On Thursday I was very fortunate to be invited to the first ever Prezzybox influencer event at Baresca.

Prezzybox are a family run gift retailer that specialise in quirky gifts and gadgets. I’ve bought from the company a couple of times in the past and always liked their gifts, so it was lovely to meet the team behind the brand and get a feel for how brands like to work with bloggers.

There were some fantastic gifts on display around the venue, which was great as it gave me a chance to have a look at the quality of the items. I find that it can be a little daunting ordering online sometimes but the product quality was amazing and there is so much choice! There really is something for everyone. I really want a lightbox now. Fingers crossed Santa knows how good I have been this year! Some of my favourite gifts are below:

The #Jinglemingle evening ran from 5pm – 9pm and we were greeted with a glass of prosecco on arrival. The venue was decorated festively with garlands of mistletoe and bows, hug pressie balloons, a Christmas tree and an ‘Elf on the Shelf’ grinning impishly at me all evening! I felt very festive.

Prezzybox had two workshops running throughout the evening; a Christmas gift wrapping workshop where we learnt to make decorative bows, and a perfume workshop where we could create our own scent!

The perfume workshop was run by The Perfume Studio and was amazing! I created my own fragrance and had so much fun choosing each top, middle and base note. Mine was very floral and I wore it the next day, The scent stayed for hours! They do ‘Create your own’ fragrance kits which would make fantastic Christmas gifts for my creative friends. You can find them here. You can also get 10% off these with the code JINGLEMINGLE until 20th November 2017!

Then at 7pm the lovely Becky Sheeran from @TalkBeckyTalk,  a Youtube sensation, took to the stage with Fran from Prezzybox to talk to us about the blogging world. It was great to get an established bloggers perspective on working with brands and to also hear how brands like to work with bloggers and what they look for in terms of collaborations.

Here are some of the great things I learnt:

From a brand perspective, what do you look for in a blog?

Fran: We look for good contact navigation. It is important to know that we can contact you easily and that your followers can too. We also look for a High DA and PA and a strong social following. Having your own domain name is a big winner too as it’s better for google rankings.

Becky: top tip, be yourself. You’re all so different and passionate about your own style. Find a niche. It is better to have a small audience ad nurture those than a large audience with no interaction. Use multi platform! YouTube, Instagram etc. Have your content across all social channels too. Be brand friendly! Don’t swear! (At this point Fran said that she constantly deletes emails as they contain swearing. They want the bloggers they work with to allign with their brand).

How should a blogger approach a brand:

Fran: Be passionate. What is it about your blog that grabs our attention and what grabs your attention about prezzybox? Tell us! Put stats in your email, don’t ever try to hide your stats, we can find them out! Include social channels so we can quickly see the type of content you are sharing. Make sure content is relevant. If you’re a UK blogger don’t share content only available in the USA. Plan seasonal content and posts in advance. We are in the middle of working with bloggers to do Christmas Gift Guides, and started quite a while ago.

How do I turn a hobby into a job?

Becky: DO WHAT YOU LOVE. Be realistic, set goals, reach out to smaller brands if you’re a smaller blog, start out with an organic relationship. Don’t be afraid to do it for free. Build that relationship! Learn to say no. Do I like this brand? Is it true to me? If not, walk away. Protect your brand.

How do brands expect to be featured on a blog?

Fran: Links are  big one for us. Put our website or product link on the page. Don’t feature competitors on the same page. Use photography that shows our products in the best way possible. Push it out on social. Turn content around quickly and let us know if there is a barrier to get it out. Let us know when it is live and we can share it too. We like a detailed review, so don’t just put a link with no explanation of the product.

Becky: Plan your content! Commit to uploading stuff on time. Learn from your failures. Try different things. Don’t be afraid to be different. Choose quality over quantity every time.

What tools and technical knowledge would you like to pass on?

Becky:

Make sure that you content is SEO rich, use inbound links and outbound links to brands, use strong meta titles descriptions.

Use MOZ to check links, DA and a whole host of other stuff.

Social blade – is a statistics website that allows you to check your stats and measure growth across multiple social channels. it basically checks how authentic your social channels are. Brands love organic followings.

Bitly – Use it to shorten links, perfect for twitter

YOAST – This uses a traffic light system to check content levels, so you can keep track of SEO, analytics, and social.

Use Pretty52 or LadBible if you can to see if there is anything you do that they would be interested in featuring.

VidIQ – If you are a YouTuber, check this out. It gives detailed stats aboout the time of day to post, day of week to post and lots of information about your audience. How long they are watching your videos for?

What are the best parts and most challenging working with/as bloggers?

Fran: The blogging world is very saturated and it can be hard to cherry pick best bloggers. So, come to us with a passion. Come up with new ideas. Come to events. Make yourself known and keep yourself known. The best bit is meeting all the different bloggers and networking at events like this.

Becky: The trolls! You can put so much effort into a video and the hate just comes. It comes with doing better and it never gets easier but do not let it stop you. Reach out to other people doing this too and try not to worry. You’re doing well if you have a troll! The best part is meeting other bloggers. We are so lucky! How many people would love to be here? It’s easy to compare yourself to massive blogs but don’t. Being here is an incredible achievement and you’re the crème de la crème of bloggers in the East Midlands.

Any last bits of advice?

Fran: Know your ASA guidelines. if you re doing sponsored posts then make sure your audience knows! This can get you in to a whole heap of trouble!

The #Jinglemingle event was a real eye opener in terms of how to approach brands, what do they want from bloggers, what I can do to improve my blog and how I can be successful in this industry.

Thank you so much to Becky from @TaklkBeckyTalk, Fran, Rhiannen and Carolyn from Prezzybox and Baresca for hosting. I had a fantastic time!