Latest / Influencer Confidential / Are Brand Deals Slowing Down? No. You Just Don't Understand How They've Changed #299

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Are Brand Deals Slowing Down? No. You Just Don't Understand How They've Changed #299 · Influencer Confidential

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the curtain? Well,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: let's jump in. As a founder of a creator community,
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  Speaker 1: I am always hearing different things coming down the pipeline
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  Speaker 1: where creators are freaking out, like, oh my gosh, brand
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  Speaker 1: deals are drying up, our brand partnership's over? Is the
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  Speaker 1: influencer era over? And I feel like it's time we
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  Speaker 1: address these concerns on today's episode. And I can share
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  Speaker 1: with you because my feet are on the ground in
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  Speaker 1: this industry and being able to share what I am
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  Speaker 1: seeing in this space from a true and honest perspective. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as many of you guys know, we recently launched a
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  Speaker 1: sub stack where we send about two to three brand
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  Speaker 1: opportunities ideas pitch angles, UGC jobs a day to your inbox.
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  Speaker 1: And to me, the fact that we have so many
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  Speaker 1: opportunities we are able to send to our audience tells
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  Speaker 1: me very frankly, that no brand deals are not drying up.
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  Speaker 1: But interestingly, the type of opportunities that we're getting from
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  Speaker 1: the different pr agencies we're working with or the different
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  Speaker 1: third party sites that send us opportunities, we're seeing a
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  Speaker 1: mixed bag. There's a lot more UGC jobs. There are
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  Speaker 1: different types of brand partnerships that are happening, and we
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  Speaker 1: will go through that. But the reason I mentioned this
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  Speaker 1: very early on in today's episode is that if brand
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  Speaker 1: deals were drying up, I would not have all these
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  Speaker 1: opportunities to send to you guys every single day. So
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  Speaker 1: that's first things first, right, Like, we literally wouldn't be
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  Speaker 1: able to have this bulletin board style of opportunities if
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  Speaker 1: there weren't any. Secondly, when you think about things like
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  Speaker 1: the creator economy AI, all the different things that are happening,
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  Speaker 1: one thing my business partner and I always talk about
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  Speaker 1: is like, yes, things are going to always be changing,
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  Speaker 1: that is the constant in our industry. But is the
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  Speaker 1: creator economy going to go away? Like this meta is
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  Speaker 1: going away, our influencers going away, our creators going going
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  Speaker 1: absolutely not right, this is not going away. This is
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  Speaker 1: the new form of how advertising happens, how brands are
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  Speaker 1: reaching audiences. So the creator economy is here to stay. However,
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  Speaker 1: will brand deals evolve and change? Yes? Are we going
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  Speaker 1: to see different styles of brand partnerships. Yes, And that's
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  Speaker 1: what we're going to talk about so that you guys
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  Speaker 1: get a really clear understanding. Now, one of the biggest
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  Speaker 1: changes I am seeing in the space is the type
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  Speaker 1: of content that is being produced for brand partners Let's
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  Speaker 1: actually take it a step back and talk a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about the marketing funnel. I'm going to use
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  Speaker 1: travel as an example. When you're at the top of
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  Speaker 1: the funnel, these are more like awareness campaigns, right. These
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  Speaker 1: are more pieces of content or even video styles that
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  Speaker 1: are not sales e either, more aspirational inspirational maybe it's
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  Speaker 1: like come with me to Paris or hidden gems or
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  Speaker 1: travel hacks, you know, things that are at the top.
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  Speaker 1: You know, people are not necessarily searching for that type
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  Speaker 1: of content, but the brand wants to be integrated and
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  Speaker 1: they want to be included in relevant conversation. Then when
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  Speaker 1: you go a little bit more down the funnel, this
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  Speaker 1: is like that consideration phase. So this is when people
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  Speaker 1: are starting to make decisions, think about like comparison videos,
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  Speaker 1: Like if you are comparing something like this hotel versus
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  Speaker 1: this hotel, or if you are like things that I
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  Speaker 1: should do when visiting Spain, right, like someone who's searching
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  Speaker 1: things to do when visiting Spain. Chances are they're going
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  Speaker 1: to Spain, they're building their itinerary and they're in that
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  Speaker 1: consideration phase. Then the bottom of the funnel is people
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  Speaker 1: that are ready to book, like best Hotels in Spain,
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  Speaker 1: Spring twenty twenty six. Like that person is ready to buy. Right. So,
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  Speaker 1: when you think about the content you are making, I
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  Speaker 1: see a lot more brands being very strategic with the
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  Speaker 1: creators they're working with to making sure that the content
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  Speaker 1: the creator is providing hits one of those phases of
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  Speaker 1: the funnel. Now, the reason I'm sharing this with you
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  Speaker 1: guys as a creator community is you can take this
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  Speaker 1: advice and use it in your proposals. You can use
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  Speaker 1: it when you're negotiating with a brand or explaining to them, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I've actually made comparison videos. Here are the results. And
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  Speaker 1: when people are again searching for you and your company,
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  Speaker 1: I know that I can help you rank and stand out.
