How To Get a Sponsor on Instagram: Influencer’s Handbook

Hoping to collaborate with a paid Instagram sponsor? Who doesn’t!

With some top influencers earning millions for sponsored posts, it is a big deal.

You can land a sponsorship deal on Instagram with dedication, perseverance, and an effective strategy. You deserve it anyway for creating engaging content for your followers.

In this guide, let’s explore how to get a sponsor on Instagram to start your paid influencer journey.

Frequently Asked Questions

How To Get a Sponsor on Instagram: Step-by-Step Instructions

Don’t worry too much about your Instagram follower counts; many Instagram accounts with few followers land lucrative sponsorship deals.

By planning and sticking to an effective influencer marketing strategy, you can be confident about signing Instagram marketing contracts with different brands.

The strategy must combine a structure for content creation, visibility, engagement, and pitching.

Step 1: Give Your Instagram Profile a Makeover

You don’t necessarily need a creator’s account to get a sponsorship deal, but you should make it look professional.

It includes setting up a professional username, uploading an aesthetic profile picture, adding contact information to the bio, etc.

A public profile is also crucial for Instagram sponsorship, while obtaining a verification badge can enhance your reliability.

1.1: Optimize Your Instagram Bio

Your Instagram bio is particularly useful for influencer marketing. Use the space to communicate with your followers and brands looking to offer Instagram sponsorship.

You can also add a call-to-action (i.e., contact for collaboration) to land an Instagram sponsorship deal.

For ideation, you can research some top Instagram influencers’ profiles, like @karenxcheng.

As you can see, the influencer has succinctly explained what she does and how brands can find her.

She has also attached a website link so potential sponsors can look up her portfolio and other details. You should also add your website if you have one.

1.2: Prioritize Authenticity Over Perfection

Social media is all about authenticity. So make your bio personal instead of copying another creator’s profile.

You may add an emoji or details about something you care about deeply (i.e., a pet or a hobby). This will make you humane and approachable.

Make sure to revisit your profile information from time to time and update it as your circumstances change.

Step 2: Define Your Instagram Brand With Content

Influencer marketing is all about personal branding. After all, you will recommend brands, products, or services to your followers, hoping they find your suggestions valuable.

To do that, you need to define and build your personal brand first.

2.1: Find a Specific Instagram Niche

What type of content are you interested in sharing? Are you a travel influencer or a fashion trendsetter?

Your Instagram brand should be built around your purpose, so find your content niche. Finding a specific niche would help to design your content around that.

Specificity also helps to find followers with similar interests and brands that want to market to that audience.

You can attract high-paying sponsors with the right niche, even if you have a small following.

Finding a niche would develop you as an expert in that subject, building trustworthiness among your fans.

2.2: Develop Your Brand Aesthetic

Personal branding is much more than finding a niche. It also requires building unique tastes and developing a distinctive aesthetic.

Your Instagram content should have a uniform style in terms of color and design. Instead of posting random content, choose a color palette and maintain a consistent style. You can easily do so with tools like Canva or VSCO.

You may also want to create a feed theme by maintaining continuity between one post to another. Building a website for influencer marketing? Give it a similar aesthetic to offer a cohesive experience.

Step 3: Build Rapport With Your Instagram Community

People come to social media like Instagram to find their communities, not for an Instagram ad or an Instagram shop.

So should you, and building relationships with your followers is crucial. You should always maintain a communal approach even if you are posting toward obtaining an Instagram sponsorship.

3.1: Learn About Your Audience

Instagram makes it straightforward for creators to learn about their audience.

If you have an Instagram professional account, you can explore the “Insights” and the “Creator’s Studio” to learn about post engagement, reach, followers, etc.

You should gather as much information as possible about your follower demographics, including their age, gender, likes and dislikes, geographical location, etc.

You should also pay attention to your followers’ habits, such as the days and times they respond to your content the most, the kind of content they like, their ways of engagement, etc.

The more you learn about your followers, the better your posts and sponsorship pitch will be.

3.2: Cater to Audience Preferences

Create your content based on audience insights. Then, post similar content to the ones that perform better and encourage more engagement.

