Now that you understand how paid posts work, you’ll want to focus on attracting sponsors (the brands and companies that pay you). Many influencers build a nice income simply by having 3-5 sponsors. Knowing how to find these sponsors is an essential part of building your reach and your income.

 

You may eventually become popular enough that sponsors come to you with no prompting. However, if you’re like many influencers, especially those who are just starting out, you won’t automatically get your name in front of brands.

 

You need to seek them out on your own. You can reach out and tell the sponsors about your audience and the potential market that’s there for their brand. It doesn’t matter if your following is only a few thousand or if you’re new on the scene.

 

It’s all about the picture that you can paint for your sponsors. You sell them on the fact that your followers are their target audience and you show them the influence you’ve already established.

 

It can be helpful to promote a product or two on your Instagram that you are not being sponsored for. Once you have plenty of hearts, shares, and comments, you can show this engagement rate to a brand. When they see that you’ve already started selling to your audience, they’ll be more likely to take a chance on you.

 

While you want to hook sponsors based on the buying power of your audience, you also have to do your homework. Learn as much as you can about your audience. You can do this by running polls, posting surveys, and using similar information gathering tactics.

When you’re ready to approach brands, have this content put together and ready. For example, you might say, “Sixty percent of my followers are looking for lip color that lasts all day with no need to reapply. Your all-day, all-night lip-gloss would be a great fit for my followers. Ninety percent of my fans are between the ages of 18-35, which is your target demographic according to the research I’ve done on your brand.”

 

Sponsors are eager to partner with an influencer that can show how their authority is helping other people to better themselves or their lives because it carries a positive message.

 

Don’t forget the power of your story. You can approach sponsors with how and why you got started in your niche. However, make sure you tap into human emotion because this is universal.

 

For example, people understand and empathize with a beauty blogger who got involved in teaching makeup tutorials to help women who’ve been scarred.

Sponsors love the idea of hiring influencers who have a heart for others. It’s good for their business when their potential customers see them in partnership with someone who’s trying to make the world a better place.

 

Share with a potential sponsor what it is you do on your platform. This is where you divulge the why behind the action.

 

For example, you promote skin care tips because you have a family member with skin cancer. Or you had a friend who struggled with acne. This is your motivation for creating your place in the niche.

 

Then show the sponsor how they’re going to profit by coming aboard your platform space. You want to make sure any sponsor sees and understands exactly what they’re getting and the possibilities available for them.

 

Once you show them how they stand to profit, be specific, and let them know what it would cost them to promote with you. If you’re just starting out, you might be tempted to ask for less than what you’re worth. Don’t do this because in marketing it’s about perceived value.

 

A brand will hesitate to work with someone who asks for $250 but won’t bat an eye at the influencer who asks for $2,000. The higher charging influencer has a greater perceived value. They look at the more expensive influencer as an “investment” that they’ll make back, in terms of profit. However, the influencer that’s under-charging will be viewed as an “expense.”

 

Now you may be wondering how you should set your price. There are several ways you can do this. You might set your price based on the number of followers that you have. You could also base it on the number of posts or images the brand wants you to promote.

 

When thinking about pricing, take into consideration if the brand wants you to promote it solely on one of your platforms like Instagram or if they want you to promote across all your platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The more platforms you’ll be posting on, the more you should increase your price.

 

Be honest with what brands can expect from you. Don’t make promises you can’t deliver. It can be tempting to throw out numbers just to impress a company or business, but you don’t know for sure how your followers are going to react or what the conversion rate will be.

 

However, you can point to past successes. For example, you might have done an eyeshadow tutorial and mentioned a specific brand even though you weren’t compensated for it. However, you know from what your audience has told you that at least 50 followers bought the new palette that you promoted. You can explain this to your sponsor so they know what your reach is like.

 

When you approach a brand, remember that what you’re offering is your voice and your personality. That’s one hundred times more valuable than another sterile ad that their target market will overlook in their busy newsfeed.