Most of the time, people think that influencers always wait for collaborations to come to them, but the truth is with millions of blogs and influencers on Instagram, it is more and more challenging to become visible to a brand – even if you produce quality content. If a media kit is necessary for a company to get an idea of your demographic, reach and your prices, it is as important not to wait and see but instead be the one going after them to be seen.
Though influencer marketing is becoming more and more used, it is still difficult for brands and influencers to work together. Have you ever received a message from a brand asking you to collaborate on a project you are not the right fit for, or even worse, asking you to work for a price that is not reflecting the amount of work behind the content produced? Or are you finding hard to have brands noticing you? If so, pitching might be the best solution to introduce yourself to a brand, give an idea of the type of collaboration you would like to have with them and then negotiating your price accordingly.
- Â Â Â Make a list of brands you want to work with
Loving a brand doesn’t necessarily make you the right fit for a collaboration. Before trying to contact any company, make a list of some you would love to partner with and have a look at their audience on social media. There is no point to go for collaborations where your audience doesn’t match with their customers right? So, identify their age range and interests first to see if you have the same type of followers. Then, try to find out about the last collaborations they did and the kind of influencers they worked with to see how you can fit. Now you have a more targeted list it is time to lay out a strategy to contact these brands.
- Â Â Â Identify how you could work together
Now you have all your brands and observed how they collaborate with influencers, think about how you could work with them. What makes you special? Are you a skilled photographer? Are you good at engaging with an audience? Are you great at doing Instagram stories? Try to identify what are your strengths and how you can use them for the collaboration. Needless to say that you cannot always play the same cards for all brands. So think about different ways to partner with them.
- Â Â Â Create a collaboration document tailored to the brand
Once you have identified how you could benefit a brand – in the end, a company always value a partnership according to how much profit they will gain from you (don’t forget yourself in the way though) – create a document presenting your collaboration idea. No need to go too much into the details but reading it, they should understand what the collaboration is about, how you would like to execute it and why they should pick you up. Â
Though a media kit is useful to introduce your blog, give a general idea of what you do and your prices, I believe such a collaboration document has good value. It shows the company you did your research, are interested in working with them and most importantly it will help you set your prices and negotiate better. This said, before setting your rates, do your research to evaluate your work correctly. For more resources on collaborations and influencer marketing, I invite you to listen to podcasts like Hashtag Authentic or The Influencer Podcast.
Here are some episodes, I would recommend you to listen to:
Hashtag Authentic
What brands look for in influencers, with Sally Gurteen
How to get press coverage for your online work, with Janet Murray
Navigating the rules & regulations of sponsored content online, with lawyer Pete Lewin
The Influencer Podcast
How to Market Yourself for free and Defining the Micro Influencer with Popsugar’s Kirbie Johnson
How to Partner with Brands from Baublebar Co-Founder Daniella Yacobovsky
How to Get Paid for Being Yourself and Land Free Publicity for Your Business
