Categories for Influencer marketing

A foolproof guide to landing more gigs as an influencer

This blog post was originally written by Ruan Fourie.

You work hard at building a following. Right? The biggest thrill is watching how people engage with it. How people tune in daily to read, like, share, watch and comment on the content you created. But wouldn’t it be great if you could turn this passion into a business?

Once you know how to market to your audience (your readers and followers) and understand the value of your influence, it’s only a matter of time before brands start to notice. But the tricky thing as an influencer is finding the balance between running sponsored content and keeping your fan base happy. That’s why working with the right brands is essential, that’s why at Webfluential we give our influencers the opportunity to accept or reject jobs based on the brief. But what if you don’t want to wait for the job offers to come to your Webfluential inbox? What if you want to be pro-active and pitch your influence to brands?

If you’re that kind of Blogger, YouTuber, Instagrammer, Tweeter or Facebooker then you’re in the right place! The Webfluential team have put together a foolproof guide to landing more gigs as an influencer.

Remember this: nobody is better suited at marketing your online influence than you. This is your personal brand, your followers and your community. You know what makes them tick and you know what brands they are most likely to care about.

This guide is about helping you get in front of those brands, the ones you and your audience want to work with. If you follow the process below, and genuinely believe in your content – there is no doubt that turning your passion into a business could become a reality for you.

There are four steps below. All are equally important. Good luck!

STEP 1: Find the right person to pitch to (not just anyone who works in marketing)

Blindly sending an email to the first address you find on your favourite brand’s Contact Us page, isn’t going to land you any jobs. It’s going to make sure your email goes directly to the trash folder, along with all the other unknown emails the brand receives daily. You need to reach the people who have the power to sign-off on your campaign idea, or at least get it in front of the right people.

But how do I find the contact details I need?

Use tools like Viola Norbert and social networks like LinkedIn to not only find any email addresses, but the email addresses of the right members of the marketing team for the brand you have in mind. Check their Twitter profiles to see if they share any content related to the brands you’re trying to pitch to – marketers often share content from their own campaigns. If you get lucky, they might even have a personal website or a blog that has a contact page.

Once you have two names and two email addresses of members of the marketing team, move on to the PR department. This will give you four points of contact that you must use over the next few weeks.

But wait! Don’t fire off your emails to every address you’ve found right away. Hang onto them, because here’s where your strategy kicks in.

STEP 2: Use Twitter as an ice-breaker

People are more likely to respond to an email from someone they have an association to, someone they ‘know’. The beauty of the internet is that it gives us the opportunity to ‘get to know’ the right people without really meeting them. Twitter is the perfect medium to have a casual conversation with the marketer you want to pitch your idea to.

Follow them on Twitter, and engage with one of their tweets. A couple of days after that, you’re going to email them your campaign idea. No need to be overly aggressive, a few tweets where you add genuine value to a conversation will do. No one likes a stalker. Two responses that add value in one week will make you stick in the recipient’s mind for all the right reasons. By overdoing the tweets or if you don’t add something to the conversation with your reply, you’re going to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

The Twitter interaction simply introduces you to the marketer, so that the real introduction has already been made before you propose your campaign idea via email – it’s like making eye contact before you buy her a drink. Don’t be despondent if this process takes a week or two. Good things come to those who wait!

STEP 3: Polish your pitch, and make sure you have a CREDIBLE media kit

If you have a great idea and campaign strategy, it’s just a matter of landing it in the right inbox. Sometimes it takes a few tries but if you have the right balance of creative and persistence you might just strike it lucky!

Getting the email right is important though. Here’s what your email shouldn’t look like:

That doesn’t sound like the beginning of a mutually beneficial working relationship, does it? That sounds like an influencer pitching to a marketer that isn’t 100% credible. It makes it easy for the marketer to just hit ‘delete’.

What your introductory email should do is show what you, as a credible influencer, are capable of producing for the brand you’re pitching to. Whether you’re pitching an idea across your Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or even Snapchat – it’s important that you get the BIG idea across in the initial mail. Marketers like to see, and feel what you’re pitching.

It’s short, it speaks about the creative idea, and it ensures the marketer knows you’re a credible source.

Tip: when you attach the outline of your campaign to the email, remember that you only have five slides to get your idea across. Five slides, that’s it. Make sure they are five slides to remember!

STEP 4: Make closing the deal as easy as possible for you, and the brand

Filling out supplier forms, getting POs and following up on invoices are all necessary steps – but they also make closing deals harder. You want to give the marketer the impression that working with you is not only going to be successful, but also simple.

One way to make it easier for brands to work with you is to use the Booked By Webfluential tool. It gives influencers complete control to take bookings anywhere, anytime, from any brand. No paperwork, no invoices, no hassles.

You control your prices, which you can change at any time, and all payments are processed via PayPal – guaranteed by Webfluential. There is a one-on-one chat function and even automated reporting after your campaign is complete.

