BRANDS AND CASTING AGENTS
Once you’ve been featured in a roundup or two and have a few PR partnerships under your belt, it’s time for the big leagues: approaching brands and casting agents directly. It may seem like a big task to take on, but again, if you have great content and approach them in a mindful way, they’ll be happy to hear from you.
Before you can send them an email, you’ll need to make sure you have the right contact, and LinkedIn is your go-to for that. You should search for people who have a title that has the word “influencer” or “talent partnerships” in it. Be sure to read their descriptions so you’re not contacting anyone in HR, as that’s a different type of talent. Another way to find the key players is to comb through sites like digiday.com and adage.com and see who they’re quoting in their articles about influencers. These are usually the people you want to get in touch with. If you can’t find an email address for the person who handles influencer marketing, sometimes a quick message on Facebook or Instagram to the brand’s handle will do the trick. I actually booked a decor blogger and gave her a home makeover because she sent the brand a Facebook message. We just so happened to be looking for a blogger in her area when she messaged us. She scored free services AND cash because she wasn’t afraid to reach out and connect.
Once you’ve found them, you want to send a message that’s a mix between the media and the PR notes mentioned previously. It should look like the following:
Dear Casting Director,
My name is XYZ and I am a [style, beauty, fitness, travel, lifestyle, etc.] blogger from XYZ city. I recently hit [25K/50K/100K] followers and wanted to send you a note in case you are working on future campaigns where I might be a fit.
I am a big fan of your [product/ service/website] for XYZ reason and believe my readers would really enjoy a collaboration with your brand.
If this is something you might be interested in, I’d be more than happy to send you my press kit or my one-sheet. If you’d like more information about me you can check out my blog, YouTube, and Instagram.
Thank you so much for your time,
Influencer
Short, sweet, and to the point. These emails are great to send directly to brands because they love collaborating with people who organically use their product. I love getting these kinds of emails because they help me connect with people I might have never found. Every campaign is so different that it might take months for me to find something they’re right for, but they’re on my radar, so mission accomplished.
WHAT IS A PRESS KIT AND WHAT IS A ONE-SHEET?
Oh, did you think I was going to leave you hanging? Of course not. A press kit is really just your “about,” “partnerships,” and “contact” pages rolled up into a nice pdf. I save every press kit I’m sent because I can search them for keywords like “musician” and “vegan.” As I am writing this, I received a request for an influencer who has recently switched to a plant-based diet. The girl who has that in her press kit . . . hired. Your one-sheet is all the crucial elements from your press kit on—you got it—one sheet.
If you do not have fantastic design skills, I suggest hiring someone to create these documents for you. The last thing you want to do is finally convince someone to request your press kit or your one-sheet only to turn them off because you sent them an ugly document. Oh, and never, ever, ever put prices in your press kit. Why would you limit yourself in a document so permanent? Don’t do it.
* * *
These tips should help you package your brand, but at the end of the day, creating a brand as an influencer is very similar to creating a brand as an employee. And rule number one in the workplace and in life is: BE NICE. Almost anything can be forgiven if you are nice. More money magically appears for influencers who are nice. Being nice is also more important than how many followers you have. It always has been, and it always will be.
INFLUENCER INSIGHT
The best piece of advice I can give is the one I received a long time ago when I was just starting on my path in the United States: “Say a little, do a lot, be kind.” For content creation, this formula translates into:
• Don’t blab about your plans and ideas, or someone else will implement them before you do. The influencer market is a competitive place today. I wish I didn’t have to learn that principle the hard way.
• Be prepared to work your *** off at any time, but for the first couple of years also be prepared to not get paid much for it, just yet. Treat the work that you may not be getting paid for as IF you were getting top dollar for it. After all, the content you create is your reputation.
• Be kind. Always. Sometimes people you have to work with are simply . . . not very nice. I’d like to use a different word here, but let’s keep it G-rated. But keep your cool. Vent to someone who you trust, but smile and just smooth the situations over. This is essential in any business, but in influencer marketing it’s everything.
As far as content creation goes, one of my biggest regrets up to this date is that I didn’t go with my gut and instead listened too much to advice that was freely given on how to succeed. Read it all, but use your head and trust your gut in the end.
Don’t be afraid to hire help! Share your pay if you are running low on creative ideas. It’s well worth it in the end!
—@livingnotes
INFLUENCER ICON
JOY CHO
@ohjoy + ohjoy.com
If you find yourself talking about influencers who have built empires, Joy’s name will definitely be mentioned. An early adopter of Pinterest, where she has over twelve million followers, she has multiple lines at Target, and has authored three books. She built her brand from scratch, now has several employees, and everyone in the DIY space knows her name. Have you seen some of her work? Not even on my best day am I churning out sliders that look like that!
