How to Land Brand Deals

Over a decade ago, when I first started creating content, brand deals were not yet a common thing. At that time, I had no idea that it was even possible to make money from social media. For me, content creation was just a hobby that eventually turned into a career. I love it because there was no pressure and everything was fun, genuine, and happened through the grace of God. Today, social media is my full-time career and it has been since 2013. I love that this is my career and something I genuinely enjoy. It has become second nature to me and I have gained valuable knowledge about creating a long-lasting brand and landing brand deals. So get out your pen and paper, as I give you a little tea on how to land brand deals.

How to Land Brand Deals

The biggest misconception about landing brand deals is most people think you need millions of followers to make a living as a content creator. In reality, a lot of creators who land brand sponsorships have fewer followers than you think. Micro-influencers (accounts with less than 25,000 followers) actually the largest portion of brand sponsorships. This is because on average, micro-influencers see higher engagement rates than macro-influencers.

As influencer marketing continues to grow brand sponsorships are becoming less about follower count, and more about:

• Connecting with your audience
• Business knowledge and work ethic
• Understanding your value to brands
• Creating high-quality content

Connecting with Your Audience

Connecting with your audience is a crucial aspect of landing brand deals. It’s no longer just about how many followers you have, but more so about how engaged your followers are. Brands want to work with creators who have built a genuine connection with their audience.

Before you start approaching brands, it’s important to define your brand and niche. When I first started creating content, the word niche would make me cringe. I automatically thought niche meant to create content about one thing and I’m a multi-dimensional person, so the thought of that seemed so boring!

However, creating a niche can help you connect with your audience! It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to focus on only one thing. Rather, it means creating content in specific areas that your audience will resonate with. To do this effectively, you need to learn about your audience and what they are interested in (as well as consider what you’re interested in creating content about!). This involves understanding your demographics and also taking notes of feedback on your content. By doing so, you can tailor your content to your audience’s needs and preferences.

Business Knowledge and Work Ethic

Having business knowledge is essential for landing deals. When you first start landing deals you’re likely to not have an attorney reviewing your agreements. Honestly, I didn’t bring an attorney on my team until many many years after becoming a full-time creator. If you aren’t at the point of having an attorney on your team, make sure you’re familiar with industry terms, pricing structures, and legal requirements.

Creating content and working with brands to create content is a lot of work! In order to grow your content creation business and work with brands on paid campaigns, you need to be consistent in your posting schedule and put effort into your content creation. If you’re serious about creating content, you need to treat it like a business.

When you start landing deals there will be a lot of communication through emails. So it’s important to be responsive and reliable when working with brands. Meeting deadlines, and delivering on your promises. By demonstrating a strong work ethic, you can build trust and credibility with brands, which can lead to long-term partnerships and collaborations.

Understanding Your Value

Understanding your value to brands is important for landing brand deals because it allows you to effectively negotiate and communicate your worth. When brand deals were in the beginning stages, it was hard for me as a creator to understand my value because the concept of influencer marketing was still so new.

Social media was still seen as a hobby rather than a legitimate career, which made it difficult for creators to understand their value in the eyes of brands. Many brands didn’t see the value in partnering with influencers, and those that did often had unrealistic expectations and didn’t offer fair compensation for the work involved.

This is exactly why it’s important to understand the unique strengths you bring to a partnership and the level of influence you have. When you understand your value, you can negotiate fair compensation for your work and ensure that the partnership aligns with your brand and values. It also helps you communicate your worth to brands in a clear and concise manner, making it easier for them to see the benefits of working with you.

By understanding your value and communicating it effectively, you can position yourself as a valuable partner and increase your chances of landing brand deals that are both profitable and authentic to your brand.

Creating High-Quality Content

I know you’re probably tired of me talking about creating high-quality content. I speak about this often bc it’s so important. Especially nowadays, when there are so many creators you want to make sure your content is up to par.

This is important for landing brand deals because brands want to associate themselves with creators who produce engaging content. High-quality content not only showcases your skills as a creator but also adds credibility to your personal brand. By producing high-quality content that resonates with both the brand and your audience, you increase your chances of landing brand deals that are authentic and aligned with your brand.

In addition, high-quality content can also attract new followers and expand your reach, which makes you a more attractive partner to brands. It’s important to invest time and effort into creating content that reflects your personal brand and showcases your unique talents and strengths as a creator.

I hope these tips were helpful! If you have any questions please leave them below and I’ll follow up with more content creator tips.

Love this post and want more? Here are 5 things I wish I knew before becoming a content creator!