Instagram can not only be a fun way to engage with others and share content, but it can also provide a lucrative income stream for influencers. To turn it into a moneymaker, you will need to first learn how to get sponsored on Instagram.
The good news is that you do not have to have a large following to get sponsorships on Instagram. So-called micro and nano influencers with under 10K followers are also getting brand deals on Instagram.
As long as you follow our guide to getting sponsored on IG, you can start turning your Instagram account into one that provides you with another income source, be it a side hustle or eventually your primary means of making money.
Steps to Getting Sponsored on Instagram
When you start looking into how to get sponsored on Instagram, you will come to find there are several key factors at play. The following are what you will need to understand and adopt on your journey to landing brand deals.
Describe and Define Your Brand
Defining your brand is essential if you want to see your engagement increase. This should include finding your niche and establishing a brand that is clear to others.
What is your focus?
How does your aesthetic look?
How do you style your content?
What does your messaging look like to your audience?
A well-defined brand makes it clear to people what it looks like. If they look at your content, they should be able to identify the content is yours before seeing your brand’s name. The more you stick to a particular theme for your content, the more you increase brand recognition and trust.
Describing your brand in your bio should be succinct and to the point. Make sure people can easily understand what it is that you do and are all about. The clearer your description, the easier it will be for you to attract the right audience.
Understand Your Audience
Who are your followers? Understanding the demographics of your audience will greatly help you target the right people and land the most successful sponsorships.
To help you know your audience a bit better, you can create an avatar persona of your ideal follower. This should include essential target demographic information such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Marital Status
- Location
Additionally, you should also have an idea of what type of content they enjoy the most. Also, determine when they are the most active, as this will help you decide on the ideal time during the day to post new content.
The more you understand your audience, the easier it will be to land sponsorship and partnership deals with bigger brands.
For example, instead of simply saying that your target audience is young women, you should describe it using several detail, such as:
- Women ages 18-29
- Located in California
- Instagram use is highest between 8 AM and 10 AM
- Most interested beauty and makeup content
Be Consistent With Content Production
The more often you post content and the more consistent your content production is, the higher likelihood that you will get sponsored. This is due to brands seeing you are maintaining an active presence on Instagram, which will mean you get more engagement.
However, avoid overdoing it and spamming content too frequently since your followers are unlikely to see several posts from you in their feeds if you share multiple posts at the same time.
Note: You can post more Stories on a daily basis than Posts and Reels, as they are designed to be posted and viewed in succession.
Protip: Determine the ideal posting time specific to you by looking at your account’s analytics dashboard. This will tell you the days and times when you are receiving the highest engagement rates.
Create High-quality Content
If you want to land the best brand deals possible, your content will need to be attractive to your target brands.
Besides having great aesthetics, you should be leveraging video formats more than photo-based ones. That’s because video has become the primary content format that both brands and users are after.
Make sure you leverage all of the video formats Instagram has, which include:
- Video Posts
- Reels
- Stories
- Lives
Video content usually has high engagement rates when compared with photo posts, especially when it is crafted in a way that showcases products in their best light. Video formats allow you to come across as more authentic due to the ability to be more expressive.
Protip: Create long-form content that takes your followers on deep dives into the products you want to show off and promote. This transforms your viewers into participants in an exclusive experience, especially if you are sharing about your personal experience with a product.
Leverage Hashtags and Geotags
Your target audience will need some help finding your content. To make it easier for them, you should be using hashtags and geotags in your content.
While you are technically allowed to include up to 30 hashtags, you should do your best to avoid adding more than nine, while considering using as few as three to five.
Additionally, when you do use hashtags, make sure they are relevant to your content. The higher the engagement with your content from the hashtags you use, the more prominent a placement the algorithm will place within the hashtag’s posts page.
Protip: If you’re unsure whether a hashtag is right for your content, go to its page and take a look at the content that shows up at the top.
