In 2025, we’re leveling up our income and landing our dream brand deals. To help you get there, we asked six influencer marketing managers to share their insider tips on what they look for in partnerships and how you can secure more collaborations!
1. Include all the necessary information in your pitch
When you reach out to a brand, be sure to include a media kit with key metrics like follower count, audience demographics, engagement rate, your current rates and your past partnerships.
- Currie Delsol, Influencer Specialist at Tecovas: Including past work and other brands that you have worked with can help give you credibility and can go a long way. And don’t forget to include your platform handles! The extra few minutes it takes for a brand to look you up adds up during a busy work day, so it's always appreciated when we can skip this step.
- Amelia Massey Hiller, Chief Growth Officer + Head of Talent at Hiller Media Group: Be creative, brands love it when creators pitch ideas that align with the brief/campaign!
- Hannah Stabler, Head of Social & Influencers at Hopdoddy Burger Bar: We can spot cookie-cutter pitches from a mile away. A customized idea that ties into our current goals or campaigns? That gets our attention.
2. Put your email and your location in your bio
Influencer marketing managers look at hundreds of creators a week, and it can be a huge hassle to have to track down your contact info or try to figure out where you’re located. Make it easy for them by including the info in your bio!
- Celest Bejil Garza, Influencer Marketing Manager at Pepper: Adding your country or state to your bio or posts can make it easier for brands running regional campaigns to find you. No need to get too specific—just a general area helps!
- Currie Delsol, Influencer Specialist at Tecovas: Include your city in your bio! This is great for when brands are looking to promote city specific campaigns or have events in your area.
3. Ask for a budget – and don’t be afraid to say no!
Be open to negotiating with brands, and don’t be afraid to turn down opportunities if they’re not a good fit for you or they can’t meet your rates. And if you haven’t worked with a brand before - or if you have a smaller following - be open to gifting opportunities!
- Amelia Massey Hiller, Chief Growth Officer + Head of Talent at Hiller Media Group: ALWAYS ask for the budget first. This ensures you are not closing yourself off to a brand you may want to work with if your ideal rates might not align with the brands budget. Don't be afraid to negotiate, but don’t blow far past their numbers. And don't be afraid to say no to deals that aren’t a good fit, your audience's trust is worth it!
- Sarah Wong, Marketing Manager at Viva Day Spa + Med Spa: Every brand has different budgets and goals in mind. If you're excited to work with a brand, try gifting opportunities for the first couple projects to be considered for more long-term, paid opportunities.
- Celest Bejil Garza, Influencer Marketing Manager at Pepper: Be open to negotiating rates and deliverables—it helps you stay in the running! You can adjust your offer to meet a brand’s budget, but don’t feel pressured to accept a lowball offer if they’re not willing to work with you.
4. Engage with brands you love
If you really want to work with a brand, start by engaging organically with their content. Like their posts, leave comments, and tag them in your posts! Not only does it help the influencer team discover you, but it also helps establish you as an authentic fan of the brand.
- Currie Delsol, Influencer Specialist at Tecovas: Post organic content with the brands products and tag them to get noticed by their team OR dm the brand why you think a partnership would be a great fit and offer to start out on a gifting basis.
- Sarah Wong, Marketing Manager at Viva Day Spa + Med Spa: Tag brands organically in content you already love and use in your day-to-day life. It's one of the easiest ways for influencer managers to find fans of the brand.
- Hannah Stabler, Head of Social & Influencers at Hopdoddy Burger Bar: Follow us and engage with our campaigns before you send your pitch. A thoughtful connection goes further than a cold email.
5. Be a clear communicator
It’s simple, the easier you are to work with, the more likely a brand will want to work with you again in the future. Communicate clearly and frequently, and offer to send analytics after the campaign is over.
- Sarah Wong, Marketing Manager at Viva Day Spa + Med Spa: Our favorite influencer partners are proactive, timely communicators. If you have analytics to show from a campaign, provide them. If you want something, ask for it. And please answer your emails promptly! Influencer managers also love knowing how campaigns performed. Screenshot analytics and send them our way when possible!
- Celest Bejil Garza, Influencer Marketing Manager at Pepper: I love working with creators who are responsive, deliver content on time, and are open to feedback. It makes everything smoother and helps you build steady partnerships!
- Amelia Massey Hiller, Chief Growth Officer + Head of Talent at Hiller Media Group: Read the damn briefs, create good content, and be a good communicator. At the end of the day this is WORK and influencer managers talk! It is a small world, and you would be surprised at how creating great content and being easy to work with goes a LONG way in being casted with clients down the line.
6. Create high quality content
It goes without saying, but be sure that you’re creating quality content for the brands you’re working with. If you wait until the last second and then phone it in, brands can tell!
- Nancy Kaatz, Content Creator Strategist at Kaatz Consulting: Get your viewers to watch more than 3 seconds of your view – figure out good hooks to use (text overlays, bold statements, or enticing visuals) to stop the scroll.
- Amelia Massey Hiller, Chief Growth Officer + Head of Talent at Hiller Media Group: Don't forget to have fun and relax your shoulders when you are making ads! We are all guilty of this – practice talking to the camera and acting natural like you're chatting with a friend.
- Nancy Kaatz, Content Creator Strategist at Kaatz Consulting: Add Keywords in your videos then hide them! Keywords in videos help boost discoverability and work with the algorithm to match your content to the right audience.
7. Go the extra mile
While we’re not advocating that you work for free all the time, it doesn’t hurt to go the extra mile to be a great partner to a brand.
- Currie Delsol, Influencer Specialist at Tecovas: A great follow up is to over index on content! Brands LOVE you over deliver because it communicates that you are a genuine fan of the brand.
- Amelia Massey Hiller, Chief Growth Officer + Head of Talent at Hiller Media Group: If there is room for it, go the extra mile when you can! Post the extra story, give a little extra love to the brand- they might just rebook with you faster.
A big thank you to our contributors for sharing these insightful tips. Here’s to making 2025 your most successful year yet!
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