How to Partner with Brands as a Micro-Influencer with Jenny Melrose

Gems

Jenny made two big leaps. The first was that shift from hobby to business. The second was leveraging her strengths as a teacher and really helping other people as well.
“If I started approaching it like a business and treating it like a business, it would become a business. And I think that that is always one of the biggest shifts I watched clients go through.”

When you stop saying that you’re just a blogger, but instead say that you are running a business and this is what I create content for and who it’s for – that’s a huge shift.
Pat Flynn’s book, Will It Fly? talked about the idea that you can’t make something and not have proof that you’re actually going to pay for it.
The first client Jenny got, the first yes she got, gave her confidence to reach out to a couple more bloggers to make sure. Out of the twelve she reached out to, eight said yes. Then she finished her course on September 1st.
It’s so amazing that we can have our businesses from home. But I think it is also is a business. It’s so important to get out of our offices, get out of our living rooms and be around other people that are doing the same thing and just soak in that inspiration.
I loved just putting yourself in that blogger conference around other people who were taking it seriously just opened up your eyes to how much opportunity that was literally right in front of you.
But the interesting thing is now, not necessarily in the traditional sense of teaching but in the online marketing world of teaching, the teachers are the ones that make a lot of money.
And the teachers are the ones that can and that are sharing their experiences and actually being paid for it.
Teachers are now able to make an unlimited amount of money in this kind of field, which was never available before.

Don’t be afraid to create those types of relationships. And some of those that I had actually started that with, I had met in person at a conference. And they felt like they knew me. They trusted me. They understood that I was on the same page, looking to take this to another level.
Creating those bonds with people in person.
We all have expertise that we can help other people with. We didn’t let that get in the way. Oh, they’re “further along” or they have a bigger blog. You knew that you can help them with something. Or they knew you could help them with that, too. And I just think that that’s so amazing. Yes, we can all help each other.
If you have an expertise that they don’t, sure as hell you can help them.
Not being afraid to just hit send and not care of if they don’t reply or they come back and say no – that’s the worst thing you’re gonna do is say no. Nothing else. It’s not gonna stop my business. It’s not gonna help me out of my tracks. It can only move you forward.
Know your audience, because the brand doesn’t care about you. It’s not about you, it’s about your audience and whether or not you know how to leverage it.
If you even have 100 followers and they are engaging with you on Instagram stories or they’re emailing you back, and they are telling you what it is they want or need from you – those 100 are worth more than 100,000 any day of the week.
There are so many ways that people are getting followers now that if they’re not engaging, they’re not worth anything. So just understanding what it is that you deliver to that audience who they are, and as long as your audience is not your mom, your sister or your best friend, then you’re okay to pitch. It has to be beyond that.
Have at least three months blogging underneath your belt before you go to pitch.
So how do we pick these authentic brands to align ourselves with? Start with the ones that you know, use and love.
And when you create content, if it’s something that comes back and it’s your first sponsored post, the easiest thing that I can tell you is make sure that it’s content that your audience wants to see.
The content has to be authentic and give value to your reader.
If you fall on your face because you did something that was inauthentic and your audience hated it, not only are you gonna probably lose some of your audience, but that brand will never work with you again.
We need to take that bigger role and say we know our audience best. We know how to create content best. Trust us, trust me to put this together in the way that I know is best. I’ll work it in and it’ll be a win-win for both of us.
As bloggers, we should be telling stories.
It’s not just about being authentic to the brands you’re aligning yourself with, but about how you’re delivering this content, too.
The big thing that many times bloggers miss and the brand sometimes would miss is that sponsored content isn’t about selling the product. When you do affiliate marketing, you need to sell stuff because that’s how you make your money. And it’s your job to sell it. When you do sponsored, it’s about influencing your readers.
You always wanna ask the brand what they’re KPIs are. What are their Key Performance Indicators as far as what are they looking to really establish with the content.
Are they looking to just have more followers on Instagram? Or are they looking for the hashtag to be seen more out there? Are they looking for better engagement?
If you’re wanting to work with brands right now and you’re wanting to make a difference, Instagram stories is where it’s at. Because you can get into people’s DMs and start really having a conversation about the brand. And then the brand, you report back to them with any of those conversations that have occurred.
It’s about that the engagement that you’re getting on the content that you’re creating for your audience.
That’s how you get long-term relationship: proving your worth and being able to show that you’re worth it.

More about Jenny: Standing out amongst a sea of bloggers is intimidating and difficult to do, but you can work with brands even though you think you’re smaller. Jenny created a framework to pitch brands so that they not only want to work with you but will become long term clients. Plus, she’s teaching you how to get paid what you’re worth without feeling like you’ve sold your soul and your audience in the process.

Jenny is a former reading specialist who “retired” from her teaching career when her blogging income far exceeded her salary. Through her unique pitching system, her lifestyle blog, The Melrose Family, became regularly sought out by nationally recognized brands such as Neutrogena, Smuckers, Glad, Costco, Stanley Steamer, Sara Lee and many more. Now, she’s made it her mission to use her teaching skills and extensive experience as a successful influencer to share her strategies with thousands of other entrepreneurs via her podcast, Influencer Entrepreneurs and her website, JennyMelrose.com.

Find Jenny:

Relationships that made an impact:

The friendships she made in the conferences she attended, and then connecting with her clients and peers in person.

Notable Influencers to Follow

Other Links/References Mentioned

https://www.blogher.com/
Will It Fly? by Pat Flynn

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How to Partner with Brands as a Micro-Influencer with Jenny Melrose

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