Working on the brand side of the influencer world, I can tell you that NOT all influencers are created equal.

Some are extremely pleasant and wonderful to work with and others, well, flat-out suck.

This past year I’ve made it to the head of influencer outreach at the company I work for. I spearhead the influencer program and I’m always looking for influencers to work with for the 12 brands we manage. Since starting this position, I’ve learned a lot about influencer etiquette from a business standpoint as well as from a blogger standpoint. As much as I enjoy what I do, I have run into some issues with a few influencers that make me not want to work with them again.

To help you avoid being blacklisted from a company’s influencer list, I’m providing you guys with four easy tips to help you become the best influencer to work with.

Micro-influencer Resources

How to Pitch to Brands as an Influencer + Examples

The Micro Influencer’s Handbook: How to Land Brand Deals and Build Your Personal Brand

1. Influencer 101: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

What I mean by this is don’t go and be rude to the person on the other side of the keyboard, you know, the one that will potentially send you FREE stuff AND PAY you too. I’ve had a few instances where influencers reach out to me, or vice versa and the conversation goes south quickly.

Usually, it pertains to a given rate. Now I understand that a hustle is a hustle. Bloggers and influencers make a living through  the content they put out, however, brands aren’t looking at follow numbers anymore as much as they look at engagement rates and a lot of the upset influencers I get want to get paid based on their huge following (with ver very low engagement.)  

In the end, there are three things you can do instead of being the influencer that was rude:

• Respond to the counteroffer explaining why your rate is the way it is, explain the value you will be providing to the brand (analytics helps here) you can even give a previous campaign example with stats.
• Know your value and negotiate a fair price to make a deal
• Kindly decline the offer and move on, maybe that wasn’t the collab for you

No matter what you decide to do, just don’t be rude, bring up how much other companies pay you, how much the same brand has paid others etc. Just like all influencers aren’t the same, neither are companies or what they look for.

Keep an open mind and remember you are a brand. You don’t want to be known as the brand that people look at and don’t want to work with because they’re rude or snooty when it comes to sponsored content.

2. Communication is KEY in Brand/Influencer Relationships

This should be a given but I still run into a few instances where influencers are super chatty at first (usually while we’re working out a deal) and once the contract is signed and the product is shipped the communication stops.

Don’t be that person.

It’s happened to me on more than one occasion where I have to hunt down the influencer or blogger and they either take weeks to reply and/or completely avoid talking to me.

When working with brands you are expected to be a professional. After all, you have a professional-looking website or Instagram with professional photos and an established brand.

We understand you are busy just as much as we are and we don’t have time to hunt you down. A week-late response is no biggie to me. When I start to see a problem is when an influencer completely stops talking to me or fails to disclose upcoming plans that might hinder the post-date we agree to.

For example, I had one influencer sign a contract to post some content on a specific date. As the date approached, I emailed her to see how everything was. She then decided to tell me that she couldn’t meet the deadline due to a family emergency. No biggie. Later that week, she reached out again and said she had last-minute travel plans and couldn’t meet the new deadline but provided me with a new date and time, again no biggie.

Lesson here: It’s important to disclose upcoming travel plans, last-minute travel or emergencies with the person you are working with up front.

Why you may ask, well if they have clients as I do, they expect coverage of their brand on a specific date. When you communicate and disclose why the deadline isn’t being met, it doesn’t look as bad as just missing it.

At the end of the day, we’re all humans and the world can be very unpredictable, chances are the brand rep will totally understand why something was late.

This brings me to my next tip.

3. Stick to deadlines

Outside of family emergencies and last-minute travel plans, please, please please for the love of jack and diet coke, please try your hardest to stick to deadlines!

There’s nothing I hate more than writing on my roster that an influencer was late on submitting something.

Not only does it look bad on your brand, but my clients don’t want to work with people that are late. If a contract says a specific date, please take that date seriously. If something arises in between, as I said above, communicate it.

I’ve had a few instances where due dates come and go, emails get ignored and two weeks later I get links submitted with an invoice attached saying “thanks for the opportunity”. C’mon guys, you’re better than that!

I’ve also had influencers submit their links, they get paid, all is good and within the following weeks the content gets taken down.

Why even bother partnering up if you don’t truly believe in the product/ service a brand is paying you to promote? Money shouldn’t be your only motive. 

4. Complete ALL tasks agreed to

This should be a given, but I guess it’s not. Once a contract is signed, you as an influencer, are agreeing to complete everything asked for by the brand in order to get paid.

Some brands ask for the content to be up for a number of days or permanently as long as the feed or blog remains active. Some don’t even have that in their contracts. Others ask for specifics like word count on blogs, number of pictures posted, a specific title, etc. It all really depends on the brand and its goals.

The influencers I’ve worked with have all been good at following the guidelines with the exception of few. When it comes to content, they kill it every time! However, it seems like they have a problem keeping content up for the amount of days specified.  

You have to understand, a contract is a legally binding paper.

I seem to experience this with more seasoned influencers though. They feel as if they can do anything without consequence and to be frank, it only causes problems when you can’t hold up your deal of a contract.

Not to mention, it makes people question your moral compass and not want to work with you because you can’t abide by the given guidelines.

Remember, before signing ANY contract read everything it says and don’t be afraid to ask for red lines and revisions!

Be sure you truly can deliver what is being asked of you or it can lead to legal issues.

Soo…

There you have it ladies and gents, four easy tips to becoming the influencer every brand wants to work with in 2020.

By following these four general guidelines I can almost guarantee you can build a lasting relationship with any brand you reach out to.

It really comes down to mutual respect, communication, timeliness, trust and a bit of common sense.

Do you have any more tips to add to the list? Comment them below! And remember you guys can ask me anything via Instagram DM or my contact page. I love answering questions and helping ya’ll grow! Till next time!