How to Negotiate with Brands as an Influencer with SheSpeaks Founder Aliza Freud: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 143
“You have to ask yourself – how valuable am I to a brand?”
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How do you negotiate with brands the right way, and get deals that others won’t? You’re going to want to listen to this episode to get all the info. Aliza Freud, American Express executive of 10 years, turned Founder of SheSpeaks, dishes the inside scoop on how to successfully work with brands who want to do research and marketing through influencers.
Aliza actually got into the influencer marketing business by accident. She first started SheSpeaks to help brands understand women’s interests and do market research. When she noticed that a lot of sign-ups were women bloggers and influencers and that they wanted to review the products on their platforms, a light bulb went off.
“Be aware that your audience on those platforms, you don’t own, you are just renting it.”
Through SheSpeaks, she continues to be a strong advocate for making women’s voices heard by helping members make an impact through connecting with brands, the press and each other. Aliza believes that women’s voices are powerful and that there’s no excuse for us to continue to be misrepresented by marketers.
“You have to be good at creating the content that is going to get the brand and your audience excited.”
After being in business for over 11 years, Aliza has worked with a ton of women influencers, helping them to negotiate with brands and create engaging content that is amplified at-scale to millions. Her network of influencers now consists of over 250,000 women with a combined monthly reach of 300 million consumers!
“As much as you can, in your media kits, start talking about how you’ve driven results.”
7 Key Interview Takeaways
- It’s no longer just about subscribers or followers. How you create convincing promotional content matters. Brands are moving away from solely focusing on large numbers and are looking for influencers who can drive engagement – they’re doing their homework on your previous posts!
- Prove your influence by using trackable links. Brands are doing their homework so it’s time for us to do some work too! You’ll have more strength to negotiate with brands if you can show them some social proof, like a website you got lots of your audience to visit. Those results can be super valuable! Master tip: Drive your audience to your email list! That does two things at once: proves your engagement and moves your audience on to a platform you own!
- Think of how you want brands to use your content. Brands may come knocking wanting to use your images or videos in their marketing material. Think about how much your content is worth and how long you want to let them use it. You can also define the formats they can and can’t use your content in.
- Negotiating with brands 101 – ask as many questions as you can. You should be aiming for an ongoing relationship with a brand and you can get there if you ask the right questions. Make sure you fully understand the value of the partnership to the brand, including their target audience, key performance indicators (KPIs), etc.
- Be authentic to your audience but be mindful that some brands might want to stay away. Don’t change your image or who you are. You’re going to come across some brands who resonate with you and some who don’t will stand on the same side as you, but that’s no big deal.
- Not all social platforms were created equal. Higher prices are being commanded on some platforms above others. Brands are used to doing commercials, so naturally, YouTube influencers can get paid more than Facebook influencers. Instagram is growing, so influencers there are being paid more and more. Unfortunately, Twitter has been trending down.
- Talk to other influencers. Most influencers are super supportive and are willing to hop on a call or DM with you to talk about what to charge and how to negotiate with brands. If you get stuck on a price, reach out.
Resources
My favorite free SEO tool for YouTube: TubeBuddy
PR Guide: How to Get onto PR Lists and Get Lots of Free Product
Getting Started on YouTube: The #1 Downloaded Free Niche Discovery Workbook
Connect with Aliza Freud
Facebook Group:
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
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