How To Get Started As An Influencer
If you’ve been following me for any amount of time then you know it is a passion of mine to encourage other women to crush their goals. If by chance one of your goals is to start earning money by sharing your favorite products online, then this post is for you! I’ve taken a handful of influencer courses as well as developed my own strategies for working with brands and I am ready to share all the best tips with you.
First, think of being an influencer as a real business. You should have a mission statement, some branding guidelines, and a platform. None of these things have to be extensive, but it will help you to lay these things out before reaching out to brands.
Example mission statement - “I share because I want to advise and encourage other women.” Sound familiar? ;-)
Example branding guidelines - a creative but succinct social media handle, go to colors and fonts for posts, a logo (optional), and a short list of niches that you naturally fit in that brands you work with should also naturally fit in. For example, my list includes things like “feminine” and “natural.”
Example platform - What is the primary place you plan to share? For me it’s my blog and my secondary platform would be Instagram. Knowing where you are strongest today will help you pitch to brands and plan for growth in the future.
Next, it’s important that your feed not be just products. You should post from an authentic place and no one is selling 100% of the time. Don’t be afraid to share your real life in your feed! When you are ready to post products, remember that the best partnerships will be with products you are already using. Start with posting good quality photos or reviews of some of your current favorite products. This will give you practice and something to show brands when it’s time to pitch.
Speaking of pitching to brands I suggest going about this two ways:
Use a tool like Impact Radius. You can create an account and easily find brands in their marketplace to work with. You can create special links that will track your click throughs and you can get paid from brands through the Impact platform.
Cultivate your own partnerships. You’d be surprised how many online businesses have an influencer or partner program. If there’s a brand you’d like to work with, check their website for an application. Also, don’t forget about your local businesses! They may not have a program in place but I have found that many are open to some kind of content partnership. This way can be a little more time intensive but the payoff is usually better.
Speaking of payoff, be advised that you will not immediately start out making money. It is very common for brands to want to trade product for your content. This is perfectly fine to do in the beginning as you are building your following. You will eventually work your way to a place where you can justify asking for commission (where you get paid a percentage of the sales you drive) and/or sponsored posts (where you get paid for your content, not based on your sales). Once you are getting paid directly for your content, there are so many add-ons you can offer.
Example add-ons:
Does the brand want to create a package with more than one type of post? There are feed posts, reels, stories, shares to groups, etc.
Does the brand want to have a recurring partnership? Weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
Does the brand want to buy some extra photos or graphics directly from you that they can use in their marketing?
Is the brand interested in letting you do a social media “take-over” of their accounts for a day?
Is the brand interested in an appearance fee or having you cover an in-person event?
There are so many creative possibilities and it never hurts to ask!
Lastly, if you really want to stand out to brands I highly suggest making a media kit. Your media kit should be eye-catching, informative and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Your media kit should include a little about you, your mission, your current demographics, statistics, your rates, and some case studies. You can see my sample media kit here.
I surely did not cover everything there is to know about influencer marketing, so feel free to contact me here or through social media with any questions. If influencer marketing is a goal of yours, know that you absolutely can do it! If you’re already working in this realm, keep at it! Just remember that you are more than your results. Just because a brand says no or a post doesn’t go over well, does not mean you aren’t a totally fabulous human being doing cool things!
XO - Olivia
