7 Ways To Ask For Paid Brand Collaboration

So, you are new to brand collaboration and wondering how to start getting paid? Or are you tired of receiving gift products from brands and want to be paid for your work? Don’t worry, you are not alone. I have found that asking for payments for a brand collaboration can be quite difficult for new bloggers. The reason for this is not far-fetched.

Sometimes, it’s the fear of losing out on the entire collaboration deal. While sometimes, it’s the uncertainty of how to ask and how much to ask for. When I was venturing into the blogging world, I did not know that one could ask for paid collaborations. Trust me, I have taken so many gifted reviews for free! But when the brand’s deliverables and demands were higher, I had to take a step back and re-evaluate if I was doing the right thing. And that’s where I decided to say NO in areas that I know I can’t deliver and re-negotiated terms with potential brands that I wanted to work with.

I’m going to share with you 7 ways that will help you to learn how to ask brands to reward or pay you in a brand collaboration.

7 Ways to Ask Brands For Payment

>

1.   Gifted Campaigns

As content creators and influencers, I’m sure you are aware of the ‘gifted campaign’ collaborations. As wonderful as gifted campaigns are, they can’t help you pay the bills. As a blogger, you must value your worth and time. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner, you just have to make sure you are worth your pay for the time you invest in creating content. You can thus couch your payment request like this:

“While I’m thankful for the gifts offered for this campaign, can you please share the budget for this collaboration?”

2.   Brand Offers No Payment

Oftentimes, brands approach bloggers for collaboration without making any payment reference. This is usually because they want to avoid paying you for the work done to minimize their marketing cost. Here’s how you can therefore phrase your request this way:

“Thank you for contacting me to collaborate on this campaign. But please, may I understand your budget for this collaboration?”

3.   Brand Says There is NO Budget

One of the first things you must understand is that brands always want to save as much money as possible. So even when they say they have no budget, more often than not, they do. You can ask this in scenarios like this:

“Here are samples of my previous work. Be assured that your brand will receive maximum exposure. So let me know your budget for this campaign.”

However, when they insist they don’t have a budget, you can learn to say no or make the right decision to accept gifted reviews to expand your very own exposure too!

4.   When the Brand’s Budget is Low

This is where your negotiation skill as a blogger will come to play. You can also send the brand a media kit that helps to show them your value as an influencer. You can couch your requests for payment in this manner:

“As you can see from my media kit when you work with me your brand is guaranteed to get xxxxxx. So let me know if you can work with my proposal”.

5.   When you Pitched for the Collaboration

Sometimes, you can also approach brands for brand collaboration. This is especially when you are still new to the terrain. So when pitching for brand collaboration, ensure you add this to the pitch email:

“Do let me know if my proposal aligns with your goal as a brand. I will be happy to discuss a budget that works for all when you do”.

6.   When Brands Reach Out to You

As you continue to grow your unique brand, more brands will approach you for brand collaborations. When this happens, you can ask for payment in this manner:

“This collaboration sounds amazing and I look forward to working with your brand. Please share the compensation range for this campaign. Since this is our first cooperation, I can offer you to add 2 Instagram stories for free!”

7.   When Brands Offers Paid Campaign

Brands may sometimes offer gifted campaigns along with payment offers. But the budget for the campaign is less than your price. To confirm if there is room for re-negotiation, you can ask this:

“I’m excited to work with your brand. But may I know if the budget can be improved. Typically, I charge between $$-$$ for campaigns like this”.

Learning to ask for payments for brand collaborations can be quite daunting. This is especially when you are a beginner. But knowing your worth as a blogger will embolden you to begin asking for your remuneration. A worker is worthy of his wages after all.

Want to learn more blogging tips? Here are some favorite picks!

It’s okay to say NO to brand collaborations

7 Tips for NEW bloggers & Influencers in 2020