How to Negotiate as an Influencer: Tips for Securing Lucrative Brand Deals

11 St. Studio

By the way, if you’re new here — welcome, I’m Jaye and I’m the creator of 11 St. Studio influencer agency and I’ve been helping influencers like you price their rates for brand deals, and negotiate brand contracts, since 2019. With that said, I recently launched a NEW webinar where I share exactly what goes into calculating rates for brand deals — IN DETAIL —  because let me tell you, it is NOT a one-size fit’s all approach. And in that webinar I also reveal how to get your hands on my personal influencer rate calculator, because trust me when I say, it’s a MUST-HAVE if brands are asking for your rates.

Again, I reveal IT ALL in the webinar. So make sure to click the link below this video to join the webinar because I don’t want anyone (who’s interested in learning how to price their rates for brand deals the RIGHT way) to miss it.

How To Negotiate as an Influencer

Without a doubt, the most common questions I receive from influencers in the community are:

1. How much should I charge for brand deals?
2. How do I monetize my influence (blog, Instagram, TikTok)?
3. I am tired of partnering with brands for free! How do I get paid brand collabs?
4. I have less than 10K followers, can I even charge brands for posts?
5. Can you tell me how to negotiate as an influencer?

Can you relate to these questions? I hope so, because we’re about to dive into the answers.

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Question #1: How much should I charge for brand deals?

Now, I filmed an entire video about this topic, so make sure you watch that next, I’ll link to it at the end of this post . But, in short, I always suggest setting a minimum rate that you charge every brand for partnerships, and from there, adjusting it depending on the variables, such as time of year, project timeframe, deliverables etc. Because each partnership is so unique, you always want to get everything in writing before sending over any rates so that you don’t inadvertently under-charge a brand. Again, you can watch my other video for a more in depth explanation, or read the blog post.

Question 2, and that is: “How do I monetize my blog or Instagram?

Ok, so let me start by saying that there are NUMEROUS ways to monetize your influence. You can:

• join affiliate programs
• sell digital products (like an ebook)
• create content FOR brands for social media
• attend events

…the list goes on and on! But, by far one of the most profitable ways is by collaborating with brands on sponsored posts!

I personally recommend monetizing your influencer in a variety of ways so that you’re never totally dependent on ONE source of income, but that’s just my personal opinion. You do you! But, again many influencers partner with brands because it is SO lucrative. So, if that’s your end goal there truly is no time better time to start pitching brands (on your own) because at the end of the day, that route is a goldmine. ????

Question #3: I’m tired of partnering with brands for free! How do I land paid brand collaborations?

I love this question! OK, I just want to say here that it’s OK to politely decline offers from brands that don’t offer to pay you! Now, I know that some brands are still new to influencer marketing, but that doesnt give them the right to request freebies from influencers. As a business they have a marketing budget, so I always suggest countering their offer and attempting to negotiate payment.

I can’t stress this enough because the reality is, all brands that are selling products (or services) have a budget for marketing and ad’s! And you’d be shocked by how many of them WILL magically come up with a budget when they really want to partner with you. 

Question #4: I have less than 10K followers, can I even charge brands for posts?

Yes, we’ve helped bloggers and influencers in the community with as little as 500 followers land paid brand campaigns! Think about it this way, if 500 people gathered to watch you speak on a stage you would have sponsors lined up to pay you to mention their products. Now imagine if you had 1K, or 10K people gathered to listen to you. That’s a lot of people! So keep that in mind when brands reach out to you because they are very aware of your influence, and I want YOU to be as well.

Not to mention, influencers with smaller audiences typically have higher engagement rates, which can equal MORE sales for a brand. So charge accordingly because the truth is, macro and mid-tier and mega influencers have historically low engagement rates, meaning people don’t trust them as much as they do nano and micro influencers, so you can absolutely charge brands because you technically are MORE influential as a small influencer.

So please, stop leaving money on the table!

Shop our Resources for Influencers

Question #5: Can you tell me how to negotiate as an influencer?

Many brands will attempt to approach unsuspecting influencers to collaborate for free. Perhaps they assume that a lot of people don’t know how to negotiate as an influencer. So let me ask you a question.. do you think they also ask Instagram to run their ads for free? Unlikely! So remember that because if they can pay Instagram to reach an audience, well…they can pay you too.

So with all that said, if you’ve collaborated with brands in the past for free, don’t stress! Instead, going forward always strive to negotiate with brands!

