How to get sponsored on Instagram, according to influencers

Emma Cortes is an influencer and is smiling, wearing colorful dress
Emma Cortes is a micro influencer based in Seattle.
  • On Instagram, it can seem like the hashtags #ad and #sponsored are ubiquitous. 
  • Sponsorships with brands are how many influencers make an income on social media.
  • Dozens of influencers have explained to Insider their strategies for getting sponsored.

On Instagram, more than 18 million posts have the hashtag #ad. Over 4 million have #sponsored.

Sponsored posts are how many influencers make a living. Some make six figures or more from them. 

Take Emma Cortes, who started a fashion blog in 2014, as an example. When she signed her first brand partnership as a part-time content creator in 2016, it was an unpaid brand ambassadorship, she told Insider.

Fast-forward six years and Cortes is a full-time influencer and earned more than $300,000 in a year — with under 50,000 Instagram followers. Most of that revenue came from brand deals, she told Insider.

Read more about how Cortes earned over $300,000 in yearly income

But getting that first brand deal can be challenging for influencers. So how have they done it?

Insider has interviewed dozens of influencers who have worked with a variety of brands – from Nissan to Lululemon to Credit Karma — about how they secure brand deals on Instagram. 

Some creators use third-party influencer-marketing platforms like Fohr or Izea. Others find strategic ways to get on a brand's radar, such as pitching marketing agencies or a company's employees on LinkedIn. And Instagram itself is getting in on the action with a new creator-brand marketplace where partnerships can be made through DMs.

JaLisa Jefferson is an influencer and is posing in the street wearing a dress and hat.
JaLisa Vaughn-Jefferson is signed with talent management firm CFG.

More established influencers often have talent managers or agents who are pitching, negotiating, and getting those sponsorships for them. For instance, JaLisa Vaughn-Jefferson, a lifestyle influencer with 275,000 followers at the time, signed $700,000 in brand deals halfway into 2021 with the help of her management firm. (Read more about how she built her influencer business.)

Check out: Insider's interactive database of the top managers and agents representing some of social media's biggest stars

But even for creators who are starting out — with under 10,000 followers on Instagram — there are paths to getting sponsored. Many "nano" influencers start off by working with brands as ambassadors (like Cortes did) and sharing affiliate links that demonstrate they have the ability to drive customers to a brand. 

Some brands, like Dunkin Donuts or jewelry brand Mejuri, are known for their partnerships with micro influencers.

Read: 7 top brands that work with micro influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and more

To help content creators better understand how they can get sponsored on Instagram, here's a compilation of our coverage of how influencers get brand deals.

Getting the right pitch is a key

Whether it's over email or Instagram DM, what influencers include in a pitch can make all the difference. 

"I like to use the word 'offer' instead of 'collab' to remind micro influencers that you have to offer the brand something that's valuable," Julie Tescon, a nano influencer, told Insider. "You can offer anything that the brand normally would pay for."

Christian Di Bratto, a talent manager who works with creators, told Insider that personalizing pitches is key. Di Bratto had inked $327,000 in brand partnerships in 2022 when Insider interviewed him in November. He shared the pitch he sends to brands to secure deals for his clients. (Read his pitch.)

Here are 13 examples of how influencers are pitching brands, from the exact pitch they send to unique strategies:

Media kits help demonstrate what an influencer can offer a brand

"A lot of people might think, 'Oh, if you have a thousand followers, no one's going to pay you for that,'" Kayla Compton, a lifestyle nano influencer, told Insider. "But if you have a very engaged audience and you can target people really well and have a good connection with your audience, brands will pay for that."

She — like many other influencers — uses a media kit to help showcase to brands how even with a few thousand followers, she can still drive engagement. 

Here are 13 examples of media kits influencers use to get sponsorships:

Read the original article on Business Insider


Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/EXW6a2x
How to get sponsored on Instagram, according to influencers How to get sponsored on Instagram, according to influencers Reviewed by mimisabreena on Monday, January 02, 2023 Rating: 5

No comments:

Sponsor

Powered by Blogger.