Join me - become an influencer
So you're thinking about becoming an Influencer yourself? Good for you! Below, I've listed some websites which will give you a good start:
I've noticed, by the many questions I receive on my Instagram page and what I've been reading in multiple Instagram groups on Facebook that many starting or aspiring influencer struggle with the same questions. They don't know how to start exactly or how to reach out to brands. Where to put the hashtags, or weither they should accept to pay for shipping costs when collaborating with a brand, etc...
Influencer groups and websites are loaded with people writing sheets and ebooks on how to start as an influencer to sell them to aspiring influencers. As an influencer, I don't believe in working for free (no one likes to work for free), but on the other hand, I think it's not right to have people pay for information that can be found through google or on any influencer's social media pages (like selling lists of brands that are known for working with influencers while those brands always get tagged in sponsored posts, visible for everyone to see), just to make a few bucks. I do believe in helping others. I wanna help people. I wanna help others with building their live and living their dream. That's why I became an influencer in the first place, to help people making decisions when looking to buy something, giving advice about shops and products and to help them decide of a certain product really is worth their money. Pointing people in the direction of the shops that truly value their customers, where a customer isn't just a walking bag of money. And that's why I decided to create this page, for free. My job, as an influencer, is to help others so that's just what I'm here to do! I hope this will help you! Enjoy!
Some tips and tricks:
About your account
First of all, if you have a personal account, make the switch to a business account or the recently added new feature, a creator account. When you have a business or a creator account, you will have acces to your statistics, making it easier for you to track your progress, to see where most of your followers live or to see their age and gender, in case a brand representive ever asks you for these specifics. (And yes, some of them do! 😉) You can also see which of your posts are the most popular ones, so you will be able to create more posts like those.
In case you still want to keep you personal account (I really do recommend a business account though), make sure to set it to public because otherwise, nobody will be able to see your posts, unless you follow them, which is not really convenient if you wanna be an influencer. Seems kinda logic, but I've seen it before! 😉
In case you still want to keep you personal account (I really do recommend a business account though), make sure to set it to public because otherwise, nobody will be able to see your posts, unless you follow them, which is not really convenient if you wanna be an influencer. Seems kinda logic, but I've seen it before! 😉
About the bio area
Make use of the fact that Instagram now supports the use of hashtags and nametags in your bio too. If you're an influencer, you can easily add #influencer, #blogger or #contentcreator or something like that to your bio, making it easier for other Instagram users, or brands looking for influencers to collaborate with, to find you. You will have more space in your bio if you have a business account, so I'm sure there will be quite some hashtags you could add to make sure you will be seen out there on Instagram!
Keep your bio short and professional. You can add emoticons if you like (I did too! 😉) but make sure your bio still looks appealing and easy to read for a much more professional and experienced look.
We're all aware of the short lenght of the bio area on Instagram. It's way too short to tell our followers and fans everything we would like them to tell, so create an extended bio by using a free (or paid) website builder like Weebly to tell your followers some more about yourself, what you do and what you have to offer (that's why I created this website) and add the link to your freshly created extended bio to your page by using the link option or by adding it to your linkinbio links (see below). You can use this website as your media kit and send the link to brands when your looking for collaborations.
Keep your bio short and professional. You can add emoticons if you like (I did too! 😉) but make sure your bio still looks appealing and easy to read for a much more professional and experienced look.
We're all aware of the short lenght of the bio area on Instagram. It's way too short to tell our followers and fans everything we would like them to tell, so create an extended bio by using a free (or paid) website builder like Weebly to tell your followers some more about yourself, what you do and what you have to offer (that's why I created this website) and add the link to your freshly created extended bio to your page by using the link option or by adding it to your linkinbio links (see below). You can use this website as your media kit and send the link to brands when your looking for collaborations.
Always present your followers with a click to react button! But be aware that these buttons can only be added if you have a business account! I added an E-mail button so followers and brands can email me directly from my account. You can also add a phone number or an adress if you like, but in my opinion, that's just a little bit too much personal information to throw on the net just like that, so in the open and there for anyone to see... 😉
Obviously, there's always the DM option, but an email is more personal, real and authentic to me. Besides that, an email can be more specific and detailed, since you only have a limited amount of characters available when sending a DM and personally, when I pitch a company, I just need more space... 😉
By sending an a-mail, you can also immediately attach your media kit, which is convenient for brands because a media kit is making them able to take a look at your stats and links in a blink of an eye.
More info about creating a media kit can be found below!
