[…] How I Got My First Sponsored Post […]
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Let’s talk sponsored posts:
How can you get your first brand collaboration?
If you’re a blogger or someone who regularly scrolls social media, you probably know about sponsored posts.
A sponsored post is an exchange between a blogger, YouTuber or any other kind of content creator where the creator gets paid for featuring a service or product of a brand.
I’d only recently gotten my first sponsorship, and I am going to be explaining how that came about.
Before I start, I do want to stress that I’m no expert- this was literally my first sponsored post ever, so please do more research on how brands can work with you if that’s something you’re interested in.
I will, however, be including some helpful resources for you below that can get you started with approaching brands for sponsorships.
If you’re a beginner blogger or want to start your blog but are unsure how to do that, sign up for my free 7-day email course for beginner bloggers!
How to work with brands on sponsored posts
Finding the right brands
The first thing I did was make a list of brands I use regularly. I definitely want to work with brands I know and use.
This is because then I can vouch for them properly without having to guess about how they perform, and I don’t have to spend any time testing their products or services. I already know I like them.
I suggest that when you first start out with sponsored posts, you do the same. If anything, it will make it easier for you to pitch these brands because you will already know about their products or services.
When I finished making my list of brands I’d like to work with, I started to then email a few. I emailed 4 brands one afternoon, and one got back to me right away.
How to pitch to brands
There are two things to keep in mind here: finding the right email address and writing a proper pitch.
To find the correct email address of each brand, I Googled the name of the company along with the words “PR” or “press”. That gave me the emails of people within those companies who deal with sponsorships and who work with influencers and bloggers.
Creating a pitch, to be honest, was foreign to me. I’d never done that before, so I knew I needed some help.
Thankfully I’d seen Styling Social on Twitter promoting her free pitching template. I downloaded it, loved it, and wrote my pitches according to her template.
I also attached my media kit to the email to show my stats and demographics. Make sure you have a media kit ready when you approach a brand.
Also, I think that wherever in the world your traffic is coming from most should probably where the brand you’re pitching to is located.
Over 60% of my traffic comes from North America. It wouldn’t be very profitable for a Middle Eastern company to work with me since I barely get any traffic from there.
So all the companies who I reached out to are located in North America.
And lo and behold, not even a day later, one company said they’d like to collaborate with me on a post.
I highly recommend that if you haven’t pitched to brands yet you get Styling Social’s pitching template. Again, it’s free, and it definitely worked for me.
Negotiating your payment
When I got word that one of the companies I’d pitched to wanted to work with me, they also wanted to know what my rates are.
This is something I thought of on the spot. Don’t do this.
I later found out that I undercharged them for the amount of traffic I bring in across all my social media platforms, so make sure you think about how much you want to charge before starting to pitch to brands.
When thinking about how much you will charge for sponsored posts, consider these (I’m adding my stats from May 2020 for reference):
- What is your current blog traffic a month? 65K+
- How many email subscribers do you have? 1800+
- What is your current DA? 15
- How many Pinterest views do you have monthly? 4.8M
- How many Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest followers do you have combined? 8K+
I charged $130 for the post.
I definitely don’t regret charging this little, money is money, but I will be charging more next time because, well, I deserve more.
What I didn’t think about before was that sure, my post might have taken me a few hours to prepare, but it will be on my site forever. That means that the company I worked with will be benefitting from my post for years to come. $130 was, therefore, a bargain for them.
And that brings me to another point…
Lately, I’ve been getting emails from brands wanting me to write content for them and linking to them in my posts for pennies. $10-30, to be precise. If you get the same emails as I’ve been getting, please don’t accept those deals.
Again, you’d be giving them promotion for life (or as long as your site is up) for $30. It doesn’t make sense, and it definitely isn’t fair for brands to request this of bloggers.
Writing the post
Writing the sponsored post was no different to me than any other post, other than the fact that I mentioned their product in one of the sections, put in their link, and added my discount code to it.
I asked them if they wanted me to touch on anything in specific in the post, but all the wording was mine.
I also made sure to disclose in the introduction that this was a sponsored post. That’s something all bloggers, big and small, must do if they’re getting paid or getting gifted in exchange for a post. If you don’t, you might get in serious trouble.
If you’d like to read the sponsored post I wrote, this is it.
Useful resources that might help you with sponsorships
As I mentioned before, I highly recommend the free pitching template I used. Get it here.
Styling Social also just launched a course that will help you secure brand deals with way more help than any blog post. If you think that is something that will benefit you, check it out here.
My friend and blogger Kayleigh Zara just recently wrote a post on how to work with brands, and I recommend giving it a read. She has been at this game WAY longer than I have and has worked with many brands. She knows her sponsored stuff.
