Which brands should you choose to collaborate with? How frequently should you take on their offers? And most importantly – how can you maintain an authentic and personal account along the way? Keep reading to find out more about building successful and long-lasting relationships with brands.
So you’ve created your account, gathered a dedicated audience and joined the indaHash community. Checkmate to your old boring lifestyle! Since you finally gained a glorious social media presence, there are plenty of brands in our app waiting to collaborate with you. But… now what? Of course, indaHash isn’t going to leave you hanging like that.
If you’ve ever wondered how to transform your Instagram account into a profitable business and create productive collaborations with brands, you can learn how to do it with this short and easy tutorial covering everything from preparation, research, expectations, reticence to maintaining uniqueness along the way.
1. Get to know your audience
Every successful brand spends a fair amount of their resources on conducting research regarding the preferences of their current and potential clients. And if you treat your account as a potentially lucrative business as well, we strongly recommend you to do the same!
It’s really hard to create impactful content for a brand without any research involved. What brands are looking for in collaboration with you is reaching a particular group of people based on their demographic – age, nationality, interests, buying power etc. (for example mothers interested in parenting tips, or woman along the coast who love exercise) they would have trouble to reach otherwise. Knowing what kind of audience you can provide a brand with is extremely important.
Here’s an easy way to get to know your followers a little better:
- Change your account to Instagram for Business.
Within 7 days you’ll gain access to the statistics regarding your account and your audience – your follower’s nationality, age, gender and activity!
2. Monitor your followers engagement
See which posts are the most impactful and get the most attention from you followers. You can do that based on their feedback in the comments and the number of likes they leave on your content. If one particular post gets a lot of attention, take note because it is a clear sign that this is what your followers love and are ready to engage with.
2. Choose brands true to your style
Always keep in mind that it’s not without reason that you’ve gathered a dedicated following. You’ve created an inspiring and consistent feed that highlights your creativity and uniqueness and shines a light on your interests. Understanding what drives your style is the holy grail of Instagram success, so celebrate your individuality!
Don’t pick brands which are totally out of your niche. For example, if you’re running a travel account and you’re never home, it will be challenging to mesh your content with a drain cleaner advertisement, right? Duh!
Never underestimate your followers – they will notice if you start advertising products that don’t fit your account style and would never use yourself. It’s extremely important that any sponsored content you post fits seamlessly into your account’s theme.
(Psst. Your followers are able to spot a blatant advertisement almost instantly and will smell it a mile away if you’re trying to be someone else by promoting something that’s not true to who you are.)
3. The ‘how much is too much?’ dilemma
When you start getting campaigns it can be really exciting! We love partnering you with great brands, but you still want your personal content to shine bright alongside your campaign posts. A great way to ensure that your account stays true to your authentic voice is to make sure that you’re spacing out your campaign posts, with your non-sponsored content. Brands love you for your personal relationship with your followers, so you don’t want your account to look advertiser heavy by forgetting to post your own inspiring content.
4. Know what the expectations are
Now that you’ve chosen the perfect brand for your account, make sure to read the task established by the brand carefully. Fully understanding what you’re obliged to do is crucial for successful execution of the aim of the campaign and the business partnership between you and the brand.
Typically, the task consists of:
When executing the task, always remember to:
5. Always add your personal touch
Last but not least! When you focus on delivering value, you become the trusted voice and your followers feel empowered to follow your example. If you showcase the collaborations you’re really excited about and put your heart into presenting them in the best possible way, you’ll be able to not only maintain a bond with your followers but also possibly reach a broader audience.
So, pay attention to adding a personal touch to your photos as well as to the description. Try the product, use it for yourself and visit the brand’s website to get to know it better. Being the go-to person on a topic is extremely important. Then share your campaign post featuring the product in your unique and creative style and share your thoughts in alignment with the campaign. The key is to prove to your audience that you’ve tried it, genuinely loved it and know enough about it to say that this is worth spending money on.
As you know, creating sponsored content is a powerful marketing tool and the key is to master the art of using it in a subtle and natural fashion. You have to make sure that you, the brand and your followers all profit from the collaboration and this way you’ll establish a strong relationship with both parties.
To inspire you need to be inspired, so choose brands in line with your voice and make sure that along the way, the voice still remains yours. Here’s to exciting campaign collaborations between you and the brands you choose!