Obviously, there's always the DM option, but an email is more personal, real and authentic to me. Besides that, an email can be more specific and detailed, since you only have a limited amount of characters available when sending a DM and personally, when I pitch a company, I just need more space... 😉
By sending an a-mail, you can also immediately attach your media kit, which is convenient for brands because a media kit is making them able to take a look at your stats and links in a blink of an eye.
More info about creating a media kit can be found below!
Since you're only able to put one link in your Instagram bio, it's better to use linkinbio, lynx or a similar website (igli.me is a very good one, which I truly recommend. It has a lot of options like adding links and social media icons, creating a faq etc, and has lots of space to write down whatever you want! And it's free! You can check it by clicking the link in my bio) to add multiple links to your bio. That way you still can redirect people to your website, blog, Facebook page, Youtube channel, Twitter page, Pinterest page, recommended webshops or whatever links you would like them to see, all in one place, making it easy for your followers and brands to see what else you have to offer them.
About your feed
I frequently read and heard that the best way to gain followers and to get brands noticing you is by choosing a niche and staying in that niche, but I have to admit I don't follow that rule myself, although it definitely is true. As you can see, my niche is beauty, fashion, lifestyle and health. That is a big spectrum which can include almost everything, which I choose because it made me able to post about multiple things I'm interested in, but the downside is that my page doesn't grow as fast as I wish it would do (and think it should do! 😉) It's better to keep focusing on 1 niche because you will be able to gain followers and attract brands within the same niche, that are genuine interested in your post and they will be more likely to interact with you and less likely to unfollow you again. Those are the followers you need: genuine and real, interested in you and your posts, commited to following you and staying commited too, without unfollowing you after a while.
The key to a beautiful feed is posting beautiful pictures, obviously. A DSLR camera might come in handy, but isn't really necessary for taking quality pictures, since many modern mobile phones nowadays have cameras that are almost equal to DSLR cameras. Just make sure your photos are sharp, bright and taken in broad daylight, rather than to use artificial lights or the flashlight of your camera. Because those tend to make your pictures look darker, less sharp and more yellowish. Or use a softbox with white lightning. Try to create a feel, a theme, and stick with that theme for an uniform feed that is pretty to look at. Almost all my pictures have a splash of pink in them and are all taken with a white or grey background, to create a bright and soft, femimine look. You can see this as your personal signature.
Some people like to create a so called puzzle feed, in which self taken pictures and downloaded pictures or quotes are used to have all the pictures you took yourself on one side of your feed and all quotes, downloaded pictures or even blank pictures on the other side, but personally, I don't really like that method because your feed is cluttered with quotes or downloaded pictures that don't really add anything valueable to your page and you're stuck with a feed showing 3 pictures you actually worked for, shooting and editing them yourself, and 6 pictures with quotes or blank pictures you just happen to have downloaded from the internet somewhere. Puzzled feeds sure can look nice and neat, but they take a lot of time to create too, since you have to publish three posts each time to keep your feed ordered like that. Besides that, it's just not inspiring at all, if you ask me, since a lot of the uploaded pictures aren't your own, but hey, that's just my opinion, obviously! After all, it's your feed and you must be able to do with your feed whatever you like to do with your feed! 😉
Some people like to create a so called puzzle feed, in which self taken pictures and downloaded pictures or quotes are used to have all the pictures you took yourself on one side of your feed and all quotes, downloaded pictures or even blank pictures on the other side, but personally, I don't really like that method because your feed is cluttered with quotes or downloaded pictures that don't really add anything valueable to your page and you're stuck with a feed showing 3 pictures you actually worked for, shooting and editing them yourself, and 6 pictures with quotes or blank pictures you just happen to have downloaded from the internet somewhere. Puzzled feeds sure can look nice and neat, but they take a lot of time to create too, since you have to publish three posts each time to keep your feed ordered like that. Besides that, it's just not inspiring at all, if you ask me, since a lot of the uploaded pictures aren't your own, but hey, that's just my opinion, obviously! After all, it's your feed and you must be able to do with your feed whatever you like to do with your feed! 😉
It's also important to post regularly and consistantly. I try to publish 1 post a day each day and my followers know this. But I'm only human and I sometimes don't succeed in posting daily neither. If you can't post daily, try to publish a new post every other day at least. If you publish 1 post a week or less, many followers will unfollow you because they don't really notice you or your posts, making you easy to forget. In your statistics (if you have a business account), you can check during which hours your followers are most active (based on your previous posts) so it might be worth it to publish not only on a daily base, but also on the same time each day too.
Get your followers to engage with you. Ask them a question in your posts so they can engage with you and answer your question in the comments section.