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  Speaker 1: This positions you as a professional, and we are seeing
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  Speaker 1: that a lot more brands are interested in this. I
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  Speaker 1: even have a creator you guys in my community that
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  Speaker 1: we built a proposal deck for her, and in the
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  Speaker 1: proposal deck we literally had the funnel and examples in there.
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  Speaker 1: So this is something that you two can apply now.
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  Speaker 1: Even though there are different phases of the marketing funnel
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  Speaker 1: and brands are interested in different things, I will say
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  Speaker 1: that more and more brands are looking for data, they
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  Speaker 1: are looking for conversions, and they're looking for proof before
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  Speaker 1: they invest. Think of it as like less vibes right
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  Speaker 1: and more ROI. The creators who have solid case studies,
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  Speaker 1: the creators who are confident in the results, the creators
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  Speaker 1: who have experience with affiliates, the creators who have promoted
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  Speaker 1: affiliates before. Those creators are ahead because they are not
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  Speaker 1: going and working with a brand for the first time
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  Speaker 1: and selling for the first time on their videos. Right.
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  Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. Let's just say you really
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  Speaker 1: want to work with a brand and you have never
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  Speaker 1: created a video that has a mini chat automation that
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  Speaker 1: tells your audience to click this, or you have never
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  Speaker 1: created a video that shows you talking about a product
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  Speaker 1: in a natural way. Imagine now you go and work
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  Speaker 1: with a brand and you're like, oh my gosh, I've
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  Speaker 1: literally never done this style of video before. This is
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  Speaker 1: so stressful because you're doing it for the first time
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  Speaker 1: with a paid client. That's why it's so important for
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  Speaker 1: you as a creator to make space in your content
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  Speaker 1: to naturally introduce products that you enjoy or love, or
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  Speaker 1: services or recommendations. So that way, when you get that
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  Speaker 1: brand deal, it is a more authentic experience for you
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  Speaker 1: as a creator because you've done it before. And of course,
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  Speaker 1: brands want to see examples of how you create content.
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  Speaker 1: So a lot of times new creators that come to me,
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  Speaker 1: you're like, oh my gosh, Nina, like, I've never worked
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  Speaker 1: with a brand Like that's fine. You're not expected to
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  Speaker 1: have worked with a brand like everyone needs that first opportunity,
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  Speaker 1: but you are expected to have examples of mock content
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  Speaker 1: that shows how you can create videos that naturally integrate
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  Speaker 1: a brand. That is a non negotiable. So just because
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  Speaker 1: you don't have an example of a paid brand deal partnership,
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  Speaker 1: that's fine. You can still say, hey, brand, like, this
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  Speaker 1: is a video of me sharing a garden bed and
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  Speaker 1: sharing how I you know, have put it together, or
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  Speaker 1: tutorial whatever it is that you want. But they need
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  Speaker 1: to be able to see that, because that is what's
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  Speaker 1: going to make the decision if they want to work
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  Speaker 1: with you or not. Also shout out to any of
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  Speaker 1: my TikTok shop creators. I'm working with a lot more
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  Speaker 1: of them now. TikTok shop creators have like an edge
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  Speaker 1: that you know other creators may not is because they
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  Speaker 1: have data around the content that they sell. They're able
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  Speaker 1: to sell very easily on short form. They don't need
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  Speaker 1: a lot of time to sell. They make these videos
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  Speaker 1: quick and easy, and they have the data. And again,
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  Speaker 1: data is trust. Brands love it, and these are the
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  Speaker 1: type of brand deals that we are seeing go through
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  Speaker 1: as the creators that have that. Now, when people freak
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  Speaker 1: out about influencer or creator economy, is it going away?
