How to secure brand partnerships as a micro influencer
Quality Over Quantity
Whether you have 10K or 100K subscribers, it’s absolutely possible to work with brands and monetize your following. Niche creators hold tremendous value and are among the most trusted influencers of consumer behavior.
In fact, micro-influencers have the highest average engagement rate on Instagram at 3.86%, while mega-influencers only average 1.21%. Tik Tok has an even wider gap with 18% average engagement for micro vs. just 5% for mega. (source article)
Establishing Your Value and Pitching to Brands
Tracking your engagement is only the beginning. As you’re likely aware, the influencer marketing industry operates like the wild wild west. The market price for paid partnerships with brands is a rapidly moving target and involves a laundry list of variables such as:
Audience demographics
Size of following
What type of content you create
Level of engagement
Number of platforms you’re active on
You should be strategic about the brands you choose to pitch, and ensure your media kit reflects the stats that are most relevant to them. Start with brands that you already use and like, and your followers likely will too. Often-times those brands want to make inroads with the types of followers you have - and one of the most authentic ways to do that is via organic, long-term paid partnerships.
Knowing this, how do you better understand and articulate your value to brands that are a good match for your audience?
Types of Brand Partnerships
Let’s start with the 3 levels of partnerships that are most common:
In-kind/gifted partnerships
Affiliate partnerships
Paid partnerships
In-kind/gifted partnerships are when a brand gives you their product in exchange for posted content on your channels.
Affiliate partnerships are when a brand provides you a code or unique link to share with you community. For anyone who uses your link to make a purchase, you receive a percentage % commission from every sale.
Then lastly, you have paid partnerships. That’s the one you want - I mean who doesn’t want to be paid for their work?
Why Paid Partnerships?
Remember as a creator and influencer, you are not just a “poster.” You are often the photographer, videographer, designer, copywriter, editor, makeup/wardrobe, location scout, and more. And perhaps most importantly, you have curated an authentic community the brand wants to tap into, and it takes a lot of time and effort to create content.
Accepting free product or affiliate commissions for sales often doesn’t adequately compensate for the true value of creating content that resonates with your organically grown audience.
By building the knowledge to effectively pitch to brands, negotiate deals, and price your rates accurately, you won’t have to accept anything less than paid partnerships.
When you have the right tools and support to secure paid brand partnerships yourself… ⬇️
You feel…
✅ Empowered using custom pitches made for you
✅ Confident setting your rates to match your value
✅ That you don’t need a large following to work with brands
✨Ready to secure paid brand partnerships with confidence?
Check out our Brand Partnerships Starter Bundle.
This is not a course or e-book. The founder, Jenny, provides 1:1 guidance so that you can secure your first big brand deal!
Client testimonial:
Working with Jenny on securing brand partnerships was easy and incredibly effective. We started our work with Jenny in Q1 and by Q2 we had already secured $23,000 in brand partnerships and we're armed with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to keep that number growing! Jenny's easy to use templates helped us know what to say and ask for when reaching out to warm and cold leads alike. Do yourself a favor and hire Jenny if you're looking to grow your revenue through brand partnerships! —Annette Grant and Sarah Karakaian, @ThanksforVisiting_
Got questions. Contact us today!