About hashtags, nametags and swipe ups
You can add up to 30 hashtags a post (use 15 to 20 of them) and, if I'm not mistaken, up to 10 hashtags a story.
The best way to be seen through hashtags is by combining big hashtags (like #beauty or #fashion, hashtags with a counting of a few million posts) with smaller ones (a few hundred or a few thousand) or to use only smaller ones, especially when you're a starter with a small amount of followers. Big hashtags with a large amount of users and followers (yes, you can follow hastags too!) will not likely get you into the discover page or into the top 9 posts, because there are so many posts using them, causing the top 9 to chance very often, while the smaller hashtags have more potential to get you right there, visible for anyone to see your posts and to follow you, because they're not used that often as the big ones.
Think carefully about which hashtags you use because if you use a blocked hashtag, it will affect all hashtags in that perticular post, causing a ghost post, which means your post can not be seen or be found by others.
You can always search google for an app or website to see which hashtags are the most suitable to use on a specific post or to see which hashtags have been blocked by Instagram. You can also check your hashtags for blocked ones by clicking a hashtag in your post and going to the "recent" tab. If you see pictures, the hashtag is okay. If there isn't any picture, the hashtag is blocked. Do this with every hashtag in every post to make sure your hashtags are okay and if you spot any blocked hashtags, remove them from your post immediately! Using blocked hashtags is affecting your whole post!
The best way to be seen through hashtags is by combining big hashtags (like #beauty or #fashion, hashtags with a counting of a few million posts) with smaller ones (a few hundred or a few thousand) or to use only smaller ones, especially when you're a starter with a small amount of followers. Big hashtags with a large amount of users and followers (yes, you can follow hastags too!) will not likely get you into the discover page or into the top 9 posts, because there are so many posts using them, causing the top 9 to chance very often, while the smaller hashtags have more potential to get you right there, visible for anyone to see your posts and to follow you, because they're not used that often as the big ones.
Think carefully about which hashtags you use because if you use a blocked hashtag, it will affect all hashtags in that perticular post, causing a ghost post, which means your post can not be seen or be found by others.
You can always search google for an app or website to see which hashtags are the most suitable to use on a specific post or to see which hashtags have been blocked by Instagram. You can also check your hashtags for blocked ones by clicking a hashtag in your post and going to the "recent" tab. If you see pictures, the hashtag is okay. If there isn't any picture, the hashtag is blocked. Do this with every hashtag in every post to make sure your hashtags are okay and if you spot any blocked hashtags, remove them from your post immediately! Using blocked hashtags is affecting your whole post!
Remember to use nametags and hashtags in your stories too, since Instagram supports nametags and hashtags in stories now. Story hashtags are the perfect way to reach a large amount of people! Use all 10 of the hashtags you're allowed to use and make them that small they can't be seen. These hashtags will still do their work, so your story will still be visible in the hashtag top pages! 😉
Unfortunately, swipe up links in stories are only available for those who have reached a following base of 10k. If you have a following base of over 10k, make sure to use this option, linking the webshop of the brand in your swipe up. Brands appreciate backlinks like these.
Unfortunately, swipe up links in stories are only available for those who have reached a following base of 10k. If you have a following base of over 10k, make sure to use this option, linking the webshop of the brand in your swipe up. Brands appreciate backlinks like these.
Look for influencer communities on Instagram (pages like @bloggersunder10k or @flatlay.today) and nametag them in your pictures for a bigger reach. You can use up to 17 nametags a post if I'm not mistaken.
Many Instagram users are wondering what the best place is to add their hashtags: in the post itself or in the comment section below. In my experience, it doesn't really matter. Hashtags are always visible and will always work when clicking on them, so you can add them wherever you like. Some people prefer to add them to the comment section to make their post more appealing, it's pure aesthetics and it's totally up to you.
About disclaimers
Always create a disclaimer in your sponsored posts, stating it's a sponsored post. I do this by adding the hashtag #ad on top of my sponsored posts, but you can also use #sponsoredpost, #sponsoredcontent, #sponsored, #gifted, #spon or #pr or something similar. If you're hosting a giveaway, always state that the giveaway isn't endorsed or sponsored by Instagram in any way.
About engagement
We all know engagement is a big deal, right?
Some influencers buy followers but that really isn't the way to go. You will have a whole bunch of fake followers (so called bots) that aren't genuine. Brands will notice the spammy and fake comments and will not likely be willing to work with accounts that aren't authentic because these accounts aren't delivering them paying customers. Besides that, you have the chance Instagram will close up your account and you really don't want that to happen, right? 😉
The best way to get a high engagement rate is by engaging with other accounts yourself.
