Over time, audience growth ceases to be the main problem for influencers. The real challenge arises when a large blog does not generate a stable income. If hundreds of thousands of subscribers and regular views still only bring in money through platform advertising, the model needs to be changed.

The VFIT WITH VERA project approached us at this very stage. With a huge loyal audience and unquestionable expertise, the blog functioned as a content platform, but not as a complete business. Monetisation remained unpredictable, and the potential of the influencer’s personal brand was only partially exploited.

In this case study, we will demonstrate the strategy of expert monetisation and explain how we:

  • We analysed media capital to find points of lost profit.
  • We changed our approach to promotion — from publishing content to managing attention.
  • We designed a product model for monetising expertise.
  • We built a funnel architecture that converts views into predictable revenue and LTV growth.
How long did it take to develop the strategy?120 hours, 4 working weeks
What is the composition of the marketing strategy development team? Strategic marketer, Head of Marketing Team, Head of PM Team, Head of Content Team, operational marketer, SMM marketer, Head of PPC Department, PPC Facebook.
How were the results of the work used? Implementation by specialists from Solve Marketing.

Introduction to the Project

VFIT WITH VERA is a YouTube project in the home workout niche that has been developing around the author’s personal brand for over 10 years. During this time, a strong community of over 115,000 subscribers has been formed.

Key project characteristics:

✅Extensive library of free workouts;
✅Stable, active audience;
✅Focus on home fitness without a gym or equipment;
✅High level of trust in the author’s expertise.

Despite strong media performance, the financial model remained basic. The average income of the project was about $1,500 per month and depended almost entirely on YouTube AdSense. Other platforms (Instagram, TikTok) operated autonomously and were not integrated into a single user journey.

Diagnostic conclusion: The project had strong media activity but lacked business architecture. The content worked for reach and recognition but was not integrated into a profit-making system.

Strategy goal: transform an influencer’s blog into a systematic business with its own product ecosystem, where monetisation is predictable and does not depend solely on platform algorithms.

You create high-quality content. But does it work as a business asset? Sign up for a consultation — we will show you how to turn content into a revenue stream.

Market analysis

When working with major influencers, you often encounter a paradox: the more free value the audience receives, the more difficult it is to get them willing to pay. 

The VFIT WITH VERA project found itself at this very point. Over 2,000 free workouts created a surplus effect: content was consumed regularly, but did not create a sense of need for a paid solution. Our task was to find the gap between content and the potential to monetise a personal brand.

Market shift: fitness as a “new identity”

The online fitness market is changing rapidly. According to forecasts, by 2035 its volume will reach $433.7 billion, but the key changes are not in the numbers, but in user behaviour:

  • training ceases to be a short-term goal “until summer” and becomes part of your lifestyle;
  • There is growing demand for safe, balanced formats without aggressive marathons and overloads.
  • The audience is not looking for motivational pressure, but stability and predictable results.

In this context, the role of the influencer is changing: from a source of exercises to a guide who helps integrate training into the daily rhythm of life..

The psychology of choice: 5W segmentation and 35+ barriers

An analysis of the VFIT WITH VERA audience showed that 56% of subscribers are in the 35–54 age group (US and Europe). This is the most affluent and conscious segment.

At the same time, we identified key barriers:

  • excessive content without clear logic;
  • lack of a plan showing the path to the result;
  • fear of not keeping up and “falling out” of the process.

💡 Insight: In 2026, people don’t pay for access to information — its abundance on YouTube only creates noise. Customers pay for filtering this noise, for structure, and for the confidence that every movement they make during training brings them closer to their goal.

Benchmarking: YouTube as the top of the funnel

An analysis of international leaders (MadFit, Olivia Lawson) confirmed the key business model of successful influencers: YouTube is not the final point of income.

🟢YouTube as Top-of-Funnel Awareness. It is a powerful tool for attracting cold traffic for free and showcasing your personal brand as an expert. The main goal of the platform is to build trust in the influencer.

🟢The main monetisation of leaders always takes place in closed ecosystems (mobile applications or subscription platforms). There, users get what YouTube does not offer: progress tracking, a training calendar, a nutrition system, and no ads.

