Three More Ways to Show Brands You Care

A few months ago I published an article entitled, “Three Ways to Show Brands You Care.” Having worked with thousands of content creators, I pinpointed three common traits of the content creators that take brand partnerships the most seriously and consistently prove they care about the success of their sponsors. The three key ingredients were (1) ask for a brand’s KPIs, (2) don’t represent competitors, and (3) make your video content relevant to the sponsored integration. After some great feedback and positive comments from creators in our community, I decided to revisit the topic and share three more ways to show brands you care. My hope is that these insights will help you build longer lasting relationships with your brand sponsors that allow you to inform your audience of products and services you truly love. 

1. Stick to the Schedule: Brands and marketing teams generally work around monthly budgets. For example, a brand might have $100,000 in a month they are willing to spend on influencer marketing. When you enter into an agreement with a brand to publish content in a specific month, a brand is allocating a certain percentage of that spend to you. If you miss your target publication date, the brand has an unspent budget. That can cause issues and sometimes lead to budget reductions for the influencer marketing team in future months. If you commit to publishing in a specific month, do your best to hit that date. And as a pro tip, try to give the brand at least 24-48 hours to review your content for brand safety and accuracy. Last minute fire-drill requests to publish in the next 30 minutes can cause a lot of issues for brands.  
2. Communicate Roadblocks and Changes: Sometimes, life just happens and you are unable to publish in the specific month you and the brand agreed upon. Be sure to communicate to the brand manager that you will be missing the target publication date as soon as you can. If you give the brand manager enough time, he or she may be able to find another content creator to fill the spot. In my experience, brands almost never terminate deals if you are professional and give them enough time to re-allocate budget in a specific month. 
3. Use the Product: Influencer marketing is effective because the relationship between you and your audience is built upon trust. That is why brands want to buy your endorsement.  So influencer marketing is most effective when creators actually use products and speak from personal experience. Brands want content creators to become familiar with their company, speak intelligently about the product, and ultimately give audiences the information they need to make an educated decision for themselves. If you are just reading off of a script and you’ve never used a product before, it is difficult for an audience to know if they should trust a brand or not. Moreover, it is important that you test products to ensure the respective brand you are representing is something your audience will benefit from. 

There are only so many brands out there that are a match for your audience. When you find one you really love, you need to nurture the relationship. I hope these three suggestions will help you do that. If you ever have any questions about brand deals and creating great sponsored integrations, please feel free to reach out: brandpartnerships@influencelogic.com.