Try to begin or to end your post with a question. People will be happy to respond.
If someone leaves a comment below one of your posts, react to it. Read the comments and try to leave a genuine reaction to all of them.
Follow accounts in your niche (for example: if you're a beauty influencer, search for other beauty influencers to follow) and like and comment on their posts. Don't just put up something like "nice","awesome" or an emoticon, but leave an authentic and genuine reaction, showing that person you've really seen and read their post. Answer their questions, tell them your vision on the products their showing, share ideas or tips, tell them how much you like their clothing, make up, pets, children, environment, etc...
Comments with less than 4 words in it will be marked as spam or fake by the Instagram algorythms, causing the risk to loose both your own account as the account of the influencer you're leaving your comment.
You could join an engagement pod, which are groups, usually found on Telegram, Facebook or WhatsApp, where people are able to share their links after liking and / or commenting on a bunch of previously added links of other users. There are pods for all niches, so you can join pods that has members with the same interests as you. You can even find pods for girls only, in case you're more comfortable with an all girl group. Most pods do have a lot of rules, a whole lot of members and are quite time consuming though, which makes them, in my opinion, not really worth all the time you spend in there. Especially because many comments of pod users still appear to be kinda spammy, even though leaving spammy comments aren't allowed when joining a pod. Besides that, it seems weird to have a whole bunch of comments of people that don't have anything in comment with you or your page.
Real, authentic, genuine and organic engagement is what you really need in order to grow your Instagram page!
Most important: make sure you really interact with people, both on your own account as on other people their accounts and never buy followers! Keeping your account genuine and authentic is very important, not only for you and your page, but also for brands and companies who might be willing to work with you! After all, bought fake followers and bots aren't the clients brands are after, since they will never buy anything and therefor, they have no use for a brand, causing the brand to not be willing to partner up with you!
To check your own engagement, go to Phlanx.com/engagement-calculator. Type your Instagram handle in tbe searchbar and hit the magnifying glass.
Some influencers buy followers but that really isn't the way to go. You will have a whole bunch of fake followers (so called bots) that aren't genuine. Brands will notice the spammy and fake comments and will not likely be willing to work with accounts that aren't authentic because these accounts aren't delivering them paying customers. Besides that, you have the chance Instagram will close up your account and you really don't want that to happen, right? 😉
The best way to get a high engagement rate is by engaging with other accounts yourself.
Try to begin or to end your post with a question. People will be happy to respond.
If someone leaves a comment below one of your posts, react to it. Read the comments and try to leave a genuine reaction to all of them.
Follow accounts in your niche (for example: if you're a beauty influencer, search for other beauty influencers to follow) and like and comment on their posts. Don't just put up something like "nice","awesome" or an emoticon, but leave an authentic and genuine reaction, showing that person you've really seen and read their post. Answer their questions, tell them your vision on the products their showing, share ideas or tips, tell them how much you like their clothing, make up, pets, children, environment, etc...
Comments with less than 4 words in it will be marked as spam or fake by the Instagram algorythms, causing the risk to loose both your own account as the account of the influencer you're leaving your comment.
You could join an engagement pod, which are groups, usually found on Telegram, Facebook or WhatsApp, where people are able to share their links after liking and / or commenting on a bunch of previously added links of other users. There are pods for all niches, so you can join pods that has members with the same interests as you. You can even find pods for girls only, in case you're more comfortable with an all girl group. Most pods do have a lot of rules, a whole lot of members and are quite time consuming though, which makes them, in my opinion, not really worth all the time you spend in there. Especially because many comments of pod users still appear to be kinda spammy, even though leaving spammy comments aren't allowed when joining a pod. Besides that, it seems weird to have a whole bunch of comments of people that don't have anything in comment with you or your page.
Real, authentic, genuine and organic engagement is what you really need in order to grow your Instagram page!
Most important: make sure you really interact with people, both on your own account as on other people their accounts and never buy followers! Keeping your account genuine and authentic is very important, not only for you and your page, but also for brands and companies who might be willing to work with you! After all, bought fake followers and bots aren't the clients brands are after, since they will never buy anything and therefor, they have no use for a brand, causing the brand to not be willing to partner up with you!
To check your own engagement, go to Phlanx.com/engagement-calculator. Type your Instagram handle in tbe searchbar and hit the magnifying glass.
About finding brands to collaborate with and sending your pitch
You have a few options in this one. But first things first, if you're just starting out and don't have a following base, start with reviewing and posting products you already own and tag these brands in your post. If you have some skincare products laying around in the house (we all do), review these first. Let's say you have some products from The Body Shop, just tag them in your pictures so they will notice you and your post. Keep building up your following base, contacts and feed before asking brands to collaborate with you.