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  Speaker 1: Our brand deals going away? One thing that is such
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  Speaker 1: a big shift for us. We all hear about UGCUGCUGC.
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  Speaker 1: But here's what's interesting. I have influencers that have millions
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  Speaker 1: of followers and they're also doing UGC. The interesting piece
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  Speaker 1: is that you wouldn't know because it's not on their feed.
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  Speaker 1: They're literally making content and the brand is running ads
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  Speaker 1: to it. So when we talk about like, oh, influencers
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  Speaker 1: doing UGC. Now we are seeing this happen way more,
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  Speaker 1: but you wouldn't know because the influencer never posts that
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  Speaker 1: they're doing it because it doesn't have to live on
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  Speaker 1: their page. So this rise of UGC, because we're seeing
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  Speaker 1: brands use this type of content in their ads, it
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  Speaker 1: converts better. We are seeing that big shift happening. So
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the packages that I'm helping my coaching
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  Speaker 1: clients put together will make sure we have that UGC
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  Speaker 1: bundled within it. We'll price it out correctly so that
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  Speaker 1: again we can get our creators in that five ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars package range and we are using UGC as
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  Speaker 1: a part of it to supplement. It also ties back
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  Speaker 1: to this performance based content that we talked about originally,
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  Speaker 1: like knowing how to sell, being comfortable selling. And again
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  Speaker 1: it's not being like a salesperson, that's not it. It
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  Speaker 1: could even be through storytelling, it could be through how
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  Speaker 1: you describe something, it could be a tutorial style. But again,
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  Speaker 1: the creators who know how to make performance based content,
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  Speaker 1: they are definitely soaring because a lot of brands do
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  Speaker 1: have the goals of conversions. And if you have that
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  Speaker 1: skill set, or if you learn to build that skill set,
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  Speaker 1: you're definitely going to be ahead of the game. Now
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  Speaker 1: we have to call out the elephant in the room.
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  Speaker 1: We are at a different phase in the influencer creator
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  Speaker 1: world right now. There is more competition. There just is
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  Speaker 1: and that is not a bad thing. That's always, in
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  Speaker 1: my opinion, that's always going to happen. You may be
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  Speaker 1: first to market. I have some creators who are like NNA.
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  Speaker 1: I literally have never saw a pitch before. I only
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  Speaker 1: depended on inbounds, and now I need to start pitching.
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  Speaker 1: This is very common. I see this happening a lot.
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  Speaker 1: But what is happening because of competition, because there's so
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  Speaker 1: many people wanting to be creators, is that generic creators,
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  Speaker 1: generic pitches, generic media kits get ignored. You need to
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  Speaker 1: stand out. And one of the ways I have always said,
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  Speaker 1: and it is a hill I will die on, having
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  Speaker 1: high quality design assets helps you stand out. So guys,
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  Speaker 1: take a look at your sales tools. Take a look
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  Speaker 1: at your media kit, your proposals, your case studies, your
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  Speaker 1: mood boards, your weight sheets. All of these are sales
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  Speaker 1: assets for you. Do you stand out in them? Are
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  Speaker 1: they visual? Do they tell your story? If a brand
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  Speaker 1: gets your media kit in an email. Are they going
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  Speaker 1: to want to get on a call with you based
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  Speaker 1: on the quality of the assets you are sending? And again,
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  Speaker 1: generic people are just getting ignored. The competition is up,
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  Speaker 1: so you need to look the part. Taking design seriously
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  Speaker 1: not only makes you look more professional, it will give
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  Speaker 1: you the competence to pitch more because here's the thing
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  Speaker 1: with pitching and outbound, it is a numbers game, and
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  Speaker 1: if you're pitching only a few brands a month, you
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  Speaker 1: are not going to get that partnership. I really feel
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  Speaker 1: that passionate about it. Now. Again, the more experienced you are,
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  Speaker 1: maybe you're pitching at a less volume, but you still
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  Speaker 1: need to be knocking on doors and your media kit
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  Speaker 1: is going to help you close that partnership. Now, if
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  Speaker 1: you are a creator that needs support with your media kit,
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  Speaker 1: we do have an entire design leg of our business.
