What Brands Want: The Influencer Guide
Though influencer marketing has been around for the last four or five years, hold onto your seats as 2018 is set to be the year it BLOWS UP! Brand budgets are rising which is great news for influencers, but as the industry matures, brands are working harder than ever to find the perfect influencers, and prove their investments are worthwhile.
You need to be able to stand out from a fabulous crowd so that brands and agencies instantly see why you are so valuable to their brand. Here are the four key areas that brands will be looking at, when they look for you:
1. Relevance
They will start by looking at relevant you are to the product or service they are trying to promote. Keep your feed consistent and use the relevant hashtags so you can be easily found. If you are included in the ZINE influencer database, make sure you tag all relevant interests to ensure you come up in the right searches.
2. Follower Count & Engagement
Based on their objectives, brands will look for influencers who have a follower count that sits within a particular range. It’s definitely not a case of ‘more is always better’, as brands are becoming increasingly aware that often a smaller following can have higher engagement (as a percentage) and vise versa. Be conscious of your Total Engagement as this is often considered as important, or even more important than Total Reach for brands. Digital tools like the ZINE media kit automatically updates with your follower numbers and engagement rates per channel so you don’t have to worry about calculations and manually updating files.
3. Past Collaborations
Brands will often want to know what previous collaborations and affiliations you have made. It’s always useful to show a few examples of your best work so they can see the level of quality they will get from partnering with you. If you have a ZINE media kit, you can add your past collaborations and press listings, which can act as your portfolio.
4. Cost
Whether it’s attending an event, sending you a product or paying you direct, brands will look at the overall cost of running a campaign with you in relation to your audience size and engagement rates. Calculate your rate per channel before going into negotiations, and try to demonstrate as much value as possible to your work.
The ZINE media kit is a free tool for influencers. Connect all your social channels & blog and your media kit will digitally display your up to date follow numbers, engagement rates, and content. You can also add your price list and past collaborations. Create your free ZINE media kit in minutes!
Maeve Sugrue
I’m Head of Marketing at ZINE where I am helping peers and customers who want to revolutionise their influencer marketing strategy. I love food, fitness and Min Pins.