If you've build your following base, contacts and feed, it's time to get looking for brands. You can always pitch the big and famous household names, even when you're a beginner and especially when you have a good engagement rate, but why not try some smaller brands first? Smaller brands will be more eager to work with starting influencers and you might really be able to help each other, which is truly satisfying. And you just can keep building your feed, your contacts and your following base that way, untill you're ready to take your influencer game to the next step.
Okay, but how to find brands, you might ask? Well, you could start by checking out the links I provided on top of this page! 😉 These are all influencer platforms or agencies that connect influencers with brands to get them to collaborate together.
I recommend Brandbassador because they work with easy missions the influencer has to fulfill, in order to get paid and those missions are suitable for everyone. They work with brands like Ideal Of Sweden and Happy Plugs and you will have to do missions like "Follow us on Instagram", "Like our Instagram post" or "Comment on our Instagram post" to receive your points, cash or giftcard payments. They also offer some freebies which you can request, usually Ideal Of Sweden phone cases. Cash payments can be transfered to your bank account once you hit Gold Level (after you made 20 sales and a certain amount of points) and giftcard payments can be used to buy yourself a giftcard of one of the participating brands. I have sold over 60 products and earned over $400 in 2 years, just by achieving sales by sharing my personal discount codes, provided by the brands in the Brandbassador app and doing missions. I also managed to receive multiple Ideal of Sweden phone cases, an Ideal Of Sweden magnetic mount ring and an Elie Beaumont watch, totally free of charge, to promote on my Socials. You just have to make sure you will be able to make sales, because without making sales you can't hit the higher levels. If you're not able to make sales, Brandbassador might not be the right app for you!
Another thing I always do is checking the pages of other Influencers similar to my niche and my amount of followers to see which brands they have promoted. Most Influencers have tagged the brand they have worked with so it's easy to connect with these brands. Take a look at the brands IG page and website and send them an email, asking them if they happen to have any collaboration opportunities at the moment. In that email, tell the brand some more about you (who you are, what experience you have etc) and tell them why you think you, your page and your audience is a good fit to the brand. For example, do you, in your daily job, offer similar services to what this brand is offering their clients? Do you have any experience in the services or products the brand is offering? If you are a cook in your daily life and if you happen to be a food influencer too, you might be the perfect person to review or promote a food related product or a restaurant. Or you could discuss making a video while cooking, using an ingredient the brand could offer you. Tell them what you can offer them (your amount of followers, demographics etc), what you can do for them to increase their sales, to grow or to help them to make a name for themselves (just promoting one or more products, creating YouTube video's or IG video's, reviews, unboxing video's, stories, reviews on websites other than your Social Media etc) and on which platforms you can or are willing to do this. If you have a big masterplan, just tell them, they will be happy to hear you are thinking about and along with them! 😉
A full list of brands I have worked with in the past can be found in the menu under Portfolio. Feel free to check it out!
Dare to stand up if you feel like the proposal of the brand is something you could't work with, if it doesn't fit you, your page or your audience! There's a chance you could get another agreement! Don't be afraid to discuss your own terms, wishes and ideas!
In short, it's all about sales, you have to be able to sell yourself in your email and to sell the product(s) you will be promoting to your followers. Don't forget to add all your links, obviously, and your shipping information!
If you're making money with your work and charging a brand when working with you, don't forget to add your ratings too! Some Influencers start charging when they hit 1k followers, but in my opinion that's too soon. I guess you'll have a lot of declined proposals when you start charging that soon because there are a whole lot of Influencers out there, with a similar amount of followers and engagement rate or even more, that are still willing to work for a free product, to build their own brand. I feel like Influencers that are charging at 1k followers, will have a hard time to be taken seriously and I think brands will often think you just want to make easy money. But in the end, you will have to see for yourself when you're ready to start charging brands. However, I do recommend to start growing before charging anything. You can always use an Influencer Ratings Calculator to check how much an Influencer with your reach should be charging a brand. You can find calculators like that by searching Google. For some brands, your following base will not be that important, it all depends on what you're worth when it comes to engagement rate and the amount of influence you really have. I can't really give any more tips on charging a brand, since I'm usually working on a gifting base (free product(s) or service(s) in exchange for your posts and promotions) myself.
If you usually work on a gifting base, like me, tell them some more about working on a gifting base (or a "bartering exchange", like this kind of collaboration is called professionally, and how this works. Most brands are familiar with this kind of collaborations, but smaller brands or brands that are collaborating for the very first time often aren't.
