10 Tips for Getting Started as a Brand Rep
I am kind of a jack-of-all-trades mama.
I have three kids with a fourth due in less than 5 months. I’ve always worked as a freelancer of some kind and I can’t seem to pick just one focus. I love marketing and photographing my kids. I love supporting local and buying handmade. This eventually led to brand repping after a conversation with a good friend. A lot of people are unfamiliar with brand repping, but it’s simple: small shops need a simple way to get product shots and great reviews to help boost their businesses. We provide that. My kids get awesome small shop clothes (discounted or free) and I get great pictures I probably wouldn’t really stop to take and edit half as often as I do right now. I’ve also gotten a lot faster at taking better shots.
Starting in brand repping is actually very simple. Here are 10 steps to get started:
1. Look at your feed…are you taking shots that show off products or are they centered on your kid? You can take lifestyle or posed pictures, but you have to make sure the product becomes the focus. T-shirts need to be readable (which can be hard with a crawling babe!), outfits can’t be wrinkled, kids should look engaged and not stiff/forced/uncomfortable. Products shouldn’t be out of focus. If you don’t have shots like this, start taking them! Even taking 9 or so shots will start to fill up your feed with proof that you can take the shots brands need. And, while a nice SLR camera will take your shots to the next level, plenty of reps are starting out with their camera phones.
2. Don’t over-post a shoot…this can be personal preference (my methods certainly aren’t law!), but even six shots are a lot to post of one outfit in a row. Change angles, stick with 1-3 final images per outfit for most shoots (but take TONS and delete most of them later on your computer). You can always give 10 edited shots to the brand (and they will love you for life), but your followers just won’t be excited about the repetition. I have three kids, so that really helps break up my feed, but include flatlays, detail shots and only select your very best images to post… be super critical. AND, if you have a bunch you truly love, save some to post on a rainy day when your followers didn’t just look at 5 other angles of that same outfit.
3. Don’t worry about engagement or follower count…most brands are far more concerned about photo quality and consistency from a rep then the actual numbers. You will want to find ways to grow in order to be a better influencer for your brands, but let it happen over time. Join a few interactive DMs (messaging groups on IG) with other reps that have similar styles/feeds to yours. Look to join groups you enjoy so that you don’t feel stuck liking or commenting on pictures that you don’t enjoy. Follow fellow reps back. Follow shops you love. Block spammy accounts (there are rumors that this helps IG know you aren’t spammy yourself). While you don’t have to follow back everyone that follows you, many reps are looking for mutual followers and will unfollow if you don’t return the favor.
4. Support your favorite brands. Know of a brand that fits your style? Start interacting with their posts and turn on your notifications so that you are alerted when they post. Watch for rep searches if they’ve had them before (often every quarter or so). Consider purchasing an item so you can shoot some shots for them and see if it leads to a repping relationship. Never expect to be reposted or picked up as a rep, but start supporting before you start entering rep searches.
5. Tag shops… Always tag brands. Even if you are tagging Target, show that you know how to connect your followers with the brands that you feature. You can’t be an influencer if people don’t know where you are getting your items. As you start shopping small, you want to look for brands that have an active IG and can be tagged on your pictures.
6. Look for great hashtags. Avoid generic hashtags, like #instakiddies or #ig_style. Instead, focus on finding hashtags that have beautiful shots, like #momswhoclick or #babygotstyle, where people will actually browse the images and see yours. Rumor has it, Instagram has certain hashtags that are “shadowbanned” or considered spam. If you use spammy hashtags, it will cause your images to only be viewed by your followers and not by those simply browsing one of your hashtags. Most people don’t really know what those spammy hashtags are, but you are safer when you use hashtags that are non-generic and actually fit your photo topic/audience.
7. Use lots of hashtags. There is a limit of 30 hashtags on your IG post. You can even get away with more if you post 30 in a comment and then go back and edit the description to add more in the post itself (it doesn’t work the other way around). HOWEVER, there is also a rumor that you account might be considered spammy if you use the same hashtags every time or if you hit the max of 30 every time, so change it up. I keep lists of my favorite hashtags saved and then change out several with each post. But, this is how your posts are found by new people, so try to find great hashtags that work for you and keep trying new combinations.
8. Post regularly. You should post about 1-3 times a day. This doesn’t mean you can’t post more on a given day or take a day off, but you want to build a consistent account. Don’t binge-post.
9. Enter brand rep searches. You can find a bunch of open ones at #brandrepsearch, but be selective. You don’t want to get picked for a brand that you don’t honestly support. Brand repping is time consuming and can be very expensive if you get roped into a bunch of purchase requirements you don’t want to make. At the same time, expect to enter several and get rejected a lot. Everyone gets rejected and it’s simply a part of repping. Brands have to find the reps they think will be right for their team and they are likely considering photo quality, reputation, consistency, diversity and more. Don’t be discouraged – I’ve gotten picked for a later search after being first rejected by a brand I loved. If you really love the brand, keep supporting, keep improving as a rep and try again in the future. Make sure you space out your search entries between your posts or you will look too thirsty and a brand may feel like you don’t honestly like their shop, but are simply looking for freebies. When you enter the rep world, you realize how seriously shops take this (the shop is their baby after all) and how frowned upon it is to be in it for the free items. Free items will come, but you work your tail off for them.
10. DO NOT… reach out to brands asking for freebies to rep. This is a no-no. Let an interested shop either reach out to you or hold a brand rep search. If a brand asks to repost a shot you took of their item, you can always mention you’d love to do future collabs if they are ever interested. However, it is important you are not approaching repping as a handout. Brands get these requests all the time and they are usually more than over it.
You are going to do great. We’ve loved repping and we’ve repped as many as 25 brands at one time, though we have cut that back as we’ve gone. Just don’t take on more than you can handle. Start small and add on as you feel comfortable with purchase requirements and photo requirements. Try to diversify your brands so that you aren’t stuck shooting one type of product and having nothing to pair it with. I try to shoot about 3 or so brands in each shot (perhaps a bow, shirt and pants, for example). Go search for large rep support groups (Brand Reppin: Off Topic and Together We Rep are a start) on Facebook. And finally: enjoy yourself!
Now that we’ve had so much fun repping. I really want to get a blog started to chronicle what we are doing and what we are loving. So, here’s to new things and new adventures. – MidKid Mama
