Instagram Partnership: How Does It Work?

With the rise of social networks and influencers on Instagram, we are witnessing the growth of various partnerships on different social platforms. Certainly, micro-influencers (between 10,000 and 100,000 followers) and nano-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) are in high demand among brands for Instagram partnerships. Their opinion is perceived as more sincere and authentic, due to the fervor and passion with which they engage their community on social networks.

In this article, we explain everything you need to know about Instagram partnerships:

• What is an Instagram partnership?
• Why engage in an Instagram partnership?
• What are the 4 most common types of partnerships?
• The use of new Instagram features for sponsored advertisements
• How to approach brands for Instagram partnerships
• Our tips to increase your chances of Instagram partnerships

What is an Instagram partnership? What types of partnerships can we observe on Instagram? How to approach brands? Discover all the answers to your questions about these influencer marketing techniques.

What is an Instagram Partnership?

An Instagram partnership is a marketing technique that allows a brand to promote its products through an influencer. The two parties associate for a duration defined in advance by a contract. Different types of partnerships can be set up depending on the brand’s budget and objectives: awareness, conversion, etc.

97% of marketing managers and agencies use Instagram with sponsored posts for their influencer campaigns

Linquia, 2020

So why and how to use Instagram for your partnerships?

Why Engage in an Instagram Partnership?

Today, Instagram is a channel not to be underestimated, with 1.39 billion “active users. The percentage of” interaction with sponsored content is 3.48% on average, which is 4 times higher than on Facebook.

Internet users favor Instagram to follow influencers or even celebrities. The favorite social network of 16-24 year olds (source: concilium.digital) offers several tools / features to bring influencers closer to their community:

• Direct messaging (if not overwhelmed by requests!)
• In stories (ephemeral content lasting 24 hours) via polls or answers to “question boxes” (Q).
• The broadcast channel (since 2023): internet users can follow the influencer more closely, who shares exclusive content with people who have subscribed (However, subscribers can only receive, but not send anything, like a WhatsApp group with an administrator being the only one able to broadcast messages).
• Lives.

Thanks to these different tools, Instagram offers unlimited interaction with the community.

Moreover, Instagram is THE visual network par excellence: stories, live, posts, IGTV or Reels, everything happens in images! It’s the ideal platform for brands to promote products or services, enhanced by the creative touch of influencers.

With the promotion of new features such as live shopping, which allows promoting a product live, Instagram is a real channel serving sales made by brands: whether from their own account or through content creators.

In which case, it is necessary to conduct a real research and selection work of the best content creators, based on their average engagement rate, their talent, and their expertise in your sector of activity.

🔎 With the Trustt solution, brands and distributors have access to a large database of influencers, carefully selected to match the needs of businesses. The smart filtering and selection functions allow you to refine your choice and engage people with an audience that has an affinity with your target.

Benefit from customized support, call on one of our experts:

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It is important to address the right content creators, and in the right way.

Here are the different types of partnerships established on Instagram.

The 4 Common Types of Partnerships on Instagram

There are many forms of collaboration on the social network, so it is essential to know them all before engaging in any partnership relationship with a brand. This can be a simple photo of the product to promote, or a contest in collaboration with a brand.

Since June 2017, Instagram requires transparency with the mention “Paid Partnership with …” when this collaboration is paid. In this way, it informs about the advertising and commercial nature of the relationship between the influencer and the brand. According to Article L121-1 of the Consumer Code, which also governs commercial information, it is indeed illegal not to indicate that the content is sponsored.

We have summarized the different partnerships possible on the social platform.

The Exclusive Discount for Their Community

“One of the most frequent partnerships on Instagram allows the influencer’s” community to benefit from “an exclusive discount. Through posts or stories, the” influencer shares a promo code “X” usually corresponding to their name on social networks. This allows the brand to know “where the sales come from and, most importantly, to track the contribution of the” influencer to sales! (And that’s the crux of the matter…)

The use of this kind of influencer promo code allows the influencer’s audience to feel favored. The commercial operation appears more attractive in their eyes, and more acceptable.

Sometimes, these are affiliate codes, allowing the influencer to earn a commission on the sales they have generated for the brand. This is the ideal strategy for product placement.

🔎 On Trustt, it is possible to set up affiliate tracking links. If this topic interests you, request our experts for a demo.

Partnerships with discount codes have the advantage of being inexpensive to set up. The potential return on investment is then substantial for the company. But they are also good communication campaigns thanks to the tempting call-to-action “-20% discount” for example.

As an influencer, it is interesting to multiply posts showcasing the products, in order to maintain this partnership in the long term. However, let’s keep in mind that an influencer must maintain their authenticity and alternate types of publications, avoiding publishing only content related to partnerships.

Instagram Contests

Contests are multiplying at a rapid pace on Instagram, especially during holidays or events like Valentine’s Day.

The principle is simple: the influencer offers a contest on one of their posts, with products from the brand or a service they offer as a prize, or even a voucher to be used in their store and e-shop.

This practice allows the influencer to expand their audience with new users as contests quickly attract new followers. In the contest rules, it is indeed recommended to tag friends in comments, and/or share the contest post in one’s story, but there is also the obligation to follow the brand’s and influencer’s accounts. The visibility of the contest and the influencer are multiplied, as well as the engagement rate of the Instagrammer.

