Getting sponsored brand deals as an Instagram influencer is surely one of the dream jobs for many. And why not, who doesn’t like to get paid and earn money for doing what they love on Instagram. But persuading a brand to get a paid promotion deal is a task in itself. In this article, I’ll clear the fog around how to get well-paid sponsored brand deals on Instagram for paid promotions. Before that, let’s have an overview at Influencer marketing and its potential.
Influencer marketing as a profession
Influencer marketing has now become the most popular and authentic way of popularising one’s business and increasing brand awareness.
Instagram Influencers have grabbed the attention of the world in such a way that they are considered no less than a celebrity. People are always excited to know what is going on in their lives, what products they are using, and which brand they trust the most.
This is the reason why business and marketing people trust them more than any other source to popularise their products.
Small businesses are attaining the maximum benefit through influencer marketing.
People spend more time on their phones stalking their favorite influencers than on television. So, it hardly matters if you are not able to get the ad for your product on television.
Every Instagram Influencer is creative in his/her own way. And earning money through your creation is like a cherry on the cake.
You create content that you like and if some brands or companies find your account worthy enough, they will offer you a brand deal.
People have this misconception that only people with millions of followers can earn through sponsored deals, but it is not true. Even if you have 5k to 10k well-engaging followers you can still compete in the race.
There are various things Instagram Influencers need to focus on to get Instagram sponsors.
We should probably jump to the real questions now.
What does it take to get sponsors as an Instagram influencer?
It is self-understood that with millions of followers, you don’t need to put so much effort. The paid sponsorship deals will eventually land in your footsteps. Brands would approach you and would love to work with you with open arms.
But it is not the same case if you belong to the segment of a few thousand followers.
Below are a few suggestions that will help you land high ticket sponsored deals from reputed brands for paid collaboration on Instagram.
Change to a creator Instagram profile and work on optimizing it
Switching to a creator profile must be the first step toward getting a brand deal as an Instagram Influencer. It makes you look professional and serious about the work you do.
Brands will take you seriously, spend their time looking at your feed and eventually end up offering you a sponsored deal.
Doing this will help you evaluate your post-performance, followers’ activity, and audience insights.
Here’s how you should work on optimizing your Instagram profile:
- Choose a suitable and catchy username. Pick your name if it’s available. Avoid using dots or underscores in your username.
- Put up a good-looking and attractive profile picture.
- Fill your bio with relevant information about your niche, profession, location, expertise, etc.
- Mention your contact information and how brands should contact you. Add the necessary details like your email address, website, or even your contact phone number if you want.
Share high-quality content
Being an Instagram Influencer and content creator requires you to create an aesthetic and presentable Instagram feed.
No brand will ever be interested in collaborating with someone whose feed is full of their own selfies.
You need to create content similar to the brands you are willing to collaborate with. If you are interested in some fashion, clothing, or fitness brands, try to align your content accordingly.
Read these 13 tips to get more views on Instagram reels organically.
Bring the essence of what they are selling on your own Instagram feed and you will become their topmost choice.
Brands are always keen to work with someone who is consistent and is always in the public eye.
Build an engaging community of audience with a good engagement rate
Having a good number of genuine followers with an amazing engagement rate is what brands dig for from an Instagram Influencer.
After all, all they want is maximum exposure for their brand.
If you have a good number of engaging followers on your page, you can ask brands to collaborate with you on your desired commercials.
Any brand would be willing to pay to collaborate with an influencer who can get the most eyes on their business.
Work on improving your followers’ count and engagement rate and you can land sponsored deals with any brand.
In general, a 5% – 10% engagement rate is considered good.
I work with many influencers, content creators, and celebrities and help them boost their Instagram performance. Brands usually love to work with them because of their amazing engagement rate and consistent follower growth.
Check out my Instagram management services if you want to boost your Instagram performance organically.
Prepare a media kit
An influencer needs to have a media kit. But what is a media kit?
A media kit, also known as a press kit, is like a portfolio that contains your key information as an influencer.
It could include the services you offer, the details of your social media accounts, your social media insights, contact info, sample work, previous collaborations, commercials, etc.
Basically, everything you would like to highlight about yourself and the info that a brand should have to collaborate with you.
Mediakit makes it easy for you to present yourself to the brand very effortlessly. Just hand over your media kit and they will have all the details they need.
Avoid fake engagement
One thing that brands don’t want from influencers is fake engagement on their page.
Not only does that make the brands distrust you, but it also affects the overall performance of your Instagram page.
Your engagement would drop drastically and it would be very unlikely for you to get any sponsored deals in the future.
Worst of the worst, Instagram could disable your profile for suspicious practices and you could lose all the progress you made so far.