💡 Insight: Success in this niche does not come to those who create the “best content,” but to those who create the best context around it. 

The problem with VFIT WITH VERA was precisely the absence of this context — a path that leads the viewer from free viewing to a conscious subscription to the system.

Strategic conclusion: To scale, it was necessary to design an environment in which interaction with the influencer becomes part of the user’s daily routine. Our task was to build a system where Vera’s media popularity translates into a stable financial flow.

Your audience is ready to pay. The question is, is your model ready? Sign up for a consultation with our marketer for a free monetisation analysis and a plan for transitioning to systematic income.

Expert positioning

The analysis showed that the main barrier to monetising the project was not a lack of demand, but rather the vagueness of the author’s role. Therefore, the next step was to establish a clear expert positioning.

20 years of experience as a guarantee of safety

We cemented Vera’s positioning as an expert for mature female audiences seeking a safe, adequate, and long-term approach to training. Vera’s key asset was her 20 years of experience working with the body. In a niche oversaturated with quick transformations and influencers without relevant education, this factor became critically important for the 35+ audience. This allowed us to distance ourselves from mass-market bloggers and raise the brand’s value.

Tone of Voice

For communications, we chose the Soft Power approach — without aggressive motivation, pressure, or promises of instant results. The focus is on:

  • regularity and discipline;
  • approach to training as a tool for maintaining energy and quality of life;
  • Training without staging, at a real pace, with a real body.

This tone of voice helped create a sense of security and stability, which is key for long-term products and subscriptions.

Content ceased to be perceived as separate training videos and began to function as part of a health support system tailored to a woman’s age, physical abilities, and lifestyle. This became the basis for further product strategy and scaling.

💡 Insight: The correct positioning of an influencer feels like “stated obviousness.” We did not create an artificial image — we highlighted the strengths of the personal brand and filtered out everything that prevented the audience from seeing the author as a mentor whose expertise is valuable. 

If the market does not recognise the true value of your product, it’s time to change that!

 Product strategy 

The key challenge of the project was to transform chaotic content consumption into a predictable business. Our task was to build a product line that not only complements the blog, but also monetises trust in the influencer by adding levels of value that are not available in the open access.

It was decided to clearly distinguish between free video content and paid offerings. Our strategy is based on the insight that in 2026, customers will pay not for information, but for noise cancellation.

The paid ecosystem VFIT WITH VERA is based on three elements of expertise monetisation:

  • Navigation — a clear answer to the question “what to do today,” without having to choose from hundreds of videos.
  • Methodological progression — the author’s logic of loads, adapted to achieve a specific result.
  • Support — a sense of belonging to the influencer’s community and a direct connection with a mentor.

LTV formation

One of the most important tasks we faced was to design an architecture that would gradually transition viewers from free content to the paid core of the ecosystem:

  • YouTube: the main showcase for demonstrating the “no water” technique, attracting cold traffic and building initial trust in the personal brand.
  • Challenges & Programmes: paid intensives (7–21 days). This is a “first purchase” tool that gives quick results and introduces users to paid functionality.
  • Weekly System: subscription system — the core of monetisation, which generates a stable cash flow through the daily habit of training with Vera.
  • High-touch formats: programmes with deep personalisation for a loyal core audience that requires direct contact with an expert.

This structure allows you to work with different levels of customer readiness and gradually increase the lifetime value of the user.

Scalability potential

The proposed model significantly reduces the project’s dependence on YouTube advertising payments and shifts the focus to the influencer’s own assets. Even with conservative conversion rates, such an ecosystem allows for scaling revenue without a proportional increase in operating costs.

💡 Insight: In this niche, it is not those who sell individual products who win, but those who form regular habits and integrate them into the user’s daily life.

The product strategy we have developed is aimed at increasing LTV: we don’t just sell content, we monetise the influencer’s long-term presence in the customer’s life.

Content without product architecture cannot be scaled—sign up for a free consultation with a Solve Marketing marketer. We will help you build a system that generates revenue.

