Do you want to learn how to negotiate (paid) brand collaborations?
Negotiating your rate card with brands or businesses can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially for new influencers. I know it was quite nerve-wracking when I started pitching out to the brand for business partnerships! As influencers, we must be skilled negotiators in order to reap the financial benefits from brand partnerships because our ability to negotiate collaborations will determine our success as an influencer. So you’re unsure how to go about negotiating paid brand partnerships?
This blog post was written with you in mind. Check out these ten negotiation tips that are guaranteed to help you in your next brand campaign.
7 Tips to Negotiate Paid Brand Collaborations
1. Find Out the Brand’s Budget
Negotiation is all about asking questions, receiving answers, and compromising. As an influencer, finding out the brand’s budget for the collaboration is the first step you need to take. At first, this may feel uncomfortable, but with a lot of practice, you will become a pro.
So the first thing you need to understand is that finding out a brand’s budget is not the same as asking if they have a budget. Doing so gives them a chance to say no and opt for gifted collaborations instead.
The next time a brand seeks your expertise, start by responding back as follows:
‘Thank you for your email [brand], I would love to work with you. But before we begin, may I know what’s the budget for this campaign? Attached are my media kit for your review, have a look and let me know what you think. We’ll discuss further.’
2. Confirm the Number of Deliverables
Ever found yourself frustrated at a job that the reward is nothing compared to the work delivered? This is what happens when you, as a content creator or influencer fail to confirm the exact number of deliverables that the brand is requesting you for.
When I started out, I took in many gifted collaborations from brands and in exchange they would request me for several deliverables such as:
- 3 Instagram posts
- 2 Instagram Stories
- 1 Content Writing on the Blog Writing
- 2 IGTV videos
This exhausted me to the core because I was putting in efforts to curative content whilst not being paid. Not only did it frustrate me, but it also brought me to a space of burnout.
Therefore, another great negotiation tip is to clarify the results the brand wants before stating your rate. Doing so helps you to understand the full extent of the brand’s requirements and it will help you to make the best charges for each collaboration.
3. Share Your Stats as an Influencer
Influencer marketing offers brands multiple benefits which motivates them to seek out influencers. Through collaboration, brands drive sales, build awareness, and generate leads.
In a negotiation, the party with the bargaining power often wins. As an influencer, your ability to prove to a brand that you can help them gain all these gives you an edge. Hence, sharing your stats such as your impressions, engagements, or reach is a good negotiation tip.
4. Show Your Previous Brand Collaborations
In addition to sharing your metrics, brands also love to see proofs that you can do as you said. They want to be convinced that you can indeed supply the agreed deliverables. A good way of doing this is to show them your previous successful brand collaborations.
You can link back to past collaborations in the same class with evidence of its success. For instance, where the brand requests an Instagram stories collaboration, only link back to a similar successful collaboration. Not a blog post or podcast collaboration.
5. Quote Your Rate
This is where it gets uncomfortable for many new influencers. After you have done all these, the next negotiation tip is to quote your rate. Not just any rate, begin with a higher price. Of course, this strategy is easier to follow when you know your worth as an influencer.
However, this negotiation tip also comes with a rider. Avoid using this strategy when you are still new to paid brand collaboration and ONLY use it when you have many collaboration requests and you want to settle with the high-paying ones. Experience expertise matters 😀
6. Learn to Compromise
Compromise is one of the bedrock of negotiation. It is not all the time that brands meet your expectations rate-wise. Don’t be so quick to turn them down. In some cases, you have to meet them halfway.
This is especially when you are a beginner and need to build your portfolio. Or when a popular brand reaches out to you. In this case, the rate may be lower than your worth, but the benefits will offer you great compensation.
7. Know When to Say No
Learn to have a limit you can never go below as an influencer. This will help you to know when to say no to a brand collaboration. Some brands never budge, making it difficult to meet in the middle as regards deliverables, exclusivity, and money.
So no matter how difficult it may be, you may have to walk away from some brand collaborations. Even paid ones! As you progress in your influencer journey, you will realize that more opportunities will come. Hence, the earlier you learn how to choose right, the better.
Your success as an influencer lies in your ability to master the art of negotiating paid brand collaboration. Knowing how to do this saves you the hassle of settling only for gifted or underpaid collaborations. So do you want to beef up your negotiating skills? You certainly won’t go wrong if you begin with these seven negotiation tips.