ON PINTEREST VS. INSTAGRAM . . .
Pinterest is my dominant platform as far as the number of followers, but you have to look at every platform differently, as it’s not all about numbers. Engagement is super important, too. I was one of the early users on Pinterest, and my blog audience instantly followed me there. I also had a lot of great online write-ups where people were listing me as someone to follow on Pinterest. So it grew really fast. I still love Pinterest and use it every day as a tool for my business and to amplify my blog content. Lately, Instagram has also become a go-to platform for sharing and connecting with my audience. There is such a great community there, where followers can reach out through messaging and comments and really connect with me and the Oh Joy brand.
ON PRODUCING HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT . . .
Creating content should be about sharing ideas that you really love and feel genuine to you. It can be easy to look at what other successful brands or bloggers are doing and emulate their photos or content on your platform, but focus on what makes you YOU. And what you can create that feels different and feels special to your voice and your story.
There’s not a huge difference between “organic” and “branded” content for me. Everything appearing on my platforms is in line with my aesthetic of bright colors, touches of whimsy, and above all, hopefully bringing joy to people’s lives. Yes, when you work with a brand, there are certain requirements from the brand you need to adhere to, but you also need to find out what those things are up front and make sure you can still tell a story in your voice with those requirements. If you can’t, then kindly pass on the opportunity.
ON WORKING FOR FREE . . .
I would definitely recommend working for free (or for exposure) if you are just starting your brand or platform, and still trying to build an audience or opportunities. We all have to start somewhere. I did a lot of free (or cheap) work when I was starting my business and trying to grow my portfolio to show people what I could do. Once you build up momentum, you can be more selective and be firm in your fees.
ON ASSUMING YOU’LL HAVE MORE TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN WHEN YOU OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS . . .
; The ironic thing about that assumption is that starting your own business (and maintaining it) requires more time than a nine-to-five day job. Yes, you can have more flexibility because you are in control of your hours, but it’s not something to go into thinking you will have more time. The time is just dispersed differently.
“Working from home” while taking care of kids is near impossible when you are actually trying to do it. All the moms that I know who run businesses are working well into the night many nights a week. I have the ability to end my workday before 4 P.M. so I can pick my kids up from school, but that also means that I am working again for a few hours most nights after they go to bed. Yes, you can take vacations without asking your “boss,” but on vacations you are likely checking emails and doing some sort of business maintenance since it’s hard to completely shut yourself off from work when you run your own business.
If I had started my business after becoming a mom, I would have been better about saying no to things that weren’t worth my time or money earlier than I did in actuality. Once you become a parent, your time is so much more valuable because you weigh whether something is worth doing and being away from your kids for. That ability has helped me a lot in business as well.
ON HAVING YOUR CHILDREN APPEAR IN YOUR ONLINE WORK . . .
You do sometimes see my family on social media, but it has changed a lot for me over the years. When my blog was my only online outlet and when the Oh Joy community was much smaller, my blog felt a bit more personal and I shared a lot of everyday family moments that my readers could connect with. But as my kids got older, I have chosen to show them less and less. You will see them pop up on my IG and IG stories every so often, but they are rarely on the blog.
For me, the personal moments I share are meant to add a bit of joy, inspiration, tips, or ideas that people can relate to or help them personally in some way. The inclusion of my kids (or not) will continue to evolve as they get older. More than anything, I make sure whatever I share is what is comfortable for me and my family. Every family or situation is different, and there is no one right way. You have to do what makes sense for you. If you do choose to show your kids on social media, a few things I suggest:
• Never show the outside of your home or your children’s school.
• Don’t discuss when you are home alone or your partner is out of town.
• Don’t post your location or what you are doing in real time. You can save it all and post later.
• Respect your kids and their moments. Never force them to take a photo for social media. If they are old enough, ask for their permission too.
ON FINANCING YOUR PASSIONS . . .
My entire business has been built on my own money. No investors, no borrowing money from family, etc. Because I started my business as a freelance designer, there was no up-front investment; I already had a computer and printer, which is all I really needed. I built up my clients and work, but really was mostly making what I needed to pay my bills. So when I decided to start a stationery line back in 2007, I didn’t have any extra money just sitting there in a savings account. I used my credit card to fund the production of my first stationery collection. After that, I used what I made from it to put back into the next collection. It wasn’t ideal to rack up credit card debt, but it was the only way I would have been able to do it at that time.
While I recommend having money saved before you start your business, if you can, I also wouldn’t change what I did because it would have taken me years to save up enough to get started, and the timing and results would have been much different. I only continued that stationery line for a few years because it was draining my resources financially and I didn’t like living like that. Currently, any products we create are through a license, so there is no up-front cost on my end for production, and it allows me to focus on the more fun aspects of designing products.
