Not sure how to carve out your niche, attract the right brands, and get brand deals?

Don’t worry. We’ve got you. In this post, I’ll offer easy and practical strategies for successfully navigating and excelling in today’s influencer market.

Steps to get brand deals

Landing brand deals is key. But before jumping in, make sure you’re ready.

Follow these steps to become a pro influencer and set up a proactive system that makes getting brand deals easier.

1. Prepare yourself

For getting brand deals that pay well and best align with your persona:

• • Find a niche and stick to it

Brands want to work with influencers with established authority in a niche.

Think about it: if an athletic wear company wants to promote its new fitness line, who would they prefer—a generalist or a fitness influencer with a small but dedicated following?

Pick a niche you know inside and out. Then, define your content style to what feels most natural to you, and stick to posting regularly.

If you choose fitness, for example, consistently post fitness-related content like workout routines and health tips. This will underscore your expertise and keep your audience engaged.

To develop a more personal relationship with your audience, actively respond to their comments and create interactive content that engages them directly.

• • Think like a pro

Study and learn from professional influencers. Observe how they:

• Build and maintain their personal brand
• Produce consistent content across various channels and formats
• Stay relevant by adapting to trends, working with woke brands, or creating immersive content
• Engage with their audience
• Promote themselves

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, learn to follow established practices. As you get into the routine of studying your audience’s demographics and preferences, you’ll naturally develop your own unique style and voice.

For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, you could learn a lot by observing Cassey Ho, the founder of Blogilates and a prominent fitness influencer.

She consistently posts workout videos and fitness challenges and uses bright colors and a clean aesthetic across all her social media platforms. She also actively engages with her followers with challenges like the ’30-Day Thigh Challenge’, actively responds to comments, and even features follower progress and testimonials to keep things interesting.

• • Act like a pro

When all your relevant information and content is in one place, it’s easier for brands to determine if you’re a good fit for them. It also makes you appear professional and easy to work with.

To build and maintain a professional portfolio and media kit, follow these steps:

• Select diverse, high-impact work that shows your skills and successful audience engagement.
• Use tools like Google Analytics to gather detailed audience demographics and engagement metrics.
• Design your media kit using professional software such as Canva or Adobe InDesign.
• Include a concise bio, relevant statistics, examples of your best work, and your contact information.
• Host your portfolio on your personal website and external platforms like Behance or LinkedIn, so it’s easily accessible.
• Remember to regularly refresh your content and metrics to reflect your current capabilities and growth.

2. Kick off your quest

Now that you’ve got all the gear you need to become a successful influencer, you can start looking for potential partnerships.

There are many ways to find brand deals. You can join an influencer marketing platform, network, or pitch directly to brands.

Let’s dissect each one by one.

• • Leverage Influencer Platforms

Influencer Platforms are like dating sites for brands and influencers to find each other. They offer many benefits like:

• Providing A structured environment to make the search and negotiation process easier.
• keeping you updated on relevant opportunities
• Give real-time and detailed analytics to gain deeper audience insights and optimize your campaign.
• Robust dashboards so you can manage multiple campaigns at the same time.
• Ensuring fast and secure payments.

A study by AspireIQ reports that influencers using their platform see a 50% increase in brand collaboration opportunities.

It works like this: Brands post campaigns on influencer platforms detailing what they’re looking for. From there, you can pitch to campaigns directly.

Brands also use search filters and other tools to find influencers with specific requirements. You can do the same and use platform tools to look for brands and campaigns in your niche.

The best part is that most influencer platforms are free for influencers to join.

Read our guide on how to choose the best influencer platform.

Once you join, see how other influencers in your niche have set up their profile and go from there.

It’s best practice to provide detailed information about your niche, audience demographics, and engagement metrics and upload high-quality examples of your content.

Influencity notes that influencers with complete profiles are 70% more likely to be contacted by brands.

Join Glewee today for free and start getting brand deals

• • Network, network, network

The more recognized you are in your industry, the more brands will trust and want to collaborate with you.

Stay active by Attending industry events, joining online communities, and collaborating with other influencers on joint projects or campaigns.

This will expand your reach and expose you to brands interested in partnering with multiple influencers.

Plus, establishing genuine connections will help you get referrals for potential collaborations.

• • Make brands notice you

Who says you have to wait for brands to contact you?

Take initiative and make the first move. Let me explain why.

Brands want to work with genuine and loyal influencers. Many even pick out loyal customers with good followings for collaborations.

For instance, Glossier and Lululemon regularly collaborate with loyal customers who authentically showcase their products on social media. Lululemon even has a dedicated page where ambassadors can contact them. Here’s what you do: Create a list of brands that match your niche and audience. Choose ones you genuinely like and want to work with.

Follow them on all relevant social media platforms and regularly engage by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts.

But don’t be mundane or boring. Share insights, ask questions, and showcase your experiences with their products through reviews, unboxings, or tutorials.

Tag these brands in your posts and stories, and mention them in captions to boost visibility and grab their attention.

Reach out directly via DMs to express your enthusiasm and discuss potential collaborations. Keep your messages concise and clearly state how your content will benefit their brand.

List what makes you unique as an influencer and how your audience will add value to their brand.

Use analytics and insights from your social media pages to highlight your reach and engagement metrics. Let the numbers speak and make your case for you.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a response. Practice makes perfect.

If you are rejected, politely ask for reasons. Gather feedback, learn, and optimize your pitches accordingly.

Follow these tips to perfect your pitches over time.

Tips for creating effective pitches to get brand deals

• Personalize your pitch to each brand. Show that you have taken the time to understand the brand’s goals and how you can help achieve them. Mention specific products or campaigns of the brand you admire and propose clear ways your collaboration can enhance their efforts.

• Use social proof to support your cause. Brands will trust you more when they see relevant, successful past collaborations. Highlight previous successful partnerships and testimonials in your pitch.
• Offer creative ideas to stand out and show initiative. Align your pitch to the brand’s marketing strategy.
• Follow up to show your persistence and interest without being pushy. Send a polite follow-up email if you haven’t heard back in a few weeks. Keep it brief and breezy.

Reasons Why Brands Work With Influencers

Brands increasingly turn to influencer marketing due to its compelling advantages over traditional marketing channels.

• 60% of marketers say influencer marketing has a higher ROI than other forms of traditional marketing because it is personalized and targeted.
• 69% of consumers trust the word of influencers while making a purchase decision.
• Influencers give brands access to a dedicated and loyal customer base that aligns with their target market.
• Influencers allow brands to penetrate markets that would otherwise be costly. For example, reaching younger audiences. Influencers have niche audiences, which allows brands to target marketing campaigns more precisely, which is especially useful for niche markets.
• Influencers add a human touch to brand interactions.

Start Getting More Brand Deals

Create content you’re passionate about, stay consistent, and keep pushing forward.

Reach out to brands you genuinely like, network with other influencers, and promote your expertise in your niche.

Stick with this simple yet effective plan, and you’ll land some solid brand deals that benefit everyone involved.

Also, consider joining a platform like Glewee to make finding and partnering with brands a whole lot smoother.