In our last series on becoming an influencer, we discussed some content creation tools. Those who have stuck through the journey with us, did you try your hands on any of the tools I shared? Share it to your Twitter or Instagram under the hashtag #becominganinfluencergh or tag me @purplecomms, you never know who your creation might inspire.

Now, you are an influencer but brands may not know you just yet because you are still building your community. You have two choices, you could continue to do your own thing until luck shines on you and you get discovered or you could approach brands for partnerships. If you’ve been following and putting into practice everything we have discussed from series 1 up until this point, you are ready to start monetizing your socials.

Remember, you are starting and may not want to overwhelm yourself so start within your circle. Look out for small businesses; your friends or family may be a great place to start. The truth is, you may not get paid but you could arrange a barter system if you genuinely like their products. If you don’t see yourself using their products outside of social media don’t engage them in a partnership.

These partnerships are great for building your portfolio as an influencer because you can collect the insights and show them to future brands looking to partner with you.

You, on the other hand, may already have the community. How should you approach a prospective brand for partnership? Here are some key things to note when sending that initial email to the brand.

● Address the email to a person, preferably whoever is head of marketing (LinkedIn and Google will help you here).
● Introduce yourself. Include your name and the name of your dominant social channel.
● Establish brand affinity. Why them? Perhaps you simply love the brand or admire their social/sustainable initiatives
● What is in it for you and the prospective brand? State it.
● Leave the ball in their court.
● Attach your portfolio if you have one.

This works very well for niche influencers because they are likely to have a vision that aligns with that of the prospective brand.

Here is a template that you might find helpful in drafting what I like to call, the initial email.

Dear …..

My name is (insert name), the content creator behind (insert name of the dominant social page). I have been using your products over time and my community appears to love them as much as I do. I am in the process of planning out my content for next month and would like to propose a brand partnership between (state brand name) and (your social page). It would be interesting to give my community another perspective of your brand. In return, your brand would be in front of (insert follower count) people who are interested in the (insert niche area). If this is something that would interest you, kindly respond to this email so we can schedule some time to discuss further. Please find attached my latest portfolio with more details about my community and some of my previous works.

Kind regards

(Insert name)

After reading this email, whoever is in charge of marketing may want to have a look at your social media pages to decide if you are worth the investment. Once a decision has been made and they decide to go ahead with a collaboration, make sure you discuss usage rights around exclusivity (Can’t work with competitors during campaign period), perpetuity (Posts cannot be deleted or archived by the influencer.) In a nutshell a conversation around how they would use your content, during and after the campaign.

This brings us to the end of this series, however, if you would like to continue to know more about influencer marketing from the influencer and marketing point of view follow me on Instagram @purplecomms where I share some best practice influencers marketing content. In the meantime go forth and be a positive influence.