What does it mean to become a blogger and an influencer at the same time? Everyone identifies two things: 1) influence and 2) following, as some of the primary characteristics of a blogging leader in promoting brands. In some cases, however, connecting with brands is more than just the following.

Strengthen The Foundation Of Your Own Branding

The tip I have learned from my fellow blogger Alem Garcia, the Ukay-Ukay Diva once said:

Never think that following and fame sustain what you do, because if you have a brilliant brand everything else will follow.

Apart from knowing your niche and forming the strength of your knowledge and expertise for the specific niche you have chosen, a blogger should also consider the foundation of his or her own branding. To further read about the said discussion, I would recommend you to knowing the full details first and come back here for the continuation.

READ HERE: 8 Things I’ve Learned From Ukay-Ukay Diva About Branding

6 Steps On How To Plug Your Blog To Brands

This is the sixth episode of the Blogging 101 Series. This post is specifically about how to connect your blog and your work to brands. Here are six (6) steps on how you can possibly get brands be your long-term partners for growth:

1) Promote

It’s very important to know the reasons why you and the brand would want to connect and collaborate with each other. Under a mutual relationship, it can be the growth for each of the party’s own branding. It is also to create the full trust to have their products and services get promoted, and also to give you opportunities to get your influence with proper exposure.

As an influencer for their products and services, it will become a responsibility to inform other people of the product’s availability, usability and factors that can help consumers and potential users. It is also crucial to inform your readers on the advantages, benefits, and at the same time the limitation of the products you are promoting.

2) Help

Plugging your blog and your work to a brand is an essential factor to an avenue where you can continually generate content for your blog. It can also provide reasons for your readers to keep on coming back to your blog and start a conversation about their opinion on things relevant or significant for them.

Since your readers follow you, your content can help them to make a decision on purchase, usage, or whatever reasons they can find from what they have read on your blog. At the same time, you can also help brands get across the information, which can potentially contribute to their growth, as well as your growth in terms of influence.

3) Incorporate

As someone who has a strong attraction over other people’s choices, a blogger with both a following and an influence must be comfortable in incorporating the products into their daily lives. It is necessary that potential influencers carefully choose the brand they would want to have connections. They should carry out within the ideals of the products or services the brands offer.

To incorporate the brand beyond the ideals to influence can be very challenging for an influencer. That is why it is the first thing that one needs to consider if the brand is proper and inline to the purpose of the blogger’s goals to influence. An influencer should know first if the brand is right for his or her own branding and to the audience who are following.

4) Leverage

If an opportunity comes that brands would want to have the connections with your work, take it positively and make it an advantage. It is very challenging nowadays for influencers to exchange deals and partnerships with brands. If there are ways, however, to make sure that you show brands what you can do for them and how can they be of help for your growth as a blogger and as an influencer, you need to give your all. You must have the full leverage to be able to close a good deal with a brand because, again, business is business, and partnerships are investments that require money.

It does not need that you have the millions of followers on social like Facebook, Instagram or on Twitter. You also need not have a very high traffic on your blog to convince brands to sponsor you. As long as you have the influence over your readers to convey the information of the brands’ products and services and you have the skills to get the details across, it can be enough leverage.

5) Integrate

Since bloggers usually interact on social media, participate in discussions and get the chances to integrate the brands you promote. Build the foundation of your readers and followers to trust you as their influencer and that would reciprocate to the brand you have a partnership with. Like myself, I would want to inform my readers to know the products I choose and would provide them the benefits and the advantages of the brands if they avail them. I carefully choose the brand I promote, which I have mentioned earlier because it is necessary to maintain the trust my readers have invested in me.

I am always making it into awareness and I’m hoping you do, too, that the brands you integrate with your influence would reflect who you are on the Internet. If it is necessary to decline to a brand because you feel and think that it is not right for you and for your readers, then simply say no. Integration of brands is critical to what you provide to your readers and you wouldn’t want to lose the trust you have built from the time you started your blog.

6) Patience

Unless you already have established your online presence and your influence, achieving the level wherein brands would offer you partnerships can take a while. It took me years to be able to get sponsorships from brands. If you are at a stage where you have to gain influence and a sufficient following on your work for brands to get attracted to you, find time to grow them first and be patient.

It is key for growth that you have the adequate patience subsequent to the strategies you have implemented to your work as a blogger. Never give up on things that you have already started and keep on going with your plans. There will come a time that you can have brands come over and partner with you and have a long-term relationship with you and you work. You must first learn that success in blogging will take time, so as brand partnerships.

ALSO READ: Simple Ways On How To Achieve Success In Blogging

Go to your drawing board and start an effective strategy to grow your own branding. Identify your strengths and take the risk of your weaknesses to either refrain them from overlapping to your goals or convert them into your other set of strengths.

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