Brand Collaborations: What you need to know!

So I’m here to breakdown everything you need to know for brand collaborations! I created a survey for bloggers to answer so I could also provide some data for you and so you know where other bloggers stand too.

This post is Part I and I will be releasing a Part II to cover additional topics and to go over more in detail certain topics.

 

Here is some background information on the bloggers/influencers that took the survey!

 Well lets get right into it…

Types of brand collaborations:

There is certainly different types of ways you could work with brands so I will cover the most common ones!

Product/Service exchange:

A brand/company/restaurant will reach out to you and will give you a complimentary product/service for social media posting. On Instagram it can be an instastory, a static post, IGTV, or live coverage. In some cases the brand/company could give you a discount code for your followers but you do not receive any commission.

Paid Product/Service exchange:

A brand/company/restaurant will reach out to you, give you a complimentary product/service  for social media posting, and will also PAY you. Most times they would like a static post on your feed as well as instastory coverage. In some cases the brand/company could give you a discount code for your followers and you do receive commission.

Discounted Offer/Exchange:

They offer a heavily discounted price to their product for you to purchase in exchange for social media posting. In my opinion I am not a big fan of this one UNLESS I know the company very well and love their stuff. Most bloggers will say that this in fact is not a collaboration because they are asking you to pay for stuff. I would 100% agree as well and advise you to stay away. However, as mentioned before if it’s from a brand I know & trust, I feel like this is still a win/win, especially because I already shop there. Many times, smaller companies will do this that are just starting up, as well as really big companies that have so many blogger/influencers they are already working with.

Other types:

Brand Ambassador:

A brand/company gifts your products on a regular basis in exchange for posting on social media. This could be an unpaid/paid ambassadorship.

PR List: 

A brand/company gifts you products on a regular or on-going basis. There may not be any specific requirements on posting on social media.

Brand Affiliate:

You purchase everything on your own and create social media content. You have an affiliate link to gain commission from other people shopping your links! If you are on reward style aka liketoknowit, you purchase everything on your own or could be gifted certain products that you could provide a link to shop. Many bloggers are now doing try on sessions in store and linking everything to avoid spending their own money.

Example: I’m a Lulus Ambassador but also a Lulus affiliate. You can apply to be a lulus affiliate through their website but there is no way to apply for the ambassador program!

“My personal opinion on brand affiliates is that you’re putting in so much work in promoting your affiliate links that you may not get a huge return. I would rather invest my time in other areas that will benefit me in the long run.”

Who can land a collaboration?

Well, anyone can land a collaboration really. You do not need to have a certain amount of following or have a perfect feed. I have even seen people who are not bloggers/influencers received gifted items in exchange for posting. If you think about it, everyone is an influencer in their own way and if they are tagging/mentioning the company they have  a chance just like anyone else. You can be part-time, full-time, have a blog, a youtube, anybody that creates good content!

How can I land a collaboration? 

• In my experience most collabs have come from the brand sending me an email! In the results from the survey you can note that this is the most common but that’s not to say you can’t reach out to brands. Several bloggers also use blogger platforms which is also a good way to create content and get experience. Some of these platforms have paid campaign opportunities as well that you can apply for which is a plus.

Some blogger platforms are: Active, Revfluence, Fohr, Octoly, Brandbacker, and influenster.

I feel like reaching out to brands should have it’s own dedicated post so I will cover that in Part II. It will include reaching out to brands for both non-paid and paid collaborations.

How long do I have to be a blogger/influencer before I land a collab?

Now many bloggers believe that they have to have skin in the game for a long time but the truth is there is no magic number. You could just get started tag/mention the right company and boom you have yourself a collaboration. I also don’t want people to feel like they’ve been in the game for so long and they feel like they are never going to get anything.

From the survey here are the results for how long it took to get a collaboration (non-paid):

 

 

Although many get their first collaboration in the first months, several still stated it came after that.  You want to make sure your content style aligns with the brands you are hoping to work with for best results. You can also see that for the most part Clothes, Beauty products, and accessories are the most common to land first.

If you are trying to land your first or even the first few for experience, you can look at brands that fall under those categories.

