The world of influencer marketing is the future of online marketing for businesses! Have you ever wondered how influencers and bloggers make money? Or wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a sponsored post?

I launched my blog six months after starting my business with the intent of wanting to start sharing more of my life on instagram and incorporate more lifestyle content. I’ve always had a love for fashion and home decor, and as my following started to grow, I thought it would be really fun to explore this new area and see where it went!

There are two types of influencer marketing:
1) Brand Partnerships
2) Affiliate Programs

Brand Partnerships

Brand partnerships are sponsored posts, and agreements made between the influencer and brand to promote a product. These can be sponsored Instagram feed posts, Instagram stories, TikTok videos, Youtube videos, or any type of sponsored content on a social platform.

When I started my journey into influencer marketing, I focused more on securing sponsored brand deals with companies that I love. Some brands I’ve partnered with include Scotch, Michaels, Boscovs, DecoArt, and more!

As a smaller influencer (if you do not have hundreds of thousands of followers), for the most part you as the influencer need to pitch brands for brands deals. You may have brands reach out to you to partner up, but these brands are usually either not the ideal brands you want to work with or, they are brands looking for free content. I have only partnered with two brands who have reached out to me, all of the others brands I’ve worked with have been brands I’ve pitched myself.

Pitching brands can be time consuming and frustrating. When you pitch a brand, you are not guaranteed a partnership or even a response for that matter. During the time I was heavily invested in growing the influencer marketing side of my business I committed to pitching 5-10 brands a week. In order to pitch one brand, I first needed to search for the right contact person at the company, then research the company and their current events to include relevant points in my pitch, then develop ideas for the campaign I wanted to pitch to the brand, and then draft up an email with all of these points as well as relevant information about myself and my platform.

In the event the brand responds and wants to work with my, we will go through a round of negotiations, discuss deliverables, deadlines, contracts, etc. After securing a contracted brand deal, there will usually be a formal submission of concept and overall idea for the campaign before even submitting the actual content and deliverables. Once the concept is approved the influencer will need to submit all captions, all photos, all videos, confirm swipe up links, posting dates, etc. The brand deal process is extremely time consuming, and usually takes months between the initial pitch and date of posting. 

Affiliate Programs

The next type of influencer marketing is affiliate marketing. You will most likely see lots of affiliate marketing on instragram using the application “Liketoknow.it”. Liketoknow.it is run through the influencer marketing company RewardStyle, and the platform allows influencers to make a small commission on products purchased through the platform.

While this may seem like the “easier” route to earn money as an influencer, it is still very time consuming! Most of the affiliate income comes from blog posts and liketoknow.it posts. If you have a large following to your blog, large following on liketoknow.it, and have the time create blog posts and liketoknow.it graphics, this system can work really well!

If you are interested in applying to RewardStyle, please send an email to detaileddiarypodcast@gmail.com and I can send you a referral! 

Thank you to ShipStation for sponsoring today’s episode of The Detailed Diary Podcast! Click here for you 30-day free trial, and click here to read more about why I LOVE ShipStation!!