The advantages here? Increased visibility and a gain in followers on the Instagram account, for both contest partners (brand and influencer). Moreover, if a gift card is at stake, it will encourage a prospect to order on the website.

Product testing

One of the brands’ favorite partnerships on Instagram is product testing. It is simple and effective.

For this type of partnership, the company sends a product or an entire range to influencers and asks in return for one or more posts, stories, or Instagram videos with their opinion. If they also have a blog, they usually have to write a complete article about the product, and this article link is shared on the Instagram post. The opinion must be honest and best reflect the experience of the influencer.

The brand must therefore carefully select its influencers: the product must suit and interest their community, which corresponds to the brand’s target audience.

The advantages here are increased visibility for both the brand and the influencer, as the brand’s account can repost their publication on its feed or in a story. This format is particularly suitable for promoting a new product or a new range.

🔎 Good to know: with ambassador missions and 100% influence launched from Trustt, brands benefit from UGC (user-generated content) that is royalty-free and compliant with the 2023 influence law.

To learn more, check out our Ultimate Guide to UGC, User-Generated Content.

Highlighting a brand hashtag

Sometimes, companies implement a custom hashtag to boost their visibility and encourage customers to use it themselves. These hashtags are thus shared by influencers to quickly make it known to their audience. This hashtag can correspond to a current trend (a challenge, or related to the current context such as during lockdown) or to the brand’s page.

This was the case for Cultura, which created #CulturaJubile to encourage their micro-influencers to use it on content featuring products offered by the brand.

The advantage of this form of partnership is always this increased visibility, but also natural returns in terms of sales and brand awareness in the long term.

🔎 The “campaign hashtag” feature allows brands to visualize at a glance all the content distributed during missions launched from the Trustt solution. By indicating unique and specific hashtags, teams have an overview of published content, as well as their performance (impressions, comments, likes, engagement, etc)

The use of new Instagram features for sponsored advertisements

Do you want to give a better view of the product and show its effectiveness? Whether it’s for product placement, a contest, or a product test, it can be advantageous to create a video. Consider IGTV, a feature recently launched by Instagram that allows you to create and broadcast long videos. Indeed, many influencers present products on IGTV. However, for it to be successful, avoid the “commercial advertising” format. You could, for example, show the benefits of the product during its use on camera.

Instagram stories, another recent Instagram feature, are a new form of post quite popular with both companies and influencers. You could use it by posting a succession of photos and videos for a limited time of about 15 seconds to talk about a product to your followers. This format is ideal as this exchange is more natural than a post. Through this, it will be possible to make a better description of the product and show its use. Don’t hesitate to pin your stories to “Highlights” to keep the story dedicated to the product on your profile for more than 24 hours (the duration of a standard Story).

Using these new features of the social platform is perfect for complementing your sponsored post.

How to Add Links on Instagram

There are different types of links depending on the economic model of the advertising campaign, often it’s about clicking on a link (CPC, CPA, or CPL model). In this case, it is necessary to use your profile to insert the link. So you need to indicate in your post that the link is in the bio of your profile.

The only drawback of this method is that you have to change the link regularly in your bio as soon as you publish a new post with a sponsored link.

If you have more than 10,000 followers, it is possible for you to integrate a link when you post the story about the product. Invite your followers to “Swipe Up” to access the content.

How to Approach Brands for Instagram Partnerships

As an influencer, when you are aware of the different partnership possibilities you can set up on your page, you can approach brands you wish to collaborate with, and who might be interested in your profile.

First, you will need to create a list of these companies, ensuring that they align with the values you convey, and your area of expertise in order to have hope of being contacted later.

You just need to contact them and start the conversation by personalizing the dialogue. Explain your motivations, why you are contacting them and not other brands, as well as the collaboration you wish to see implemented with them. You could emphasize what you can bring to them, by presenting your Instagram profile.

Following this initial contact, an exchange or even a negotiation regarding the collaboration to be set up may take place. If you haven’t received a response to a first contact, don’t hesitate to follow up.

If this approach proves positive, all that’s left is to implement this partnership on the social network.

Some Tips to Increase Your Chances of Instagram Partnership

To maximize your chances when approaching brands, we have some advice.

It’s important to aim for long-term partnerships, rather than a single promotional action. The collaboration must also be beneficial for you, as much as for the brands. This partnership must be win-win.

If you have already done partnerships, don’t hesitate to show them your publications, the posted content, and to emphasize the benefits perceived by brands that have already collaborated with you.

By improving your engagement rate, you will have more chances to secure partnerships.

To do this:

• Publish regularly
• Assert your own style
• Create and follow an editorial line
• Focus on the quality of your photos
• Regularly use hashtags to stand out in search engines
• Interact with your followers
• Comment on the photos of people you follow
• Try to become an expert in a specific field (makeup, fashion, decoration, etc.) with sought-after and in-depth content

With these tips, you will create a strong community on Instagram with a high engagement rate.

These 4 partnerships are easy to combine on an Instagram profile, you are not limited to a single type of collaboration with a brand. Some can be long-term, others short-term, you just need to negotiate with the brands.

Trustt is a SaaS software that facilitates partnerships on Instagram. Through ambassador programs implemented on the brand’s website, influencers participate in product campaigns and share honest and authentic reviews with their community. This initial approach facilitates contact between brands and their potential future ambassadors.

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