How Indian LinkedIn Influencers Find Brand Deals in Netherlands
When we think of India’s top influencers, we typically think of the excesses afforded by Instagram and TikTok fame—breathtaking vacations in Dubai, luxury cars in the driveway, and designer dresses that must cost a fortune.
But there’s a new player in town, and Indian influencers are clamoring for brand deals on it.
Not only is this new platform an unexpected choice, it’s also one from which Indian influencers can net serious cash.
✨ Meet the new influencer darling: LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the professional networking platform that’s been around for decades. Today it boasts over 930 million users, and lately, it’s becoming popular with influencers as well.
Influencers showcasing their expertise stand to earn even more than those posting vacuous selfies and dance videos—especially those influencers penetrating the European market.
To illustrate that point, let’s consider two Indian influencers, both of whom have substantial followings.
💼 The people’s captain
Naman Dwivedi has over 2.5 million followers on LinkedIn. His popularity has earned him the title of “The People’s Captain,” and “best LinkedIn influencer” according to the LinkedIn Creator Awards.
Naman is the founder of Upwork expert.com, where he offers advice for successfully getting gigs on freelance marketplaces. He also helps people master the art of LinkedIn marketing.
In just two years, Naman has earned a staggering $1 million in revenue from his efforts on the platform, a feat not only admired by his followers, but also inspiring envy from his peers.
🏆 The Bollywood career mentor
Meanwhile, career coach and LinkedIn influencer Karanjeet Singh commands a following of over 800k. In 2023, Karanjeet won the award for Best Career Influencer on LinkedIn.
Karanjeet has published several articles on content marketing and how to get hired as a musician, including “7 Ways to Get Your Music Heard” and “5 Ways to Get Hired as a Musician.”
In addition to helping people get hired in various creative capacities, Karanjeet also helps people get hired in the film industry.
As India’s Bollywood film industry is one of the biggest in the world, Karanjeet’s expertise is invaluable, particularly for those outside India trying to break into that market.
🌏 Why influencers are eyeing the Dutch market
With India being a high-growth region for LinkedIn, it seems natural that influencers from the country would gravitate to it.
However, it’s not just the platform itself these influencers are enamored with, it’s the European market as well—especially the Dutch.
According to People Per Hour, the Netherlands is the second best country in the world to freelance. In fact, freelancers make up 15% of the Dutch workforce.
In addition to having an abundance of freelancers, the Netherlands is also home to a substantial number of highly educated professionals.
As Forbes reports, 80% of the population holds at least one diploma. And in a country where 90% of people speak English, many firms within the country are eager to hire remote workers from abroad.
📈 Big money for skilled work
According to the website, salaries in the Netherlands are some of the highest in Europe.
Perception is important when marketing abroad, and Indian influencers are savvy enough to understand that most Dutch people prefer to purchase goods and services from other Europeans.
By working with Dutch brands, Indian influencers can position themselves as knowledgeable about the region and its people, while simultaneously inspiring envy in their Indian peers.
And there are plenty of Dutch brands that are interested in hiring Indian influencers for their marketing efforts.
🌐 Local opportunities can be misleading
According to influencer marketing agency, BaoLiba, Indian influencers are flocking to the European Union and the Netherlands in particular, not only because that is where they see growth opportunities, but also due to the pressure they are under from local brands that want to expand into foreign markets.
Brands all over the world have noticed that ecommerce has exploded since the pandemic, and they want to capitalize on that growth by selling their products and services abroad.
However, many of those brands are located in regions where ecommerce skills and knowledge are lacking. This is where influencers come in.
📍 The best of both worlds
Brands can increase their odds of success in foreign markets by hiring influencers from those locations. But many brands don’t have the budget to hire influencers from the local market.
This is where Indian influencers have an opportunity to make serious cash. They can provide the necessary marketing services for foreign brands looking to penetrate the Indian market, while simultaneously providing exposure for their own brand on the foreign market.
This not only helps boost the brands’ sales abroad, it also helps bolster their own portfolio.