Conclusion
This was just my first experience collaborating with a brand, and I wanted to share it with you all since I got asked a lot about it on Twitter.
If you have any advice on how to find brands, how much to charge, how to write pitches, or anything else to do with sponsored posts, please leave it in the comments for others to learn from!
Related reads:
Blog Income Report
How To Make Money Blogging
If you enjoyed this post, please pin it to share with more bloggers! 📌
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Wow mariam thank you so much for sharing, I haven’t started with sponsored post yet but will bookmark this post, because it will always come in handy. Thank you so much.
Happy you think it’s helpful! Best of luck!
Love this post! I have not done much sponsored content, but I enjoy reading written posts that touch on a product in a unique and new way. Nothing goes further then creativity, so I agree that charging for your full value instead of holding back for fear of losing the deal is a great way to have fewer to no regrets.
Yup, I definitely learned the hard way! At least now I’ll know for next time 🙂
Congrats on getting your first sponsored post – these are great tips for new bloggers who are yet to get theirs x
Thanks Jenny!
I’m just getting started with my blog so found these tips really interesting, particularly about working out your rates and directly contacting firms. Thanks for sharing 😊
Happy that you liked this!
Thank you for sharing these great tips. I’ve reached out to a couple of brands before but have only recently heard of a media kit, so maybe that’s why I haven’t been as successful in getting a sponsorship. I’ll definietly have to look into creating one x
Definitely have one ready when approaching brands, it’s so handy and shows all your stats!
Thanks so much for sharing this! It’s a big help for people like me who are stumbling around trying to figure blogging out. 😀
You are very welcome 🙂
Oh my god this was so so so useful!!!! Thanks for linking to the free template. That’s going to come in handy! Good idea about the media kit too to show off your stats. I honestly wouldn’t have a clue how much to charge so thanks for writing about it! X
Becky Shannon xx – Life-by-Becky
You’re welcome! I loved the pitching template and knew I needed to share it!
I feel like I am ready to start exploring sponsored posts, so this was very helpful. I’m going to go back over it an make a few notes, thank you 😊
Happy to hear you found this post helpful 🙂
This is such an insightful post! I want to continue to grow my blog but, I will be coming back to this for sure.
Al xx
Thank you so much!
So much valuable informations here from the first hand.
Thanks so much for the experience..
My pleasure!
This has helped me so much! I have always struggled knowing how much to charge for sponsored posts and how to go about it. Thank you for sharing!
Amber – https://theunpredictedpage.com
You’re very welcome!
Great post! Congrats on getting a deal! I hope that one day I will!
Thank you so much! Best of luck to you!
Thank you so much for the advice! Will be using it and I just downloaded the template!
You will love the template! Best of luck!
Thank you for sharing this post and for the relevant templates. Helping each other with such matters is so important, I remember I struggled when I was starting out xxx
I had to figure out a lot of things on my own so I thought it would be great to have this information available for anyone who wishes to use it! Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
Wow, this is so informative! Thank you for sharing this. I’ve been wanting to start doing sponsored content but had no idea where to start!
You’re very welcome! Good luck!
Oh wow! This is exactly what I needed! Thank you for laying it out so clearly for me.
My pleasure!
This is helpful thanks! I’m hoping one of these days I can get my first sponsored post!
Best of luck to you!
This is very helpful for me because I’m trying to get more sponsored blog post. I get a lot of collaborations but never sponsoring blog post and this is such a great resource.
I never liked the idea of collaborations because it really doesn’t cost the company anything for the amount of traffic they can generate from the collab, but to each their own! Best of luck to you!
What do you think is the minimum amount of traffic you should have before attempting to get a sponsored post? Obviously, more is better, but as I’m finally gaining a little momentum I’m toying with the idea of trying to get a sponsor and wondering what should be my kicking off point, so to speak.
I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all number to be honest! I do know bloggers who had less than 10K monthly sessions when they got their first sponsored post. 🙂
Congrats on your first sponsored post! These tips are really helpful and I appreciate you sharing them! I think that underselling your price is often a problem for us new bloggers because we get nervous, but love the thought that this will be live on our site longterm and to think about that! x
Thank you so much! Absolutely! We often let fear win but it’s always better to be thinking of the bigger picture 🙂
I’m really glad I found this because I’ve been guest posting and wanted to look into sponsored posts when I get more traffic and more people on my email list. I love the idea of a pitching template! Thanks for the info.
My pleasure! Best of luck!
Thanks for the information. I have no idea how to go about sponsored posts. This benefitted me.
You’re welcome!
Thank you so much for such an insightful post. I’m a new blogger but this information will help me stay on the right track <3 x
You’re welcome 🙂
You definitely charged too little for what you provide, but as you said, money is money and everything counts to your income at the end of the month. I take small jobs too sometimes to reach my monthly target and the extra effort is worth in the long run.
