I don’t dance on TikTok…can I still get sponsored?
We all know that creators have to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, especially if they wanna get sponsored by brands.
If you’re not popping and locking on TikTok, can you really expect any brand to care about you?
That’s why, as a sponsorship coach, I practice what I preach:
and rate my dancing from 1-10
Wait, what? You don’t dance on TikTok?
JOKING ASIDE, you absolutely do not have to be a 'typical influencer’ to get sponsored by brands.
Sure, it might be harder to grow an audience as quickly with, say, a newsletter or a podcast.
But creators on "owned" platforms like these still present an extremely enticing opportunity to connect brands & companies with their audiences.
Here’s why…
👉 You have influence, ergo…
You ARE an influencer!
Regardless of your platform, if you have an audience who values your opinion and your voice, companies will want to tap into that!
In a recent cohort of my Brand Deal Wizard course, one of my students was a data scientist with 60k LinkedIn followers.
Y’all ever imagine getting sponsored on LinkedIn?!
Well, there were TONS of SaaS companies who wanted her to promote everything from their conferences to their webinars.
Once you think about the psychographics of the folks who consume your content, you can figure out which types of brands would wanna sponsor you, regardless of your platform.
Take the FREE Sponsorship Wheel Snapshot to figure out where you currently are in your ability to find & negotiate your dream sponsorships — so that you can get more lucrative deals (repeatedly)
🕺 I know you don’t like dancing, but…
It doesn’t hurt to have an open mind when it comes to social platforms.
Sure, you may not wanna get sucked into posting 5 times a week on Instagram or TikTok.
BUT brands and companies will love it if you can show that you have an understanding of those platforms too.
YouTube, TIkTok and Instagram have much better discoverability too, whereas newsletters and podcasts don’t currently have the same sort of engine. Getting a few extra followers on a social platform will likely lead to more people joining your newsletter too!
Having a presence on multiple platforms also allows you to add more variety to your sponsorship packages and design more customized proposals for your clients.
BTW, I’m not saying growing an audience on an "owned" platform is in some way worse than on, say, YouTube.
I literally tell social platform creators all the time that they need to start devising an "owned" platform strategy too!
But it comes down to this: when you’re attracting brand attention, it always helps to widen the net and show your versatility.
😱 Your scarcity mindset is losing you $$$…
I give this advice to all creators, but it’s especially relevant if you ever worry that there aren’t enough sponsorships to go around on your platform or in your niche.
Simply put:
You are not in competition with other creators.
Everyone has their own tribe and there are brands out there for whom you and your content will be the PERFECT match.
But even if a similar podcast gets sponsored by your dream brand, play your cards right and they’ll be sponsoring you next week!
There’s plenty of money to go around in the creator economy (over $15 billion this year!)
I promise, you’ll find way more sponsorship opportunities as a creator when you stop viewing others as your competitors, as I talk about in this video.
🤑 You’re not a commodity…
The most important task for “owned” platform creators, whether you write a newsletter or host a podcast or have your own community… is to get out of the “commodity” bucket.
It’s crucial to develop pricing strategies that don’t let brands pay you via CPM (i.e. views, downloads, etc), but on the overall value you’ll provide to them.
This means you are NOT ever gonna charge two brands the same amount. Instead, you should be asking brands what **their** goals are.
From there, you can figure out your value to that brand and set the investment accordingly.
I discussed this with Nathan Barry in this video which you should definitely check out.
Or, if you’d like some more personalized advice on setting your rates, I can help you with that here.
💼 Your platform is your portfolio…
Let’s face it:
It’s 10x harder to get 1000 newsletter signups or 1000 people to join a Circle community than it is to get 1000 TikTok followers.
But does that mean it’s 10x harder to get sponsored? Hell no!
That’s because it’s NOT always about the size of your audience!
It’s actually about proving to a prospective sponsor that you have what it takes to help them realize their aims.
Your “owned” platform, even if it’s only a small podcast or newsletter, is your credibility that you could help a brand/company create THEIR “owned assets”, like internal podcasts, or complex ConvertKit sequences.
The skills you have as a content creator are in demand… and guess what?
Your platform is your portfolio and in this setup…
Your rates are now detached from your audience size.
This piece contains some affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission if you click + sign up (at no extra cost to you).
🎙 Check this out…
One last thing! My friend Gil Kruger has just launched his podcast “Mentally Gil: Conversations with Creators”, where he interviews some of the world’s biggest YouTube and social media creators about their mental health journeys.
Season one centers around anxiety, OCD, and burnout, and the first two episodes are already out. It’s an awesome listen and you can check it out here!
Thanks to George Blackman for contributing to this piece.