One of the hardest things to do as an influencer is to make the jump from being gifted products to actually making money for your sponsored posts. You put a lot of time and effort into creating content and ideally, you’d like to be compensated for that! One of the critical pieces of making this transition is actually determining how much you should be charging or asking brands for.
This is a little difficult to do because most influencer contracts aren’t public so there is no way to know what others are charging. Additionally, because the concept of paying influencers is just recently becoming mainstream, there really isn’t any type of industry standard. To help you figure out what you should be charging for your services, we’ve put together this guide.
This is “How To Set Your Pricing As An Influencer”
NOTE: This blog post will only scratch the surface on how to determine your pricing, what other influencers charge, and general guidelines related to pricing. To read the Complete Guide, CLICK HERE.
WHY you should be charging money at all
From the get-go, it’s important to remember that you’re offering a valuable service to brands and should be compensated fairly for it. Not only that, but it takes lots of time, effort, and sometimes money on your end to make sure you’re creating quality content. These are all reasons why you deserve to be compensated.
Additionally, as uncomfortable as it sounds, you’re essentially offering your own platforms as an advertising space for brands (although ideally it’s a brand that you approve of and think your audience will find valuable). Since a brand would have to pay to advertise on a billboard, TV station, or on Instagram/Facebook they should also have to pay to advertise on your social channels.
However, just like a billboard in Times Square is going to be more valuable than a billboard on a rural highway in Nebraska, you also have to be honest with yourself in terms of how much value you’re actually bringing to brands. (NOTE: You shouldn’t consider yourself on par with a billboard, that was just our analogy. Working with influencers is much more valuable than a billboard).
There’s a few ways you can estimate the value you bring:
1.) Metrics – Look at things like your audience size, engagement per post, and total reach. This will let you know approximately how many people will be seeing your posts. According to Statista, the average engagement rate is 2.1%.
2.) Total reach vs. per platform – Gather metrics from across all of the different platforms you’re active on to get an idea of your total audience size as well as your following on each platform. This is good information that can help you negotiate with brands down the road.
3.) Look at your audience demographics so that you know what types of brands you should approach. You want your audience demographics to match with their target consumer.
A few strategies when getting started
IF YOU’VE NEVER LANDED A BRAND DEAL BEFORE then your focus should be on securing just one paid partnership. Trust us that once you land the first one, it will get much easier to land new ones. Imagine a ball at the top of a hill. The ball needs a slight push over the edge to start rolling but once it’s rolling downhill, it will keep gaining speed organically. This slight push is your first brand deal.
So where are a few places to start?
1.) Start with smaller brands that are more approachable and easier to get in contact with.
2.) Initiate conversation via email instead of a direct message, it’s more professional.
3.) You can agree to do partnerships free of charge as a way to build up relationships as well as a portfolio of work. HOWEVER, keep in mind that you’re doing this work for free so it shouldn’t be consuming the bulk of your time.
4.) As you slowly build relationships with a few different brands, you’ll be in a good position to negotiate payment the next time around.
IF YOU HAVE LANDED A BRAND DEAL BEFORE then you should focus on finding the sweet spot for your prices. To do this, slowly raise your prices until you start to get pushback from brands. If brands accept your prices without any pushback then that’s a sign that you might be charging too little. The next time you’re in a negotiation, raise your prices a little bit to see what the response is.
This will take a little time but eventually, you’ll reach a natural middle ground where you’re satisfied and brands are also willing to pay.
The goal here should be to constantly experiment with your prices. If you’re getting consistent business then try to negotiate and stand firm on a higher price. When you do this and stay firm, it sends a signal that your time (and work) is valuable.
Additionally, instead of discounting your prices you can also look for different ways to bring value to the brand. For example, if they insist that your price is out of range try offering to increase your deliverables, offer exclusivity, and other perks instead of just discounting your prices.
Read our complete pricing guide…
We hope that you’ve found this short article valuable when it comes to understanding how to set your pricing as an influencer! If you wish to read the Complete Guide, CLICK HERE to check it out.
In this guide, we go way more in detail and cover topics like:
1.) How to state and control the terms of the deal
2.) How much other creators are getting paid with data pulled from 5 different industry sources.
3.) 4 crucial tips when it comes to establishing and defending your pricing that can help you land your next deal or drastically raise your average contract value.
4.) 7 elements that NEED to be included in your emails to brands.
Click Here To Read The Complete Guide
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