You could start thinking about working with a brand when:
- You reach 1,000 followers.
You will still want to increase this number significantly – it won’t be enough for most industries and brands. 5,000 is a more realistic number of followers for brands to take a genuine interest in you.
- Your followers are engaged with you.
- Your posts begin to turn up as Top Posts.
- You have been operating your account on a regular basis for at least six months.
- A small business approaches you.
Typical Early Brand Collaborations
Typical early brand collaborations are usually working with small brands. They can’t afford a marketing budget. However, at the same time, you are building your online reputation with the business community. These early collaborations enable you to build an online portfolio of your work. You can use these first partnerships to your advantage later when its time to work with larger businesses with deeper pockets.
You will probably make your early collaborations in return for the free products. If you like and support the products, you can work with this brand. And the brand will offer free product samples to you in return for your product being featured in a post. These deals can be doubly useful for a beginning influencer. You both receive free products and have ready-made content for your feed.
It is essential that these product posts should be relevant and suitable for your audience. Your followers expect you to be authentic and they will leave you if you make irrelevant or untrustworthy posts.
Ways To Find Brands You Can Work With
You can contact directly a brand they love via a social network mainly on Instagram. On this platform, you are able to talk directly to the brand or the CM who manages the profile. Try to find the opportunities that you can test brand products and do reviews for your fans to grow your audience.
Or you can join some platforms as an Instagram influencer. Although some of the platforms select influencers using an algorithm, many of them encourage people with good social followings to register as an influencer member. Working with a platform means you can avoid many of the brand extensions you need to connect with on Instagram. Each platform has its own customers who are actively looking for influencers. If you meet their criteria, they will be interested in you and contact you through the platform. And there is an article about MARKETING PLATFORMS THAT YOU CAN PARTNER WITH AS AN INFLUENCER.
Negotiation
There is a negotiation process with a brand before you agree on your price in most cases. One way to improve your negotiating position is to be proactive in establishing clear indicators to evaluate the success of any activity. You can use these to demonstrate the value you can offer the brand. You can negotiate a value-based price for each post. One thing that needs to be very clear in your influencer marketing agreement is whether you are bound by any form of exclusivity/non-competition clause. For example, a brand may require that you not represent any of their competitors for a period of time. If a brand needs exclusivity, you should consider that in your negotiations.
