Getting sponsored is a significant milestone for content creators, offering opportunities for collaboration with brands and monetization of their content. Sponsorships and brand deals play a vital role in influencer and content creator marketing, allowing brands to reach their target audience through authentic and engaging content, and giving creators another revenue stream achieved through content creation. Let's explore how content creators can navigate the world of sponsorships and secure those coveted partnerships with brands.

What are Sponsorships?

Sponsorships involve brands collaborating with content creators to promote their products or services to a targeted audience. These partnerships are beneficial to both parties, as brands gain exposure and credibility through the creator's content, while creators receive financial compensation, products, and/or other benefits for their promotional efforts.

Whether it's featuring a product in a video, writing a sponsored blog post, live streaming with a featured product, or hosting a sponsored event, sponsorships and brand deals offer content creators a multitude of ways to monetize their influence and creativity.

Types of Sponsorships 

Product sponsorships

Product sponsorships, also called "in kind" sponsorships, involve brands providing free products, experiences, or services to content creators instead of cash, in exchange for promotion on the creator's platforms. These can range from small indie brand deals to large corporate sponsors. 

Creators may receive products to review, show off within the context of their own content, or specifically use in sponsored posts; these sponsorship packages could be food or beverages, clothing or accessories, tech gear, or other products or prizes that you can keep, or give away to your fans/viewers. Product sponsorship packages can also be experiences, such as you attending a concert or going to a theme park for free in exchange for you creating content about it.

Sponsored content

Sponsored content refers to paid partnerships between brands and creators, where creators produce content specifically to promote a brand's products or services. 

This content may include sponsored videos, blog posts, social media posts, or other types of digital content; for instance, if you're sponsored by a shoe brand, then you might create a special promotional video featuring that shoe, with stills from the video made into social media posts as part of an overall shoe promotional campaign. You'll likely get both revenue and product from this type of sponsorship.

Affiliate sponsorships

Affiliate sponsorships involve creators earning commissions or referral fees for driving sales or leads to a brand's products or services. Creators typically receive a unique affiliate link or promo code to share with their audience, and earn a commission for each sale or referral generated through their link. 

HelloFresh is one example of this type of sponsorship; creators stream themselves preparing and eating the contents of a HelloFresh subscription food box, and share a special affiliate code so their viewers can get a HelloFresh subscription deal of their own. The creator then earns revenue from each code that's used to purchase a HelloFresh subscription.

Event sponsorships

There are two basic types of event sponsorship packages. The first involve brands sponsoring or partnering with creators, in order to invite the creator to host, speak at, or participate in events such as workshops, conferences, or meet-and-greets. The second event sponsorship type involves brands providing funding, products, or other resources to sponsor an event of yours, in exchange for branding (for instance "Tom's Street Fighter 6 Tournament, Sponsored by Energy Drink"), promotional opportunities, and free tickets for representatives of the brand to attend your event.

How to Get Sponsored in 5 Steps

Finding and securing sponsorships requires proactive outreach, good communications, research, and strategic pitching. Here are some steps content creators can take to attract brands, generate excitement about collaborations, and get those brand deals locked down:

1. Look for brands and identify potential sponsors

Research and make a shortlist of brands that could align with your content niche, values, and audience demographics. Finding potential sponsors whose products and services make sense with you and your audience will help those products and services fit seamlessly into your content. Don't chase after sponsors or products that are of zero relevance to you; you're looking to create a meeting of the minds (business-wise) in that the sponsorship makes sense in both directions, and is beneficial for both you and for the brand/company.

2. Align with the brand you want to approach

Before reaching out to your list of brands, ensure that your content aligns with their brand identity and target audience. Use relevant segments of your content to showcase your compatibility with the brand, and demonstrate how you can add value to their promotional efforts. Companies and brands looking for content creators are more likely to partner with creators who target similar audiences and have similar approaches to creative advertising. That said, don't be afraid to also think out of the box, to showcase your strengths and differentiate yourself from other creators who might be pitching to these same brands.

3. Pitch yourself!

Have a pitch prepared with clear, creative ideas outlined for how you plan to promote their products or services. Your pitch and any project proposals should highlight your unique selling points, as well as your audience demographics and engagement metrics. If you're a smaller creator or micro influencer without big numbers yet, don't make excuses for those numbers, or for only having x amount of followers. Instead, put the focus on your creativity, enthusiasm, how you’ve built your personal brand, and what kind of compelling content you can bring to the table. Clearly articulate the benefits of partnering with you, and share your excitement for your mutual goals with the company/brand.

4. Negotiate terms and agreements

Once you've established contact with a brand and expressed interest in a sponsorship collaboration, negotiate terms and agreements that align with your goals and expectations. You should be prepared with negotiable expectations on your side for what type of prices, sponsorship packages, sponsored events, or product exchanges you would want in return for your promotional content. Brands and companies may offer different sponsorship levels as you progress through your content creation career; make sure to discuss compensation, deliverables, timelines, and any other relevant details to ensure everyone's on the same page in your new partnership, and keep all details and expectations clear from the beginning.

5. Make the most out of your sponsorships

Now it's time to deliver and show your sponsors that they made the right choice in choosing to enter into a partnership with you! Produce high-quality content that exceeds the brand's expectations, showcases your uniqueness and talent, and resonates with your audience and your sponsor's audience. Promote your sponsored content across your platforms, and engage with your audience to drive awareness and encourage interest in the brand's products or services.

Attract More Sponsors with Fourthwall

Securing sponsorships offers content creators the opportunity to monetize their influence and creativity while building beneficial partnerships with brands. With Fourthwall, content creators can unlock additional revenue streams and attract sponsorships by growing their followers and community. Showing steady growth and an enthused following are desirable points to share with your potential sponsors, and Fourthwall features like customizable websites, ecommerce tools, and membership offerings can help you reach those goals.

Get started now and explore Fourthwall's huge list of features to help you build your online presence and generate that buzz! Fourthwall can help you start attracting sponsorships and brand deals that align with your audience, your content, and you.