You might also include a media kit to your email, if you have one. And if you don't, this is a good opportunity to make one! ;) You can find lots of examples of Influencer media kits on Pinterest and even easily create one yourself using Canva, like I did. Feel free to take a look at mine. Just click Media Kit in the menu on the left!
Most important: make sure you totally understand the agreement you made and ask questions if you don't! It's better to ask too many questions instead of doing what you think is okay and losing a collaboration opportunity, a good contact you can partner up with again in the future or your professionalism and good name as an influencer!
Okay, but how to find brands, you might ask? Well, you could start by checking out the links I provided on top of this page! 😉 These are all influencer platforms or agencies that connect influencers with brands to get them to collaborate together.
I recommend Brandbassador because they work with easy missions the influencer has to fulfill, in order to get paid and those missions are suitable for everyone. They work with brands like Ideal Of Sweden and Happy Plugs and you will have to do missions like "Follow us on Instagram", "Like our Instagram post" or "Comment on our Instagram post" to receive your points, cash or giftcard payments. They also offer some freebies which you can request, usually Ideal Of Sweden phone cases. Cash payments can be transfered to your bank account once you hit Gold Level (after you made 20 sales and a certain amount of points) and giftcard payments can be used to buy yourself a giftcard of one of the participating brands. I have sold over 60 products and earned over $400 in 2 years, just by achieving sales by sharing my personal discount codes, provided by the brands in the Brandbassador app and doing missions. I also managed to receive multiple Ideal of Sweden phone cases, an Ideal Of Sweden magnetic mount ring and an Elie Beaumont watch, totally free of charge, to promote on my Socials. You just have to make sure you will be able to make sales, because without making sales you can't hit the higher levels. If you're not able to make sales, Brandbassador might not be the right app for you!
Another thing I always do is checking the pages of other Influencers similar to my niche and my amount of followers to see which brands they have promoted. Most Influencers have tagged the brand they have worked with so it's easy to connect with these brands. Take a look at the brands IG page and website and send them an email, asking them if they happen to have any collaboration opportunities at the moment. In that email, tell the brand some more about you (who you are, what experience you have etc) and tell them why you think you, your page and your audience is a good fit to the brand. For example, do you, in your daily job, offer similar services to what this brand is offering their clients? Do you have any experience in the services or products the brand is offering? If you are a cook in your daily life and if you happen to be a food influencer too, you might be the perfect person to review or promote a food related product or a restaurant. Or you could discuss making a video while cooking, using an ingredient the brand could offer you. Tell them what you can offer them (your amount of followers, demographics etc), what you can do for them to increase their sales, to grow or to help them to make a name for themselves (just promoting one or more products, creating YouTube video's or IG video's, reviews, unboxing video's, stories, reviews on websites other than your Social Media etc) and on which platforms you can or are willing to do this. If you have a big masterplan, just tell them, they will be happy to hear you are thinking about and along with them! 😉
A full list of brands I have worked with in the past can be found in the menu under Portfolio. Feel free to check it out!
Dare to stand up if you feel like the proposal of the brand is something you could't work with, if it doesn't fit you, your page or your audience! There's a chance you could get another agreement! Don't be afraid to discuss your own terms, wishes and ideas!
In short, it's all about sales, you have to be able to sell yourself in your email and to sell the product(s) you will be promoting to your followers. Don't forget to add all your links, obviously, and your shipping information!
If you're making money with your work and charging a brand when working with you, don't forget to add your ratings too! Some Influencers start charging when they hit 1k followers, but in my opinion that's too soon. I guess you'll have a lot of declined proposals when you start charging that soon because there are a whole lot of Influencers out there, with a similar amount of followers and engagement rate or even more, that are still willing to work for a free product, to build their own brand. I feel like Influencers that are charging at 1k followers, will have a hard time to be taken seriously and I think brands will often think you just want to make easy money. But in the end, you will have to see for yourself when you're ready to start charging brands. However, I do recommend to start growing before charging anything. You can always use an Influencer Ratings Calculator to check how much an Influencer with your reach should be charging a brand. You can find calculators like that by searching Google. For some brands, your following base will not be that important, it all depends on what you're worth when it comes to engagement rate and the amount of influence you really have. I can't really give any more tips on charging a brand, since I'm usually working on a gifting base (free product(s) or service(s) in exchange for your posts and promotions) myself.
If you usually work on a gifting base, like me, tell them some more about working on a gifting base (or a "bartering exchange", like this kind of collaboration is called professionally, and how this works. Most brands are familiar with this kind of collaborations, but smaller brands or brands that are collaborating for the very first time often aren't.
