Land Paid Deals as an Instagram Influencer

In today’s social media sphere, you don’t even need to be a big-time influencer to get businesses to pay you to promote their brand. You just need to have a niche with a solid following. Many smaller and medium-sized brands are happy to partner with smaller influencers to capture part of their audience.

If this sounds like the type of platform you have, you can start landing paid deals too. In this guide, we’ll give you some tips and advice for getting more brands to start paying you.

Earn income as a content creator

The simple fact is that it’s easier than ever for content creators to earn an income. With the right strategy, you can make money from a number of revenue streams, build your audience, and watch as the paid deals start to roll in. The more paid deals you get, the better you’ll get at landing them and handling them.

Content creators can make money through paid deals, selling merch, advertising on their platform, selling services and subscriptions, and much more. One of the most common ways to earn income on Instagram is with a sponsored post. Let’s talk about sponsored posts and how you can make the most of them.

What is an Instagram sponsored post?

Before diving into the advice, let’s talk about what an Instagram sponsored post is in the first place. In short, an Instagram sponsored post is a post an influencer makes in exchange for compensation.

Instagram also has specific branded content features so that influencers can make it clear that their post is sponsored while also tagging the brand and driving traffic to their page. If you’re an Instagram influencer, sponsored posts can be a huge boon to your monetization efforts.

Keep in mind, though, that when you do a sponsored post, you’re going to be working with another party. Let’s talk about what you should do when you choose to work with a brand.

How to work with brands

Working with brands can be easy or difficult. It all depends on the brand and the level of communication between you and your potential sponsor. Following are some quick tips for working with a brand and making the relationship as beneficial as possible for all parties involved.

• Make sure you and the brand are appealing to similar audiences and that you’re a good fit. Be clear with your potential sponsor about what your niche is and how your brand is perceived. 
• Don’t be afraid to negotiate. This means standing your ground if they’re trying to lowball you or if they don’t want to pay you what you’re worth. On the flip side, don’t be stubborn. You should be reasonable and flexible when it comes to deals. Be fair-minded and expect the same from the brand.
• Make sure you have a pitch prepared. Explain the value you bring with your sponsored posts. If you have data and analytics, show them. This will not only prove you’re worth working with, but it will also help you negotiate better pay.
• Don’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable. If it’s a bad fit, just move on. There are always more fish in the sea.
  

With these tips in mind, let’s talk about landing that sponsored content in the first place.

Tips for getting sponsored content

Before you have to worry about working with brands, you’ll need to get them to the negotiating table first. If you want to work with certain brands, you’re going to have to make some pitches of your own. As your influence grows, you might get approached without effort, but until then, you’ll need to put in the work to get noticed. 

Here are some tips for getting sponsored content:

Reach out directly

The easiest and most straightforward option is to just reach out to the brand. Direct message them on Instagram or see if there’s a good way to contact them on their website. But make sure you’re not just sending out a generic greeting. You want to show them that you’re prepared and that you’d bring value to their brand by working with them.

Make it clear that you understand their product or service, that it aligns with your own social media presence, and that you think your fans would be interested in hearing more about them. Brands need to know how you’re going to get them their return on investment. When you reach out, you should have clear messaging and you should custom-tailor your pitch to each brand.

Tag companies in your posts

A good way to get brands to notice you is by tagging them in your posts. You don’t have to go overboard, but if you are using their brand in a post and you tag them in it with some relevant hashtags, they might notice you and respond in kind. This tactic is especially useful when your post that features their products gets tons of engagement from your audience.

When you tag the company in your post, make sure your post reflects what you think they’d want to see. Does your post fit their brand? Even if your post gets tons of engagement, they’re not going to be as interested if the post doesn’t reflect their audience and values.

Also, it’s a good idea to start smaller. If you’re wanting to get the attention of brands, tagging the biggest brands isn’t going to get you noticed. Instead of going for Nike, go for something more niche. A smaller company is going to be much more likely to see your post and pay attention to it.

Mention brands you love in Stories and Reels

Video content is huge on Instagram, specifically Instagram Reels. These posts even have the potential to go viral, and if you make a viral post featuring a brand, they’re definitely going to notice. Don’t be afraid to shout them out every once in a while in your Stories and your Reels. Don’t make every Reel or Story about them, otherwise, you’re just giving them free advertising without them even knowing about you.

Use relevant hashtags

Make sure you’re following the brands you’re wanting to link up with and paying attention to their posts. This can give you some inspiration of your own, particularly when it comes to hashtags. If you use some of their hashtags or use hashtags that they use often, they might see your post and discover you.

How to create a sponsored post

Once you land the deal, it’s time to create your sponsored post. As the influencer, it’s on you to create the post and put it up on your profile. Fortunately, Instagram makes it pretty easy. 

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Make sure the business has added you as a partner on Instagram. This lets you tag them in the sponsored post.
2. Create your post. Follow any guidelines the brand has given you to ensure you’re representing them the way they want to be represented. Look over your deal with them and make sure you check the boxes for any terms that were laid out. 
3. Double-check with the brand to see if they have any notes about the post before putting it up.
4. Go to upload the post. In the Advanced Settings, you can choose to Tag Business Partner. Then you upload the post and you’re good to go.
   

This is a basic breakdown of how the process would normally go. There may be more back-and-forth depending on your contract with the brand, but this is the simplest way to do it.

How much should you charge?

One question that every influencer has to figure out for themselves is how much they should be charging. The answer is complicated, because it depends on a number of factors you’ll need to keep in mind. 

These are some of the variables that will affect the price you charge:

• Experience: If you’ve been doing this for a long time with great results, you can charge more than someone who is just getting started.
• Niche: If you connect strongly with the niche the brand is targeting, you can charge more, because you know you’re going to reach that audience for them.
• Deliverables: This one is a bit simpler to break down. The more deliverables they expect, the more you can charge.
• Size of the brand: This isn’t written in stone, but generally bigger brands may be willing to pay more. Don’t bite off more than you can chew with your bid, but if a brand is well known and has a healthy customer base, you may be able to charge a bit more than normal.
• Followers: Of course, your follower count is the factor that will play the biggest role in determining how much you can charge. The more followers you have, the more you can charge. 
  

As you gain more experience with sponsored posts, you’ll get a better feel for what you should be charging. You can always reach out to your fellow creators to see what they’re charging for their sponsored posts.

Grow your audience on Instagram

There are many ways to monetize your Instagram page and grow your audience to provide yourself with more opportunities. A link in bio tool, for instance, can be especially helpful. With the right link in bio tool, you can make more money from your fans and build a bigger audience that will interest brands who might sponsor you. If this sounds like a tool you’d be interested in, then Beacons is the platform for you.

Join Beacons today!

Beacons is a platform that includes features like a website builder and a link in bio tool. With our link in bio tool, you can connect your audience to your different social media profiles and direct them to landing pages where they can buy your time and services. If you’re wanting to supplement your income from sponsored posts, Beacons is a great way to do it.

Find out why thousands of top creators are already using Beacons. Sign up for Beacons today, and get started for free.