4 Tips for Landing a Brand Deal as An Instagram Influencer

The goal of many Instagram influencers is to land a major deal with a brand. It’s the ultimate reward for cultivating a large following and becoming an influential voice on the platform.

If this is your aspiration too, then this article will give you four tips in ensuring that your brand deals goes smoothly.

1. Find your identity

More than anything, Instagram’s top influencers are known for the personality that they bring to their posts. It’s what attracts followers and makes them stand out from the crowd. So if you want to land a brand deal, you’re going to need to refine your identity.

Your identity is based on what makes you unique as an individual. It includes how you act and the things that you do.

Think about the aspects of yourself that you could bring to the forefront. Ask yourself the following questions: Are there any skills that you have? Is there any field of knowledge that you’d consider yourself an expert in? What is your occupation? Do you have any interesting hobbies?

Try to narrow down what your strengths are, and what makes you appealing to others. This should give you an idea of the image that you want to communicate through your Instagram presence.

Next, you need to figure out how to convey this identity. Most of your followers will know you through the content that you publish on Instagram. That means you need to clearly communicate who you are through your photos, videos, and captions.

Never forget to be honest in how you depict yourself. This is what will win people’s trust. Above all, influencers are valued because they are authentic and down-to-earth.

2. Engage with your followers

As an influencer, you will be evaluated on how well you interact with your audience. Any good influencer should be an active participant within their community.

You can start by following other users, and giving them likes and comments on their posts. Some use an automation tool like SocialDrift to take care of this process for them, while others prefer to do it themselves.

Don’t be afraid to start conversations while you’re at it. Not only does it prove that you are a real human, but it also demonstrates that you are personable and care for others. You will win over many followers by showing genuine interest in them.

Sometimes all this work can be a little intimidating. As previously mentioned, if you need assistance, you could always seek out an Instagram growth service. A tool like SocialDrift can alleviate the burden of maintaining a high level of engagement by pairing you with an account manager.

One potent way to provoke interaction is through asking questions. You can do this within the captions of your posts. Many people are eager to share their opinions and would enjoy a chance to be heard.

For instance, you can ask them about their stance on a current topic. Don’t stray too far into controversial subjects, though. Your comments should remain a friendly and welcoming place for discussion. Anything too divisive could derail any dialogue and hurt your image among followers.

Ideally all of this engagement will boost the amount of likes, comments, and followers that you receive back. If not, there are a few ways to get real, automatic Instagram likes.

3. Post frequently

Visibility is a key part of demonstrating that you are worthy of a sponsorship. You want your brand partner to be confident that you will effectively spread awareness of them across the platform.

If you aren’t already, you should be posting at least once a day. This is the bare minimum if you want to get noticed. While you definitely shouldn’t flood people’s feeds with posts, you should be safe posting several times in one day if you’d like.

Just remember that quantity should never precede quality. If the content doesn’t meet the standards you’ve established for yourself, then you should probably withhold from posting it.

The hours that you choose to post are important as well. You should be posting during times of peak activity, when the most users can see your content. These can vary between the different days of the week, and even among specific demographics and timezones.

Feel free to experiment at first in order to see what works the best for you. From there, you can start to develop a consistent schedule. You want to eventually become a bit predictable when it comes to your schedule, as it will give your followers something to look forward to each day.

4. Be confident and make the first move

Brands don’t always have to be the inciting party in a partnership deal. In fact, showing some initiative might prove to be fruitful for you.

However, you should scale back your ambitions a little. It’s not very likely that you’ll work with some of the biggest brands on Instagram if you haven’t proven yourself yet. Instead, take a look around at some smaller businesses.

You’ll find a lot less competition with other influencers when it comes to courting smaller brands. They are also more prone to collaboration and not imposing as many restrictions on you. If this proves to be successful, then you can use it as leverage to bring in bigger brands.

Establishing a relationship with a brand should begin with engaging with their posts. Try to grab their attention by liking their posts and leaving comments. Then you can move towards sending DMs about potential deals. You want to make it clear that you are a fan of the brand and would love to work with them.

Hopefully this engagement will result in further discussions and an approved pitch for a partnership. Yet, if it doesn’t work out, you shouldn’t feel discouraged. Just pick yourself up and try again with another brand.