Have you been following social media influencers for a while? Do you want to create content that your audience loves but that also pays you? Consider how you can become an influencer yourself without sacrificing your credibility or trust. Here are a few tips for beginner and experienced influencers.
Find Your Niche
Before you can become an influencer, you need to have a niche. Your niche is the industry or topic you focus on when it comes to influencer marketing. Niches can cover anything from beauty and fashion to technology and coding.
Consider what you already post about and if your posts fall under a certain topic. If you post about a bunch of topics, see if you can narrow your content to one or two.
Be Consistent
Once you decide on your niche, you should start posting content related to it. You will need to post content for a while to build your audience and to build trust and credibility. Create a schedule and plan out posts ahead of time.
Then, you can make sure the content is good quality and that you feel good about posting it. But you can also avoid posting just to post. You don’t have to post every day, but your followers should have some idea of when to expect new content from you.
Engage with Others
After you post new content, be sure to respond to any comments or messages you get. Try to respond with something thoughtful to make your followers feel seen and valued. This is especially important when you still have a smaller audience.
You can also engage with other accounts in your niche and their followers. Leave comments and messages, and like a few of their posts. That way, you can get your name out there and perhaps gain new followers.
Brainstorm Brands
One of the most important parts of influencer marketing is the trust you have with your audience. You should use that to your advantage when you’re ready to partner with a brand. Make a list of brands that you love and use already, or that you’re willing to try.
Narrow the list to brands relevant to your niche, such as cosmetics if you focus on beauty. Then, you can add to that list whenever you find out about another brand in the industry. Whenever you’re ready to pitch yourself, you can use that list for companies to email.
Consider Your Rate
Next, you should figure out how much money you can make from a brand deal. Some factors that can affect your rate include your audience size, your engagement rate, and the platform you use or the type of content you create.
You may also want to consider how much money you want to make as an influencer. If you have the goal of refinancing your house, set a goal to help you can earn what you need to make that a reality.
Start Pitching
Once you have a list of brands to work with and have an idea of your rate, you can start pitching. Make your email to each brand individual to that company. Include what you like about their product or service and how you can help them as an influencer.
Focus on how they will benefit rather than just how you’ll make money. Send pitches to as many brands as you can to increase the chances of getting a brand deal. And at first, be willing to negotiate your rate to get some experience.
Sign a Contract
When you land your first brand deal as an influencer, it can be exciting. But before you start creating content, make sure that you and the brand sign a contract. The contract should cover the content you will need to create and when and how you will deliver the content.
You should also make sure the contract outlines your payment amount and payment terms. That way, you can have something to reference if the brand doesn’t pay you on time, or if they have other issues.
Spread Out Your Brand Deals
Even if you get a lot of brand partnerships, you should try to spread them out between your organic content. If all you do is sponsored content, you can lose some of the trust and relatability with your audience.
Then, your engagement rates may drop, and you may lose followers. That could also mean you aren’t able to charge as much for brand deals in the future. No amount of money is worth losing the trust that you’ve worked so hard to build as an influencer.
Whether you have hundreds of followers or millions, you can take advantage of influencer marketing. Then, you can make money promoting things you love. But make sure you do love what you promote and that you won’t damage your reputation for the sake of money.
Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Lindsey Patterson.