10 Ways To Make Money From Brand Collaborations

For new influencers, making money from brand collaboration may not be a need because, at this stage, they are usually more interested in finding a paid or gifted brand collaboration. However, this is not so with older influencers. As you continue to grow in your influencing journey, it is only natural to begin searching for ways to make more money from brand collaboration. Hence, increasing your rates become a necessity in a bid to meet your income goals for the year.

So do you fall under this category? You are in luck, this post is just for you. Here are ten strategic things to do to make more money from brand collaboration. Keep reading!

10 Ways to Make Extra Money From Brand Collaborations

1.   Be Coordinated & Organized

To make more money from brand collaboration, you have to be intentional about it. This requires you to get more organized and coordinated. To do this, you can create your own unique pitching system that enables you to meet your goals. This can include pitching a certain number of brands every week. Or drafting an outline for your pitch emails. For example, if researching potential brand partnerships is the first step in your system, decide how many brands you want to add to your list each week and set aside time each week to complete your task.

For each completed task, I list them on my excel sheet and create the next follow-up!

2.   Request For Affiliate Partnership

Many brands offer affiliate partnerships to influencers as it ensures the growth and credibility of their brand. This is yet another way to make more money from brand collaboration. You can request affiliate partnerships from brands and promote their products. And for every sale made, you receive a certain dollar amount or percentage.

Here is a brand collaborations with Instagram posts I’ve done this year with the HapaKristin contact lenses brand. I was given an affiliate code partnership to earn extra commission!

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A post shared by Cherisha | Malaysian Blogger (@inspiredbycherisha)

3.   Pitch for Long-Term Alliance

Instead of pitching for short-term partnerships, learn to pitch long-term brand partnerships. This is yet another great way to make more money from brand collaboration. It increases the brand awareness, visibility, and sales of the brand over time. Similarly, your personal brand gains more exposure and credibility.

Throughout my blogging career, I managed to establish a couple of long-term partnerships with brands like Laura Mercier Malaysia, Melvita and The Body Shop Malaysia.

4.   Negotiate Like an Expert

There are two negotiating methods in brand collaboration. This is payment subject to the number of deliverables or a simple flat rate for a collaboration. To make more money from brand collaboration, you have to learn the subtle but powerful art of negotiation. This is in addition to increasing your rates as your followership increases.

If a brand does not have the budget to cover your rates, do not dismiss the collaboration entirely. Instead, negotiate over the number of deliverables. For example, a brand may request 8 Instagram posts and a set of four to seven Instagram stories for $200. Reduce the number of deliverables to whatever you feel fit if they don’t have the funds for a higher pay rate. This way, you’ll be fairly compensated for your efforts.

If you’re having trouble pricing your work, drop me an email or join me for a one-one blogging coach calls.

5.   Earn More Through Ads

Ever heard podcasters take 30 seconds or a minute ad break? They just made some more money through that advertisement. Thus, if you are a podcaster, you can earn more money on daily podcast episodes by hosting ads. In the same vein, you can also offer to run ads on your blog or YouTube channel.

6.   Create Additional Channels of Income

Yet another means of making more money from brand collaboration is to create extra channels of income. Always check out possible avenues of adding more deliverables to a collaboration request. For example, a brand may request you to make a few Instagram posts. You can sweeten up the deal by offering to make a blog post with extra charges.

7.   Turndown Underpaid Collaborations

It is common to find new influencers accepting unpaid or underpaid collaborations in a bid to build up their portfolio. However, if you have paid your experience bills, this should no longer be for you. To make more money from brand collaboration, you have to begin turning down underpaid collaborations. This teaches you to begin charging brands what you are worth.

8.   Connect With PR Agencies

To succeed as an influencer, you must expand your network. This includes reaching out and networking with PR agencies. Don’t make the mistake of networking only with brands. It may interest you to know that most large brands hire their influencers through PR agencies. Therefore, connecting with PR agencies can earn you higher-paid collaborations.

9.   Utilize Influencer Marketing Platforms

One of the surest ways to avoid sending cold pitches or emails as an influencer is to utilize influencer marketing platforms. These are software that assists brands with their marketing campaigns with influencers. With this, you can be assured that you are pitching to the right brands. Some of these amazing influencer marketing platforms include Upfluence, StarNgage or Obviously.

10. Learn How To Pitch Creative Ideas

The influencer industry is quite competitive. Hence, to make more money, you have to learn how to craft strategic and creative pitch ideas. Understand that some brands receive so many pitches from influencers daily. Therefore to distinguish yourself, avoid sending generic pitches. Your pitch must be value-loaded. Likewise, you can share testimonials of your previous work as proof of your competence. 

Making more money from a brand collaboration is very much possible. The question is: how ready are you to put in the necessary work? If you are as ready and passionate as I guess you are, these ten ways are a great place to begin. So hop in and enjoy every bit of this exciting journey to making more money from brand collaboration.