When you scroll through social media and see someone getting paid to promote a product you love, does it make you anxious and reflective about how to get there too - and start getting paid to promote the brands/products you love?

If your answer is yes, then this article is for you.

Content creators are all the rage these days, and for good reason! Brands are looking for creative voices to connect their products and services with their target audience, and that could be you.

But how do you stand out from the crowd and land those coveted brand deals?

Here are some key tips to keep in mind:

1. Show Clear Results, Audience Size, and Engagement

Brands aren't throwing money at just anyone. They want to see a clear return on their investment. This means showcasing the results you can deliver and the best way to do this is with your rate card.

Show potential partners your follower growth, engagement rates like shares, comments, likes, and how your past collaborations impacted a brand's reach or sales. It is no longer enough to just have a big following - you need a loyal and engaged one more.

2. Price Yourself Right: Don’t overestimate or underestimate your value

Don't undervalue your work but don’t be overpriced! Research typical rates for content creators in your niche with a similar audience size. Consider the time and effort involved in creating high-quality content and then price accordingly.

If you’re too cheap, you’ll end up feeling unhappy as you’re not paid enough for the work you’ve put into your content; on the other hand, if you’re too expensive, you increase the risk for brands that want to work with you and lose out on great clients. Therefore, you need to balance it out carefully. As you grow, so can your pricing

3. Be Realistic with Results and Manage Expectations

Be upfront with brands about what they can expect from a collaboration. Can you guarantee a specific number of views or engagements? Probably not. But you can showcase your historical data from past campaign successes and outline the kind of creative approach you'll take to promote their product or service.

It is better to underpromise and overdeliver than to overpromise and underdeliver

4. Be Transparent and Data-Driven

Be transparent with important information that are relevant to a brand partner especially before a final agreement is completed and payments are made. This will ensure that there’s no disappointment from either party or unnecessary back and forth.

Information like how you prefer to work, how many revisions of a content they can make and how long their content will stay on your feed are very important and you should discuss this before final agreements are made.

5. Be Authentic and Creative

What makes you unique? Utilize your unique style to create content that resonates with your audience so that it feels very authentic instead of trying to adapt to a brand’s tone and personality.

Be innovative and think outside the box to create attention grabbing content that will deliver maximum value for brands.

As a content creator, you should always think long-term. If you deliver great work and a pleasant experience in your first paid engagement with a brand, they will come back for more collaborations but if you take it for granted, lie about results and communicate poorly, they will never come back; so it is important to deliver both great value and a great experience from the first engagement.