What to Charge and How to Pitch: a guide for digital creators

This is part two of a three part series on brand partnerships. Read the first post HERE.

A digital creators guide to brand partnerships

If you are new to the digital creator space chances are you’ve wondered what to charge or how to even go about landing brand partnerships. Do I use just any formula google spits out? Should I wait around for an opportunity to land in my DM’s? Is it OK to approach a brand I’m a fan of?

They are all valid questions and ones for which the answers are often not talked about. Some creators are protective of their rates, their insider knowledge and brand relationships, which makes being the new kid on the block hard. How do learn if no one is willing to let you in?

What I’ve learned over the years that I’ve been partnering with brands as an individual and through my retreat, Rise.Run.Retreat. is that there’s a lot of opportunity out there to create brand partnerships that work for you. Hopefully these insights will answer some of your questions and get you started as an informed digital creator. 

What to Charge

Figuring out what to charge can be tricky, while rates are often based on the size of your following, what really matters is the quality of your audience and their willingness to engage with the content you create. To most brands, a more engaged audience is more desirable than a bigger audience. 

You’ll find any number of engagement formulas online and you can manual calculate your own using one of these formulas. For example, you can roughly calculate your engagement on a single post by adding up the number of interactions (for Instagram this would be likes, comments, shares and saves), taking this number, dividing it by your total number of followers and then multiplying by 100 to yield a percentage. You can also use a tool like Hype Auditor to get analytics on your social accounts. 

According to Statista.com, the average engagement on grid posts between 2017 and 2020 ranged from 1.45% to 2.0% (varying based on the type of content and the number of images in the carousel). If these are the averages then you can assume that anything in those ranges would be considered decent engagement and anything above that would be considered good. 

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So how does this all translate to your rates? The very general rule of thumb in regards to establishing rates is to charge $.01 per follower per post. If for example you had 10K followers, for a grid post with a single image in theory you’d charge $100. 

Which at first glance might seem like a great deal, but when you break down the number of hours you might put into a decent grid post it ends up not being that much. Think about it, you’ll have to correspond back and forth with the brand, stage and take the pictures, write a compelling caption, make sure your caption complies with FTC regulations, send more communication back and forth with the brand, make edits, actually post the picture and then spend time staying on the app to respond to comments and interact with other accounts to make sure that the algorithm picks up your post. When all is said and done, you’re likely looking at 4+ hours of work. And if you’re looking to do this as a full-time gig remember the costs of being self-employed: insurance, taxes and all the overhead it takes to keep the lights on and pay the rent. That $100 doesn’t seem so great anymore. 

This is why understanding your audience is critical. You can use your engagement rate as leverage or better yet, use an email list or your contact with your audience across multiple platforms to up your rates. It’s also the reason why I dislike “rate sheets” and love custom proposals. A custom proposal can often yield a far higher brand deal than simply sending over a rate sheet which locks you in to a set price. You can keep a rate sheet for 'internal use only' so you have an asking price you can stick to (PS make it HIGH, it’s always easier to negotiate down than up. We’ll talk about negotiating in the next post). 

Media Kits

If you are approached by a brand, it is likely they will ask for either your rate sheet or media kit. A media kit is a 1-3 page document that serves as a one-stop-shop for who you are and why a brand should work with you. Consider your media kit a visual resume and include:

  • your bio

  • Your current social media channel statistics

  • Media outlets in which you’ve been mentioned or featured

  • Brands you’ve worked with

  • testimonial from a past brand partnership

  • sample images

A question I am often asked is if Media Kits should include rates and my answer is always "no."

Including rates will limit your potential earnings, which is why creating custom proposals is a much better way to go. 

Custom Proposal

Crafting a custom proposal for a brand partnership will help you leverage your audience and ‘digital assets’ to negotiate a higher rate. A custom proposal enables  you to show the value of working with you in a way that the brand may not have thought of. You can also suggest an ongoing partnership (which in the long run will likely yield a much better ROI for the brand). Long-term partnerships can build trust and help foster loyalty between your audience and the brand you are working with, resulting in far more conversions than simple one-off posts. The bottom line is that you need to approach brands with a clear idea and be able to articulate the value of your proposition. Show the brand why they should work with you through your proposal. 

Your proposal should:

  • Outline your deliverables (what you are going to create for the brand or what the brand has asked of you. Example: as in an Instagram Post, Instagram Story slide series, video, blog post, email mention etc.)

  • Providing 3 partnership options for brands to choose from is a great idea 

  • Provide specific dates and deadlines

  • Propose higher-level concepts or ideas (long term partnerships, themed content etc)

  • Define the terms

  • Provide the cost of the entire campaign

Need a little help? Download the Brand Partnership Kit HERE.

Pitch Deck

A pitch deck is similar to a media kit, but is created for an entity or event. Your pitch deck will include many of the same components of a media kit and is meant to give a brand a first impression of what you are trying to do. Ultimately your pitch deck or media kit is a conversation starter, the goal is to get on the phone with the brand and be able to negotiate a partnership that is mutually beneficial. Unsure of your negotiating skills? We’ll tackle that in the next post. 

Here are a few essential components to a winning pitch deck: 

  • Mission and vision of your entity or event

  • Story behind you entity or event

  • Target demographic or ideal customer outline

  • Event details

  • Testimonials from past participants or customers

  • Opportunities for partnership

What to charge and how to pitch: a guide to brand partnerships for digital creators

How to Pitch

If you’re approached by a brand it’s easy to respond and get a conversation started about a potential partnership, but what if the brand you want to work with isn’t reaching out? Then you should reach out to them! 

Pitching specific brands is the way I’ve been able to land some amazingly supportive partners for Rise.Run.Retreat. Which has been invaluable for both our operational costs but also in our ability to provide VIP swag bags for all our participants. 

When approaching a brand you’ll want to start a conversation before launching into your pitch. 

Making Initial Contact

So how do you make initial contact with a brand and what exactly should it look like?

I’ve had the best luck reaching out via direct message or LinkedIn to obtain the email address of the person in charge of PR and Marketing.

You want the initial contact to initiate a conversation and invite collaboration, or a partnership. You don't want to dump your entire pitch in the initial message. It’s overwhelming and a little off-putting. Tell them what you’re about and why exactly you want to talk to them. Then once you’ve made contact, try to schedule a phone call. A conversation is far more valuable than a thread of 50 emails because it initiates collaboration and allows the brand to really get to know you. 

It’s good to have your media kit and pitch deck ready to go and be prepared with an idea. How will you collaborate? Is there a theme to what you’re doing and how might this tie into the brand’s values and current marketing strategy? You’ll have to do a little research, but the more you know and the more you can show the brand how working with you will be of great value to them the more likely your chances of a partnership. Don’t show up to the conversation empty handed.

Brand Partnership tips: what to charge and how to pitch

Did you send your email and get crickets? Follow up. And keep following up. And don’t get discouraged when you hear “no.” It’s likely you’ll hear “no” a majority of the time, but all you need is one “yes” to get you going and then you can leverage that “yes” in the next email you send, noting who is now on board with your project. 

Next up: we’re talking all about how to negotiate. 

Need a more personalize approach? Shoot me an email I’ve been coaching small business owners in the running space and I’d love to help you.

-Sarah