how much should you pay an influencer

Cut A Check: How Much Is Too Much To Pay An Influencer?

Brand Promotion is Key

Brand promotion is single-handedly one of the most important things in making sure your company gets the notice that it deserves.

Although so many other factors come into account when you want to spread the word about your business, the best way to do so is by having a social media influencer help you out. Basically, you have someone with an influential following shout out your brand, take pictures of, or wear your product to broadcast to their followers or fans.

So, are these so-called influencers doing this for free? I wish, some celebs can charge from $100 all the way to 3,000 dollars just for them to post your product on their page.

But how much is too much? And how do you even know if your business needs an influencer? Well, continue to read this post, and you will find tips and advice on getting an influencer to help promote your business.

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Figuring Out How Much To Pay an Influencer

Celebrities with a hundred thousand followers to a million have people emailing and contacting them every day just to get the chance to collaborate with their brand with their high-quality status.

But is it worth paying them hundreds of dollars just to promote your hair, clothing, or personal name? Well, it honestly depends on the overall objective of your business.

First, you must know the true meaning and foundation you base your business off. Once you figure that out, you'll be able to decide if you want a long-term relationship with the influencer, or if it's a onetime thing just to reach the broader audience that they may have.

Now just because an influencer has a large following does not mean that their audience is engaged in what they post. For example: have you ever seen a person with three-hundred thousand followers, but they have only twenty people liking their pictures, engaged on their profile, or clicking on their website? You must do research, and you must ask your influencer for stats on their profile

Ask and Do Research

Asking will help you decide if that certain celebs audience will be beneficial for the brand and business that you are trying to promote. There are plenty of apps, and websites that you can use if you want to look up the statistics of engagement on your influencer, it is up to you to take time and do the research.

There is a fantastic website named Influencer Marketing Hub. On this site, you get the opportunity to type in anyone's Instagram name, including yourself, and see their total engagements from their followers.

The stats including the following are available on the site; the total number of likes, number of comments, number of followers, estimated earnings per posts, and their entire engagement. Remember the most critical factor when it comes to paying for an influencer are how many followers interact or are involved with their posts.

I took the time to type in my own Instagram name and compare it with Kim Kardashian. I averaged between $60 to 100 dollars a picture and Kim averaged around 260,000 dollars per image. Although Kim Kardashian has over 100 million followers, I was surprised to see that my engagement surpassed her by over eleven percent.

That just goes to show you that the following that you have means nothing if no one is clicking or interested in the things that you post.

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Should You Pay for an Influencer? Is It Worth it?

Now once you figure out the steps on how you want the relationship to be between you and your influencer, the cost is the next thing to think on.

If you know that your brand will be a great collaboration with your celeb, then the price you pay will be worth the exposure. For starting a company, meaning if you have been a business for 1 to 3 years you are still in the beginning stages. And you may not have all of the recourses to pay an ambassador to promote your brand.

Sometimes you must build your business up to a certain point to be able to pay for an influencer. If you had just started your brand idea a couple of months ago then spending a ton of money for an ambassador is probably not the smartest idea, especially if you don't have the budget in your money to do so.

I firmly believe that getting a social media influencer is something that you may look into later along the line as time goes on. So, what do you do if you want an ambassador but can't afford it?

A tip from myself who is a business owner is that you write! That's right; you convince your celebrity that your brand is worth noticing, is worth promoting, and taking a chance on your ideas.

Your contact, call email, or whatever it is that you do, and you let them know that it would be an honor to have them promote your brand. Through all of this, you may get many no responses, but I promise if you keep it up, someone will want to give you a chance as they did for me!

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No Free Handouts

There is something that you should know. A lot of top influencers make a living on having brands and businesses pay for their services. So, it can be disrespectful just to expect a free handout, especially if you know that promotion from them will put your brand on the map.

So, keep all these things in mind when you are thinking of paying for a beauty influencer.

Now if you're a business owner who doesn't mind shelling out a few extra bucks that's also just fine. You must just make sure you are steady tracking and keeping up with your inventory, and commission.

If you don't keep up to date with the number side of your business, then you could end up spending more to get an influencer and be out of inventory or in the negatives when it comes down to the profit you make.

A quick example: if your business pulls in about 1000 dollars a month then paying a social media influencer 500 dollars for a post would not be the best idea. But paying someone $50 to 70 dollars is more reasonable for the amount of monthly income that you make from your business.