💵 Sales funnel starts with networking
So how do Indian influencers actually make money from LinkedIn?
Just like any other platform, they leverage their following to get brand deals. However, there is a crucial distinction when it comes to LinkedIn influencers, particularly those who are Indian, as opposed to those operating on more established platforms.
Networking is the name of the game when it comes to LinkedIn, and it’s one of the most important strategies for landing brand deals.
🔎 The sleuth like approach
Rather than just waiting for brands to come to them, Indian influencers use a sleuth like approach to find lucrative opportunities. They have to do research—time consuming, painstaking research.
They look for brands that are already using LinkedIn for their marketing, and they look for brands that have a significant following.
Then they contact those brands directly, pitching their marketing services.
💻 It takes stealth and stamina
They don’t just pitch anyone, however. They look for individuals within the company that have a decent following—at least 5k followers.
They look for those individuals’ work emails, and they send a cold email pitching their services. If they don’t get a response, they’ll follow up a few days later.
If they still don’t get a response, they’ll reach out via LinkedIn, and once again, follow up.
🧾 What does the cold email look like?
So what does a cold email look like when an Indian influencer reaches out to a Dutch brand?
According to BaoLiba, one influencer who has had success reaching out to Dutch brands directly is remote work advocate, Kiran Sinha.
Kiran provides a template on her LinkedIn page, and she even offers recommendations on where to find leads.
🎯 Ideal customer profile
Kiran advises influencers looking to price their services to find leads that fit an ideal customer profile.
Kiran’s profile specifies that she works with SaaS-based companies, so she looks for SaaS firms that fit the following criteria:
- 20 + Employees
- 3.4 Star Rating on G2
- Key Evaluators (C-levels) with 5,000 + Connections
- Based out of Netherlands & Belgium
📧 Cold email template
Then Kiran provides a cold email template like this one that influencers can adopt for their own outreach efforts:
Subject: [First Name], would you like to be featured on my LinkedIn page?
Hi [First Name],
I hope you are doing well. I came across your profile while researching SaaS companies in the Netherlands.
I run a highly-engaged page on LinkedIn with over 32,000 followers where I share valuable insights about remote working and productivity tips.
I would love to feature your company on my page as I think it would really resonate with my audience.
If you would like to learn more about it, please reply to this email so that I can share additional details.
Best Regards,
Kiran Sinha💰 How influencers earn money
After influencers like Kiran connect with suitable leads, they send a follow-up email detailing their services and pricing.
According to Kiran’s LinkedIn page, she charges brands between $450 and $600 per marketing package—a small fee compared to what a traditional influencer might charge.
Then Kiran follows up the follow-up with a sample of what the brand can expect to see if they work with her.
🎬 What does a marketing package look like?
So what does a marketing package look like for a LinkedIn influencer?
Kiran’s marketing package includes:
- One promotional post on Kiran’s page
- One LinkedIn article about the brand
- Two follow-up posts with various CTAs
Kiran further clarifies, “The posts will be shared on my profile and will be shown to my first-level connections and followers.”
📈 Metrics to back it up
While Kiran’s marketing package is less expensive than the ones you might find on Instagram, she can still leverage her engagement metrics to show brands just how effective her services can be.
For example, Kiran’s page yields a staggering 10.2% engagement rate, which is significantly higher than the average 1% we see across social media platforms.
In addition, she has a 3.6% clickthrough rate for her articles, and her articles boast an average of 4,500+ views each.
💻 Getting paid for their efforts
While LinkedIn is a platform where influencers can earn opportunities through networking, LinkedIn does not facilitate direct payments between brands and influencers.
Brands typically want influencers to provide them with an invoice before they pay them. And since most influencers are entrepreneurs, they need to get a business registered in order to invoice brands.
🏦 Banking challenges
Getting a business registered in India is not a particularly easy task, nor is it the most inexpensive.
Influencers looking to make money from LinkedIn can’t afford to go through the hassle of registering their business back in India if they are trying to penetrate foreign markets.
