You’re ready to increase your income and monetize your influence. We see you. Affiliate revenue is great but it’s not where you make the big bucks and you are ready for the big bucks. Yaaaaas, girl. Let’s get you some brand deals and into the major leagues (IDK I heard that’s a sports reference?).
One of the first checks is going to be is your audience aligned with the brand’s audience. In order to even answer that question you’ve got to know your niche. Who are you talking to. Get specific. Start with your Instagram analytics. Instagram will show you the following about your audience: Location, Age Range, Gender. That’s a good start. But you know your community closer than that so dive in – what’s she into? Where else does she hang out? For example….
Our audience is primarily based along the East Coast with a hyper focus in New York and South Florida. She is 25-44 with a majority under 34. She is a female founder who is in her first 5 years of business. She uses Instagram to relax and zone out binge-ing influencer content and unexpectedly buying those cute shoes she didn’t plan for. When she’s in her zone, she uses Instagram to connect with other experts and female founders. She finds her biz community here. She’s dipping her toe into TikTok but Instagram remains her priority platform. Social aside, she loves a podcast. She laughs that she’s become her parents and is always listening to the 21st century’s version of Talk Radio. Biz podcasts are her go to from The Goal Digger Podcast to The Skinny Confidential. On occasion when she just needs a break she likes to binge The Morning Toast and check in with pop culture. She’s married and has 0-2 kids. She’s a new mom and is just trying to do it all. Her husband is supportive at home and encourages her to continue building her business. Before opening her laptop each day, she can be found riding front row at Soulcycle. When she allows herself to disconnect (which she’s actively working on), she likes to go for a walk with her husband, on a beach vacation or to explore a new city in Europe. When on vacation, she can be found relaxing with a cocktail and trying the local cuisine.
Specific, huh? Ya feel me. So, know your niche. Tips for how here.
We need to rebrand the word network, IDK what we can call it instead but network has such an old men in suits vibe to it. I can’t. That aside, networking (or whatever we’re going to call it now) is so fun and we promise once you go to your first event you’ll love it too. The 2021 version of networking is wine with a bunch of other girls just like you. Sign me up, right? Ok, networking. You want to build a network with other influencers (they’re a great resource of experts to bounce ideas off of, vent to etc) and brands (this includes influencer and PR agencies). The more you know, the more you know, the more you’re out there and you can write a pitch email directly to your friend, Lauren instead of Lauren who you found on Google/LinkedIn/wherever.
Your media kit is let’s call it your resume. Once you’ve passed the first round of checks (personality, vibe, aesthetic) they’ll go to your media kit when they’re ready to get down to business to make sure you have the chops/check your rates. Your media kit should include:
About You
You are your brand. So provide a brief overview of who you are, who you work with and your community
Previous Brand Partners
This should not be an exhaustive list of brand partners but a highlight reel of some major campaigns you’ve worked on – bonus points if you include a link to the work, make it easy for them.
Analytics
Demographic – a brief overview, not all the details of your niche that you know from the above
Social: Following, Engagement Rate, Click Through Rate (CTR), Conversion Rate (don’t know what these words mean or how to calculate it? Drop us a DM, we’ll help)
Website: monthly website traffic & clicks
Email: Subscribers, average open rate, average click through rate (CTR)
Rates – Include your starting at rate for each medium (IG story, feed post, reel, blog post, homepage feature, newsletter inclusion, dedicated email, etc.)
You’ll never get a yes if you don’t ask, so write the damn email. Reach out to that brand you’re dying to work with, follow up. The worst thing they can say is no – or even worse, ignore you. But you’ll live, promise. Tips to write the email here.
Helpful? Yes yes yes to all of this but don’t have an email list? Don’t use your website so don’t have analytics worth sharing or that you even know how to pull? We got you.