Understanding paid collaboration as an Influencer

If you have been following me from past few weeks, then you know that I have been sharing how to work with Brands. “Understanding paid collaboration as an Influencer” is the continuation of this series. Take a look!

Understanding paid collaboration as an Influencer

Brand Collaborations are majorly based on Instagram as Instagram has become one of the top marketing platform, where each and every brand are trying to establish themselves.

After the last week’s post, people started asking “how many followers do I need to have on Instagram to start getting paid collaboration?. But, firstt I want you to understand, who is an Influencer.

An Influencer is someone with the power to influence many. In this case, we are talking about Instagram. Brands value an Instagram account based on their market reach. An account’s reach is based on how many people are following and mostly based on how much engagement (like, comment and share) the account has on a regular basis. As everyone says Instagram “algorithm” favors the more engaged posts!

To start working with brands, it’s not mandatory to have a huge following. But it’s necessary to have followers with a good engagement. So that you can show brands that you are worth the collaboration. Be transparent with the brand, you can always share the reach of your account by showing the insights. Like the number of impressions and engagement rate of your Instagram account.

Once you get a better experience in barter collaboration, don’t stay in it. I can’t give a appropriate number of followers you should have to start paid collaboration. But once you are ready and confident that you can bring in some value to the brand. Then it’s time to start asking to pay.

Now that you are confident to go ahead with paid collaboration, you can say “no” for the barter collaborations. It’s more like a step by step process. Then just ask the brand, “May I know if you have a budget for the collaboration”. Definitely, you should be ready for a lot of “no”. Show the brands your value like insights and your previous work.

Here are the points for understanding paid collaboration as Influencer:

Brand always have money and budget to pay:

If the brand wants to sustain in this era, they need to advertise/promote. It’s a mandatory process for them. So they are definitely having budget for it. Only thing is that you are not asking for it.

Know how much one recipe/post costs you:

If you are making a recipe/content for the brand, consider all the ingredients costs, time to create the content, effort you put in. Write down the costing for each and everything. We usually miss out to add value for time. But people who are working out there are charging per hour. Creating content from scratch takes a lot of time and effort from planning a recipe to presenting the final picture.

Have a breakdown of price:

Split the work and price it accordingly. There are multiple requirements for brands, so always have a breakdown. Based on the time and effort spent to create a content, split it up.

Show samples of your previous work:

Always have some of the previous content to show as samples. That may be previous brand project or your own projects. Show them the best you have done till date.

Form a close circle of friends who will help:

We feel bad to connect with influencers in same niche. Literally we treat them like enemies, because thinking they might grab your clients! But it’s good to have few close friends in same niche, so you can always consult with them before finalizing the rates. Remember there might be a difference in their work and reach of their Instagram.

You are hurting others:

Yeah, but not intentionally! When influencers with 10,000 followers are ready to do barter, then why will brands pay to other influencers who has a less following. Brands will not turn up to others for paid collaboration. So know your value and act accordingly.

The above said are from my experience and I am no expert in this field yet! When in doubt, I also connect with few other bloggers for help. I speak with Anjali, baker behind bakesalotlady blog, she helped me with few points to add here! You can also catch her up on Instagram.

Like I said in my previous post, few months back Mike Johnson on Instagram spoke about how to get paid. Few points from his inputs.

I hope you enjoyed this series and learnt from it. If yes, do leave a comment below and don’t forget that you can contact me anytime via instagram @bakewithbittybakes. Let all the fun collaborations come your way!

 

Understanding paid collaboration as an Influencer

3 thoughts on “Understanding paid collaboration as an Influencer”

  1. Wonderful series Sharmi. I relish all your brand collab mails. Very educative and helpful for igrammers like me.
    Thank you !

  2. Hi Sharmi,

    I really enjoyed all the tips & suggestions. Thanks for sharing your experience! Look forward to learn more from you!

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