What is one of the best ways to get paid brand deals as a small creator or even as a new creator?

Sign up for influencer platforms!

I have made several thousand dollars over the years by doing campaigns through influencer platforms, and I want to help you get paid to create too.

And if you’re just stumbling upon this post and don’t know me and want some context on my experience, hi! I’m Austen, a fashion and beauty micro influencer based in New York City and I currently have a community of about 90,000 people across my social media platforms including Instagram (17k), TikTok (25k), YouTube (19k) and Pinterest (24k).

Today we'll cover:

What influencer platforms are
How influencer platforms work
My favorite platforms for brand collaborations
Other platforms I think are worth a try
Gifting platforms
Tips for landing collaborations through these platforms
Pros and cons of influencer networks
A bonus resource for new creators

What are they?

An influencer marketing platform (sometimes called a third party platform or network) is simply a website or an app that connects brands to content creators.

How do they work?

You might be wondering “at what point in my content creator journey should I be signing up for these platforms?”

So as far as I know, none of the platforms have any kind of follower minimum to sign up, so you can get on to them right away if you want to!

Before creators apply for campaigns I typically recommend that they hit one of two benchmarks:

You have at least 1,000 followers on your primary posting platform, whether that's Instagram or Tiktok, or YouTube. This typically puts you into the nano influencer category and it shows that you have potential to build a greater community and you’ll be able to share engagement, reach and impressions with a brand.
If you have an awesome portfolio of work that goes back at least six months to show that you've been actively creating for that time period, just so brands see that you're really committed to doing content creation, and you're working on growing your community.

The great thing about most of these influencer platforms is that you'll actually connect your social accounts at the beginning. So they'll automatically update as you grow and as you expand your communities.

I’ve gotten a few questions in the past from influencers wondering about the safety of connecting your social media accounts to these platforms. All of the ones that I mentioned below are ones that I am signed up on and that I have connected my own social accounts to, so take that as you will.

My favorite platforms for paid brand deals

Aspire

When I talk to my fellow content creators, Aspire is the one that I usually hear creators have generally positive experiences with across the board.

I did two brand collaborations through Aspire in 2021. It was easy to upload deliverables, I was able to negotiate and talk to the brand, and the whole process overall was pretty seamless.

I did receive an invitation from one brand to collaborate through Aspire IQ and I applied to another campaign through the platform.

I believe there are minimum benchmarks or follower counts to apply for some campaigns, but from my understanding you can sign up at any time and once there are campaigns that you are eligible for or brands who want to work with you you’ll get notified.

The InfluenceHer Collective

I think I've probably done the most paid brand deals over time through this network. The InfluenceHer Collective is actually owned by Her Campus, which you may be familiar with, and they mainly work with college-aged creators on campaigns targeting millennial and Gen-Z women.

So if you are a college-aged influencer, or a millennial or Gen-Z woman, you should absolutely sign up. But I've definitely noticed that as I have gotten further and further from being postgrad, I have received fewer collaborations through them.

That being said, I've still worked on some pretty cool brand collaborations with them and I've been able to negotiate most of them with maybe one or two exceptions along the way.

Fohr

I’ve done two campaigns with Fohr. I felt that I was paid pretty fairly for both and was able to negotiate some terms as well, however my point of contact did shift several times throughout my campaign which made for a bit too much back and forth and confusion.

Fohr does also have a bulletin section of their website where you can apply to certain opportunities that might be gifted, or that might just be surveys of interest, but those campaigns are not managed by the Fohr team themselves, brands can submit opportunities to show up there.

So just know if you're ever being recruited for a paid campaign by Fohr, you'll likely have a brand representative reaching out to you from for itself via email like I did.

One of the biggest benefits of Fohr especially for newer creators is definitely its technology: you see your analytics, use the content search tool and collect follower testimonials.

LTK

Now you may know LTK (formerly rewardStyle) as an affiliate marketing platform, which it is, but they do also have a section on their website called collaborations and brands can also reach out and collaborate with you through LTK. So I do consider it a third party platform for that reason.

I've also only done one campaign through LTK but it was with a brand that I was so excited to work with that was a perfect fit for my content and they also paid very fairly and quickly.

I’ve heard ~through the grapevine~ that the key here is your LTK sales for certain brands. So if you can clearly demonstrate you can bring in sales for a brand they may be more inclined to work with you.

Obvious.ly

In terms of pricing and deliverables I find Obvious.ly to sometimes be hit or miss. However, the hits are definitely hits and I’ve enjoyed every campaign that I’ve done with them so far.

Their team is also generally pretty responsive and they’re one of the few platforms that actually notifies me when I’m not selected for something which I appreciate because there are so many that you never end up hearing back from.

And then here are some other platforms for paid brand deals I think are worth a try:

Social Fabric and Takumi I’ve used in the past, but haven’t done a deal through lately. I think those two are best if you are brand new and just starting out because the rates I find for these platforms are often not negotiable and much lower than some of the other platforms that I've worked on before.

In regards to the other five networks, I have signed up for these platforms but haven’t done a deal through them yet. I wanted to share these with you because these were all recommended by fellow content creators to me, so some of my fellow content creators have had success on these platforms, even if I have not yet.

