With the advancement of influencer marketing, brands too are coping up with it. In the beginning, as clueless as many, brands too were in question of certain things when it came to choosing influencers for their campaigns. But as and how we have progressed, brands are more clearer about their wants, expectations, and criteria for selecting influencers. 

May it be an established or budding influencer, if you want to work with brands, you have to keep your Instagram game up to the mark. While the platforms can differ, the accuracy and excellency of your work, as well as your page, should always keep up with the expectations of brands that you wish to work with. This does not imply that you have to align your interests with those of brands. NO! But there are certain specifications that brands look for on your Instagram feed to determine that you are the right candidate for them. 

Your social media platform is your workspace. How you maintain it defines your qualification as an influencer. When posting as an influencer, you have to know that it’s not just your followers you are posting for but also the brands out there looking for you. 

The criteria that brands used for choosing influencers have now updated. They looked for a number of followers earlier. But now, it’s not like that., with the emergence of so many talents and brands, brands look for more. They have understood the game. They have their own criteria for judging the value of an influencer by just looking at their feed. 

Brands do not look for much. But what they look for cannot be compromised and nor is it hard to achieve. Here’s what brands look for on your Instagram feed when they are looking to collaborate with you for their influencer marketing campaign. 

1. Niche

Niche is faintly the fundamental of influencer marketing. A pair between an influencer and a brand can only be successful if their niche matches. If the niche is not common or related, or even similar between the two parties, there will be no relevance in the content. And brands have understood that. They are now very keen on working with people who belong to their niche and are not just popular faces on Instagram with huge followings. 

In fact, the narrower the niche, the better it is for the brand to reach to their audience. Hence, as an influencer, you must try to keep your content niche related. So when a brand that wants to work with you, looks at your profile, knows what your expertise is. 

2. Authenticity 

It goes without saying that plagiarism is never appreciated, not by anyone in any field at any given point in time. And marketing strictly abides by it. Influencer marketing has done so well for so many influencers and so many brands because they have been authentic. They have stayed true to their expertise, their services, and the value that they promised to provide to their customers. As an influencer, you are providing a service to your audience, even when you are not collaborating with any brands. The service can be in the form of information, entertainment, motivation, education, or anything else. To be authentic, all you have to do is stay true to your work. When you post anything on your social media, it creates an impact. People watch it and get influenced by it, hence, you are an influencer. So the responsibility of being true and genuine comes to you by default. And that’s what brands want too. 

3. Your audience

Brands are looking to collaborate with you because they know that you can help them reach your audience. So, they also ensure to check if the audience that you have is similar to their target. The audience on your page gives away a lot of information about your work. They leave comments, they drop in their feedback, they share your content, and all these things make the brand know that your audience values you, and hence, when they collaborate with you, their brand too will be valued by your audience. 

4. Your previous collaborations

Past work always gives the hiring party a judgment about your skills, and this is common in every field. Brands who want to work with you will do the same. They will look through your profile to see if you have done any collaborations with brands before. So, it’s important that right from the beginning you choose to work with brands that will help you get more work further. WORD Marketplace is a platform that offers you the chance to pick the brands you want to work with. You can easily stick to your niche and maintain harmony in the kind of work you do. With WORD Marketplace, you can select any brand of your niche. You can choose to experiment with your work. On the dashboard, you can easily track your performance as well as your rewards. 

5. Consistency 

Consistency in your work as an influencer will keep you more active on Instagram, increase your visibility, and hence, increase your followings. When you’re consistent with your content plus with your sponsored content, brands can judge your interest and seriousness towards your work. When you are consistent on your feed, it might go unnoticed by the brands and your audience. But as soon as you are inconsistent with your content, it shows on your profile and can be noticed by the brands when they skim through your page. 

6. Engagement Rate

Brands have finally realized that it’s not the number of followers that matter. Or should we rephrase it and say that the brands have finally realized that it’s not ONLY the number of followers that matter. It is your engagement rate that does justice to defining your performance as an influencer and the metric of the number of followers is a part of it. So keeping your engagement in check is a responsibility that you must abide by. Try to be interactive through your posts. Talk to your followers. Make them a part of your content and your page. These are the little things that will create a big impact on your engagement in the long run. 

7. Creativity 

Last but not least is creativity. Brands are always looking for something new. Trends are set easily, very unknowingly, and unconsciously on the internet and Instagram especially. And believe it or not, brands are always looking to be the trendsetter. Again, not a compulsion, but always a desire. And as an influencer, you too must feel the same way. Creativity is the way to that. Try experimenting with your content. Don’t be afraid to go through trial and error phases every now and then. You cannot do that with sponsored content, but you can definitely test your creativity with your organic content. 

As you can see, there’s not much that brands look for in influencers and their Instagram feeds. All they want are things that most influencers have already achieved or have followed throughout their journey. 

The key to get more and good work is, keep looking for it at the right place. And keep your content game strong so that when the brands come looking for you, there’s no other option for them but to collaborate with you.