Updated: Jun 9, 2021

For anyone who wants to get into collaborations…you should know they are A LOT OF WORK. Like, full time job work. My best advice would be start small and get a handle on how you’re going to manage them. Start by making a list of companies you love. Get a feel for how you’ll showcase them, what the deliverables [what you are responsible for] are and how much time it takes you to produce the content. You’ll also want to save all of your contracts somewhere they can be easily accessed for reference. They come with a lot of specifics about what you can and can not do/show/say…and there’s nothing worse than eagerly jumping right in, just to find out you wasted an afternoon and have to redo them! Trust me, I know!

What to do first: A media kit would also be a great place to start. This can be something super simple, although everything I do is overdone, so mine is a 3 page resume. Until you get your first collab, you can introduce yourself, include your social media stats [I update mine monthly, so I notate that on my stats page] and add pricing if you’re comfortable. Once you begin to execute collabs, feel free to add a page with them on it! Canva is a great website/app for this! They offer templates or you can create from scratch!

Pricing: The rule of thumb is $100 per 10k followers. So, if you have 2000 followers, ask $20/post. Of course, if your engagement rate is uniquely high, you can ask more. To calculate an instagram ER [engagement rate], you divide your total likes/comment/saves/shares by your follower amount x 100. For example, if a single post has 30 likes, 10 comments, 5 saves and 2 shares and I have 200 followers…I do 47/200 = .235×100 = 23.5% That is an exceptionally high ER. The average is around 4% and should actually drop slightly, the more followers you get! I google everything for my ig research!

How to get them: Jump right in! Get out there! Don’t be afraid to get turned down! You can’t have an ego in this industry; humble is key…but so is CONFIDENCE! It definitely helps if you follow my “business plan” to only enter partnerships with companies you already use and love. It takes the guessing out of, well, everything! When I write my captions or blog posts, I literally talk to you like I am talking to my best friend, and when I know the product well, it makes it effortless! I like to DM the accounts that I like because it gives them immediate access to my main platform [ig] and it almost acts like a screening process. If their social media manager thinks I would be a good fit for their brand, they usually respond with an email for a direct contact to the person in charge of forming partnerships. Sometimes they also decline right there and then and that’s ok too! Keeps me on my toes!

I also keep my request brief and just use a greeting and mention that I am looking to speak to someone in regards to forming a collaboration. I thank them for their time and say I look forward to hearing back. It’s important to be respectful of their time spent, reading your message and looking into your page because, well, it just is! I also think they appreciate that!

I would also recommend making sure you’re following the business you’re reaching out to. I ran into a situation once where I was not and I got this horribly awful and brash response back attacking my character and questioning my authenticity! It was a total oversight, as I excitedly messaged them one night after seeing their sponsored post [they paid to have it pushed out] pop up on my feed for the first time. They were a local business I loved, new to instagram. I sent it and ran to put the baby to bed without going back to their profile and and clicking follow. When I went back to look through their feed and follow, I saw the message. They were totally in the wrong, in both the way they treated a true supporter but also just being a kind person…regardless, I took it as a learning curve and now make it a point to be following…just in case!

Another bit of advice I’ll give, is to include your email IN your bio. The “email” button, sets it up to send, but sometimes companies that are looking for someone to work with, like to see it laid out right there so they can reach out quickly or pass it on to the correct parties.

You can also google influencer platforms. I mainly use AspireIQ. I find most companies don’t have a direct link on their websites for us “influencers”, probably because they pay for the platforms to help them find us. So, as I said, DMs are my first move, always!

If you have any questions at all, feel free to comment here and ask them! I promise to answer to the best of my ability but know that I am no expert! I just worked really hard to get to where I am and can only speak to what I know works!

Stay tuned on a post about the Do’s and Don’ts of influencing!

Thanks for reading!

XOXO

Kel