So there you have it, four steps to land you more gigs as an influencer – we told you it was foolproof! Liked what you read? Sign up to be an influencer with Webfluential today, and get your media kit and booking form – then get pitching!

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We’ve recently updated our terms and conditions. These are some of the reasons why.

Webfluential has some exciting (first in the world) technology that will be released over the coming weeks, it will allow influencers and marketers to work closely together in crafting and disseminating branded content.

Along with this exciting new technology comes a need to best consider the dynamics and working relationship between the two sides of the marketplace – so we’ve had to update our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for influencers and marketers alike. In the last two years of business, Webfluential and its team have played the role of go-between, negotiator, and troubleshooter in the space between influencers and marketers. We’ve learnt the lessons and seen the scenarios that typically occur, and our next step is one to attempt to improve on that gap between influencers and marketers.

The Webfluential business model is to allow for high volumes of influencer marketing campaigns, across multiple continents, and that means we need to ensure an industry that can scale. In reality, being fair to competing brands, keeping commitments to posting schedules and observing general etiquette is something we’ve had to cover in the past.

Our intention was not to confuse anyone with the updated terms, more to build a safe environment for both marketers and influencers. Our company vision remains what it always has been – to stimulate the influencer marketing economy in an environment that’s a fair exchange between brands and influencers.

We’ll be updating our FAQ section a little later today but in the interim we’d like to address some of the concerns here.

Some of the questions we’ve been asked:

1. Can I work on Webfluential and on other influencer marketing platforms?
2. What exchange rate do I get paid on for work I accept?
3. I have multiple profiles under one account, to whom does the terms and conditions apply?
4. If Webfluential has introduced a marketer and influencer, how is that relationship governed financially?
5. How do influencers manage working with competing brands offering them jobs at the same time?
6. If influencers don’t deliver on their contractual obligations to the marketer, what happens?
7. What is the best etiquette to observe as a brand or influencer while working together?

If you have further questions, you’re welcome to respond in the comments section below for the benefit of the other users, or email us on [email protected] and we’ll respond. Below are the answers to the most common questions we recieved over the last 72 hours.

Can I work on Webfluential and on other influencer marketing platforms?

Webfluential doesn’t limit you to only work with them. Influencers and marketers can join as many platforms as they wish. We request that both influencer and marketer do however appreciate the introductions made to each other on the Webfluential platform and run those campaigns resulting from the introduction through our platform.

What exchange rate do I get paid on for work I accept?

Certain countries require by law that their citizens receive payment for services rendered in their local currency, or be paid into their local bank accounts. Marketers are charged in US dollars, or their local currency equivalent for campaigns. Influencers are offered US dollars, or where applicable, a local currency equivalent that caters for forex and bank fees. The local currency amount will be offered on each job.

I have multiple profiles under one account, to whom does the terms and conditions apply?

When you create a Webfluetial account you can have multiple profiles under one account. An influencer could have multiple accounts for various reasons (multiple blogs for instance). When you accept the terms and conditions, you accept them for each individual profile not for your account as a whole – so each individual profile is treated in isolation.

If Webfluential has introduced a marketer and influencer, how is that relationship governed financially?

Marketers pay in advance of the campaign starting, influencers are paid when their duties of creating and posting content are completed to the satisfaction of the marketer. If influencers agree to post to a certain schedule and then don’t deliver, they can be penalised a portion of their fee.

How do influencers manage working with competing brands offering them jobs at the same time?

A simple rule of thumb is that influencers will lose credibility and their ability to monetize their audience if they take on competing brand work at the same time. Webfluential cannot control the briefs marketers offer to influencers, so to prevent marketers losing faith in the platform, we suggest to influencers that they don’t work with competing brands at the same time.

*PLEASE NOTE – there will be a chat function introduced as part of the new technology being released – so if you ever have a case where you’re unsure of this or special circumstances apply, you can just negotiate those terms directly with the marketer offering you the job in questions. We’re adding the competing term clause to set a standard of what we feel is right, but we understand that special circumstances may apply.

If influencers don’t deliver on their contractual obligations to the marketer, what happens?

At the end of each campaign, both influencer and marketer rate each other. For influencers, a higher rating means showing up in more searches. For marketers, it shows credibility when offering campaign work to influencers. As a platform, Webfluential can’t monitor or intervene in all communications.

What is the best etiquette to observe as a brand or influencer while working together?

In the next week, influencers and marketers will be given the space to freely communicate with each other to discuss collateral and posting of content. We suggest observing the basic etiquette of a contractor/service provider relationship, the usual courtesy of a chatroom, and healthy observation of the nuances in working together.

As mentioned above, we’re here to help the industry grow as a whole. We’re really proud of the influencer community on Webfluential, and will continue to build world class technology to empower every influencer in the world to turn their passion into a business.

Thanks for being part our the Webfluential community. We appreciate your support!

Kirsty Sharman

Head Of Global Operations

www.webfluential.com

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