Depending on your niche, working with brands can be a great way to supplement ad revenue while raving about products you love or an essential part of your income as an influencer.
Land Brand Sponsorships
If you don’t know where to get started to get sponsored, follow along for tips on how to find the perfect sponsor, craft an engaging pitch, and land the deal.
Choosing A Brand
The first step to getting sponsored is choosing a brand you know and love that offers products relevant to your personal brand. What products do you use everyday that your followers would also benefit from using? If you run a recipe blog, think about the places you shop, the kitchen appliances you use, and the food brands you use.
Your followers will be able to spot an inauthentic review from a mile away, so make sure you truly believe in the product you’re pitching!
How to Find Sponsorships
Depending on the size of your following and your niche, brands may approach you with a sponsorship opportunity that you can consider if you’re familiar with the product, or given a testing period to see if you really like it.
However, if you approach the brand, it’s a better deal for everyone involved because they’ll know you already love the product and can rave about it without reservation.
You can’t go wrong starting with an email pitch, but it may make sense to start the conversation via DM on social media depending on the situation.
There are also influencer marketing networks you can sign up for where you can apply for sponsorship opportunities. The pay rates are much lower than working with brands directly, but it’s a good option if you’re just starting out and want to give it a try.
Crafting the Pitch
Your brand sponsorship pitch is just like a cover letter for a job. It needs to stand out or it will get thrown out.
Start by telling the company about how you love their product, how long you’ve been using it, and why it’s so great. If you’ve mentioned the product in a blog post, video, or social media post in the past, link to those posts to back up your compliments.
Then tell them what kinds of services you offer—be specific, and link to examples of past sponsored content on your platform. For example, you could mention that a previous sponsored post drove traffic to the company’s website and led to a 20% increase in sales the week after.
Finally, attach your media kit, and have your rate sheet ready for the next steps. This gives you an opportunity to feel out the situation before locking in your rates.
Following Up
If you don’t hear back right away, follow up in 1 week, and maybe include another juicy example about another brand’s ROI after working with you.
Goals
Once you’ve got their attention, ask them what they hope to achieve through this partnership. Are they looking for brand awareness, website traffic, growing their social media presence, or driving sales? Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they want to get out of this deal.
Budget
Then ask them what their budget is before offering up your rate sheet. Who knows, maybe their budget is higher than you were going to charge! You will likely have different rates for small businesses and large household name corporations.
Negotiations
If the brand comes back to you and says they cannot afford your rates, try offering a discount for a long term contract. If they don’t have a budget at all, let them know that you’d love to work with them in the future if they have a budget.
Maintaining the Relationship
After you work with the brand, follow up with them with data. If the brand wanted to drive traffic to their website, run outbound traffic reports on Google Analytics to show them how well the post did, or if they were looking for intangible results, ask them how they feel the content helped.
If they’re pleased with the results, see if they would like to continue the relationship. After all, working with an existing client is much easier than finding a new one.
Let Us Do the Work!
If you’re overwhelmed by the thought of pitching brands and need some guidance, or don’t have time to do it yourself, we can help you build a media kit, craft the perfect pitch, and get sponsored. Let’s talk!
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