Always wanted to get paid for making content for other brands? Then here is another blog you might be interested in! Last week we wrote about getting paid for creating content by using Influee. This week we’ll let you know how to get brand deals without using an app.
It is good to know what you can offer. Brands are either looking for social media profiles/blogs/websites that make high quality content or have a lot of followers/viewers/visitors. After all, almost every company is after making more money by selling their products. So always keep this in mind when you pitch yourself.
Where to start?
First you need to find brands that might be interested in content creators or brand ambassadors. Difference between those two:
Content creator: Is someone who creates content for another brand, but doesn’t necessarily post/promote products.
Brand ambassador: Also posts/promotes products, get either money for posting or with affiliate links. Must align with brand mission, because you’ll become in a way the face of a brand. Most of the time, brand ambassadors will not promote any other similar products.
Instagram or Facebook are both good platforms to find brands. Usually you know a company just started using social media when they don’t have a lot of followers. Find smaller Instagram accounts that have less followers than you have or almost as much as you have.
How to pitch yourself?
You can either choose to “slide into their DM” or send a professional email. If you use DM we advise not to send your pitch immediately. Rather get a genuine conversation starting first. Let the brand know you love the products and ask how they started etc. Get to know the brand better first. Later you can tell what you do and how you think you could help their brand grow. If you choose to use email you can send your media kit along.
Use a media kit
Use a media kit to enhance your pitch. A media kit is a document containing information about your business, event or blog. See it as a cv for your business. What a media kit should have:
Your name
Your job title (for example Content Creator)
Social media handle (for example @joey.travel.avy)
Blog/website (www.backusbranding.com)
Contact details (at least your email and phone number is optional)
Description of your blog/social media (+ what is you niche and who is your target group)
Figures (for example clicks, reach, interaction as likes, shares & comments)
Previous collaborations and testimonials (only if you have this)
Photos of what you’ve created before or what you can create (use inspiration)
Click here to enquire a free media kit template created by us.
How to ask brands for money when they send you an offer?
A lot of brands want content for a product exchange. That means you only get the product for free, but you won’t get paid for the work you have done. If you are fine with this that’s okay and you can accept their offer. If you would like to make a living out of creating content for brands you should not do your work for free. Below you can find a response you can copy, paste and send to brands that send a product exchange offer to you:
Thank you for reaching out and sending this opportunity along! I can totally see my audience loving your products and they’d really align with your mission too.
Creating content is our job. Because of the amount of time that goes into creating high quality and unique content for your brand, and priming my audience to ensure our promotion performs well, we charge for our services. Therefore, I am unable to take on any product exchange collaboration. Please let me know if you have a budget for this campaign. I’d love to work out a mutually beneficial relationship!
Sometimes it happens that you send this and the brand doesn’t want to work with you. You can always come with a counter offer or if you really like a product and you don’t mind to create for free you can send this in the first place:
Thank you for reaching out and sending this opportunity along! I can totally see my audience loving your products and they’d really align with your mission too.
Creating content is our job. Because of the amount of time that goes into creating high quality and unique content for your brand, and priming my audience to ensure our promotion performs well, we normally charge for our services. Because I really like your product I’m able to do one unboxing video on my story and create one post for free. When we create content for you in the future we will charge per photo/video.
How much can I charge?
You can ask whatever you think your work is worth. Will you always get that for what you make? No! It’s about trial and error. Yes, we also had quotes rejected by potential clients. Is this the end of the world? No, of course not. In this blog it will be explained in detail what you could charge for your services.
We hoped this was helpful. Good luck and let us know if you ever need content for your brand or if you want to collaborate with us. We love to create for you and with you. Just send an email to info@backusbranding.com for more information.