You might also include a media kit to your email, if you have one. And if you don't, this is a good opportunity to make one! ;) You can find lots of examples of Influencer media kits on Pinterest and even easily create one yourself using Canva, like I did. Feel free to take a look at mine. Just click Media Kit in the menu on the left!
Most important: make sure you totally understand the agreement you made and ask questions if you don't! It's better to ask too many questions instead of doing what you think is okay and losing a collaboration opportunity, a good contact you can partner up with again in the future or your professionalism and good name as an influencer!
About brands that are reaching out to you
Time for some advice! 😉
Many brands on Instagram are offering brand ambassador programs and collaborations in which the influencer "only has to pay for the shipping costs." Or "Will get a special Ambassadors discount." Usually it isn't the brand itself but an "ambassador" or "brand rep" who's reaching out to influencers through a DM or a comment below the influencers last post. Those so called ambassadors / brand reps usually react upon a certain hashtag the influencer used and they automaticly write that same comment on the page of thousands of other influencers that have used that same certain hashtag. These ambassadors / brand reps are usually not even real persons but bots and those pages are created to generate more sales, not to look for influencers. If you still have to pay, even when it's for shipping or with a discount, you're a customer, not an influencer. It's as simple as that. The shipping costs are usually much higher compared to the normal shipping costs and concerning the discounts, deals like that are only worth it when you really want the product and if you were gonna buy it anyway. You might as well get it with discount, right? I spotted one deal (that was on my live feed though, they didn't reached out to me) where I could order a free product with low shipping costs and I felt like that was worth it, so I did, but besides cases like that, it's really not worth your money and your time. If you wanna make it as a real influencer, someone who will be taken seriously by other influencers and brands, you really mustn't accept those! Brands that are familiar with marketing and influencer marketing in particular, will never make their influencers pay for anything because they acknowledge the value of having influencers and that kind of marketing!
Just keep doing what you do and brands will reach out to you with real proposals in no time!
Many brands on Instagram are offering brand ambassador programs and collaborations in which the influencer "only has to pay for the shipping costs." Or "Will get a special Ambassadors discount." Usually it isn't the brand itself but an "ambassador" or "brand rep" who's reaching out to influencers through a DM or a comment below the influencers last post. Those so called ambassadors / brand reps usually react upon a certain hashtag the influencer used and they automaticly write that same comment on the page of thousands of other influencers that have used that same certain hashtag. These ambassadors / brand reps are usually not even real persons but bots and those pages are created to generate more sales, not to look for influencers. If you still have to pay, even when it's for shipping or with a discount, you're a customer, not an influencer. It's as simple as that. The shipping costs are usually much higher compared to the normal shipping costs and concerning the discounts, deals like that are only worth it when you really want the product and if you were gonna buy it anyway. You might as well get it with discount, right? I spotted one deal (that was on my live feed though, they didn't reached out to me) where I could order a free product with low shipping costs and I felt like that was worth it, so I did, but besides cases like that, it's really not worth your money and your time. If you wanna make it as a real influencer, someone who will be taken seriously by other influencers and brands, you really mustn't accept those! Brands that are familiar with marketing and influencer marketing in particular, will never make their influencers pay for anything because they acknowledge the value of having influencers and that kind of marketing!
Just keep doing what you do and brands will reach out to you with real proposals in no time!
Besides the situation I just told about above, working with a brand that reaches out to you, is basically the same as working with a brand that you have emailed yourself.
Always make sure to understand the agreement, ask questions if you don't and keep following the rules of what you agreed on.
Dare to stand up if you don't feel the brand's proposal is a good fit to you, your page or your followers and try to discuss another agreement if possible.
Be professional!
The only difference is the fact that you could send your charging rates right away. If the brand reaches out to you, they're usually willing to pay. (They usually tell you that immediately.) And if they don't, you can always ask for a collaboration on gifting base.
Always make sure to understand the agreement, ask questions if you don't and keep following the rules of what you agreed on.
Dare to stand up if you don't feel the brand's proposal is a good fit to you, your page or your followers and try to discuss another agreement if possible.
Be professional!
The only difference is the fact that you could send your charging rates right away. If the brand reaches out to you, they're usually willing to pay. (They usually tell you that immediately.) And if they don't, you can always ask for a collaboration on gifting base.
