Brand Collaborations are one the main ways bloggers and influencers monetise their online presence. However, with many things in the industry, there is not a lot of transparency about it. As someone just starting out as a travel blogger and building my online presence, I decided to write this post to share my experience on how I landed my first paid collaboration. It was with a travel tour company when I had a little over 1K Instagram followers.
The aim of this post is not to educate (although I will share some resources that can help), I don’t believe I know enough to begin educating. The main reason I am writing this blog post is to encourage anyone starting out and go through the entire process step by step.
How I landed my first paid collaboration
Mindset
It’s almost a cliché to start with a mindset but this is a very important aspect. It is so important to believe that this is something that is possible, and it is something that is possible FOR YOU! The way you think has a huge impact on your ability to learn and grow. It is important for you to identify any ‘self-limiting’ and don’t allow them to control and dominate the thoughts we have about ourselves and our abilities. For me, I had this misconception that my value or worth was tied to the number of followers I had so I needed tens of thousands of followers to be able to work with brands. This simply isn’t true. To make sure I got into a growth modest, I surrounded myself (virtually) with people that are growing and achieving what I desired. This was a game changer for me.
Get help
We all know that if you want to go somewhere you have never been, you need guidance. For example, if you are on vacation, land in a new city, rent a car and are trying to get to your accommodation. You will need help – it could be from a map, a person, or sat nav, but you will meet help. In the same way, I needed the help to know how to start reaching out to brands. How do I find the brands/opportunities, how do I find the right contact information, how do I pitch myself etc. I knew I had to invest in resources to help me. I took part in Pelumi of Black Kinstugis working with brands workshop (looks like it’s currently unavailable). This was specifically for creators with a small following and it helped clarify the steps to take before reaching out, during and after. Some other resources that I have come across are:
- Working with brands for micro influencers and brand collaboration bundle
- First paid kit by Mattie James
- Insta Collab Secrets by Chasity Lyn
Any of these bundles will set you on your way to securing that first paid collaboration
My Process
- Finding the brand
It goes a long way to pitch brands that already work with bloggers so what I did was scroll through another travel bloggers page (in the same sub niche) and had a look at brands they had working with. When I saw some that looked interesting, I had a look at the Instagram page, website and also o a quick check in news. The reason I do that is because I really want to make sure this brand aligned with my vision. I also want to know if there are any “scandals” our there so, I read reviews and I make sure this is a brand I believe in and can support.
- Pitching the brand
For my first paid collaboration, the brand had a marketing@ email address on their Instagram, so that was straightforward. I knew the email would reach the right person. If it was an info@ email address, I would then use LinkedIn to dig deeper for an appropriate email address.
To pitch, I sent an email based mainly on the email templates in the brand collaboration bundle. The brand replied a few days later and asked if I could also contribute to their blog. I agreed to this, but this was where I asked if there was a budget available. I knew that the deliverables I offered, in addition to a blog post is something valuable and worth paying for. We agreed on a price and went on to secure a suitable time for the collaboration.
- After the collaboration
After the brand collaboration, I followed up with some stats on how the campaign did. This included comments, number of link clicks on Instagram, and screenshots of a follower that made a booking based on my recommendation. After that, I asked for a review and stated that I would love to be considered for any future work.
Landing my first paid collaboration was such an exciting process. I was so happy do something that truly brings me joy and get paid for it.
Here’s what I learnt:
- My online presence is valuable
- Don’t afraid to ask to get paid
I hope my experience helped and encouraged in some way, if you have any other questions at all, feel free to shoot me a DM
