There tends to be a lot of interest from online Bloggers and Influencers who want to work with skincare and beauty companies. But how exactly are you supposed to reach out and successfully work with these companies and get free samples and product?
Dreambox Beauty is always looking for new, creative opportunities to work with Bloggers and Influencers - but what do we look for when choosing to work and collaborate with someone?
Here's our list of the things we look for in a collaboration partner:
THE RIGHT FIT
One of the biggest assessments is whether or not you and the company you want to work with are the right fit.
You might love the company, have used their products in the past or simply heard great things about them - but if your medium doesn't exude a similar message or style - then perhaps the fit isn't right.
Ask yourself:
Who is the company targeting? Do I target the same audience?
What is the company selling? Does my audience expect to see this type of product in my feed?
What is the company's style? Does this fit with my style and brand?
BLOGGERS & INFLUENCERS WITH A WEBSITE
Something companies look for is another website who can link to the product or company's website. The value of this is that it helps the brand show up in search results a little better - so this element is important for companies.
Bloggers who have their own website and are able to write reviews where it makes sense to link to the company's website and product sections will be deemed a little more valuable than those who don't.
GENUINE SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING (anywhere between 2,000 - 30,000 followers)
NUMBERS. DON'T. MATTER!
Any brand who has collaborated with Bloggers and Influencers of varying popularity can tell you that it isn't the number on the profile that counts - it's how engaged their followers are and how valued and trusted their opinion is that counts.
Bloggers and Influencers don't need to have a massive following - just a genuine one.
If a brand works with you and your following isn't genuine and engaged, the brand will know this immediately following your collaboration reveal based on how the engagement on the brand's website or socials perform.
Brands are focusing more and more on Bloggers with a micro or medium sized following - purely because these Bloggers may have a more genuine or engaged following due to the size of the community.
A brand would rather be visible to 10 interested people than 10,000 uninterested 'followers'.
HIGH QUALITY ENGAGEMENT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY
Posting an Instagram photo once a day with a brief caption isn't good enough.
Quality engagement requires a high investment in time - this entails being active on your various mediums by creating a conversation, commenting and responding to followers, using Stories/Snaps to give followers a little more of a candid and trusted view of you and your brand's (your Blogger/Influencer 'brand') identity and what happens behind the scenes.
Companies don't want their product to just be shown to someone - they want it talked about and the attention to be on them and their product. If you think that simply displaying a product in a pretty Instagram photo with a brief caption below it is going to cut it - it doesn't. This creates zero engagement and delivers no value for the company/brand you're working with.
Bloggers and Influencers who are able to share candid reviews on Stories/Snapchat in addition to a post with insightful, interesting and engaging details (perhaps a detailed review followed by posing a question to your audience to create a conversation) - these are the most valuable collaborations.
Candid. Focused. Conversationalist.
Yep! We want Bloggers / Influencers who talk to their followers (not at them!)
POST INTERESTING CONTENT ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS AND WEBSITE
We look for Influencers who post great content!
Content that looks great, interesting and provokes conversation. If you have a blog and you just post a photo with some pretty bland text, this doesn't provoke interest.
Tell your followers something interesting about the products you use or what you've been up to. This is what builds an audience unique to you.
This is all part of building that quality, engaged audience.
QUALITY PHOTOGRAPHY
The best kind of photography is where if someone sees it and they recognize the style as yours!
It's great when Instagrammers have a great style and if their photo is shared by another account - it is easily recognized by the original poster's following and the OP gets tagged for credit! The style is unique so followers will notice and ensure they're credited. This is an example of quality and unique photography and a Blogger/Instagrammer who has a unique style and engaged following.
While you don't need to be a professional photographer - working with a company means that you will be representing the brand in one way or another. So having quality photography will go a long way.
THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
Does it make sense to show a bunch of teenagers some awesome retirement homes for sale? Probably not.
It is important that your audience matches the target audience of the brand that you want to work with. Regardless of the engagement, photography and size of your following - if your audience is not the right fit - there is no value for the brand in the collaboration.
Do your research on your own channels and share your followers statistics in your collaboration request with the brand you're reaching out to. ie: who your audience is, how old they are on average, where they're located, whether they are predominantly male or female, what they follow you for and what they expect to see from you.
ADVICE
Don't be afraid to reach out to a brand.
You can either do this via their socials or email them. Sometimes they may not know you exist or that you're interested in partnering with them. So if you can show that you're the right fit with the right audience and you're what they're looking for - you will likely have a positive response.
Let the brand know what you're willing to offer them and what it is you want in return.
If you're clear about being able to offer them links to their site, a social media post or Story/Snap, etc. + what you want in return, they will be more prepared with what they can come to the party with and you're less likely to get knocked back.
Don't always expect free product.
One thing the brand may be able to offer you is a major discount to buy their product or perhaps they can send across some samples. If this goes well, the brand will likely be able to offer you more in future.
IN SUMMARY
Dreambox Beauty is looking for:
- Skincare / Beauty / Fitness / Fashion Bloggers
- Targeting Audience: Females, 20-35 who live in the United States
- Bloggers / Influencers who have a website
- A social media following of 2,000-30,000
- Able to share their social media insights and statistics (again, we're not after numbers, we're after the right fit, target audience and engagement)
- Bloggers who actively engage with their community through stories or detailed Instagram posts and promote conversation
- Great looking content, interesting and engaging
- Unique, quality photography style
- Able to collaborate across multi-media channels (ie: multiple social channels, modes of communication (posts, stories, snaps, and website reviews)
This is just a list that we thought might help in either working with Dreambox or other brands and PR companies. We may add more tips to this as they come to mind but hopefully this helps!
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