5 Tips to Prepare for Q4 as an Influencer

Can you believe we’re already in the second half of 2021? With Q4 and holiday campaigns just around the corner, I’m sharing 5 tips to help you prepare for the last quarter of 2021.

Last year, Q4 was my busiest 3 months of 2020. I had holiday campaigns left and right, I had launched my first course, and I had taken content creation full-time back in September 2020. I was grateful I was able to take content creation full-time, so I could focus on holiday partnerships. But I realized that there were a few major things I overlooked. Over the last few years, I’ve learned that you can prepare for the last quarter of the year as an influencer.

If you’re a creator looking to prepare for Q4 or the second half of the year, this blog post is for you. I’m sharing 5 tips to help you prepare for Q4 as an influencer.

How to Prepare for Q4 as an influencer - tips for influencers and content creators - how to prepare for the holiday season as a content creator - Emma's Edition

Tip #1: Adjust your rates

If you haven’t adjusted your rates in 2021, this is your sign to adjust your rates. If you have adjusted your rates in 2021, this first thing you should do to prepare for Q4 as an influencer is to adjust your rates.

If you haven’t adjusted your rates before, I recommend picking a percentage and adjusting your rates. For example:

If you decide to adjust your rates by 25% and you’re currently charging $500 per Instagram post, you will adjust your rates by 25% x $500 = $125. Your new rate would be $625.
If you decide to adjust your rates by 50% and you’re currently charging $500 per Instagram post, you will adjust your rates by 50% x $500 = $250. Your new rate would be $750.

Why should you adjust your rates the second half of the year?

It’s important to adjust your rates because holiday budgets for holiday influencer campaigns are healthy. Brands are motivated to drive awareness for upcoming holiday sales and employ both digital (social media, website, email marketing, etc.) and traditional (radio ads, TV commercials, magazine ads) marketing campaigns. Brands are used to spending money at the end of the year to drive users to purchase their products online and in-store.

If you’re a content creator who works with brands, your Fortune 500 brands will have budget set aside to meet their business and marketing goals for the end of the year.

Personally, I was charging $1,000 per Instagram post in September of 2020. By the end of December 2020, I was charging $2,000 per Instagram post. I doubled my rate at the end of the year because of the influx of holiday campaigns.

Tip #2: Learn how to negotiate your upcoming campaigns

If you’ve been struggling asking to be paid, now is the time to learn and sharpen your negotiation skills as a creator. Negotiation is a critical skill for creators who are looking to partner with brands.

So many influencers leave money on the table because they don’t know how to negotiate and what to negotiate in brand partnerships. I highly recommend checking out my course:

How to Negotiate (Paid) Brand Collaborations. The course is currently $250 and equips you with 12 email templates that shows you how to negotiate with brands.

Tyler from @thriftsandtangled took my course in September 2020 when it launched. She negotiated $10,000 in brand partnerships in Q4 of 2020 at 10,000 followers. If you’re curious about the course, I recommend listening to the course preview and checking out the testimonials from last year.

Tip #3: Lay out your holiday content ideas now

One of my biggest tips to help you prepare for Q4 as an influencer is to layout your holiday content ideas either on a Google or Power Point Presentation. Putting your ideas together ahead of time will allow you enough time to plan.

I balanced content creation with my aerospace career for 6 years. And for most of those years, I was always scrambling at the end of year to put together holiday content (Halloween through Christmas). Last year, I teamed up with Maddy and we laid out our holiday concepts to shoot together. We shot our holiday content the first weekend of November. We were so grateful that we did that because we didn’t feel like we were scrambling for Christmas content and could focus on holiday campaigns.

Tip #4: Revisit your 2021 goals

Before you enter Q4 as an influencer, it’s a great time to revisit and measure where you’re at with your goals. What do you need to do to adjust? Has your time and energy been focused on those goals you laid out back in 2021?

I personally re-read the 5-6 high level goals I set at the beginning of the year, and I reflect on what’s happened and where I’m at with my goals. Sometimes goals shift, sometimes you meet your goals early, and sometimes you forget about your goals. No matter where you’re at with your goals, I recommend revisiting your goals and outlining what success looks like for the second half of the year or Q4 looks like to you.

If you need help with goal setting, I recommend my course: “How to Set Goals for Your Brand & Business”. It breaks down how to set financial revenue goals as well as goals to build new habits and routines. I also recommend listening to the Content Creatives Podcast episodes around goal setting:

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Tip #5: Remember to block out your holiday and vacations off now

I went full-time last year as a content creator and only took the week of Christmas and New Year’s off. I was so excited to take on holiday campaigns that I forgot to block off days off. It was the busiest season I ever experienced as a content creator. Brands who had paused marketing budgets in spring because of the pandemic were looking to spend their budgets by the end of the year. The only time off I took the entire quarter was Christmas Eve to New Years Day. I ended up working more than I did in my corporate job during the holiday break.

This year, I’m balancing working full-time as a content creator with house renovations, family vacations, and a honeymoon so I’ve already blocked off days off from September to December 2021.