What It’s Honestly Like to Work with a Quality Brand (The Ups and Downs of Content Creator Life)
Let’s talk imposter syndrome. Four months into my journey as a full-time content creator, it’s tempting to question my choice to quit a cushy job with great benefits in the relatively stable corporate finance sector. I still feel weird whenever I tell someone (outside of the social media world) that I am a full-time “influencer” now. However, every time I feel doubt start to creep into my mind regarding this particular career change, I receive a sign that this was indeed the right decision to make at this point in my life.
So far, the most promising signs have been several offers to work with wonderful brands that make me excited at the prospect of creating and sharing meaningful content. Most recently, I was offered an opportunity to work with Vancouver-based company Native Shoes— a sustainable brand that focuses on making stylish and functional footwear from eco-conscious materials. Therefore, I wanted to write about this particular partnership as, to date, this is certainly the most prolific sustainable company with which I’ve worked.
Other than the prospect of working with a well-known company from my hometown, I was gratified to receive a fair offer of compensation for my services (perhaps the second or third highest pay I’ve received so far for a collaboration). As well, I was extremely excited to create content for a brand that aligns with my values of protecting the planet in innovative ways.
The Offer
As mentioned in previous posts, I do not have a good track record with reaching out to brands for collaborations (something that I hope to improve over the course of this first year as a full-time influencer). As a result, it probably is no surprise that the brand reached out to me, rather than the other way around.
Back in late March, I first received an email entitled “Paid Campaign - @thestylishwordsmith x Native Shoes Collaboration”. Within that same email, it was expressed that Native Shoes (and the PR representative) loved my content and wanted me to help showcase a new product of theirs. All I had to do was submit a simple proposal for my content concept and my rates for the required deliverables (one carousel post and one set of Instagram stories).
While I was careful not to celebrate too early regarding winning this collaboration, I’m happy to report that my concept and rates were promptly accepted (with only minor negotiations regarding the compensation). Following that, I felt free to rejoice at the prospect of working with such an awesome company! (To be honest, the other big brands I’ve worked with have been international beauty or jewellery companies that didn’t align quite as strongly with my values.)
AspireIQ
Another reason for why I wanted to highlight this campaign in particular was that it used an innovative platform (at least in my eyes) called AspireIQ in order to conduct all negotiations and interactions between myself and the brand. In my previous experience, most communications with the PR agencies and brands have been made via email (with the exception of one other collaboration on the creator marketing platform #Paid). However, I found myself feeling quite impressed with the efficiency and integrated features of Aspire IQ— for various reasons which I will soon outline.
When I first signed into the platform, I was asked to link my social media accounts (i.e. Instagram) so that it could directly pull insights from my posts. As well, I was given the option to create a bio and set proposed rates for my services. Following that, I was prompted to submit a brief proposal to the Native Shoes “Modern Forager” campaign in order to share my content concepts, as well as attach older content that suited the theme. In this case, I chose to share outfit photos I had taken in gardens and parks as the campaign focused on “exploring your backyard.”
AspireIQ Bio and Stats
This bio allows AspireIQ Brands to easily browse your statistics, social media platforms, and preferred rates. You can also attach your media kit.
Soon after, the PR representative accepted my proposal and countered with acceptable rates (paid in USD). Once we had agreed upon the terms, I signed a contract directly on the platform and was prompted to complete the next step. The various stages of completing a collaboration on AspireIQ are as follows:
- Discovery: In which the brand and the influencer learn more about each other and the proposed campaign.
- Negotiation: In which details such as rates, content, and deadline are agreed upon.
- Product Selection: The influencer is permitted to select their preferred product. In my case, I chose the shoe type, the colour, and size.
- Shipment Pending: In this section, the onus is on the brand to send out the product in a timely manner.
- Product in Transit: The influencer is provided with a tracking number.
- Create Content: In this section, the influencer is given a detailed brief containing all the details necessary to create the required content. Once the content is ready for approval, you upload the images and caption directly onto the platform. From there, you will receive feedback from the brand regarding any necessary changes. Once the content is approved, you will receive an update confirming this status.
