Brands That Work With Small Influencers
One thing I often hear over and over again from micro-influencers is that they think they’re “too small” to work with brands. These days if you have even a few hundred or one thousand Instagram followers who care about what you have to say, you might be someone who a brand wants to work with. Don’t believe me? Read this piece I wrote for Huffington Post about campaigns that nano-influencers have worked on.
To help you identify which brands that work with small influencers I made a list of brands that I’ve worked with in the last year. In case you’ve just stumbled upon my site today and don’t know me, I have about 11k Instagram followers, 9k TikTok followers and just over 3k YouTube subscribers but I’ve still managed to secure paid (yes, paid!) deals with brands that I love and was excited to work with. If you want even more tips for how to work with brands as a micro-influencer I have another post about that too.
To be clear, I’m not saying that all of these brands work will small creators all of the time. Maybe they were testing working with micro-influencers and then they went back to paying mid-tier and mega influencers or maybe it was for a one-off product launch or very specific campaign. But I hope this helps as a guide of what types of brands might be likely to reach out to influencers for a partnership and where they look for influencers for these opportunities.
Brand: Gleem
Category: Wellness
Posting platform: Instagram + TikTok
How we got connected: the brand reached out to me via email
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Sephora @ Kohl’s
Category: Beauty
Posting platform: Pinterest
How we got connected: the brand reached out to me via email through an agency
View the post on Pinterest
Brand: Country Life Vitamins
Category: Wellness
Posting platform: Instagram
How we got connected: I asked the agency that reps them if they had any active campaigns
View the post on Instagram
Brand: HelloFresh
Category: Lifestyle
Posting platform: Instagram
How we got connected: they reached out to me on AspireIQ
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Bandelettes
Category: Fashion
Posting platform: TikTok
How we got connected: they reached out to me via email
View the post on TikTok
Brand: Glossier
Category: Beauty
Posting platform: YouTube
How we got connected: the brand reached out to me via email
View the post on YouTube
Brand: Vitabrid C12
Category: Beauty
Posting platforms: IGTV, Instagram stories and blog
How we got connected: an agency that represents the brand reached out to me
View the post on IGTV
Brand: IGK Hair
Category: Beauty
Posting platforms: Instagram feed and stories
How we got connected: I applied to this campaign through Obvious.ly
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Jones New York
Category: Fashion
Posting platforms: Instagram feed and stories
How we got connected: a friend of mine who works for an agency representing the brand reached out
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Rael
Category: Beauty
Posting platforms: Instagram feed, Instagram stories, and a non-dedicated YouTube video
How we got connected: a friend of mine who was running an influencer campaign for the brand reached out
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Sorel
Category: Fashion
Posting platforms: Instagram feed and stories with in-person event attendance
How we got connected: the brand collaborated with a publication and someone from there reached out to me
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Joy
Category: Personal care
Posting platforms: Instagram feed and stories
How we got connected: I applied to this partnership through the InfluenceHer Collective
View the post on Instagram
Brand: Verizon
Category: Tech
Posting platforms: Instagram stories
How we got connected: Someone from Fohr reached out to me about this campaign
Brand: CVS Beauty
Category: Beauty
Posting platforms: Instagram feed, stories and blog
How we got connected: I applied to this partnership through Obvious.ly
View the post on my blog
Brand: HelloFresh
Category: Food
Posting platforms: Instagram feed and stories
How we got connected: they reached out to me through AspireIQ
View the post on Instagram
I’d like to add that since I started my full-time job last fall I have not been pitching brands as frequently as I used to, so in previous years more of these deals would have come from me reaching out directly. (But I’m always here to help you with pitching, don’t forget to check out my e-book!)
After I hit the 10k mark on Instagram I definitely noticed an uptick in emails that I received from brands and agencies asking about collaborations but many of them are still gifted collaborations, which I rarely take on unless I’m obsessed with the brand and see potential for a paid opportunity later on.
Speaking of that, don’t forget to put your email in your Instagram bio and not just in the email button. Lots of marketing managers scout for campaigns on desktop and you’ll save them a step by having your email ready to copy and paste into a note for you.
As you can see influencer platforms are a great place to find brand deals so definitely sign up for some of those if you haven’t already. If you want to work with certain brands you may also want to make connections about the agencies that represent them (more on that in this blog post). Also three of these brand deals came from personal connections of people who I’ve met so be sure you’re constantly networking and trying to form connections with people who you want to get to know better. Are you regularly reaching out to form connections with the people who work at brands so that when there is an opportunity you’re top of mind? Keep challenging yourself to make more connections, say hi, and create content that brands have to take notice of.
I hope this was helpful and feel free to explore the site for more posts about blogging and pitching.
yours,
Austen