ON HIRING A TEAM . . .
My business started in 2005 as me working by myself from home. I had an intern in the first few years, then I worked with some outside freelancers for a few years. But it wasn’t until 2014 that I hired my first employees to work side by side with me at an office outside of my home. It took me eight years to feel comfortable taking the leap and the financial risk to hire. I started small, with one part-time employee, then added another, then another, and then those part-time folks came on full-time within a year. Then, I added one or two new team members every year after that. Everyone has their own specific role, from designing to styling to crafting to social media to new business. I work directly with all of them in some way every day and oversee the business and creative direction of Oh Joy!
ON TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL . . .
In 2004, after seeing a girl at Target covet some pj’s I designed as part of my then job as a designer for Cynthia Rowley’s Swell line, I made it a goal to one day have my own line at Target. I didn’t necessarily know how to reach that goal, but my focus on growing my business and portfolio was to work toward that. Of course, you never know what will pan out in real life. But ten years later, that dream came to fruition with our first collection at Target in 2014.
While not every single thing you put on your goal list works out, I sincerely believe that if you want something badly enough, and work hard at it, you can manifest your goals. Everything you do—all your work, everything you learn—is in preparation to reach that goal. In the earlier days of my business, I reached out to brands like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters to do design work for them, and built up my portfolio with work that represented my style and showed people what I could do.
My biggest advice for anyone with a similar goal is to keep putting yourself out there and show work that you want to be making (even if no one is hiring you to do that work yet). I think the biggest misconception is that these things fell into my lap, and that’s not true. Ninety percent of the bigger projects I’ve worked on were from me reaching out and pitching my work and ideas to a brand.
ON WOMEN DOMINATING INFLUENCER MARKETING . . .
I love that women are owning the social media space and have the ability to create content and earn a living off of it. We all have a story and a voice, and we live in a time where we have platforms to share our voice with the world if we want to.
No one actually lives an “Insta-ready” life. I think the idea that anyone does is an assumption we all need to get rid of. If your business is based in social media, you are certainly thinking about capturing things in a different way than someone who doesn’t use social media. But we all have to keep in mind that what we share on social media is such a small fragment of our lives.
I think most people who share regularly on social media are very aware of turning that switch off and on when it makes sense for them. This is why I love things like Instagram Stories that give a bit more of an authentic window into people’s days. It’s less perfect, less edited, and people can connect with you beyond the perfect pretty picture.
My advice for young women who want to create content:
• Do your research. Since there are so many bloggers and influencers these days, it’s important to make sure you’re doing something that’s different and not too similar to what’s already out there (both in subject matter and aesthetic). You might see someone else achieving success with a certain style or voice, but instead of imitating them, use it to fuel the fire of your goals to grow in your own way.
• Be genuine. Post about the things that you really love and would be excited to share every day.
• Don’t stress. It can be easy to worry about getting readers or trying to grow an audience or the “numbers.” But if you are creative, authentic, and are doing something different, people will tune in.
ON HINDSIGHT BEING 20/20 . . .
The journey, the trials, the hardships—those make the experience sweeter and the reward greater. I don’t know that I would change anything about the beginning or avoid some of the tough times, because they made me into the woman and wife and
mother and business owner that I am. Experience (good and bad) is necessary for success, so I don’t want to shy away from that.
While social media is definitely essential to the success of a business these days, the most important thing? YOU BE YOU. Because social media allows us to see so much (maybe sometimes too much) of what everyone else is doing, it also makes us compare ourselves to others more than ever. So stick to who you are—your style, your voice, and what you believe in.
PART 3
Monetizing Your Influence
CHAPTER 5
The Money
How do you determine and negotiate your worth?
Congratulations! After creating amazing content and getting your name out there, someone has discovered you and wants to collaborate on a campaign. They pop on over to your Instagram, quickly find your email address (thanks, Chapter 2) and shoot over a soft offer to see if you’re interested, available, and within budget. The ones I send read something like this:
Hi Influencer,
I have a great opportunity for you. I’m working on XYZ campaign and we would love to fly you to New York on ABC date.
We’re looking for you to do a one-day shoot and post one Instagram post. For this scope we have a budget of $$$$. Let me know if this is something you’d be interested in and if you’re available.
Thanks,
Casting Agent
Now, this might seem like Life Lessons 101, but when someone sends you an email, the polite thing to do is to send one back. Unless it’s a chain email, then feel free to send that straight to the trash because absolutely no one has time for that. But you would be shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, at the number of emails I have sent that remain unanswered. Emails that have MONEY in them. Real, actual, US of A dollars. Not the promise of money from some foreign prince who will wire it over after you text him your Social Security number.
Influencer Page 8
