So, you are an influencer who started receiving inquiries from agencies and brands about your rates because they are interested in working with you– congratulations! You just managed to turn gifted collaborations into paid ones!.
But how do influencers actually get paid? Do they get a traditional salary? Do they have to have their own company? We give you an insight into their biggest concerns and how they get solved by some of the leading companies in Sweden. If you are an influencer, this might resonate with you:
So, you accept the job, you get the product and an email with instructions on how to post, tag and what specific hashtags you have to use to advertise the product. You get your phone out, and start taking selfies and videos wearing the product– don’t forget to mention your discount code!.
You post it, tag the advertiser, your likes skyrocket, and people comment how much they love that product. Your engagement rate grows, and you feel proud because the brand will be happy with your work– and that is a client for the future, but it is time to focus on next steps and bring the money in to your bank account, so the golden question comes to mind:
“How long until I get paid for this?”. Getting paid in the influencer industry is a major bottleneck and this is just one of the first thoughts all influencers have throughout the process of getting paid. This impacts the relationship between the brand and the influencer.
Assume you are an agency, if the experience is bad, the influencer won’t collaborate with you again or could even give you a bad review.
Delayed payments in the influencer industry is a huge problem that some agencies have still not solved. “I did my part in a matter of minutes, and in less than 24 hours after posting the picture, the brand gets all the engagement they need to boost their sales, so why is it that difficult for them to just pay me a salary for it?!”
“It is not fair that the company gets what they want immediately (my posts) and sometimes I have to wait from 3 to 6 months to get paid”. Andrea, 30, anonymous influencer in Stockholm.
Taylor Lorenz, an American Technology reporter, told The Atlantic that the influencers she interviewed in 2018, reported to have thousands in pending payments after sending their invoices correctly for past instagram collaborations.
“One reason for the very late payments in the influencer industry is because of the massive amount of administration that is typically required to send a salary payment for a one-time gig.” says Gustav Malmqvist, Co-Founder & CTO Gigapay.
“A similar thing occurs in the modelling industry, where paying models for a photoshoot can take as long as a 6 months.” Says Mathias Berg, VD Ksting.
The majority of us are not influencers, but we surely work for a company which has considered using influencer marketing to sell something. And when they do, nobody told the CFO how much extra time he will have to spend going through a storm of invoices every month which are difficult to match, approve and pay.
“For us a leading influencer marketing network in Sweden, it's key to always provide the best service possible not only to our brands, but also our influencers. We've offered the markets quickest payments for a few years, but since the beginning of October we've completely redefined our standards and are now offering payments within just a few minutes, thanks to Gigapay” Carl Kling, Head of Interlaced Influencers
As the influencer marketing industry evolves with algorithms, Big Data and AI, companies like Gigapay are facilitating how influencers get paid faster through compliant salary payments. Now agencies and companies can pay them instantly, solving the problem of influencers getting paid 6 months after the picture or the swipe up link is posted.
Is this the end of the influencer invoicing era?
If you are curious and would like to learn more about Gigapay, click here:
https://gigapay.co/request-free-gigapay-access/
