The creator’s guide to landing high-value brand sponsorships – no matter your niche

Commerce
Updated: November 06, 2024
The creator’s guide to landing high-value brand sponsorships – no matter your niche
16 min read
In this Article

Securing a brand partnership can be your ticket to stable income and business growth.

And no, you don’t need to be an influencer to land brand sponsorships.

All you need is a loyal audience, a platform, and a plan.

As a creator, you already have an audience and a platform, and after reading today’s article, you’ll know exactly how to get sponsored by your dream brands.

What is brand sponsorship?

Brand sponsorship is when brands support an area of your business or the creation of an asset—either financially or in-kind—usually in exchange for promotion.

Here’s an example:

A spice company covers the cost of recipe creation for a food YouTuber as long as the recipes include their spices. Or a software company provides its tools for free to a blogger in exchange for a banner ad on their blog.

Why you should look for brands that sponsor creators

  • They fund your business: Brand sponsorships can secure funds for your business and give you a reliable source of income (especially if they’re long-term sponsorships). They can also be a source of passive income, depending on how your sponsorship deal is structured.
  • They work for all creators: Brands want to partner with different types of creators from all walks of life. You don’t need to fit into a certain mold or be in a specific niche to land profitable sponsorships.
  • They build authority and credibility: Your authority and social proof can increase when people see their favorite brands endorsing your business. Sponsorship puts you on the fast track to becoming an authoritative voice in your niche.
  • They help you reach a wider audience: Brand sponsorships help you reach more people faster than you could by yourself, as your sponsors will likely promote your business to their own audience.
  • They increase brand awareness: When you have a small audience, growing awareness is an uphill battle. But with sponsorship, you can piggyback off popular brands. As your audience sees your name alongside big brands they love, your brand awareness will grow—fast.

6 examples of brand sponsorships with creators

These six examples of brand sponsorships can give you some ideas of how to find brand sponsors for different areas of your business.

Note: Sponsorship opportunities aren’t limited to the below examples. Other sponsorship ideas might include giveaways, live streams, vlogs, merch, and more.

Blog brand sponsorship with Lisa Steele

Lisa Steele is a chicken keeper and creator of Fresh Eggs Daily®. She often engages in brand sponsorships for her blog, charging up to $30,000 for a top banner ad placement for a single year.

Examples of banner ads on Lisa’s blog. Image via Fresh Eggs Daily®.

Lisa’s sponsorships from her blog alone make up 10% of her total income—and they don’t take much extra work. Lisa tells me her sponsored brands design the banner and she simply places it on her blog.

Social media brand sponsorship example with Phoebe Sherman

Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang Craft, has a major brand sponsorship with Adobe. Adobe supports areas of Phoebe’s business, like social media creation. Here’s an Instagram series of hers that Adobe sponsored:

Beyond content creation, Adobe also gives Phoebe opportunities to grow her business. In 2021, Adobe invited her to speak at their annual conference (which reached over 100,000 people). And in 2024, she spoke at one of Adobe’s local events. She even gets extra perks, like testing Adobe’s apps before they ship.

Event brand sponsorship example with Kit

Events have many moving pieces, and sponsorships can help you pull together an engaging event.

At Kit, our sponsors host talks and workshops for attendees at our very own conference, Craft + Commerce.

Event brand sponsorship example with Kit

This way, we can share a variety of expert insights with attendees.

Event sponsors can also provide accommodation, transportation, meals, activities, and more.

Newsletter brand sponsorship example with Katelyn Bourgoin

Newsletter creator Katelyn Bourgoin sends newsletters with marketing tips to her audience of 62,000+ people. To help fund her efforts, she works with brands who sponsor specific issues:

You can choose to feature one brand in your newsletter or sell multiple advertising slots to different sponsors.

Podcast brand sponsorship with Wear Wag Repeat podcast

Like Katelyn’s newsletter, creator Tori Mistick partners with sponsors for her podcast episodes. And she notes that 40% of her income comes from brand sponsors.

Follow in Tori’s footsteps and have different sponsors for each episode, or find a brand to sponsor an entire season of episodes.

