Brand wants exclusive content? Here's how to price it.
A student in my private community recently asked a question that confuses a lot of creators:
“How should I price a deal where the brand wants me to create exclusive content for them (that I don't post on my platforms)?”
In other words: content that the brand gets to use on its "O&O" aka owned and operated platforms (social media, its own website, for paid ads, etc).
I mean, it’s hard enough to figure out how to set your prices on your own platforms, right?
But where do you start when the content is gonna end up on the brand’s platforms?
First of all, there are two potential scenarios here:
The brand ONLY wants content to use on their O&O (i.e. you don’t post the content on your platforms at all).
The brand wants exclusive content AND for you to post/amplify on your socials (could be additional assets, or utilizing the exact same content across both).
Now here’s the critical realization:
In each scenario, your pricing should be very different.
Here's what to do when...
1/ The brand wants ONLY exclusive content
If the brand’s goal is to repurpose the content for its own platforms, the amount you charge is now completely detached from your views / downloads / subscribers.
Remember, the brand is telling you they love your content and wanna pay to leverage your “name & likeness”, NOT your follower count.
So charge them accordingly!
In a moment, I’ll explain how to come up with a figure here.
But first, here's how to approach it when…
2/ The brand wants exclusive content AND amplification from you
In these situations, for better or for worse, how much you charge for the exclusive “piece” of the package is going to be anchored by the amount you quote for a typical post (which is not always ideal).
That's why your aim should be to bake everything into an overall package, e.g.:
1 x YT video
1 x Podcast ad read
1 x IG or TikTok video
1 x one-minute exclusive video for the brand’s usage
30 days Exclusivity / Usage
If the brand asks for something a la carte, like maybe they wanna pick and choose only some elements of the package…
You tell them '“no” (politely, of course).
You need to articulate that that’s not how your business works.
Because if brands wanna work with you, there’s a minimum investment required 💪
I know you’re chompin’ at the bit for how to price these scenarios but there’s aaaaactually one more curveball that brands might throw at you…
3/ The brand wants to license content you already created
Ever make a video talking about a brand you authentically love and use and it absolutely crushes?
Now the brand’s in your inbox saying “We love the video you made and want to repost it on our own handles and/or run paid advertising with it!”
What you should NOT do is say, “OMG sounds like great exposure, you can do it for FREE!!!”
(That type of “exposure” almost never amounts to any real growth, in my unfortunate, personal experience).
But how should you price exclusive content?
Let’s start with the exclusive content angle.
To be honest, it totally depends on whether you love or hate making exclusive content.
Some creators love it because they don't have to expose their audience to another sponsorship (and thus give brands a discount).
But others are super proud of their sponsorships and kiiinda wanna flex which brands they’re working with.
Not to mention they might be losing out on downstream earnings like YouTube AdSense (and thus charge brands a premium).
This is how I think about pricing in either case:
Treat additional content requests AS IF you were going to post them.
However you would normally charge for creating a piece of content like that, use that as a baseline.
Then, per the above, levy a discount or a premium depending on your personal love/hate stance for requests like this!
How much should you charge for licensing videos you’ve already created?
Now, concerning how much to charge for licensing content from your back catalog, you can apply this same principle (set your "base price" as what you would have charged the brand if it was custom content).
For example: Let’s say you normally charge $1,000 for a custom video.
A brand comes inbound wanting to license a previous video for 6 months.
Here’s how the math would look:
$1,000 (base rate) * 15% licensing per month = $150 per month.
6 months of licensing * $150 = $900.
Total cost to the brand = $1,000 (base rate) + $900 (licensing) = $1,900
Make sense? ✌️
P.S. If you need more support with your pricing and negotiation strategy, consider joining my Brand Deal Wizard program.