Many creators above a certain size start to get their YouTube email flooded with brand deal opportunities from companies, most of which they’ve never heard of. While it’s easy to rule out everything except highly reputable brands you want to work with, having a portfolio of brand deals with lesser known brands can build like a snowball to reach bigger and better “dream” deals with bigger companies.
Given that, you might now be feeling overwhelmed at the sponsorship opportunities you’ll have to read through, but there’s an easy set of three rules of thumb to decide which ones you’ll consider.
Rule #1: Would You Be a Customer?
In my post on When NOT to Pursue a Brand Deal, I briefly delve into this topic among other points.
Your integrity matters more than anything as a creator. Regarding sponsorships, there’s a fine line between being an inauthentic shill and actually giving your audience relevant recommendations. Of course, many creators need brand deals to pay the bills, but you can do so with integrity!
The easiest rule of thumb is the Customer Rule: if you wouldn’t be a customer, don’t get sponsored.
Reasons you might not be a customer may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Opposition to a company’s political views.
- Disinterest in the product.
- The brand seems shady.
This rule is powerful in that in most cases, this is the only consideration you need—a company you’d buy from is probably one you’d like working with. However, not every brand deal is this perfect, so there are many exceptions to each of the above points.
There Are Exceptions
It doesn’t have to be a brand for which you’re a die-hard loyal customer, but it ought to be a brand that you’d realistically purchase from. It doesn’t even need to be a brand you’ve purchased from in the past or have even heard of, only one you could purchase from.
For example, if a brand you’ve never heard of that makes outerwear like jackets and sweaters contacts you and offers a reasonable sponsorship opportunity, if the brand seems unproblematic, it’s worth considering. This kind of product isn’t irrelevant to anybody, so if the deal seems legit, why not?
Additionally, you can be disinterested in a product but still find merit in it—how many people are deeply interested in the brand of milk they use but continue to buy it? Disinterest doesn’t mean a product has no merit.
It’s most important that you can become interested in the product (without shilling) and learn its merit. In my time organizing brand deals with AVerMedia, you’d expect the partners to be streaming tech wizards, but many of them were, in fact relatively uninformed when it comes to tech but learned to understand the merits of the products.
To revise rule #1: COULD You Be a Customer?
Rule #2: Is it Relevant to Your Audience?
Even if a product in a deal is relevant to you, is it relevant & appropriate to your audience and at least somewhat congruent with your content?
If you make content related to productivity, your audience probably won’t be interested in a mobile game. If you make gaming content, your audience will likely find childcare products irrelevant (for they are likely children and teens themselves). A creator who mainly has an audience of children probably shouldn’t try to get sponsored by adult brands like Adam & Eve.
The idea is that you shouldn’t promote irrelevant products to your audience. That’s a sure-fire way to lose some integrity, which will make your audience less interested in the brand deals you promote overall! A product or service you promote in a sponsored segment needn’t be a 100% perfect fit for your community, but it can’t be irrelevant or inappropriate for them.
Don’t Be Irrelevant
Look at the brand deals you see everywhere like Manscaped, Raid: Shadow Legends, and the plethora of VPN services. Most audiences wouldn’t seek out these brands, but they’re not necessarily irrelevant—you can showcase their merits to make them relevant too!
With Manscaped, the main criteria is likely for a creator to have a majority male audience (as that’s who the products are generally for). With Raid: Shadow Legends, if you make gaming content or have an audience that primarily uses their phones to watch you, it’s not irrelevant. For VPNs, if you talk about media like movies and shows but have an international audience, you can showcase the value of a VPN for accessing region-locked content.
Your audience might not be interested in these kinds of deals, but you can’t say they’re irrelevant either. I generally recommend against taking too many brand deals if they’re only not irrelevant, but some creators need these deals to pay the bills.
A way around this to show you KNOW it’s not super relevant to your audience is to put on a clearly different persona for the brand deal segment itself. This acts as a dogwhistle to your audience that you don’t actually care, but you didn’t hear that from me.
Rule #3: Does the Deal Itself Have Red Flags?
I highly recommend reading my video on the types of brand deals and post on when not to take brand deals for more insight, but here’s a few areas to consider:
Will you get something upfront? This can be product or payment. If you don’t get anything up front, or worse, have to buy your own products, it’s a major red flag
Is it just an affiliate program? These can be fine if they’re self-driven like Amazon Associates or if payout is high. For example, some affiliate programs for digital products offer an absurd 51% payout to justify the requirements. However, these cases are unfortunately the exception—almost any affiliate program with posting requirements and nothing up front is a sham.
Is there simply something off about the company? Notice things like odd typos, improper grammar, and excess requests for information or signing up for platforms. Many brand deals do require connecting your social media accounts to whatever platform the company uses to measure, like SideQik. In general, don’t offer more information than you’re willing to, and make sure you do some research on both the company contacting you and whatever platform they ask you to sign up for, especially if you feel off.
If They Pass The Rules…
Go for it! If you could become a customer, find the product relevant enough for your audience, and don’t see any red flags, then there’s very little reason to not go for the brand deal. Consider if you have the space in your workload to add any new brand deal commitments, and make sure you’re not accidentally breaking any non-compete agreements with existing partners or sponsors by working with a competitor.
If you’re still waiting on that glut of deals in your inbox, I highly recommend reading my post on some major factors companies consider when selecting creators to work with. Making yourself marketable is half the battle with brand deals.
Get sponsored, get the bag, and happy creating.
Andy Cormier 