affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting something on behalf of another business and being paid a commission when someone buys it.
Sometimes, the commission is a small %, and other times (as in the case of several master resell rights programs), it is 100% of the sale which makes it look really appealing.
It is important to remember that when marketing someone else's products as an affiliate, you have to comply with local laws. In the UK, that would fall under the Advertising Standards Agency, who require affiliate marketers to disclose affiliate links. Similarly, in the USA, you'd be required to disclose affiliate partnerships and ads. Failure to do so can lead to big fines.
This is why it's interesting that many faceless marketing accounts aren't disclosing their affiliate links!
Should you take a faceless marketing course?
If you want to work as a social media manager or digital marketer, you do not need to take a faceless marketing course. In fact, we'd go as far as to say you should avoid learning about faceless marketing altogether and focus on other things:
- Get an in-depth understanding of social media strategy.
- Learn how to create content that converts rather than using bland, faceless stock videos that leave your content looking just like everyone else's.
- Decide which social media platforms you want to manage and get to grips with how the platform works.
- Identify the brands you want to work with and the services you will offer
- Set your prices to ensure you can make a profit.
- Market yourself as a freelance social media manager.
Grab our free step-by-step roadmap to becoming a freelance social media manager.
Can you make money as a faceless marketer?
You can make money as a faceless marketer, but you might make more by showing your face.
If your goal is to make money with the master resell rights from a faceless marketing course, we'd question how realistic and sustainable that might be.
You would be better off learning the strategy of social media marketing so you can create conversion-driven content for clients. This way, you can offer highly paid social media management services to clients and diversify your income to sell 1:1 and group offers when the time is right.
Use our calculator to see how much you could earn as a social media manager with a diverse income.
Why are people against faceless digital marketing?
People are against faceless digital marketing for 3 main reasons:
- The content being shared by faceless digital marketers on Instagram is largely false information designed to generate engagement – and much of the engagement appears to come from engagement pods.
- The content all looks the same: boring faceless stock videos, which makes the Reels feed a really boring place to spend time.
- The course faceless marketers are selling with master resell rights is being pitched as an easy, passive way for mums to make money. In reality, digital marketing is hard work and anything from passive, and it feels pretty gross for faceless marketers to be preying on vulnerable people who need to earn a living by making these promises.
What are some tips for faceless marketing?
Here are some tips to help you try faceless marketing for yourself or your clients without risking your reputation or using boring faceless stock videos.
- Ask yourself whether being faceless is the best option for the brand.
- Create content that stands out from all the other faceless content on Instagram. Whatever you see them doing, try the opposite! For example, if all the faceless content is beige and slow, try using bold colours and fast transitions in your videos.
- Always refer to your social media strategy when creating content to ensure you stay on track to reach your objective and are using Reaction Goals in each post to generate the results you need.
- Avoid using ‘faceless' in your account name! Being faceless isn't the goal – marketing the business and generating conversions is!
Learn how to name your digital marketing business.
We dive deeper into this on the podcast. In episode 95, we’re chatting about:
- What the faceless marketing trend even is
- How this links with Master Resell Rights
- Comparing your posts’ success to theirs
- How you should actually be monetising your account
Jump straight to it…
[00:47] First hearing of this “trend”
[03:02] The investigation into why it’s so popular
[06:33] Don’t judge your expertise by the “success” of their posts
[10:47] How are these accounts actually making money?
[15:51] What should you do instead?
[18:09] How about if you don’t want to show your face on Instagram?
[20:28] Monetising your account
This Episode’s Links & Further Reading:
- 🎧 Episode 21: Scaling Your Social Media Business with Digital Products
- 🎧 Episode 54: How to Create a 4-Week Programme
- 🎧 Episode 72: A Simple Way to Get People on Your Email List
- Get The Social Media Managers Toolkit
- Our Brand New Online Training