Another important consideration when using hashtags is to stay away from using very generic hashtags that have millions of posts. Unless you are already a major account that receives thousands of likes within the first hour of posting, your content will quickly become buried on the hashtag’s page. The fewer posts under a hashtag, the more noticed your content will be.
Protip: Avoid using banned hashtags to ensure your content gets noticed.
Geotags are handy because they help people find content based on locations they are interested in. Brands will look at the top content for specific cities so see who’s content is appealing to people in those locations.
Tag a Brand
If you want to start getting noticed by bigger brands, you will need to get into a habit of tagging them in your content. This should hold especially true if your content is relevant to the brand you are tagging.
When you tag a brand, you are essentially pitching to them. They have a chance to see the high-quality content you share and your audience. This will help them make a decision about whether you sponsor you or not.
Protip: If you’re just starting out in your journey to land a sponsorship, make sure you stick to tagging smaller brands than the major ones. A startup is a great business size to target due to the greater likelihood that they will see your tag notification and view your content.
An example of using the brand tagging strategy effectively could look like this:
You are wearing an outfit from your favorite brand and add a tag to the post that directs your followers to the brand’s Instagram page. You could also answer questions your followers ask you, such as what the cost of the outfit was.
When you do this, brands will see you as someone who should get sponsored because you are able to increase their sales.
Provide Contact Details in Your Bio
When you include your contact information within your profile’s bio, you are signaling to brands that you are interested in getting sponsored. Common contact details influencers provide in their bios include:
- Website
- Email address
- Press kit
If you have a website, you can have a page that will list and describe all of the services you offer. Once you get sponsored by a brand, you can add them to this section of your site to show other brands you are an experienced influencer.
Pitch to Aligned Brands
A key step to take if you are looking for how to get sponsored on Instagram is to pitch to brands. Getting a paid sponsorship can sometimes be as easy as directly reaching out to a brand. Otherwise, you may be waiting a long time until a brand notices you on their own.
When pitching to brands, you will want to do some research first. Follow these guidelines in your search:
- Reach out to brands who are active on IG and make an effort to have a strong presence
- Review brands other influencers in your niche are doing paid sponsorships for
- Target smaller brands at first to have the highest degree of success
After you have found the contact email addresses for the brands you are interested in partnering with, send them your pitch. In your pitch, remember to include the following:
- Short description of who you are, what you are doing, and what your accomplishments are within your niche that position you as an influencer
- Explanation of why you would be a great fit for promoting their brand
- Inclusion of your follower and engagement metrics
- Call-to-Action that includes your contact details
Once you have all of these details compiled, you can create a pitch email template and slightly customize it for the brand you are sending it to. Make sure you are coming across as authentic and sincere. After all, this is a professional partnership you are after.
Protip: Keep your email subject line brief and compelling to increase the chances of your email being opened.
Note: You can also simply DM a brand on Instagram, especially if they are a smaller brand. Otherwise, your DM may get missed.
Join the Creator Marketplace
Instagram has its own Creator Marketplace to assist brands with their hunt for the best influencers. You can join this marketplace here if you want to improve your chances of getting seen by aligned brands.
Instagram lets you decide what brands would be within the niche you want to be an influencer in. You can also inform it of your interests to narrow the field a bit more. From the Partnership Massaging inbox, you will be able to readily send messages to brands you would like to get sponsored by.
Determine Your Value
Before you start reaching out to brands, you should have an idea of what you will charge. This will require you to conduct some research for the going rates influencers of your size are charging on average. These figures are constantly changing, so make sure the data you are looking at is as fresh as possible.
Remember: Avoid selling yourself short but also don’t overcharge. You may need to do some trial and error if you notice you are not getting many responses, or are getting too many.
Protip: Keep room for negotiations, and incorporate upsells. Providing package deals for a larger dollar amount could become an appealing offer to brands you are speaking with.
Conclusion
If you follow our guide for how to get sponsored on Instagram, you should start getting brand deals very soon. With an increasingly crowded field on Instagram, niching down, creating high-quality content, and targeting aligned brands will help you achieve success on Instagram as an influencer.