- Review Content: When the content is live on the agreed upon date, you upload the links to the posts on the platform (the post insights will be taken directly from Instagram to show your latest statistics in real time.)
- Payment: Once the content has been posted satisfactorily, the brand is obliged to pay the influencer with the contracted timeline (in this case, it was 7 days from when the content is live).
- Review: The influencer is given an opportunity to rate and write a review about the brand and collaboration. You can also choose to showcase that campaign content on your AspireIQ page to show other brands what you are capable of creating.
AspireIQ Process
I was very impressed with how the entire collaboration, from start to finish, was smoothly integrated into this platform.
Overall, I was deeply impressed with how quick and efficient this process was. In my limited experience with such platforms, I’ve always experienced irritating glitches that slowed things down; however, in this case, the only issue I experienced was the tracking link not working immediately. As well, every interaction between you and the brand is accompanied by an email so that you are alerted to any changes in a timely manner.
Email Alerts
Whenever there is a notification from AspireIQ, I receive an email containing the details. As well, I can choose to have such notifications sent to my phone and other devices.
The Shoot
Initially, I planned to shoot the necessary content for this campaign with my usual shooting partner in a beautiful Vancouver garden. As the campaign was centred around “exploring your backyard and new corners of your city,” I was required to shoot with the shoes in a natural outdoors setting. Therefore, I had grand ambitions of shooting dreamy content at a lovely Italian-inspired garden that we had visited previously.
However, my shoes ended up being delivered later than expected and I missed my chance to shoot with my partner as she was only available to shoot during the weekend. As a result, I was forced to pivot and instead recruit my kind husband into being my willing, but untrained, photographer. Since my husband is not a fan of driving almost an hour away for the sake of a photoshoot, I tried to make things easier for him by shooting at a local nearby garden.
Sadly, several things didn’t work out for this shoot: 1) the weather suddenly became overcast JUST when we decided to shoot, 2) the brand thought the background was too busy (there were too many flowers and competing colours), and 3) they also preferred that I wear a slightly more conservative outfit (the set I was wearing was on the short side).
As soon as I heard this feedback and was asked to reshoot my content, I had to make some quick decisions. Since the deadline was fast approaching and there were no more sunny days left on the forecast, I had to once again beg my husband to shoot content with me. This time, we went to another nearby park and shot inside the small forest there. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the light at 2:30 pm was still very bright and harsh. Consequently, it was very hard to shoot images that weren’t either too dark or overexposed.
Just when I felt ready to cry over these annoying obstacles, I managed to pick out a few suitable photos that would hopefully make the cut. Although I wasn’t 100% happy with the images, I knew that both my husband and I didn’t have another shoot left in us (our mutual patience was sorely tested while shooting all of the necessary photos and videos needed for the campaign). As a result, I submitted the new shoot and crossed my fingers that the brand would find them acceptable.
The Content Approval Process
When it came to content approval, I was once again impressed by the AspireIQ platform— the process of submitting my proposed content was super straightforward and user-friendly. Once I had properly edited my images, written up my caption, and created my story frames, I uploaded them into the allotted sections for the feed post and story posts.
The only aspect I found surprising was that they wanted you to upload the story frames without the text overlays— in other words, they wanted you to submit plain videos and the story text copy separately. However, this made sense once the approval process began as this format allowed the brand to make changes easily to the story text.
Content Approval Made Easy
I was impressed with how easy it was to upload content— both for approval and after the content was live.
As mentioned before, Native Shoes wanted me to submit content that was more minimalist— meaning a less busy background and less text in the stories. When they had finished reviewing my proposed content, I received several emails showing the requested changes that were to be made to the images and copy. After I reshot images and videos, I resubmitted the new content and checked off a box stating that I had made the required changes.
Happily, my second round of content was approved with only minor changes required to the caption and story copy. Following that, I set a posting date with the PR representative and made the requested alterations to the new content.
AspireIQ Pros
Overall, I would certainly not mind completing more collaborations on AspireIQ for the following reasons:
- Flexibility: The brand was extremely accommodating when it came the deadline. When the shoes arrived later than expected, the contract was quickly altered to reflect the change in posting dates.