Again, I can’t begin to tell you how many times brands approach influencers with “limited” budgets for a campaign and then “magically” find more money to pay them when they decline the campaign. So it’s incredibly important that you learn how to negotiate as an influencer and start doing so right away!

How to Negotiate as an Influencer

Listen, I get it, negotiating can be difficult or even stressful for some people! If you’re one of those people, relax. You can always hire a manager or agent to represent you, and they will 100% do all the negotiating work for you. But, if you’re NOT ready for an agent to represent you, don’t stress. I’ve got you! You do not need to wonder how to negotiate with brands anymore.

Professional Pitch Package

If you didn’t already know, I included three of our most effective negotiation templates inside the Professional Pitch Package to help you negotiate with brands on your own. These are templates influencers just like you use everyday in emails with brands!  These templates are perfect for those occasions when a brand reaches out to you for free collaborations! Rather than saying “yes”, or even “no, thanks” or worse, nothing at all, you can use the templates to negotiate with the brand yourself to turn that unpaid partnership into a paid campaign!

Any successful influencer will tell you that, in order to set yourself up for success you need to invest in tools to run your business! As an influencer, you’ll need a smartphone, laptop, likely a DSLR camera, editing software, etc. These templates are one of those tools! If you’re ready to start monetizing your blog (or social media profiles) and secure brand collaborations you see countless other influencers and bloggers landing everyday, I recommend you grab a copy of the Professional Pitch Package ASAP.

The other influencers that invested in it are securing very profitable brands deals on the daily, anywhere from $1k on the low end to upwards of $10k, $25k even $100k per post on the high end! 

I started this Agency to help female influencers, YouTubers and bloggers negotiate with brands and earn more money in brand collaborations! With brands paying influencers rates of $1k-$10k (and more) per post, you’re in an excellent place to negotiate. SO, if you’ve been working with brands for free until today, now is the time to start negotiating brand deals!

These brand pitch email template makes pitching brands as an influencer so simple! With these templates you now know how to negotiate with brands as an influencer, because all you have to do is fill in the blanks, the pitches and negotiations are already written for you.

And let me say one more thing, and that is, other influencers ARE negotiating with brands, everyday. So, ask yourself, do you want to be the influencer who is accepting freebies, or the influencer who is accepting checks? The choice is yours, but I can’t tell you how many times brands have been known to pay one influencer and send freebies to another, all because one of them didn’t negotiate payment. 

NOW, let’s chat about the final tip that will help you double or heck, even triple your current rate, and that is…

Brands pay influencers with email lists (and additional social media accounts) more than those without! So, if you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you set up an account with an email marketing provider (I personally LOVE and recommend ConvertKit) and start collecting emails. Also, make sure to create matching Pinterest, Twitter and even YouTube profiles to maximize your profits in brand collabs because if a brand approaches you for a collab and you can post to Instagram and say, YouTube, or your blog and an email list, you just doubled your income.

How To Negotiate as an Influencer

OK that covers just about everything you need to know about how to negotiate as an influencer. If you liked this post please save it to Pinterest to refer back to later, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below the YouTube video. And of course (if you’re not already) please subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Read More Tips for Influencers

Thanks for reading our guide on how to negotiate as an influencer! Here’s a few of our most popular guides for influencers as well as some of our best-selling resources for influencers in our Shop. ❤️

• Unlocking Collaborations: How to Reach Out to Brands as an Influencer
• How Much Should I Charge as an Influencer + Rate Card Template
• What Brands Look For In Influencers — Read more here.
• Influencer vs Content Creator: What No One Tells You
• Influencer Tips & Tricks — Read more here.
• Influencer Opportunities: The Truth About Brand Deals
• Become a Paid Influencer: 6 Tips — Read more here.
• How To Make Money Creating Content For Brands — Read more here.
• How To Approach Brands As An Influencer: Quick Guide
• Influencer Brand Deals: An Ultimate Breakdown
• How To Negotiate As An Influencer — Read more here.
• How To Get Brand Deals — Read more here.
• How Much To Charge For A Sponsored Post — Read more here.
• The Brand Pitch Email Templates (That Brands Can’t Refuse) — Read more here.
• Get More Brand Deals With This Engagement Rate Formula — Read more here.
• How To Work With Brands As An Infliuencer — Read more here.
• What (Exactly) To Include In Your Media Kit — Read more here.
• How Much To Charge For A Sponsored Post — Read more here.
• Influencer Marketing Terms You Need To Know To Work With Brands — Read more here.
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel — Watch Now

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