Architecture of funnels 

Based on the developed strategy, we moved away from the linear sales model and shifted to building a content ecosystem around the influencer’s personal brand. Its key idea is to create several entry points that naturally lead the user to a regular subscription.

The basic logic of the funnel

YouTube acts as a powerful traffic generator in our system, but the main conversion takes place outside of it:

Step 1. Capturing attention → contact: Clear and useful CTAs appear under each video: a free weekly plan or a simple checklist. This allows you to transfer viewers from the platform to your own database.

Step 2. Warm-up → removing barriers: Through email communication, we explain the methodology and logic behind the loads and work with the audience’s key fears.

Step 3. Conversion → system: The user receives an offer to join a closed subscription system, where training sessions have a clear structure, regularity, and support.

Income diversification

We have established several sources of monetisation so that the business does not depend on a single algorithm or format:

  1. subscription system as the core;
  2. spot challenges and programmes;
  3. YouTube membership for loyal audiences;
  4. partner integrations;
  5. optimised revenue from views.

💡 Result: This architecture allows influencers to scale their income in proportion to their growing recognition, maintaining stability even when platform algorithms change.

Content and SMM 

Our task was to transform the influencer’s activity on social media from scattered posts into a managed system where each platform works towards a financial result. 

At the start, the project’s platforms operated in isolation, with almost no traffic exchange. The main objective of the strategy is to unite YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, where each platform has a clear role in the funnel.

  • TikTok and Reels — engaging a cold audience through short viral formats.
  • YouTube — building trust, habits and expert depth.
  • Instagram — an emotional hub and key platform for sales through Stories, Highlights, and product announcements.

The platforms do not duplicate each other, but reinforce each other, passing the user through the funnel.

💡 Insight: For a successful social media influencer, social networks are a supporting structure of a funnel that accompanies the customer from accidentally watching a short video to purchasing an annual subscription to a product.

We transformed Vera’s role: instead of being a “hostage to content,” the author became the owner of a media system that works to monetise his brand 24/7.

Comprehensive marketing strategy

The strategic phase resulted in a detailed monetisation model, in which each channel, content format, and product has a clear role in generating long-term revenue. As part of the strategy, we reimagined the role of the YouTube channel from a viewing platform to the foundation of an ecosystem that can scale independently of external algorithms. The proposed model reduces dependence on advertising payments by shifting the focus to the influencer’s own assets. 

Strategic backlog and implementation

To implement the proposed model, a step-by-step strategic backlog was formed, which can be implemented both jointly with our team and with the project’s internal resources. The plan covers all the main areas of expert production.:

  • Technical base: platform configuration, email funnel automation, and payment system integration.
  • Content synchronisation: launch of updated publication grids, where each post works towards a common funnel.
  • Product launch: phased implementation of the Weekly System and closed challenges for the current base.
  • Analytics: implementation of a metrics control system at every stage of the customer journey

The VFIT WITH VERA case study demonstrates how strategic production can transform a popular blog into a real business. The developed strategy combines market analytics, the psychology of the 35+ audience, and product architecture that allows capitalising on the influencer’s personal brand without losing credibility.

If implemented, this model creates the basis for transforming the project into a scalable fitness brand with predictable economics and its own product ecosystem.

About Solve Marketing 

We are a team of 35 specialists working at the intersection of marketing, product and analytics. We have  100+ developed strategies for personal brands, start-ups and mature businesses under our belt.

Solve Marketing creates strategic support for companies at various stages:

  • For start-ups and new projects: We lay the foundation — from positioning and market selection to setting up marketing processes without exceeding the budget.
  • For businesses in the active growth stage: We structure the marketing architecture so that scaling is profitable and processes remain manageable.
  • When launching new lines or products: We build a market entry model based on trend analytics, competitor behaviour, and clear advantages.
  • To strengthen the influence on the customer’s choice: We design the logic of interaction with the audience at each stage of the funnel, forming selection factors that work for the brand.

🚀 Ready to turn your ambitions into a system? Sign up for a free strategic consultation. We will analyse your current model and show you how a strategy that brings real results, rather than remaining theoretical, works.