How To Work With Brands as a Micro-Influencer
I’ve done lots of influencer tips and advice on my Instagram stories and on TikTok lately, and last year I recorded this video detailing the ins and outs of brand partnerships but I really haven’t sat down to write this post, the official “I wanna work with brands” post. I was excited to put together this complete guide walking you through what it’s like to work with brands as a micro-influencer whether you’ve been blogging for a few years or you’re just starting out.
When should you reach out to brands?
Now more than ever brands are excited about working with micro and nano-influencers. To give you a ball park, Nano influencers typically have between 1-10k followers on Instagram and micro-influencers typically have between 10-50k followers on Instagram, but you can use the term micro-influencer as an umbrella category for all of them. Sometimes I get the question, “how big should my audience be before I reach out to a brand?” and the truth is that if you have 1,000 Instagram followers and quality content that is probably all you need to start working with brands. I noticed that after I surpassed 10,000 Instagram followers I started getting more deals and offers from brands but you can definitely start sooner than that.
Types of partnerships
In terms of different ways you can work with brands, there are a ton of ways that you can build relationships and credibility with brands that don’t involve a traditional sponsored post. Here are a few things you can work towards doing at any size:
Getting on a brand’s PR list
You could get sent products, new launches, and more from the brand for editorial consideration, meaning you have no formal agreement to post about the products you receive but you can test them out and if you decide to you can share them with your audience. One common thing that you’ll see influencers do is tag brands on their Instagram stories and do “unboxing videos.” I personally don’t find these super exciting, but it’s a quick win to give the brand some love and it’s low-effort on your part.
Instagram Story Takeovers
I’m honestly surprised more influencers don’t suggest this to brands! If you’re a small creator I think it’s a win-win because the brand is likely bigger than you so you get exposure and the brand gets free content created for them by someone who knows what they’re doing. If you’re bigger than the brand and you’d be doing them a huge favor by doing a takeover, that’s where I would suggest charging for that.
Affiliate Partnerships
An affiliate partnership is where the brand gives you a code or a link and you can eearn a small commission if your audiences makes a purchase through that link. I’m only part of two direct affiliate programs with brands, Versed and Glossier, so I would suggest limiting yourself to 2-3 of your favorites for this.
Gifting Campaigns
You should accept a gifting campaign if it means that you: 1. get a product you really want, 2. want to build a longer term relationship with a brand, or 3. you are a smaller influencer who hasn’t had much experience partnering with brands and you want to build a portfolio of your work. Be wary of gifting campaigns where you feel like you’re being taken advantage of.
Paid Brand Collaboration
Finally, Austen! You’ve gotten to the good stuff. This is the dream type of collaboration you want to land where you have clear deliverables and work on a paid partnership with the brand.
Create Content For Brands
Last thing is if you ever reach out to a brand and they tell you you’re “too small,” you can always offer to create content for them to share with their audience for a set rate. They can tag you for credit and you can build a relationship that way if they like your work.
How to find opportunities
There are three different ways to secure brand collaborations. First, a brand could email you directly (make sure you add your email to your IG bio in the written description, not just with the email button as lots of brands search on desktop). Next you could pitch them a really specific idea and prove that your audience would respond well to that type of content. For all the details on nailing a brand pitch, you can check out my e-book. And finally you can apply to a campaign through an influencer platform. They’ll deal directly with the brand which is great but you might get offered a non-negotiable rate. Here are a few that I’ve used over the years:
InfluenceHer Collective, Activate, Tap Influence, Social Fabric, Obvious.ly, Fohr, AspireIQ, Cohley
Reaching out to brands
go to their website and look for a press, contact, or about page. Even a general email might give you a hint about email format but you’re looking for a PR or influencer email
check their Instagram bio or Facebook page for an email address
look for PR or marketing people on LinkedIn and try to connect with them or search for their email
join some blogging Facebook groups and build a network of other bloggers who might be able to swap contacts with you
Payment advice
I started blogging in 2012 and got my first paid brand partnership in 2015 so don’t worry if you’re just starting out and you haven’t landed a paid deal yet! A few things I’d do for brands that say they can’t pay you or can’t meet your rate:
Ask for feedback! Maybe your following isn’t large enough or they just ran out of budget.
Ask to circle back next quarter as budgets often reset then
If you are excited to work with a brand you could try working on a gifting project with them and then have the chance to wow them
Ask to switch the deliverables to something they can pay for. If they can’t afford a YouTube video maybe you can do some Instagram stories
What to avoid in brand deals
There are some definite red flags for me when brands reach out and want to work together and I’d love to do a longer post on this at some point but in general any brand that tries to send you exact word-for-word copy for an Instagram caption, that calls you “dear” or just uses your Instagram handle in an email, or brands that want you to be ambassadors before you’ve even tried their products are all ones to avoid in my book.
Okay that was a long one! I hope you found it helpful.
yours,
Austen