- Payment Timeline: While I’m not sure if this applies to all brand partnerships on AspireIQ, the contract with Native Shoes promised that I would receive my compensation by PayPal within 7 business days. However, the PR representative went above and beyond with this matter— I ended up getting my payment on the same day I posted my content (something quite unheard of, especially for a larger brand)!
- Assortment of Brands: While I haven’t spent a lot of time browsing AspireIQ yet, I was pretty amazed at the great range of brands that were running campaigns on the platform. While many were large international corporations, I was excited to see that there were also some smaller businesses and Vancouver-based brands.
- Efficiency: As mentioned earlier, I was impressed by the overall infrastructure of this platform in terms of seamlessly connecting brands and influencers. Other than that, I also liked that AspireIQ sends you emails containing potential campaigns that might be a good for you. However, it did seem that brands will not really bother to get back to you until you have completed at least one campaign with AspireIQ (I submitted proposals to three other campaigns but only received a positive answer to one after I completed my Native Shoes content). Lastly, I like that you can set your profile to only accept offers for paid campaigns (should brand come across your page and wish to collaborate).
AspireIQ Cons
As mentioned above, I generally very happy with my first experience on AspireIQ. However, I will have to do more research with regard to the following concerns:
- Automated Rates: While I am happy that this platform offers a wide range of well-paid campaigns, it was disconcerting to input my proposed rates (admittedly, I might have bumped them a bit higher than usual) and have the system declare them 200% higher than advisable. As a full-time content creator, it’s taken me quite a while to get to the point where I am confident enough to ask for higher rates— especially when I’m proud of my content’s quality and my high rate of engagement. Therefore, it’s certainly demoralizing to see my rates perceived as “too high”!
- Inconsistency with Timeliness: Although the individual I worked with on the Native Shoes campaign was extremely prompt and communicative, I’m quickly finding that the same timeliness does not apply with other PR representatives on the platform. While I have been accepted for another exciting campaign, I’m finding that the process is going much, much slower.
- Learning AspireIQ Rules and Etiquette: Since I am new to the AspireIQ platform, I still am learning how to navigate this foreign landscape and probably should read the FAQs section. For instance, I am not sure if I should follow up with the brands to which I have submitted proposals or if the same payment timeline applies to all brands. As well, as stated in the previous section, I only received a positive response after completing the Native Shoes campaign and wouldn’t be surprised if brands ignore you unless you have completed campaigns on AspireIQ.
And the Results are in…
While I was very excited about this campaign, I must say that several things derailed my complete satisfaction with the content I created. Firstly, shooting with my husband was a tough endeavour (especially as it was a struggle to find a decent location with good weather and lighting) and I wasn’t super happy with the first or second round of images we shot. Secondly, it seems that Instagram loves to TANK your content if you slap the “Paid Partnership with — “ label on it. As a result, my feed post did more poorly than any outfit post has done in recent memory. Unfortunately, I faced the same issue with the stories— while the first story I posted that same day received almost 1,000 views, the sponsored stories I posted received a mere 260ish views in comparison! Something was definitely off there…
My suspicions regarding Instagram’s treatment of sponsored content was confirmed when I posted another paid partnership post a few days later without the label (I added in the sponsored tag a few days after posting). This second sponsored post did better than the Native Shoes post by HUNDREDS of likes and quite a few more comments. Anyways, that’s a little tip for anyone posting sponsored content— if you can, try to not add the “paid partnership” label onto the post until at least the first 24 hours are up.
Regardless of my disappointment with the results of this campaign, I am still happy about several things— I got to work with a wonderful sustainable brand, I actually really like the stylish shoes I received, I got paid very quickly, and I now have more experience working through difficult circumstances on a campaign. As a result, I will endeavour to shake it off and just keep improving my craft with future campaigns!
If you got this far, thank you for reading this post! Did you learn anything from my experiences (both positive and negative) of working with a brand on AspireIQ? Are there any interesting insights or tips you can share with me about that platform? Regardless, I always appreciate any feedback I received from my amazing readers!