Product creation sponsorship with Dennis Kamprad

Sustainability Dennis Kamprad leans on in-kind (non-monetary) sponsorships for his business. He recently partnered with 24 brands who donated services as a way to sponsor a digital advent calendar of his.

Although Dennis didn’t receive financial compensation, the in-kind services he got helped him put together a product he could sell. Plus,

Dennis tells me that through his sponsors, he’s able to make a bigger impact than he can on his own.

How to get brand sponsorship for your creator business

First things first: you’ll need a proposal to secure sponsorships. And while working on your proposal, you should also:

  • Perform a brand audit and make sure your online presence is cohesive and professional
  • Try to increase engagement across places like your email list and social profiles so you can negotiate the highest rates possible

Then, when you’re ready, follow these steps to land yourself your first brand sponsor:

Step #1: Prepare your brand sponsorship proposal

Your first order of business is to create a sleek proposal. We recommend creating a landing page with one of Kit’s landing page templates for your proposal so you can review its analytics (and see how many people visit your proposal after sending it out).

Here’s an example of a sponsorship proposal from the event Rosé Picnic:

Rosé Picnic’s sponsorship landing page gives potential sponsors essential details. Image via Rosé Picnic.

You’ll want to include these elements in your proposal:

Describe your creator business

  • The first section of your proposal should describe your business—but keep it brief. A couple of paragraphs is enough. Consider including:
  • Your name/your business name
  • What you do
  • How long you’ve been in business
  • Any achievements or milestones

Remember: your proposal is less about you and more about how you can help potential sponsors.

Detail your audience and reach

Potential sponsors want to make sure you can reach a specific audience. So, use this section to outline who your audience is.

Describe your audience with key demographics (age, gender, income, education, location, etc.) and psychographics (their interests, values, behaviors, etc.).

To make this section stronger, consider adding:

  • Website traffic metrics (monthly visitors, time on site)
  • Social media followers, engagement, or reach
  • Email list size, open rates, and click-through rates
  • Results from past sponsorships (conversion rates, sales generated)

Chris Grayson is the founder of InfluencerMade, a platform that helps creators secure work. He says that:

Brands want to see that you have the ability to drive results, whether it’s through sales or engagement. Be sure to share any relevant data points that will show just how powerful your influence is.

– Chris Grayson

Outline your sponsorship deliverables

Next, list different deliverables brands can expect from you throughout a sponsorship. Keep this simple and scannable—a bullet list works great.

Here are some ideas:

  • Blog ads
  • Email newsletter ads
  • Mentions in podcast episodes
  • Logo placement on your website
  • Social media mentions

List your sponsorship rates (optional)

You may not want to include your rates within your proposal, but it’s worth deciding your sponsorship rates so you have a rough idea of the compensation you will/won’t accept.

Include contact information and a CTA

Lastly, outline the steps a brand should take if they want to work with you. Should they book a meeting? Give you a phone call? Add a CTA with clear instructions.

Step #2: Connect with brands and send pitches

With your proposal in your back pocket, it’s time to connect with brands that may want to sponsor your business. You can:

  • Pitch brands you’ve worked with in the past
  • Cold pitch your dream brands
  • Join Kit’s Sponsor network

Contact brands you’ve worked with in the past

Pitching brands that already know and trust you is often easier than sliding into a stranger’s inbox. Take a look at your list of contacts (like clients or past partnerships) and reach out to them first to see if any would consider sponsorship.

Cold pitch your dream brands

Emailing people you don’t know but would love to work with can also be an effective way to connect with potential sponsors.

Look for brand managers or marketing managers to pitch—these roles usually organize corporate sponsorships. Tools like VoilaNorbert help you figure out email addresses so you can email the right person.

Better yet, find out who to pitch to and interact with them on social media before emailing them. When they know who you are, they may be more likely to reply to your pitch.

Creator Phoebe reminds us that following up after sending your initial pitch is essential:

[Cold pitching] is a numbers game. Keep reaching out to brands, and remember the follow-ups. I do two follow-ups after the initial email. And then even re-email that brand four to six months later to try again. You won’t annoy them. Take up space!