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What Are The Pros and Cons of Paying for an Influencer?

So, there are pros and cons of both paying for an influencer and not. I will walk you through both, and maybe it will give you some insight into the decision of if it's worth paying for one or not.

Pros

Let's look at the pros of not paying for an influencer. One thing is the people that you do get to promote your business love what you do and want to be a part of your companies come up. Second, it is less of a risk.

Imagine paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars for an influencer, and you still get no engagement on your page or for your brand. So, more money in your pockets and less stress due to the risk of paying for an ambassador.

Lastly, I think it gives you more one on one time with you and your business. It's so easy to just pay for someone to promote your things, but it's honestly creative and innovative when you can come up with ideas on your own to elevate and uplift your business.

Cons

There are some cons to not paying for an influencer as well. One, the influencer could feel disrespected or taken for granted because you do not want to pay them for their work. And second, your brand won't reach a broader audience as quickly as it would if an influencer with a vast amount of followers posts your product.

Some Pros!

So what are the pros for paying for an influencer? Well, one would be that your brand ambassador (Check out this article: brand ambassador contract) feels happy about being paid for their time put into promoting your goods.

Secondly, you'll be able to reach a broader audience in one week with an influencer than you would be able to reach in a month by yourself. Lastly, you'll be able to share your ideas and methods on how you want your products promoted. If you didn't pay your influencer you would have to accept anything they post or share when it comes down to your product.

Although some of you may think there could be no possible cons to paying for an influencer trust me there are a few. First, if your brand is not a good fit for the celebrity, it would seem not genuine or unauthentic to their viewers. In return, this can make your business look bad.

Second, some influencers promote so many brands, which it won't be useful when it's time for them to share your products with their followers. And Lastly, the results are not guaranteed. So basically, there is more of a risk factor when paying for an influencer. You could shell out a lot of money for little too no engagement on your profile.

Also, consider using an Influencer Marketplace that will help match your brand with influencers. This can save you time and money in a safe way to send the influencer money via escrow.

But also keep in mind that a significant risk can lead to an even more substantial reward. You have to decide for yourself if the price an influencer will charge you is worth the overall growth of your business.

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Which Kind of Influencers Should you Choose?

I know you might want to go with celebrity influencers who have more than three hundred thousand followers, but I'm telling you now that those types of stars will charge an arm and a leg to be a promoter for your brand.

Celebrities are going to charge you based on how many people are just going to see their posts. It's not just about engagement. And more than likely they have a business agent or an agency that you will have to go through to agree to be in a partnership with them.

Instead, you may want to look into getting a micro-Influencer who has about 250,000 followers or less. A micro-Influencer has higher engagements and more likely have viewers asking for recommendations and comments on your products.

These types of influencers are beneficial because a one-time partnership with them could have a longer impression on your business. What is also great about a micro-influencer is the quality of the people you'll have wanted to buy or look at your products.

Say goodbye to spam accounts or trolls looking at your page, and now you can have authentic viewers.

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Average Prices of Influencers

The moment you've been waiting for, what are the average prices that social media influencers get paid.

Well, a statistical app known as the tribe has done a rough calculation. And it seems to be based on the number of followers each influencer has the average amount people will pay for them. So, if they have an average of 100,000 followers or less, they get paid between $75-$300 a post. Now if an influencer has 1,000,000 followers or more they average between $500-$1000 for a picture.

Research has also shown for every business that has paid at least 150 dollars or less for an influencer has seen a 5,000 or more increase in monthly engagements. And for those who have spent $400 or more on influencers have seen a 50,000 or more increase in monthly involvements for their business.

Remember these are all just averages, and prices will vary. It's always better to double-check or ask than to assume. These numbers are to just give you a ballpark for what some influencers may charge.

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Are you Thinking of Paying for an Influencer?

Now that you've heard some insightful pros and cons of paying for an influencer I hope that this helps you with your decision on whether to get one or not.

I know it can be a little dissatisfying to see that the pricing may be a little too high, but don't let that stop you from asking, bargaining, or coming to an overall agreement that is beneficial for everyone. I promise any person who is worthy enough to promote your brand is also fit enough to have you be a part of the process.

Keep striving and keep hustling because your time will surely come. If this list of advice was helpful, please let us know in the comments down below.

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