Hello January! I want to dedicate my first post of the year, sharing some of my tips and tricks with you regarding influencer marketing. Why? Well, I truly believe (and I know by a fact) that by sharing our knowledge and helping others to grow, we grow at the same time, it engrains what we know.

But it is important to know well your sources, so here is a little bit about me:

• I got my first paid partnership with 4 figures exactly a year ago.
• I got that partnership having only 1k followers on Instagram.
• I was able to quit my full-time job in customer service and moved full time to do digital marketing within 2 months after opening my blog as a business.
• I was within the top 30 Vancouver mom bloggers 2018.
• I grew my IG from 1k to 10k in one year.
• I’m now running a successful career in online marketing and booking some clients on the side, training them on social media or doing it for them.
• I got paid to promote big brands like head & shoulders, Garnier, Skittles, etc.
• I was able to run a sponsored 12 days of Christmas giveaways with local brands.
• My pictures have been featured in cool accounts like children’s place, Earth baby outfitters, Baby Gourmet, KEWE clothing, and more.
• I triple the visitors of my blog within a year.
• And last but not least, I’ve achieved all of these, while having 2 kids under 4, and no help other than 3 days a week daycare. (YES, WE CAN MAMAS!)

This is not me being arrogant, it is me sharing facts. It is so important to know and recognize what we do good as well as what we lack, I know without a doubt that it is the only way to move forward.

I have a background in management, and I was trained to train/coach people. I do that on the side once in a while, and I believe it is time for me to share/pass the knowledge of what I’ve learned from others, so here’s my ultimate guide to becoming an Instagram influencer and getting paid:

Be you, DO YOU

This is my number one advice. At the beginning I was always comparing myself with these big influencers, getting stress about it, until I did learn that there is always someone who is going to be better than you. There is always going to be someone with more followers, with more budget to create better content but NO ONE is going to be YOU, and that is what makes you special.

Don’t try to be someone that you are not. Be as real and raw as possible. Give value to your audience, share things that you have learned with them. If you find a product you love, share it. If you found an outfit you love, share it. If you travelled to somewhere fun and found this cool restaurant share it. Be HONEST with your audience so you can gain that trust.

Know your target niche

This is so important and is marketing basics. Go to your followers or the people you want to attract and check where do they spend most of their time. Who do they follow, what do they like? How can you talk to them, what shared values do you have? Once you have a complete profile of who are you talking to and what do they like, focus your content on that. Pay attention to the data, do NOT ignore it.

Engage and join communities within your target niche

I think this is one of the reasons why I was able to grow my audience that quick. Find those groups, communities online AND offline that have your target niche and join them. There are a lot of groups online especially right now helping each other beating algorithms and helping with the numbers. Attend all of your target niche events, meet people in real life, connect, collaborate, share ideas, and if you see the big picture, the people who are going to support you the most is the people who understand what you are doing. Tip: If you are local from Vancouver, I love the Vancity business babes community!

Train/update yourself at least 3 hours a week

This has been another fact of my success in online marketing. Every week I take at least 3 hours for me to update or take training, tutorials in every single thing I do (And this includes motherhood lol). I have a list of people who I always go for training, either FREE or paid. For Influencer Marketing I’m always checking on Heydy Lopez, Keisha from Lovinglittles and julssolomon. For marketing tips and tricks, I’ll go to Cayley dimmock, Melissa from Self made mama or directly to the sources like Facebook, Google, Linkedin. I also have taken lots of good training at Lynda.com or webinars with marketing experts.

Write down your ideas

Sometimes we have great ideas for content, but they come to our minds and when it’s time for us to write we forget. It is so important for us to write down the ideas before they are gone. Find what time of the day, or when all of these ideas come to you, and have a paper or your phone ready. For me sometimes they come when I’m in the shower LOL! So as soon as I finish, I’ll take my phone and write as many keywords as I can on my notes. This way, when it’s time for me to sit down and write a blog post/Ig post, I know what to focus on.

Make a list

I do have my list of people, brands that I want to work with. I follow them, engage with them, and if I have some shots of tequila, I’ll reach out to them offering my services lol! Have a document/media kit with all of your stats.

Forget about the quantity and focus on the quality

It’s well known that it is so easy to buy followers out there, you can have 1 million followers but if they are not bringing any value (And by this I mean dollars) to you or the brand you are representing you are out. Quality and Engagement, it’s what makes the difference. People who trust and loves you. As I shared, I got my first paid partnership with only 1k followers on IG, why? Because my audience was their target niche.

Here you are, my friends. These are the top tricks that I hope can help you to start! If you have any questions, just reach out to me: anguloathenas@gmail.com

XO,

Athenas