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  Speaker 1: It's our design studio. We do professionally designed media kits,
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  Speaker 1: custom media kits, portfolios, all of that. Again, there's sales tools.
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  Speaker 1: They are assets that you need. So if you do
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: want to work with us to have our team design
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  Speaker 1: these assets for you, I will include a link below
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  Speaker 1: you can get on a call with our success manager,
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  Speaker 1: and she can walk you through the design process with
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  Speaker 1: our company, how it works and how we can support
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  Speaker 1: you with design because for me, you guys, design is
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  Speaker 1: a non negotiable. Now, we talked briefly about this. What
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing a big shift of is inbounds, like being
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  Speaker 1: less and less and less. I actually did an interview
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  Speaker 1: with a couple of big creators recently and they're like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: like my inbox just looks differently. And I was like,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for sharing that and being honest,
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  Speaker 1: you know, because people are always like, is it just me?
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  Speaker 1: Is it just me? Where inbounds are down? No, girl,
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  Speaker 1: it is everyone inbounds are down. For people, the creators
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  Speaker 1: who used to make you know, a million dollars a
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  Speaker 1: year in brand deals, they are now actively pitching. So
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  Speaker 1: if inbound is down, outbound is king. As a business owner, y'all,
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  Speaker 1: you need to get into the habit of pitching. You
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  Speaker 1: need to knock on doors virtually sending out your pitches,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: or maybe you're pitching in person, or maybe you're going
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to conferences and going around those booths and getting those
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  Speaker 1: brands business cards. It's not about how, it's if you're
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  Speaker 1: doing it. You need to put your name in the ring.
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  Speaker 1: You need to make sure people know who you are
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  Speaker 1: and introduce yourself to them. And something that I think
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  Speaker 1: is a really important mindset shift is when we think
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  Speaker 1: about like brands, replace that word with like small businesses.
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  Speaker 1: How many small businesses are there that could benefit from
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  Speaker 1: your content or your influence. I remember I was at
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  Speaker 1: a coworking space a while back and just like that
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  Speaker 1: building alone had hundreds of businesses, and I was thinking,
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  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, if you are UGC creators, I would
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  Speaker 1: literally just go to everyone on this floor and be like,
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  Speaker 1: I will make content for you. So it doesn't always
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  Speaker 1: have to be the Nikes or the Alo Yogas of
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  Speaker 1: the world. Yes, those brands are exciting and fun, but
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  Speaker 1: scale back, go local, and start to think about these
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  Speaker 1: small businesses that could benefit from your work and support. Now, again,
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  Speaker 1: if you are someone who wants just like, who do
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  Speaker 1: I pitch? Nina, just tell me who I should be
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: pitching today, you should take a look at our paid
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: creator substack. Like I said, there's a free version, there
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: is a paid version. Y'all could go check it out,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and we send you those emails with literally two to
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  Speaker 1: three ideas or brand opportunities or things that come to us,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: we send them to you. It's like a bulletin style
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: job board. So if that would be helpful for you
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: just to get that you know in your inbox every day,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: go ahead and check out the Paid Creator. I think
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you guys will love it. Now, a few things I'm
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: going to give you guys for homework to help you
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: guys give your brand partnerships a little bit of a boost.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: You already know pitching is super important, but just to
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: kind of get you thinking a little bit differently, I
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  Speaker 1: want you guys to make that ad style content where
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: even if you've never worked with a brand, you're creating
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: this type of content to have in your portfolio. I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: want you, guys, if you've already worked with a brand,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to reach back out to them, see what they're working on,
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  Speaker 1: reintroduce yourself, get them on a call. Getting on a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: call is where the money is made. And lastly, don't
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  Speaker 1: forget about those strategic angles seasonal hooks, seasonal launches our
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: creators at Sidewalker Daily. In my inner circle, we're always
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  Speaker 1: pitching with a three month window, So if it is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, summer, we're pitching back to school. If it's September,
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  Speaker 1: we're pitching holiday like, give yourself a runway in space.
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  Speaker 1: When you are pitching, remember you are a valuable asset
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  Speaker 1: to this brand. You are a service provider. Pitch value,
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  Speaker 1: pitch angles, pitch seasonality, and give the brand something to
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: be excited about. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: you did, make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: our show and visit Sidewalkerdaily dot com for more resources
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: on all things influencer, marketing and social media. Until next time,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and Na