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If you’re looking to monetise your blog and make it a side hustle, then you will be asking the question of how to get brand collaborations as a micro-influencer.
Getting that first collab email can be one of the most exciting points of your blogging journey! If you are at the point where you don’t get anyone reaching out to you, THEN REACH OUT TO THEM! I will go through the best ways to find brands and what to do when you have found them.
RELATED POST: BEST BLOGGING RESOURCES
🡳 PIN FOR LATER, SO YOU CAN COME BACK TO IT 🡳
How to get brand collaborations: Overview
- No.1 brand collaboration rule
- Where to find brands – check Twitter, brands you like and websites you can use
- Make the first move – how to approach brands and pitching to brands
- Get noticed
- How to organise collaborations
- Know your worth!!!
No.1 Brand Collaboration rule
Only accept brand deals if you have tried or previously used their products or services before. Or if you are gifted a product make sure you do try it before you post about it. It is the wrong road to go down if you accept a brand collab without truly thinking the product has any benefit. Why would you promote something to your views if you don’t even use the product yourself? You should be building trust with your viewers and only promoting things you think hold value to them.
Where to find brands
There are multiple ways you can find brands to collab with. You can start by reaching out to brands you love and you already use their products. This means you can make the first move. There are also websites where brands will upload a campaign with requirements and if you fit the requirements they will consider you for the brand deal. The final thing you can do is try and get noticed.
Check Twitter
A great place to start looking at how to get brand collaborations on the hashtag #bloggerswanted, I have scored a couple of gifted products from this including Gunna Drinks:
Reach out to brands you use
The best place to start is to think about the brands you love that you are already using. Therefore, if you create a list you can then go through each brand and find the email you need to contact. This will make it easier for you if you get given a collab with them because you already know a bit about their company and you have tried their products.
Make sure the brands fit your niche.
Websites to find campaigns
Get Blogged
The best resource I have found on how to get brand collaborations is Get Blogged. They offer content placements where you can write a sponsored post for a brand and you will receive a set price for it.
The only thing is you will need a DA of 5+. After just two months of blogging, I was able to reach a DA score of 10. So it shouldn’t take too long to reach 5 if you are doing the right things. If you are unsure on how to go about this then Jenny from Jenny in neverland has a post on Blog DA Score: What It Is, Why It’s Useful & How You Can Improve It.
You can sign up below:
The Blogger Program
I love the ease of The Blogger Program. It is so easy to apply, as long as you fit the requirements you can simply click apply. They offer gifted and paid opportunities for different levels of influencers.
Bloggers Required
I check Bloggers Required regularly and apply to campaigns because I have received work from this site before. They offer work for bloggers and for Instagram. All you have to do is write a little pitch, include your blog stats and your social media stats and make sure you want to do what the brand is asking for.
I worked with the brand MooGoo Skincare and I wrote a post about What’s the MooGoo Gradual Tan Cream like?
Tribe
Tribe is an awesome app that can help you if you are asking how to get brand collaborations. The brands on Tribe are looking to work with you on Instagram/ Facebook rather than your blog.
So if you have a decent following on Instagram then this is the one for you. You will need to have 3000+ followers.
They even help you set your rates depending on the sort of post it is. So you don’t have to worry about knowing what the right amount to charge is.
So you come to the first page in the app which will show you all the brands they have on there. When you click on a brand they show you their requirements eg. 3k – 100k, aged 18+ and they want an Instagram post. They will then tell you a bit about the brand and provide a mood board so you can understand the sorts of things they are looking for and the brand colour, etc. They give you a section called ‘content we want from you’ when they explain what the picture should be of and what needs to be in the caption.
Make the first move
You have to be brave sometimes and make the first move. When you do make the first move make sure you put your best foot forward. So make sure you do your research on the brand and follow their social medias.
All you have to do is to reach out to brands you want to work with, with a pitch and your media kit:
How to reach out to brands
As I mentioned above, make sure you reach out to brands you have previously used in the past. Be reasonable with yourself and look at the type of influencers that brand already works with and have a think if you would fit in. When you are a new blogger, maybe aim for brands that have a slightly smaller following, meaning they would benefit if they agreed to do a collab.