Absolutely! I’ll know for next time. 🙂
This is a really great, step by step guide. I’ll have to check that template out as pitching brands isn’t something I’ve done via email before! I do apply for things every so often, but I’ve never made the first move, if that makes sense.
Ah yes totally! I wouldn’t know where to start without the pitching template to be honest!
This is a really helpful article! I will check out the links you share! I have worked with brands on IG quite a bit, but not on my blog as I need to get more traffic to my site. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try though?
It definitely doesn’t hurt to make more money! 🙂
Thanks for the information. This is something I am looking to do one day soon.
Best of luck!
It was really a very helpful post especially for new bloggers like me. Thank you so much for sharing 🤗
Happy to help!
Really useful and honest insight – especially for someone returning to blogging after a few years
Happy to help!
I’m definitely saving this post for next time, very helpful resource. I’m just learning about sponsored post and media kit. Also thank you for sharing a free template
You’re so welcome! I hope it helps you like it’s helped me!
That’s fantastic! I’m having difficulty getting to that state because of my low DA and audience.
My DA isn’t very high but it definitely helps to have a bigger audience. Although some bloggers have a smaller audience than me and still manage to get many sponsorships, so I think it depends on the brand!
Mariam,
Congratulations.😇
I commend your courage to share your experience online.
Each business begun from the ground, with zero followers, and zero traffic. As you climb up each level of your success’ ladder, you meet all kinds of waves that want to discourage you, but either way, you soldier on. The best gain you get with each climb towards your goal, is the experience for having tried. Your sponsored posts’ journey is like any other business journey.
Alas, you have bagged your first experience, and no one can take that away from you. That is success right there!
I am cheering you on for your many more, all on the way!
H Emma | https://thextraordinarionly.com
That was so kind of you to write, thank you so much for your words of encouragement!
Such a helpful post! I remember receiving my first sponsored post, such a good feeling knowing your hard work is paying off! xx
Oh yes definitely a great feeling!
Wow! This is super helpful! Will definitely refer to this when applying for sponsored posts!
Thanks for sharing! I always doubt myself when it comes to rates – because there is someone else out there that will charge less than me, ya know?
I like your advice about writing out all the brands you use already. Great idea!
I know what you mean! It can be a little nerve-wracking but there are also bloggers who charge more, so I guess it depends on the brand!
This is SO helpful, and so nicely written. I haven’t yet ventured in sponsored posts but this definitely answered a lot of questions I had about it ! Will 100% be saving for later! Thank you!
So happy you found this helpful! Best of luck!
Bookmarking and pinning! My biggest issue is doing the media kit. I just learned about media kits recently. I started mines. I know I need to work on it, but I need someone to review it to tell me what I need to change exactly.
I’d be happy to help!
Love this advice! I always though you just had to sit back and wait for some brand to magically appear lol. Will definitely be putting this advice to good use!
I did too for a year but then I decided to try and contact brands myself, and it worked!
Hi, Mariam,
Congrats on your first sponsored post-deal.
Working with brands on a sponsored post-deal is a good way for making extra income from your blogging activities. I had a couple of deals last year from marketers and brands in a different twist or agreements that go beyond content alone.
I haven’t done any this year, but hopefully, the opportunity comes soon.
Thanks for sharing, Mariam.
Thank you so much! And best of luck to you securing brand deals this year!
So many great tips in here! I hope this post helps so many new bloggers!
Rosie
I’m glad you think so!
This post was so helpful! I’ve downloaded the styling social pitch and I’ll definitely be using these tips, thank you
Laura x
Thanks so much for sharing your experience in an honest and easy to follow way! I’ve only ever had gifted campaigns before and so it’s really useful to see how you priced and managed the process!
Eternally grateful
Katie | katieemmabeauty.com
Thank you for your advice, how to pitch. I already did sponsored posts, but i didn’t pitch for them myself. The companies sent me e-mails and told me, they wanted to work with me.
I would suggest giving pitching a try if you haven’t done it already!
Such an important post! So many people get ripped off when it comes to working with brands, so I’m so glad you’ve pointed out how little sense being paid $30 makes. Congratulations on getting your first sponsorship, I’m sure you’ll have lots more in the future! x
Thanks for this informative post! Really learned a lot from it. Hoping I can land a sponsored post soon! x
omg! thankyou and specially for the template! i have done 2sponsored posts but I was lucky that the brands approach to me, I was not paid but the products were sent to me for free and they were not cheap!. i have been getting emails from brands to work with them but they asked me to pay for their products and only offer a discount I have never accepted, but I do want to get more sponsored posts andget paid about it!
Thank you so much for sharing. Very helpful tips. I am not there yet with my blog but will come back to this post when I am ready!!