About your sponsored post(s) / stories
Once you reached an agreement with a brand and you received the product or services you will be promoting, you can start doing your magic! Do not wait too long to publish your first post (I usually post 2 or 3 posts, a first impression post, an unboxing video to add to my stories and highlights and a review or something like that. My first post is usually published the same day or the day after receiving the package. If I'm really busy, it can take a little bit longer, but I always try to post within the first week) and make sure to keep yourself to the agreed terms. If you have agreed to post only 1 post, try to do this within the week. If you have an agreement for multiple posts, try to publish all your posts within 2 to 3 weeks and definitely make sure to stay in the time span the brand and you'd agreed on. If it's not possible to deliver your post or posts within the agreed time span, make sure to communicate this to the brand. Punctuality and a professional attitude is what seperates you from influencers that are only looking to receive free stuff or hoping to make fast money!
Professionality is the key!
Professionality is the key!
Like I mentioned before, always add #sponsoredpost, #sponsoredcontent, #ad or a similar hashtag to your posts, to keep your authenticity and to make sure your post is legit.
Always deliver what you promise, especially when you are the one who made the first move! Agreed to create multiple posts? Make sure you publish them all within the agreed amount of time. Agreed to use specific hashtags? Don't forget to add them all! And don't forget to nametag the brand in your posts!
Try to keep the quality of your text and pictures as high as possible, even when you're working on a gifting base. I know the brand isn't paying you with actual money in that case, but since you're allowed to keep the product, you still are compensated for your work and you still have an obligation to make towards the brand.
Make sure to check your spelling! We all can make a mistake, it's only human, but even when you're writing in another language, like me (all my posts are in English but I'm Dutch), you can't afford to deliver a sponsored post that is filled with horribly wrong spelled words or text language like brb, ily and words like that, because it simply isn't professional.
Again, professionality is the key!
Try to keep the quality of your text and pictures as high as possible, even when you're working on a gifting base. I know the brand isn't paying you with actual money in that case, but since you're allowed to keep the product, you still are compensated for your work and you still have an obligation to make towards the brand.
Make sure to check your spelling! We all can make a mistake, it's only human, but even when you're writing in another language, like me (all my posts are in English but I'm Dutch), you can't afford to deliver a sponsored post that is filled with horribly wrong spelled words or text language like brb, ily and words like that, because it simply isn't professional.
Again, professionality is the key!
Take a regular look at your posts statistics with the "show statistics" link below your post. Through these statistics, you are able to see how many views your post has generate and how your viewers found your post (homepage, profile, hashtags etc). This is a great way to see your reach per post and to check if your hashtags are still working. Obviously, your other statitics are important too, you better check these regularly also! ;)
If you're writing a review, just be honest. Most brands appreciate honesty and your honesty is what makes you authentic. But publishing a bad review might make you feel uncomfortable and can result in you losing a good contact, so here's what to do: email the brand and ask them which one they prefer: publishing the bad review or not publishing anything at all. But it's always better to discuss this kind of situation with the brand before publishing your post.
About giveaways
Make sure to use a disclaimer, stating your giveaway isn't endorsed or sponsored by Instagram in any way.
If you would like to host a sponsored giveaway, just approach the brand like you would normally do when approaching a brand to discuss an eventual collaboration amd ask them if they might be interested in a giveaway collaboration with you. Discuss the rules all participants should be following when participating in this giveaway (like following you and the brand, tagging some friends, etc...) and the duration of the giveaway and make sure to know weither this will be a national or an internationally open giveaway. If you agree on a giveaway that is open internationally, discuss weither the brand is okay with handling the shipping themselves, saving you from high shipping fees. You could suggest you will pick the winner and ask the winner for their shipping information and after you gathered all the information you need, you will email the brand all the shipping information so they will be able to handle the rest from that moment on.
Another possibility is to collaborate with other influencers to create a giveaway loop, where multiple influencers gather up to create a big price together that followers can win by following all the influencer accounts that are participating in this giveaway loop.
Just send a DM or an email to some influencers in the same niche, with the same amount of followers and engagement as you have, to discuss a collaboration like that.
Just send a DM or an email to some influencers in the same niche, with the same amount of followers and engagement as you have, to discuss a collaboration like that.
The best way to make sure your giveaway will be found and seen by others, is to use hashtags and nametags (think of nametagging some giveaway communities in your post, for example) just like when you create a regular post. And make sure to post about your giveaway regularly (in both posts and stories), like every second day or something like that, to keep your giveaway interesting, fresh and out there to be seen by everyone.
Some last words
The most important things to remember as an Influencer is: always be honest and real and just have fun!
I think I almost covered everything here, but if you have any other questions about how to become a successful Influencer or how to get brands and shops noticing you, don't hestitate to contact me through the contact page or the icons listed below!