Don't Target Giant Brands; Be Realistic

It's a shame how pervasive the myth is that you need a minimum audience size to work with sponsors.

Perhaps a brand even told you once, "We only work with people who have X,000 followers" or "Your reach needs to be Y,000," so you just assumed that's every brand's policy.

Nope.

I've helped hundreds of people with modest reach land four- and five-figure sponsorships.

However, the deals they usually land do not conform to a typical "brand deal."

It's a mistake to reach out to gigantic companies early on in your journey and say, "Hey, I love your brand! Let me spread the word about it."

The brand will likely take one look at your platform and see that you're getting an average of 300 views per video.

Do you think that's going to move the needle for them?

Unlikely.

Instead, it's far more effective to research a smaller- or medium-sized brand's social media presence, identify gaps or opportunities in their strategy, and message them proposing a different approach.

"I have some ideas for how you could tell your brand story in a more compelling way. For example, instead of only posting 1x a week on your brand's social media, I can create 12 videos a month that you post directly on your handles to increase that cadence to 4x a week. Take a look at my platform, which serves as my portfolio."

Did you feel that shift?

That was the brand sitting up a little straighter in their chairs.

Maybe you sat up straighter, too?

Now, let's say the size of your audience begins to grow. Instead of hundreds of views per video, you're getting thousands.

What you propose to a brand now combines consulting, content creation for the brand's use, and, yes, natively posting on your platform.

The brand just sat up straighter still!

Time to fast-forward and imagine you've now achieved serious scale. You're getting tens or hundreds of thousands of views.

Creating and posting the content natively on your platform becomes the singular thrust of your proposal.

The brand is now sitting up so straight they've risen out of their chair and are walking over to personally hand you a gigantic bag of cash with a money symbol on it.

Regardless of how far along you are on your journey, you can use this Sponsorship Continuum to know who and what to pitch.