You may not think your organization or business is important enough to partner with big known brands as a small business owner. But little did you know, large companies work all the time with small businesses and individuals. You just need to know how to work with them.
Here are 4 tips to help you with partnering with your favourite brand:
1. Grow & Expand Your Network
Big brands love to work with other companies who have a large number of loyal followers. Although you may be a small business all on your own, your reach is exponential. Work hard to get that following on social media. Grow those numbers.These big brands want to be able to see an ROI (return of investment). You need to be able to prove to them that you are a valuable influencer within your own network and when they see that, they will most likely want to work or partner up with you.
2. Reaching Out To Brands
A lot of small business make the mistake of thinking that everything will fall onto their laps or are intimidated to connect with big brands thinking that they will be rejected. It could take years of sitting and waiting for large companies to approach you. However, there should not be anthing holding you from thinking it may be too early to connect with brands you love and want to be able to feature and represent. The worst you will get from a brand you approach is a “No” but that shouldn’t discourage you. I would like to think of it as “They’re probably just not ready for me, yet”. Use social media as a way to connect. Plenty of brands will notice you if you tag them continuously. Just recently, I had taken a quote of Randall Pich, Founder of LVFT and reposted it on Instagram and LVFT had liked the post. As well as Marie Forleo, Founder of Marie TV, B-School and Copy Cure had liked the post, herself on our Instagram account and Brian Cristiano, CEO of BOLD Worldwide had commented on a reposted video we had posted on our account. This is the kind of interaction they will notice if you do it regularly.
3. Professionalism
Being professional is very important when you are trying to reach out to brands or a company’s public relations department who represent those brands. Keep in mind, if you want to be successful and make some money along the way while working with these brands, you need to be someone who will be a great asset and do an excellent job with your partnerships. Proof read your e-mails, check for typos (I make mistakes plenty of times). Address your contacts in the right way. Be sure to follow-up on your communications and most of all, always be thankful. After you work with a brand, it would be helpful to share with them, stats and/or insights of the work you have done for them. If you are great at what you do and are easy to work with. There will be a great chance that these brands would love to do work with you again. Also, if you so happen to be working with a Public Relations agency, you could be considered or referred to work with other clients that they work for.
4. Your Worth Is Valuable, Don’t Think Otherwise
While the Hustlepreneur is new to this entrepreneurial lifestyle. We have done our research and read plenty of articles by other like-minded entrepreneurs. One of the founders of The Hustlepreneur had started out as a graphic and web designer as well as a social media marketer for other companies. She was excited to be able to sponsor post for other companies and create graphic work. After a while she realized, it’s most likely some of these companies chose her services because of the low cost and sometimes almost free work she has provided. After researching what other designers and bloggers where charging and comparing her work with theirs, she realized she undervalued herself. Now, with The Hustlepreneur and her other businesses, she charges no less than a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars for posting and designing graphics & websites. What we’re trying to say is, always do your research and always keep in touch with your business connections who are also in the industry. Knowing what the market rate is and what you think you deserve (within your capabilities) is all part of working with brands in the future.
As an entrepreneur, have you ever worked with big brands? If so, how did you connect with them? We would love to hear your stories and possibly feature them on The Hustlepreneur! Get in touch!
Don t forget that relationships take constant work, so make sure you consider these tips before investing the time, money and energy into a new business partnership.
Emotional and social intelligence are key when building and maintaining this all-important relationship and it is the responsibility of each partner to watch for the cues and read the signs when working together.