Many influencers in India also face banking challenges when it comes to receiving payments from abroad, as they are not able to receive payments directly into their Indian bank accounts.
📤 Use a payment processor
The best way around these issues is for influencers to use a payment processor, like Paypal.
According to Kiran, influencers can send brands their PayPal addresses, and brands will send them payment via the service.
Then the influencer can transfer the funds from their PayPal to their Indian bank account. However, Kiran warns that PayPal typically charges fees of around 4% for this.
🌍 Open an account abroad
Alternatively, influencers can sign up to transfer their funds into a foreign bank account, such as those located in the EU.
While registering a business abroad can cost upward of $2,000, influencers can typically register for a foreign bank account for much less—around $500.
Once they do, they can transfer their funds directly from their payment processor into their EU account, without losing a percentage of their funds to fees.
❗ Risks of working abroad
So what are the downsides of working abroad?
For one, Indian influencers need to be wary of taxes. Depending on the amount of money they make, they might need to register their businesses abroad, as well as pay sales tax.
✅ Legal protection
There’s also the risk of being cheated by brands that don’t pay them for their efforts. Influencers that work with brands based in India have access to protections that Indian influencers do not have when working with brands abroad.
For example, influencers could threaten to lodge a complaint against a brand with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) if they did not get paid.
Unfortunately, influencers working with brands in other countries do not have the same protections.
🔒 Use a service that offers protection
To mitigate that risk, influencers can use a marketplace that specializes in influencer marketing.
In addition to connecting influencers with brands that need their services, marketplaces also handle all the payments, typically charging brands a markup on the influencer’s fee.
Marketplace influencer fees generally range between 20% and 40%.
This means that the influencer will only get a portion of what they charge the brand. However, brands often realize greater returns when using a marketplace, as that is where most influencers get their opportunities.
🤝 Influencer marketing marketplaces have your back
BaoLiba is one of the leading influencer marketing platforms that Indian influencers can use to find Dutch brands that need their services.
According to the website, BaoLiba has listings for 2,000+ influencers from India in the Netherlands.
Influencers can sign up on the platform for free and list their services, which brands can then search for.
Brands can request to work with influencers, and if they agree, they can discuss their needs within the platform.
💳 Marketplace facilitates payment
Once the influencer delivers what they promised, the brand can submit their approval, and the payment then goes through, all without the influencer having to chase after it.
The influencer can then transfer their funds to their bank account. If the brand is located in the EU, they can also request to have the funds deposited into their EU bank account.
🔮 The future is bright
With the influencer marketing industry expected to be worth over $20 billion by 2025, there’s no slowing down for Indian influencers looking to penetrate the European market through LinkedIn.
In fact, demand for influencer services has been growing steadily for years, and it’s expected to reach $4.5 billion by the end of 2025.
📊 More brands looking for influencers
The number of brands investing in influencer marketing has also been increasing. In 2023, 49% of marketers said they were using influencers in their marketing campaigns, compared to just 38% in 2022.
Meanwhile, 43% of marketers said they plan to invest more in influencer marketing in the next year.
🌱 More influencers entering the game
As well, 41% of marketers said that influencer marketing is becoming a bigger part of their overall marketing strategy. This trend is also expected to continue, as 44% of marketers said they plan to invest more in content creation and social media.
Therefore, it’s expected that more influencers will enter the game as influencer marketing continues to thrive.
🚀 Indian influencers will lead the charge
With Indian influencers already having success on LinkedIn, they will continue to grow in number and in success.
While influencers on more established platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have to deal with increasingly rigid algorithms that limit their visibility, LinkedIn’s algorithm is still relatively new and offers plenty of organic reach for influencers.
This gives Indian influencers an edge that their peers do not have.
📢 Conclusion
Whether you’re an Indian influencer looking to expand your reach in Europe, or a brand looking to work with an influencer, you can count on BaoLiba to help you succeed.
We’ll continue to update you on the latest trends in influencer marketing in India, so stay tuned!