Anna Heupel is a professional photographer, travel blogger and content creator from Germany. She maintains three Instagram accounts, one of which follows the #vanlife adventures of her and her boyfriend. Anna is sponsored by Nikon and Dometic, and has worked with top international brands including Volkswagen, Huawei, The North Face, and Icelandair. She’s also an ambassador for Mapify, one of the fastest growing social platforms on the European travel market.
Anna hesitates to call herself an influencer. She started social media with the intention to share her passion, never expecting Instagram to turn into a big commercial platform. As her main source of income is photography, she views her role as an influencer as being more inspirational than anything else.
Here are 2 major lessons that can be learned from Anna’s influencer work:
“The brand or project should fit to my style and mindset.” This should be important to any good influencer, as it shows that they are focused on creating consistent and authentic content for their followers. You don’t want to work with someone that alleges a Patagonia mindset who also works with H&M, for example.
Similarly, make it personal. Anna’s partnership with Nikon works so well because it is matched to her actual interests and needs. She started photography with a Nikon D60 DSLR camera, and has since spent the past 8 years trying a variety cameras—she felt that her partnership with Nikon brought her back to her roots, and was perfect timing because she was tired of her gear and wanted to try something new (Nikon lets her rent lenses as part of her sponsorship).
Anna is the perfect example of someone who lives and breathes the style of her content. Her plans for 2019? To go with the flow...
This excerpt is part 1 of a 3-part series of interviews with top influencers. For access to the complete interviews and actionable insights designed to elevate your influencer marketing strategy, check out our brand new edition of Boom Insights: Influencer Marketing.