You should write a personalized caption with every post that captures your voice. Avoid being vague on social media, as it can hurt your post’s engagement.

While posting, take advantage of hashtags to enhance your content visibility. Find a few hashtags related to your niche and consistently add them to your post. This will increase your post visibility, giving you the best chance to increase your follower count.

Using Geotags is another way to enhance your reach among a location-specific audience.

3.3: Engage With Your Audience

Remember how people use social media to find a community? You must be genuinely interested in your followers to give them a communal feeling. Try to reply to comments and direct messages.

In fact, go out of your way and comment on your followers’ posts. Sharing other people’s posts to your Instagram story shows how much you care.

Most importantly, posts regularly. Most successful Instagram influencers post at least twice a week. This will keep your audience engaged and coming back to your profile.

Instagram algorithms reward regular posters by featuring them on “Explore” and increasing post visibility.

To make your life easier, you can create content in bulk and set up a content calendar to post them on schedule.

Step 4: Land an Instagram Sponsorship Deal

The above steps should be enough to prepare your Instagram profile for an Instagram sponsorship deal. Now it’s time to reach out to brands and land a sponsor.

4.1: Know How Much You’re Worth

What’s the monetary cost of hiring you as a brand ambassador? This is one of the first things a sponsor will want to know.

You must know your worth. So research and find out the standard rate in your niche.

Once informed, set an asking price for an individual sponsored post. You can charge differently for creating an Instagram reel and a sponsored story post. Many influencers also offer different packages with multiple posts, stories, and reels.

4.2: Create an Influencer Media Kit

You will want to create a media kit to attach to your Instagram sponsorship pitch.

Consider it your influencer marketing resume, highlighting who you are, what you can do for the business, and how many followers you have.

Keep it short and engaging, but include visual charts for your performance stats.

You should also include your price and preferred payment structure.  You don’t need to start from scratch, as many Influencer kit templates are available online.

4.3: Tag Brands in Your Regular Post

An effective way to show your value to a potential sponsor is to tag them in your regular Instagram posts.

Posting about a romantic dinner you’ve had? Tag the restaurant’s Instagram page in your post as an indirect pitch. This will make brands aware of your influence and encourage them to visit your profile.

Your influencer marketing-optimized profile should do the rest. At least, they will share your tagged post among their followers, bringing you more exposure and followers.

4.4: Reach Out to Potential Sponsors

Reach out to companies directly with a pitch.

You can send a direct message on Instagram or email their marketing team. Start by researching some potential companies in your niche.

Exploring the brands that sponsor similar influencers should also give you some active leads.

Know some local businesses? Got a company where your friend works? List them all for pitching. Include a short message (cover letter) in the pitch detailing your purpose and attach your media kit.

Fingers crossed! You will get a response from some brands, possibly with an offer.

Step 5: Discuss the Details and Sign a Contract

Getting a sponsorship offer is exciting, but calm yourself down to discuss the terms and conditions of the partnership.

• How many sponsored posts do they want?
• What kind of post should you create, and how frequently?
• What do they want to achieve with this sponsorship?

You may also have to negotiate the rate per post or package, but don’t sell yourself short.

Once you get the details straightened out, get them to sign a contract. This is crucial to avoid any misunderstanding and ensure you get paid.

Similar Tutorials To Check Out

Want to get sponsors pouring in to capitalize on your Instagram presence? Then check out the following tutorials for more information.  

• How To Get Verified on Instagram: Build trust with your followers and sponsors by exploring how to get verified on Instagram.
• How to Monetize Instagram: Maximize the income potential of your social media presence by learning how to monetize Instagram.
• How to Become an Instagram Influencer: Become an authority voice in your niche by discovering how to become an Instagram influencer.

Wrapping Up

Getting a sponsor on Instagram is as challenging as landing any business deal, but you don’t need to be incredibly famous to succeed.

You can land your first Instagram sponsorship deal with a properly structured Instagram profile, adequate planning, and strategic communication.

I hope this post will help you succeed in getting a sponsorship deal over the line.

Please let me know in the comments how much you’ve enjoyed it. Why not share this tutorial with your followers? I am sure they will appreciate it.