Gifting-only platforms

Now I have a LOT of opinions about when it makes sense for influencers to work in exchange for products. If you want my full thoughts on gifted campaigns and whether or not influencers should work for free, I actually do have a whole video about that on my YouTube channel that you can watch here.

If you are brand new, like you just started creating content a few weeks ago, or a few months ago, and you're not exactly at that point to do paid brand collaborations yet, this might be a great way to start testing products, build relationships with brands and practice the process of what creating sponsored content might feel like even though you're just doing something on a gifted basis.

I’d say that at this point in my career probably less than 5% of all deals that I take are gifted but every creator is different! Again I’d definitely recommend watching my YouTube video if you are looking for more information on whether or not a gifted campaign may be worth it.

I’ve made over $5,000 from influencer platforms

The trick is to be available, look out for the right opportunities, and let brands know why you’re the right fit to create content for them.

Increase your odds of landing deals

I have three key tips for you to increase the likelihood of getting chosen for brand campaigns you see on influencer platforms.

1. Make sure you keep your profile updated!

So as I mentioned earlier, if you connect your social accounts to any of these influencer marketing platforms, they will auto update and aside from occasionally fixing a broken connection, you won’t have to worry about updating your stats. But I think that it's important to set a calendar reminder, like pause this video and do it now to recur every six months to set aside time to go in and make sure all of your platforms are up to date.

So if you've got a new profile photo, you should update that. If you moved, if you had a kid, if you have changed the content that you create and focus on a different niche, make sure that these platforms are all as up to date as possible to maximize your opportunities to get cast for brands that you would love to work with.

2. Don't apply to every campaign that is offered to you.

And you might be thinking “but Austen, the more campaigns I apply to you the better chance I have of getting accepted. That’s math!”

That may be true, but that is potentially at the expense of the campaign making sense for both you and for the brand who is reaching out.

As an example, it wouldn't make sense for me to do a campaign with a pet brand because I don't have any pets. And even within my niche a skincare brand may come to me and want to promote a product for oily skin and since I have dry skin I’m probably not the right fit even though it is technically a beauty campaign.

3. Make it easy for a brand to say yes

If a brand is giving you an opportunity to explain why they should select YOU for this campaign, take full advantage of it.

Be sure to get as specific as possible and paint a picture for that brand about what it would be like to actually work with you so you can talk about exactly what type of content you're envisioning creating, how you're planning to work it in naturally and other ideas that you have that will make them say yes to you while they're reading through all of those different applications.

Pros and cons of influencer platforms

One pro is that you don't have to wonder which brands are working with influencers—you'll see those campaign opportunities appear either on that platform or if you sign up for email updates from these platforms, you'll just get them in your inbox.

If you're a small creator, influencer platforms are a great way for you to start working with brands because most of these platforms actually target nano and micro influencers specifically.

So if you create high quality content and you have a small audience and you don't want to wait to get paid for your work, I would definitely recommend signing up for a bunch of these and seeing what happens.

Then there are some cons, and you can decide for yourself whether or not these are deal breakers.

You can't always negotiate within these networks and one of the big reasons I'm able to get four figure brand deals even as a micro influencer is because I know how to negotiate.

I can read a contract and go back to a brand and ask to change the deliverables or remove a usage clause that I don’t want there.

Since often with these platforms you sometimes can't negotiate, I would just make sure to really carefully read your agreements, make sure you realize what you're agreeing to, and see if you're comfortable with the rate that is offered.

Another con that I find to be a little bit frustrating is you don't always find out if you're not chosen for these things. If you don’t hear a yes, you may not hear a “no” either.

Finally, the biggest con of working with these platforms is that you're not building that relationship directly with the brand.

Say you actually do a campaign with a brand through a third party platform and you want to work with that brand again.

You might have to wait until that platform puts out another opportunity for that particular brand and you don't really have a way of contacting the brand directly unless for some reason it got worked into your agreement with the platform.

I've personally found that when brands have reached out to me, or when I have pitched brands for myself, that's been when I've had the best campaigns in terms of content that really fits me and my brand and also in terms of compensation and a fair negotiation to agree to terms.

And with all of these platforms just read the fine print of signing up for these platforms because they may update their terms of service when you’re using them and you want to understand what being on them means.

A bonus resource

If you're a new creator and want to set your social media platforms up for success when you apply to these different brand campaigns, I highly recommend downloading my guide at The Influencer Launchpad it's a totally free guide that will take you through everything you need to know about getting started with your content creation journey.

This guide will help you get clear on your why, figure out which posting platform is best for you, help you establish a posting schedule that makes sense for you and so much more.

Now I want to hear from you! Are you signed up for any of the platforms that I mentioned?

And do you have any ones that I did not include in this list that you would recommend trying?

Please leave a comment down below. I'd be so curious to hear from you and it helps us all out to hear each other's experiences and communicate as creators.

You can also send me a DM on Instagram! I love saying hi and connecting with you guys there as well.

yours,

Austen

Top Influencer Platforms for Microinfluencers in 2024