Pitching to brands
When reaching out to brands I have used the Styling Social Pitching Template. I have previously had success with this template so this would be great if you are just starting and you are unsure what you should write in the email. What you pitch to a brand is the biggest part of how to get brand collaborations.
I recommend you try and find their PR email on the brand website. If you can’t find it then make sure you ask in the email if there is someone else you need to speak to.
Setting up a media kit
I have previously written a post on how to write the perfect media kit.
A media kit is so important for a blogger who is looking to make money from their blog. Whether it be a little bit of money on the side or if you’re wanting to make blogging your full-time job.
If you have just started blogging then building up your blog presence is a great way to help your media kit stand out. My advice would be to do as much research as possible to try and increase your blog stats so that it looks impressive on your media kit.
You can download my 4 Page Media Kit Template for Free:
Get noticed
Another great thing you could do it to wait it out and see if you can get noticed. If you have products of brands you would like to work with them take pictures of these products and tag them to get their attention on Instagram or Twitter. They may like your content and want to work with you. I have known this work for people before so be optimistic!
This is great if you post a lot of fashion as you can easily tag the brand the clothes came from.
STAY PATIENT!
You will get there in the end you just have to keep on trying. If one way isn’t working for you then maybe change the way you edit your photos.
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How to organise collaborations
When you start getting collabs, what you need to do is write it down so you can keep track of it. Make sure you include what the job is and when it needs to be done by. I have produced a brand collab tracker if you would like to take a look:
Know your worth
When you are writing a blog post, think about how much effort and how many hours you have to put into it.
You are having to research keywords, research the topic your writing about, write up a draft and plan your photography for the post. You then have to optimise it for SEO, proofread the post and publish it.
IT DOESN’T STOP THERE!
You then have to promote your post, create fresh Pinterest pins constantly for the post and spend time scheduling them.
AND THAT’S ONLY ON YOUR BLOG
If you then are posting a picture on social media say Instagram, you have to plan the picture, take it, edit it and make sure it fits in with your feed. You have to plan when you can post it along with researching hashtags for the caption. Hashtags and the caption need planning out. You then have to spend time engaging on Instagram.
Set correct rates
THIS IS MASSIVELY IMPORTANT!
I feel into the trap of accepting gifted products and being liable to then write a blog post on it along with an Instagram post. If a brand wants you to write a post and tells you what to include then they are taking control of tour content and you should be charging them a fee for this.
DON’T GET ME WRONG!
Gifted items are great way to build up a profile just as I did when I first started blogging. When they gift it you, you have full control over where you post it and how you post it.
We need to follow the rule that when something is gifted you are not obliged to do anything with it. As soon as a brand want to control your content then you MUST discuss fees.
Too many brands have taken advantage of smaller influencers when it takes the same amount of time and effort to produce the work.
A great website you can use to see how much you should charge for Instagram posts is Influencer Marketing Hub: Instagram Influencer Sponsored Post Money Calculator.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading my post about how to get brand collaborations, I hope it was of use to you. I think one of the most important things you should do if you don’t know what rate to set when creating a brand deal, ask them for a budget. This way, they know that you would like to be paid and you can see how much they are willing to offer you.
Let me know in the comments which brands you have worked with before!
About the Author
If you want to find out more check out my about me page. My name is Amber Page and I run The Unpredicted Page. You can find me over on:
SOME OF MY RECENT POSTS: 30+ simple changes for a healthier lifestyle and The positives of Lockdown (written by the people of twitter!)
I really like contacting PR agencies! I find they’re usually all super friendly and helpful!
Katie | katieemmabeauty.com
Thank you for sharing your tips. Very useful. 😀
This is a really helpful post, thank you so much for writing it <3
Thank you for this Amber – we have just started getting in touch with brands and it is super helpful to have posts like yours! Also signed up to your newsletter so we don’t miss out on other useful posts x
I loved this post so much! You’ve included so many helpful tips about brand collaborations xx
This was a great post. Knew some of these and am connected with them. The rest I’ll check on them. Thanks for sharing. Xx
Isa A. Blogger
https://www.lifestyleprism.com/