Make sure you are doing the following to help get on their radar:

-use appropriate hashtags

-tag the location in all of your pictures

-tag/mention company in your posts

-tag them in an instastory

-include email in Bio ( The email “button” is not enough. If a brand is looking on their computer that button does not exist. They would have to search for your email  which means they’re just going to skip you!)

“Pro tip: Look at the brand you want to work with and research the hashtags they use. It will give you an idea on who/what they are targeting and you can use the same ones! Also look at their feed and the content they post/create, is your content similar? If it is you have a higher chance of them reaching out to you because your style aligns with them.”

You can see that many bloggers still haven’t landed a paid collaboration. Be patient and the right brand will come along and see that their is many bloggers on the same boat as you!

Insights on working with the right brands:

It is extremely important to only accept collaborations that are on brand with your style. Many bloggers accept collaborations because maybe it’s the first one or they feel like they need to.

Free stuff is great but your feed can become overly saturated if you are taking free stuff left & right. This is also true for paid collabs, yes you want money but is it worth it for something that is off brand?

You can look though someone’s feed and I can spot a genuine sponsored post from a fake “I’m just getting paid,” post. So don’t be that girl and really think about it before accepting.

Food for thought? 

Does it fit within your niche?

Have you posted a similar brand before?

Would you buy product/shop their with your own money?

Will it look cohesive in your feed?

What are they asking for?

How much work will it take to create content?

Is it worth it?

“I always ask myself these questions before I take on any collabs. When you are first starting you definitely want to get some experience under your belt but that doesn’t mean you start saying yes to everything. I turn down several offers because it doesn’t fit my style or my feed and it will just stand out like a sore thumb. There is one particular brand that I stayed away from simply because they asked for so much that the item was NOT worth the time & effort I would be putting in. “

If you are ever unsure if you should do a collaboration and would like to reach out to me for an opinion, please do not hesitate to ask!

Scared to work with the wrong brand? Maybe you’re not sure if they are legitimate:

I know several of you want some tips on this as I have received this question several times. Now these tips  are based on my own opinion/research/experience.

Tip 1: When you first receive an email from a brand you are unsure about; research them on your own. Meaning physically type them into google/instagram.

Tip 2: Never click on any links within an email message if you are unsure of the brand company. I can do a whole blog post on this too if you are interested.

Tip 3: Look at the email address. Does it match the company name, Is it from a PR agency? Look up the agency and you can spot whether it’s a fake or not.

Tip 4: Always ask them to email you information if they DM you. You can iron out whether its a scam or not by what they email you or the address its coming from. Many times if it’s a scam they won’t even bother with the email.

Tip 5: Avoid reaching out or responding to people who leave you comments in your pictures. If they really want to work with you they will reach out to you. When I first started I definitely tried to reach out to them because I got excited.  Here is an example of what a company like that may say. They basically want you to do all this work for them, promote their stuff, pay for the items, and give you a small commission in return.

 

Tip 6: Research their tagged images to see who has worked with them before, if anyone. Here you can reach out to people and ask for their experience.

Tip 7: If you can’t find this information ask for references. You can say, “given that you are a new brand that I have never worked with, please provide references of other bloggers that have worked with you.” You use this tactic if you really don’t trust them but then again at this point you shouldn’t be working with them.

 

Part II coming soon:

Now I realize I covered a lot of information but I wanted to make sure it was informative & useful. In the next post about collaborations I will be covering: how to pitch to brands, What is a media kit/do you need one?, When you should start charging, How much should you charge, and how you can transition from free work to paid work.

Of course if there is anything I didn’t cover in this post please let me know so I can add it to the next post!

Food for thought:

“Anytime you are going to work with a brand and promote them you need to make sure it is for the right reasons. If you are solely doing it for money purposes then you eventually will lose the trust of your audience because they can see through that. Be absolutely genuine in who you plan to work with and know that they are a reflection of who you are what you stand are. Get used to saying no even though you feel like you should say yes. Your future self will thank you. Remember that quality content is better than quantity. And know that what works for someone else may not work for you. So go out do you research on brands, put in the work, create good content, and good things will come to you.”

 

It’s been real.

 

xoxo,

 

Liz-Laugh-Love