So, avoid fake followers, likes, comments, and views and focus on genuine interaction to grab a brand’s attention.
How to find brands to get sponsored deals on Instagram?
The next important question that arises is how to find brands to ask for paid collaboration on Instagram.
To find a suitable brand, you have to reach out to a brand and offer something that would benefit them.
It could be content for their social media, exposure to their target audience, sales of their products, or anything that directly benefits their business.
Many affiliate portals and PR companies offer collaboration opportunities and help influencers connect with the brands.
The drawback is that the payout is not that good as you have to split your revenue with those PR companies.
Some alternate solutions you can try to find brands to collaborate with:
Influencer marketplaces
Upfluence, SocialBakers, Hyprbrands, etc are some of the websites where content creators and brands meet.
These websites specialize in bringing both sides together. You just need to sign up and apply for brand campaigns.
Brands themselves come there to find a suitable influencer to partner with.
Attend events
Brands organize promotional events for new products, brunches, and conferences several times a year.
If you attend such events, you can get acquainted with the right person and lay a foundation for your future brand collaboration.
Whether or not how the conversation goes, this will help you when you are drafting an email to the brand.
Marking your presence at events will show your genuine interest in the brand.
Interact with brands on social media
The best way to get a deal with brands is to directly get in touch with them. Reach out to them in the most genuine way possible.
Bombing them with DMs usually goes unnoticed. But here is something you can do.
Start with small brands and interact with them. Like their pictures, leave meaningful comments, and make a genuine connection.
Try to get the attention of small start-ups as much as possible. Ask them for the opportunity to collaborate and sponsored paid partnership. Simultaneously, work on growing your Instagram account.
You can create relevant content for the start-up brand. Tag them in your post. And eventually, you will be on their radar.
We all have heard about “Slow and steady wins the race”. It’s relevant here as well. Don’t jump to the big brands directly.
Send professional e-mails to do paid collaborations with the brands
There is no shame in reaching out to the brands you want to work with.
Be highly professional. A lot of brands appreciate e-mails rather than DMs on social media accounts.
E-mail telling them why you love their brand? why you are a great fit for their brand? and what you can offer to them in collaboration?
You can draft your own email pitch or easily find Instagram sponsorship email templates anywhere online.
Keep your e-mail pitch concise, and to the point, and always follow up.
What to expect as payment from brands?
Influencers who are newcomers to entering this business or collaboration world should not expect to become rich in the early days.
Try and create your portfolio even if you have to do some promotions for free.
As soon as you have enough experience in your bag and a nice portfolio to showcase, you can start demanding your worth for paid partnerships. After that, increase your fees one step at a time.
Things to consider:
- Not All brands pay a large amount of money.
- Do consider your social media insights and your audience’s demographics before setting up a demand.
- Use tools like “Instagram Money Calculator” to keep a check on the market rates as to what influencers are getting paid.
The standard payment structure for paid promotion is $10 or 500 – 700 INR per 1000 followers but may vary as per the above-mentioned points.
Drafting a Partnership Agreement for paid promotions
Usually, brands have a standard contract in place which covers all the required points for any paid collaboration.
But you as an influencer should also be aware of all these points so as to not fall for any disadvantage or ambiguity later.
A majority of these points are like any other legal agreement.
Here are some important points that you should consider mentioning in your sponsorship agreement:
- Under what format do the posts have to be.
- How many posts would have to be made and in what time frame?
- How much creative freedom is allowed to you as an influencer.
- Who will own the copyright over the created content?
- About the exclusivity as to if the brand does not want to combine its post with any other product/competitor.
- How is the brand going to pay you?
You can find many drafts of the sponsorship agreement online. If not, join my exclusive Facebook group and ask other well-known Instagram influencers and content creators how they are drafting their promotion and advertising agreement.
Make sure to adhere to the contract regarding the delivery of the content. Needless to say, this is also mentioned in the agreement.
Conclusion
Being an Instagram Influencer and earning money seems to be fun but is a tricky task.
You hardly get any sponsored deals with fewer followers and a low engagement rate. It surely requires a bit of hard work to get sponsors for paid collaboration.
You need to create content according to the style of your brand. You need to be very proactive. Lack of consistency can lose you a great deal.
Be both active and interactive to get the attention of the brands.
Create every scenario possible to draw their interest toward your account. Reach out to them yourself, have a media Kit, tag them in your post and you will be on their list of collaborations.
Payment structure and partnership agreement are also as important as the points which help you fetch a deal.
Once all this is done, try to be creative in your promotional posts which will help in bringing value to the brands.
The more people they reach with you, the more money they can make, and the more you can demand next time. Everything is directly proportional.