– Phoebe Sherman

Customizable cold-pitch template to send brands

We put together a cold-pitch template you can use to send to potential brands:

Subject: Sponsorship opportunity: [your name] x [brand name]

Email:

Hi [contact’s name],

I’m [your name], a [your niche] creator specializing in [brief description of your content/audience].

[Brand name] caught my eye because [specific, genuine reason you admire the brand]. Your [product/value/mission] aligns perfectly with my audience’s interests.

I believe a partnership between us could be a win-win:

  • [Benefit 1 for the brand]
  • [Benefit 2 for the brand]
  • [Unique value you bring]

I’ve attached a proposal outlining collaboration ideas and more information on my business. I’m excited to discuss how we can create something amazing together.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

[your signature sign-off],

[your name]

[your website link]

Join our Sponsor Network (for eligible creators)

Eligible creators can join Kit’s Sponsor Network. We’ll do the heavy lifting for you and put you in touch with potential brand sponsorships. We manage sales, reporting, payments, negotiations, and logistics, so you can focus less on pitching and more on creating.

Note: To join the Sponsor Network, you need to publish a newsletter at least once a week and have a minimum of 10,000 email subscribers.

Step #3: Close the sponsorship deal

After connecting with a brand, you’ll need to draft up (and close) a sponsorship deal. Here’s what to keep in mind:

Understand the brand’s goals and needs

During initial conversations, ask sponsors what their goals are for the sponsorship. Knowing what they want will help you develop deliverables to reach their goals. And as sponsorship coach Justin Moore points out, when you know the goal of the sponsorship, you can adjust your pricing:

Always ask the brand what the campaign’s goal is so you don’t leave potential money on the table. Your offer should change based on what the brand’s goal is.

– Justin Moore

Once you know the brand’s goals, you can also nail down metrics that’ll best measure the impact and success of your sponsorship.

Agree upon the brand sponsorship terms

First, you need to decide how you’d like to be compensated for your sponsorship:

  • Monetary sponsorships: Monetary sponsorships offer dollars in exchange for the terms you outline in the sponsorship agreement.
  • In-kind sponsorships: Receiving goods or services (like supplies, software, or training) instead of financial compensation is also an option.

Then, outline:

  • Sponsorship duration
  • Content deliverables
  • Payment terms
  • Sponsorship goals
  • KPIs to track and measure for each goal

Note: Your brand sponsor may have an internal legal team to draft up your final contact. You might also want to work with your own lawyer to work out legal details.

Collect compensation

Receiving in-kind payments is relatively straightforward: You outline what you’ll receive for the sponsorship, and the brand delivers the goods.

Monetary payments are the same. However, you need a straightforward and professional method to collect payment.

In long-term brand sponsorships, you’ll likely receive monthly payments. And the easiest way to ensure brands pay you each month is through a recurring payment plan with Kit.

Within your Kit Commerce account, head to “Earn” > “Products.

Click “Create a product” (if you haven’t created a product yet) or “New product” (if you’ve already created a product).

Next, give your product a name and choose the type of payment (select “Subscription” to collect recurring payments or “Product” for lump-sum sponsorships).

Go through the prompt and fill out the rest of the details for your sponsorship’s price and fulfillment (set your fulfillment to “Something Else.”).

After filling out all the details, click “Create Product.”

Finally, Kit will prompt you through the steps to design your product’s page, where you can customize the colors, imagery, and typography.

After you’re done, click “Publish” and save the link to send it to your sponsor.

Attract and land major brand sponsors with Kit

Brand sponsorships are a great way for creators to build their brands and get paid to do what they love.

Kit has features that align the many moving parts of securing sponsorships. Like the Sponsor Network that gives you a hands-off approach to newsletter sponsorship. Our other tools let you build proposal landing pages and collect payments from sponsored work.

Want to land your next big sponsor? Try Kit today!

Turn your side-hustle into your full-time career

Sending your audience content they care about with Kit automations not only helps you build your authority, it also helps you makes hands-off sales.

Start a free Kit trial
Dana Nicole
Dana Nicole

Dana is a freelance writer who works closely with B2B SaaS brands to create content people enjoy reading. When she’s not working, you’ll find her sipping on a warm cup of tea and reading a good book (the scarier, the better). See what she’s up to at www.dananicoledesigns.com (Read more by Dana)