Do you consider yourself an influencer? Perhaps you have only a few thousand followers, but they’re extremely loyal to you. (That actually makes you a micro-influencer, but an influencer none-the-less.) However, at times, a loyal following of 2,000 can make your influence just as powerful as a macro influencer who might have 150k followers. And with loyal followers waiting to engage with anything you post, it can potentially turn into a source of revenue when you partner with the right brand. So, how do you secure these deals?

For those who don’t know much about me besides the fact I suffer from a chronic illness, I also am a new mom and run my own small marketing business. I’ve been on both sides of representing brands and accepting partnerships for my own brand. This reason alone is why I want to give out a few pointers on how to secure a partnership with a brand that will have lasting results for everyone involved.  

Do You Have a Media Kit?

This is important from a company perspective. If you’re expecting several hundred dollars from a brand to pay you to post, make sure you have an up to date media kit. Also, make sure that media kit is robust with data points and is professionally put together. This is an opportunity to sell yourself and your brand, so ditch the screenshots, guys.

Companies are pitched by micro influencers regularly, so it’s important that you can share why you’re the person to partner with by showcasing your website/social traffic, engagement and other selling points in a well-constructed document.

Know Your Audience

During my career in public relations, it was always important that if I were to pitch a reporter, I knew their beat (i.e. topic focus.)  It would be insulting to pitch the health reporter with a story about fashion. Why? Because it shows that you didn’t take the time to do any research and that you’re okay with wasting their time. Reporters are busy, receive several pitches a day, and if you’re wanting them to write about your client, it’s important to get straight to the point.

I believe that this principal is pretty similar in all business and definitely goes hand-in-hand when pitching a brand to work with you. If you’re asking for $500 for a post, you should be able to easily showcase that your audience would be a customer of the brand in which you’re pitching. Be prepared to share demographics and interests.

Back-Up Your Stats

Engagement is great and a lot of the time large companies will be happy to pay for low cost brand awareness. However, if you’re looking to build long-standing partnerships with mid-size brands, you’ll need to back up your engagement stats.  It’s great that you receive 1000+ likes on a post. You’re clearly doing something right. However, proving that those “likes” turned into conversions is what a company will want to see.

If you’ve previously worked with another brand, make sure to create a detailed report on how that campaign was successful.

When I sift through brand partnership requests, I want to see evidence that purchases were made from a post, that people clicked to my client’s website via an affiliate link, etc. It’s up to you to gather all of your previous data and include it in your pitch to a company.

Too many times do I feel like influencers make up a dollar amount for a post without being able to back it up with conversions and the ROI a company will receive after working together.

Nurture the Relationship

Ask yourself this, are you looking to work with a brand for some quick cash or are you wanting to create a long-term partnership that will continue to grow into new opportunities?

There are a lot of influencers out there who will literally work with any brand just to make some extra cash. To each their own, but you start losing credibility down the line when you “believe in” any product thrown your way. Especially if they’re in the same industry.

If you’re wanting to grow as an influencer, you’ll want to not only build trust with your audience but partner with a brand for the long haul. Choose a brand that you’re passionate about and that your audience will be passionate about as well.

It might start off as an affiliate deal, but as time goes on and you show your value to a brand, it could develop into paid posts, giveaways, paid emails, etc. on top of the affiliate program you’ve been promoting. Thus, creating a substantial increase in revenue for you over time- rather than that $200 one off post.

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Navigating the world of affiliate/influencer relationships is still in its infancy. As this avenue of marketing continues to grow and people strive to be influencers in various topic areas, it’s important for a new up and coming influencer to be able to make a claim on why they’re worth a company spending their marketing dollars on them.

Because who knows, the next brand you pitch could not only be your meal ticket but the start of a long and fruitful relationship.