Why Successful Influencers Need Branded Websites

Successful influencers are the ones who have struck the balance between being business savvy entrepreneurs and maintaining their authentic (don’t mind the buzzword) personalities online. To the outside world they appear as well-dressed moms casually sharing their morning routine, but behind the scenes they are pitching brands, organizing deals, sending invoices, shooting videos for approval, and endless other tasks to make sure they get paid for the coffee they just drank on their IG stories.

While showing up as yourself and lifting the curtain to show your everyday reality is vital for connecting with your community as an influencer, brands want to see your organized and professional businesswoman side. And the good news is, investing in a professional branded website shows brands you’ve got the chops while only strengthening your unique personality online.

Keep reading to learn…

Why Investing in a Branded Website is Vital For Your Success as an Influencer

Branding Establishes Your Personality In One Quick Look

When your business is entirely built around YOU the way the influencer business model is, expressing what makes you unique is top priority. And when people are scrolling through the gram and stumble on your profile, it only takes something like 2 seconds for them to decide if they want to follow you. And along with gen Z attention spans, that number just keeps on shrinking. Working with a brand designer can help you flesh out the way your personality and lifestyle translates into your social posts, and then bottle up your unique magic into design work that makes new people smash that follow button with no hesitation.

Take this work we did for Chicago-based fashion and food blogger Alexandra Rovetto for example - before we completed her branding, her social feed was unpredictable. But since nailing down her logos, feels, color scheme, and custom patterns, all that branding work instantly translated into a more cohesive feed. Which means her ideal audience will know who they are. Now she has the foundation built to grow more organically! And we are excited to see her reach macro-influencer status in no time.

Brands Need to Know Your Branding, Values, and Audience Align With Theirs

When brands are looking for new influencers to work with, they have endless accounts to sift through. They need to know quickly and efficiently what social accounts fit with their vibe, and your media kit is what will give them that information!

The purpose of a media kit is not just to show how many followers you have and what your engagement #s look like. It is also to give brands a crash course on who you are, what makes you stand out, and what kind of content you can create for them. Having a branded media kit that is consistent with your social feed is essential for making the cut.

If you already have some sort of branding in place but could use a custom media kit to match, we recently launched a new service that can help with that! Check out our VIP Design Day Intensives, which can take care of smaller but top priority design projects like that in just one day’s time!

A Website Helps Establish Your Expertise

A qualm the the skeptics of the influencer world often complain about is this - they wonder why everyone is taking their skincare advice from the mom next door instead of a licensed esthetician. This is why many influencers find success in putting an emphasis on the areas they truly are experienced in. Maybe you started out as a photographer and now post camera tips in-between your kid’s ballet recital videos. Or maybe after years of making meals for your 4 young kids people come to you for recipe ideas and it’s time you brand yourself as a certified mom chef of sorts.

Whether you have niched down your account to a specific sphere like the ones above or not, a professional website instantly levels up your credibility. It is a flashing green light signal to established brands saying “Hey, I’m serious about this!” A website gives the effect that you are an expert, even if what you are sharing there are things like brunch and photo ops.

Whatever it is you consider yourself an expert in, let your audience know what topics they can trust your unique advice on. This trustworthiness doesn’t only come from sharing your experience and actual credentials - It is also built through investing in your business and building it the same way any other entrepreneur would.

Prove You Are a Professional at Any Follower Count

There are now paid opportunities to work with brands at almost every follower level. Whether you are currently micro, macro, or just aspiring, it is never too soon to invest in branding. Most brands care about your values, the type of audience following you, and your engagement percentage more than anything else. They don’t just want to get their products in front of as many eyes as possible, they need to get them in front of the right eyes. Your branding is what will attract those right people while also telling brands what kind of followers you have and what they like.

Click here to start the branding process!

Earn more $$ From Affiliate Links with Easier Access

One common source of revenue for influencers is affiliate links. They don’t only earn directly from brand deals, but most links shared online can be converted into affiliate links that earn a commission for every purchase, or even every click! That’s right, every swipe up could be a “cha-ching!” sound for an influencer.

However, without a website, the only place you can save that link for your favorite comfy flats everyone keeps asking for is on your IG stories for 24 hours. But with a website you can house your most popular links so your followers can access them forever - saving you time and earning you a great affiliate commission.

Back to our latest Influencer branding and web project - As you can see here, we added affiliate links right to the homepage of Alexandra Rovetto’s blog for super easy access. Even her affiliate links are on-brand! So it’s guaranteed her followers will love them.

Your Website Gives Your Another Platform to Pitch to Brands

An influencer’s media kit outlines any social platform they have a strong presence on so that brands can pick and choose where to pay that influencer to post about their products. If you utilize things like blog posts and link roundups on your website, that is one more type of content brands can pay you to create.

Many brands love to pay for a well-rounded influencer campaign that includes posts on IG, IG Stories, Tik Tok, Pinterest, a blog and more. So the more platform options you can give them the better! And because blog content has a longer lifetime span than most social content you can easily charge the big bucks for it.

Maintain Your Website No Matter What Happens to Social Media

It’s easy to forget that Instagram, Tik Tok and whatever platforms become newest craze are all are owned by someone else. You don’t truly own or have full control over your social profiles, and they could disappear or be hacked at any time. However, your can have 100% control over your website. You own the assets there, you decide what kind of content to post, and you never have to sweat about it suddenly being gone one day.

This is a big reason why Influencers are beginning to upload their content to a blog or website, so that they can sleep easier knowing they have a source of revenue that they actually own. Plus your website can be your happy place where you don’t have to worry about ever evolving algorithms. Sounds peaceful, huh?

How to Get Started on Your Branding and Web Design As an Influencer

Start With Working With a Designer on Your Brand Guidelines

Brand Guidelines include colors, fonts, and overall design style to keep your online presence consistent. And just like any other sort of business, influencer’s need to consider these things too! This isn’t just about picking out a few colors you like and fonts you think are pretty. Brand Designers have the education and experience needed to dive deep into the kind of online experience you want to create for people and who those people are.

Here at Madison Hebner Creative Studio, our team works closely with you to flesh out every detail so we can embrace your vision and wrap it all up in one beautiful brand. Your custom brand guidelines are then delivered in a PDF guide that you can refer to whenever needed to keep all of your amazing content cohesive and know it will draw in your dream followers. Click here to contact us for a custom quote today.

Look Official With Branded Media Kits, Social Templates, and Other Vital Assets

Once your brand guidelines are complete, they will drive the look and style of your media kit, social graphic templates, and any brand assets you need in the future. You’ll earn instant brownie points with any brand for sending over a well-designed and professional looking media kit. They want to know what kind of experience they will have working with you, and proving that you have invested in your business tells them right away it will be a professional one.

Remember our brand new service I mentioned before? Social templates and other brand collateral are examples of projects we can complete for you in just one day by booking a VIP Design Day Intensive with our team. If you are itching to level up your influencer status in record time, click here to learn more!

Complete Your Brand With a Custom Website

A professional website is not the cherry on top of a pretty company, it is your bread and butter. Ok we’re done with the food analogies, our stomachs are growling now too. But it’s true! No business can survive without a great website, and that is true for influencer’s too. If you want brands to take you seriously so you can land big paying gigs, invest in your business and have a custom website made.

If you have any questions about what a branding and web design investment looks like, or what services will fit best with your unique needs, you can contact us here! We are happy to chat more. For more business resources for Influencers, check out our Pinterest here.